Configure pay period cadence and overtime calculation under Settings → Time Clock, in the Pay periods and Overtime cards.
Pay Period Cadence
| Cadence | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Weekly | 7-day period. Pick which day it starts on (Sunday through Saturday). |
| Every two weeks (bi-weekly) | 14-day period. Requires an anchor date: pick any single period's first day and the cadence counts from there. |
| Twice a month (semi-monthly) | 1st to 15th, and 16th to end of month. |
| Monthly | Full calendar month. |
Bi-weekly needs an anchor date because "every two weeks" has no natural phase without a known starting point. The anchor date locks the 14-day cadence to a real reference point.
Overtime: Classified, Never Priced
PortaPro classifies hours as regular or overtime; it does not apply a pay multiplier. Wages and OT multipliers belong to your payroll system (QuickBooks Online Payroll, Gusto, ADP, and similar), since payroll compliance varies by state and by employee classification.
| Setting | Default | Behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly overtime after | 40 hours | Hours past this in a week are flagged as OT. Leave empty for no weekly OT. |
| Daily overtime after | Not set | For states that require daily overtime calculation (for example, California at 8 hours/day). Leave empty for the rest. |
How Daily and Weekly Overtime Interact
Daily overtime is applied first, then weekly overtime consumes whatever is left of the weekly threshold. This prevents the same hour from being counted as overtime twice. Example, five 12-hour days in California:
Rounding
Rounding applies to each day's total, not each individual punch. Options are none, 5, 6 (a tenth of an hour), 10, or 15 minutes. Per-day rounding matches what most payroll importers expect and doesn't compound the way per-punch rounding does.
Timezone and Overnight Shifts
Every timestamp is grouped into days and pay periods using your organization's timezone (Settings → Company). An overnight shift is attributed to the day it started: a shift from 10pm Monday to 6am Tuesday counts entirely as Monday's shift, and belongs entirely to whichever pay period Monday falls in. This matches how QuickBooks Online Payroll, Gusto, and ADP all expect overnight time.