Why a Timesheet Tool Can't Just Know Your Overtime Rules
Published 2026-09-14
"Overtime" isn't one universal rule
It's easy to assume overtime kicks in "after 40 hours a week" everywhere, because that's a common US default. In practice, overtime rules vary enormously: some jurisdictions calculate overtime daily (e.g. anything past 8 hours in a single day) rather than weekly; some have different thresholds for different industries; some countries define overtime differently for salaried versus hourly workers; and pay multipliers for overtime hours (1.5x, 2x, or negotiated rates) differ just as much.
Why a hardcoded 40-hour rule would mislead many users
A calculator that silently assumes a 40-hour weekly threshold works fine for the audience it was built for, but produces a subtly wrong "overtime hours" number for anyone under a different rule — and because the output still looks like a normal, confident number, the error is easy to miss until it causes a real payroll discrepancy.
The honest design: ask, don't assume
Rather than picking one country's convention and hoping it applies, a general-purpose timesheet tool is more useful (and more honest) when it lets you set your own overtime threshold directly, defaulting to a common convention as a starting point but never presenting it as universal.
Build your own weekly timesheet
Our Work Hours Calculator totals hours from daily clock-in/clock-out times and breaks (correctly handling overnight shifts that cross midnight), then splits regular from overtime hours at whatever weekly threshold you set — including the option to turn overtime splitting off entirely by setting the threshold to zero.