What are Special hours?

Special Hours is a time category that helps you track and compensate work done during specific times—such as weekends, holidays, or night shifts.

You can create multiple Special Hours to suit your needs. For each Special Hour:

• Define a name for easy identification.
• Specify when it applies, by selecting particular days and time slots or applying it to a full day.
• Set a custom hourly rate
• Choose a compensation method, such as time off, payroll, or balance.

This allows you to accurately track and fairly compensate employees for their work.

How to configure Special hours

1. On the sidebar, go to Settings
2. Under Time, select Time Tracking
3. Choose the relevant Time Tracking policy
4. Access the Extra and special hours tab
5. Scroll down to the Special hours section
6. Click New Special hour to create a new entry:
   • Define the name of the Special hour or select one from the dropdown
   • Specify when it applies— Choose specific days and time slots, or apply it for a full day or select a specific date
   • Set the hourly rate to apply for this Special hour
   • Choose the compensation method:
     • Time off: The tracked time transfers to the Time Off counter with the applied hourly rate
     • Payroll: The tracked time is available for manual compensation from the timesheet. In the compensation tab you will see the hours tracked, the category name and the multiplier value.
       
     • Balance: The tracked time transfers to the Balance counter with the applied hourly rate.

Overlapping Categories

By default, if an employee works during a time slot that falls under multiple Special Hours categories (for example, a night shift on a bank holiday), only the most specific category takes priority and the others are ignored.

Enabling Overlapping Categories changes this behaviour: the same hour is tracked under every matching category simultaneously, and each one applies its own compensation conditions independently. So 1 hour worked during a night shift on a bank holiday would count as both a Night Shift hour and a Bank Holiday hour, each compensated according to its own rules.

Disabling the toggle reverts to the default behaviour, where the more specific category takes priority over the broader one.

You can allow Special hours to overlap. This gives your company more control over how special hours are configured and makes Time Tracking better suited for more complex compensation scenarios.

 

Where to view worked time under Special Hours category

You can view employees’ worked time classified as Special hours in:

1. Employee’s timesheet. 
   Open the Time Tracking side panel with the Special hours breakdown by clicking on Compensation. Managers and employees can see all time classified by category.
   

   

2. The employee's timesheet - Balance
   Click on the Balance counter to open the Balance side panel with the Special hours breakdown.
   
3. The Time Tracking Page - Balance
   Go to Time Tracking page and click on any employee row to open the Balance side padel.
   
4. Exports
   Using the Time Tracking export – Full version, you can see, per day: the number of special hours tracked, their category name, and the applied multiplier.
   

   How to export time tracking reports

    

How to compensate worked time under the Special hours category

There are three compensation methods available for each Special Hour, which you can define when setting up the Special Hour in Settings:

• Time off
• Payroll
• Balance

Time Off

Compensation is automatic and does not require manager approval. 

The employee’s Time Off counter will be updated automatically with the bounes hourly rate.

Payroll

• Via the timesheet:

Managers with the “Review and Approve Timesheets” permission must manually compensate this time:

1. Click on the "Total for Compensation" counter in the Timesheet to access the Compensation side panel.
2. Press the "Compensate" button to proceed.
3. Choose the specific hours you wish to compensate.
4. Select the appropriate payroll period for the compensation.
5. Map supplements if you haven’t done so previously.

• Via time tracking:

Managers can choose multiple employees under the time tracking page, and choose to bulk compensate them with Payroll

Once compensated, employees and managers will see this time marked as sent to Payroll in the timesheet. Users with Payroll access can view this supplement in the Payroll system.

Balance

Hours will be tracked and transformed to balance with the applied multiplier. The hours will be available for the employee in his timesheet, with no other action required.

Understanding the Formula for Special hours compensation

This formula is used to apply a multiplier for special hours and calculate how much additional compensation an employee will receive. It ensures the employee receives only the bonus amount, as their regular salary already includes payment for the hours worked.

How to Configure Multipliers: Extra Hours vs Special Hours

The multiplier is configured differently depending on whether you're setting up Extra Hours or Special Hours.

Extra Hours — Enter the multiplier as-is.

• If the rate is 1.45x, configure it as 1 = 1.45

Special Hours — Always add 1 to the multiplier. Because special hours fall within working hours already included in the payslip, the base pay must be accounted for in the configuration.

• If the rate is 1.45x, configure it as 1 = 2.45

This rule applies as follows:

• Time Off & Bank of Hours — Always add 1 to the multiplier
• Payroll — Adding 1 is recommended for consistency, though the time is sent to payroll as-is without being multiplied. So 1 hour worked = 1 hour sent to payroll