This article applies to Motivity Practice Management. It explains how the payroll export turns each provider's hours into Regular and Overtime hours when Custom Payroll Settings is on. You will learn how the four overtime thresholds work, the order Motivity evaluates them in, and how split pay periods and partial workweeks are handled. Understanding the method makes it much easier to check your results against your payroll records.
Why This Matters
With Custom Overtime, each provider's hours are evaluated against the overtime rule assigned to them, instead of a single default calculation. Different providers can be calculated under different state or contract rules in the same export, and every hour is counted only once, so your totals reconcile with hours worked. Knowing how the calculation works helps you understand why a provider's overtime looks the way it does without working it out by hand.
Before You Begin
The calculation uses the settings you configured in Payroll Settings: your pay frequency, workweek, overtime rules, location assignments, and provider settings. If you haven't set these up yet, see the article on how to set up Custom Overtime. For provider eligibility and overrides, see the article on managing provider overtime eligibility and overrides.
A few things to keep in mind:
The export reports hours only. Your payroll system applies pay rates.
Overtime is calculated as standard overtime (Overtime 1). Double time is not supported.
Changes to rules, assignments, and settings apply going forward only. Exports you have already generated are not recalculated.
When Custom Payroll Settings Is Off
If Custom Payroll Settings is off, the default overtime calculation applies exactly as it did before. Custom rules and assignments are not applied, and the export shows only the Includes Overlaps alert.
How to Get Your Results
Make sure Custom Payroll Settings is on and your pay frequency, workweek, overtime rules, location assignments, and provider settings are in place.
Go to Reports > Payroll > Payroll Report and run your payroll export for any date range.
Motivity evaluates each provider's hours against their assigned rule, one workweek at a time.
Review the Regular and Overtime hours, along with any alerts and the rule information in the export.
How Motivity Decides Which Hours Count
Before any thresholds are applied, Motivity checks a few things.
Which rule applies. A provider's override rule is used if one applies. Otherwise, the rule on the provider's primary location is used. If a provider's rule changes during your export range, the calculation splits at the change date, and each part uses its own rule.
Eligibility. Providers who are not eligible for overtime have all hours counted as Regular, and no thresholds are evaluated.
Which hours qualify. Overtime is calculated only from services set to Include in Payroll Calculations = Yes and Exclude from Overtime Hours = No.
Time on services marked Include in Payroll = No is left out of the export entirely.
Time on services marked Exclude from OT counts as Regular only, and does not count toward any threshold.
Per-provider rules. Providers on different rules in the same export, such as a state rule and a federal rule, are each calculated using only their own rule. Rules are never blended.
The Four Overtime Thresholds
A rule can use any combination of these thresholds.
Threshold | What It Measures | Example |
Daily | Hours in a day above the threshold | With an 8-hour threshold, a 10-hour day is 8 Regular and 2 Daily OT. |
Weekly | Hours in a workweek above the threshold | With a 40-hour threshold, a 48-hour week is 40 Regular and 8 Weekly OT. |
Consecutive Hours | Hours in one unbroken work period after the threshold, including work that crosses midnight | A qualifying break ends a continuous period. |
Consecutive Days | Hours on the Nth consecutive day, such as the 7th day, after a threshold you set | A threshold of 0 makes every hour on that day overtime. |
How the Workweek Is Used
Overtime is always calculated per workweek, using the workweek you set in Global Settings. It does not depend on your pay period or the date range you export. Weekly totals and the consecutive-day count reset at the start of each workweek.
Every hour lands in exactly one category: Regular, Daily OT, Weekly OT, Consecutive-Hours OT, or Consecutive-Day OT. Regular plus all of the overtime categories always equals total hours worked.
The Order Motivity Evaluates Each Workweek
For each workweek, Motivity works through these steps in order:
Check eligibility and determine the provider's rule.
Group hours into workweeks.
Apply Consecutive-Day OT on triggering days.
Apply Daily OT on the other days.
Apply Consecutive-Hours OT to continuous hours that are not already overtime.
Apply Weekly OT to the Regular hours that remain.
Check that Regular plus all OT equals total hours.
Understanding How the Thresholds Work Together
Daily and Weekly together. Weekly overtime is measured on the hours that are still Regular after Daily OT has been removed. For example, with an 8-hour daily threshold and a 40-hour weekly threshold, a provider who works 54 hours across the week as 10, 9, 9, 9, 8, and 9 hours has 6 Daily OT hours. The remaining Regular hours then total 48, so 8 more hours become Weekly OT. That is 14 overtime hours and 40 Regular hours, not 20 overtime hours.
Consecutive Days.
A day with any hours adds to the count, and a day with zero hours resets it.
On a triggering day, the consecutive-day threshold replaces the daily threshold.
The count resets at each new workweek, so working seven calendar days in a row across two workweeks does not trigger it.
Consecutive Hours. A qualifying break ends a continuous period. Hours already counted as Daily OT are not counted again.
Pay Frequency and Split Workweeks
Weekly and Bi-Weekly pay frequency. Overtime uses the workweek only. No split-week check is performed.
Semi-Monthly pay frequency. A workweek can span two pay periods. When it does:
Motivity looks back at the earlier period's hours in that workweek, so weekly overtime is not under-counted.
A Split Week Detected alert appears in the export summary, asking you to validate weekly overtime.
The overtime shown is the full recalculated overtime for the week, including overtime earned before your export start date.
The Regular hours shown include only the hours inside your export range. The look-back affects overtime hours only, never Regular hours.
If the earlier period was already exported, the alert says a correction payroll may be needed.
Helpful tip: With Semi-Monthly pay frequency, run the later period's export after the earlier one, and watch for the split-week alert.
Partial Workweeks
If your export range cuts a workweek off, Motivity evaluates only the hours inside the range, using the full thresholds. Thresholds are not prorated. For example, 20 hours in a partial week never reaches a 40-hour weekly threshold. A validation message appears so you know to review the week.
The one exception is a Semi-Monthly split week, where the look-back described above applies.
Helpful tip: Whenever you can, use full workweeks as your export range to avoid partial-week messages.
When Rules Change
Changes apply going forward only.
A rule change should take effect on the first day of a workweek, or on the 1st or 16th for Semi-Monthly pay frequency. Changes dated in the middle of a period are flagged as not valid in the export information.
Changes dated after your report's end date are not applied.
A new export always reflects the configuration in effect for its dates. Re-running an export for a past date range can give different results if settings or rules have changed since.
What the Export Records
The export records which rule applied to each provider, where it came from (an override or the primary location), and the effective dates. The Reference tab in the export workbook explains how overtime and each alert were determined.
For a full explanation of the Summary tab columns and alerts, see the Custom Overtime FAQ and Troubleshooting article.
What Is Not Currently Supported
Custom Overtime does not currently support:
Workweek definitions beyond the seven 7-day options.
Alternative workweek schedules, such as 4x10.
Meal and rest break premiums.
Blended regular rate calculations.
Per-employee rule variations.
Retroactive recalculation of past exports.
Who Can See the Results
No new roles or permissions are required. Anyone who can run the payroll export sees the results, alerts, and rule information.
Tips for Getting the Most From the Export
Before you rely on the export, check the Provider Eligibility screen and clear any providers showing Requires Action, so every eligible provider has a valid rule.
When you first turn on Custom Overtime, compare a few providers' results by hand against their rule. This helps you feel confident in your configuration.
Use full workweeks as your export range where you can.
If overtime looks different than you expected, work through the checklist in the Custom Overtime FAQ and Troubleshooting article.
If you have questions about how your overtime was calculated, our support team is always happy to help.
Last Updated: 11/13/26 by Tatum Winslow