Shifts and overtime
How shifts flag lateness, and how Agoo counts overtime, rest-day and public-holiday work by the Labour Act, with extra time approved in the Console or the app before it counts.
Agoo is in early access. This page describes the feature as it ships to early-access organisations; screens are illustrative.
Without shifts, Agoo records when people clock in and out, and counts their overtime against your standard day and week. With shifts, it also knows when people were due, so it can flag late arrivals, early departures and missed days, and measure each day's overtime against the shift itself.
- Overtime is on every plan, because worked time is: daily and weekly hours, averaging, work-rule sets, snap and rounding, extra time approved before it counts, rest-day and public-holiday work, and night time for an allowance.
- Shifts and rosters are on Growth, Pro and Enterprise. Shifts come from your rosters: templates, repeating patterns and rotations, and a planner per site in Console → Attendance → Rosters, published to staff in the Workspace app, where they claim open shifts and swap with colleagues. Lateness, not in yet, absence, early leave and overtime follow the published roster, and the roster warns where a shift would break the Act's rest rules or need a woman's consent (below).
Key terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Shift | A start and end time at a site, such as 8:00 am – 5:00 pm at Ridge HQ |
| Roster | Who works which shift on which day, per site |
| Grace period | Minutes after the start time before someone counts as late |
| Worked time | Clock-in to clock-out, less any unpaid break. It's the record of what was clocked and never changes |
| Counted time | Worked time after snap and rounding: what pay is worked out from |
| The day's hours | The hours your rules fix for the day: a shift's paid length, or your standard day's paid length (at least 8 hours) |
| Extra time | Counted time past the day's hours, or any time on a rest day or public holiday that wasn't on a published shift |
| Overtime | Approved extra time on a working day (daily overtime), and regular time past the week's hours (weekly overtime) |
| Work-rule set | Hours and overtime rules for one group of people, such as guards on 12-hour shifts, instead of the organisation's own |
Set up shifts
Add your shift templates
In Console → Attendance → Rosters → Shift templates, add each shift you run at the site, with its start and end times, break, grace period, colour and an optional label. Overnight shifts that end the next morning are fine.
Build a pattern or a rotation
Put people on a repeating pattern, such as Monday to Friday on the day shift, or a rotation such as 2 days, 2 nights and 4 off, each person at their own point in the cycle. For irregular work, drag shifts onto the planner day by day, or import them from a spreadsheet. See Rosters.
Check your lateness and overtime rules
Your lateness and early-leave grace are in the attendance rules, and so are your overtime rules. Ghana's public holidays are loaded for you, so work on a holiday is counted on its own.
Publish
Employees see their shifts in the Workspace app and are told once about what changed. From the next shift, Agoo flags late arrivals as the shift starts and absences once the shift has ended with no clock-in, and counts each day's overtime against its shift.
Overtime
Under the Labour Act, overtime is the time someone works after the hours fixed by your organisation's rules (s.35(1)). Agoo starts from the Act's 8 hours a day and 40 a week (s.33), which you change to your own in the attendance rules. Agoo counts the hours; your payroll pays them, at your rates.
How Agoo counts a day
Once a worked day is finished, Agoo works it out in this order, and works it out again whenever a punch, a shift, a holiday or your rules change:
- Counted time. Worked time (already net of any unpaid break), after snap and rounding (below).
- What kind of day it is. A public holiday (one you observe, or one of your closed days), a rest day (a day with no shift for someone on a roster, or a day outside their working week), or a working day.
- The day's hours. On a shift, the shift's paid length: its length less an unpaid break. With no shift, your standard day's paid length: from its start to its end, less an unpaid break if your day is in two parts, and never less than your daily hours (8 by default). So an 08:00 to 17:00 day with a paid half hour is 9 hours, and extra time starts after 17:00; the same day with an unpaid lunch hour is 8. For someone with contracted hours in People, it's their hours a week divided by their working days.
- Extra time. On a working day, counted time past the day's hours. On a rest day or a public holiday, all counted time that wasn't inside a published shift (a shift you published was approved when you published it).
- Approval. Where your rules ask for it (the default), extra time waits for a manager and doesn't count until it's approved. Approved extra time on a working day is daily overtime; on a rest day it's rest-day work; on a public holiday it's holiday work.
- Regular time. Counted time on a working day, less its extra time.
- Weekly overtime. Regular time past the week's hours (40 by default), worked out at the end of each week.
- Night time, if you pay a night allowance.
Every minute lands in exactly one place, so nothing is paid twice: counted time is regular time, plus daily and weekly overtime, plus rest-day and holiday work, plus extra time that wasn't approved.
An example
Nii Armah works 08:00 to 17:00 with an unpaid hour for lunch, so his day's hours are 8. He clocks in at 07:52, which counts from 08:00, and clocks out at 18:20. His counted time is 9 h 20 min, so 1 h 20 min of extra time waits for his manager. She approves 1 hour: Nii's day is 8 hours regular and 1 hour of daily overtime, and the other 20 minutes stay on record as worked but not approved.
If Nii's day were one continuous stretch with a paid half hour instead, his day's hours would be 9, so 08:00 to 17:00 is regular time every day. His 45-hour week still runs 5 hours past the Act's 40: that's weekly overtime, worked out on its own with no approval.
Extra time and approval
Overtime approval is on by default, so nothing counts as overtime until a manager has agreed to it, and nothing worked is lost either: extra time waits until someone decides.
- Approve counts all of it. Approve part counts the minutes you choose, such as 1 hour of 1 h 20 min. Decline needs a reason, which the person sees, such as "Not agreed in advance". Declined time stays on record as worked, but isn't counted as overtime.
- Undo puts a decision back to waiting.
- Who decides: the person's line manager (or a manager further up the line), a deputy the line manager named to cover for them, or whoever manages attendance at one of their sites. Nobody decides their own extra time, except Owners.
- A day that changes later. If a punch is corrected and the day's extra time grows, the new part waits for a decision and the part already approved stays approved. If it shrinks, the approved part shrinks to fit.
- Rostered time is already approved. A published 12-hour shift doesn't need a second approval for the hours on it, and nor does a published shift on a rest day or a holiday. Only time outside it waits.
- With approval off, extra time counts as soon as the day is finished.
Each decision is recorded in the audit trail as Decided extra time, with how much was approved and the reason.
Weekly overtime and averaging
Weekly overtime is regular time past the week's hours, Monday to Sunday: 40 hours by default, or the person's contracted hours. Agoo takes it from the last days of the week first, so it carries real dates for payroll. It never needs approval, because it comes from time that is already approved or rostered. Rest-day and holiday work don't count towards the week; they're counted on their own.
For shift workers on longer days, the Act lets the week average out over four weeks or less (s.34(b), and s.36 for shifts on an established timetable). Choose Averaging of 2, 3 or 4 weeks and the Monday the periods count from: the hours are the weekly hours times the weeks, such as 160 hours over four weeks, so a 48-hour week followed by a 32-hour week has no weekly overtime.
Either kind can be switched off: with Daily overtime off, a working day has no daily limit and all its counted time is regular (the week can still make overtime); with Weekly overtime off, only the day counts.
Rest days and public holidays
Work on a rest day and work on a public holiday are categories of their own on the timesheet and in its export, so payroll can pay each at its own rate. They never count towards the week's hours, so no minute is counted twice. A public holiday you observe is one on Ghana's list or one of your organisation's closed days.
Night time
If you pay a night allowance, switch on Night time and Agoo counts each day's counted time between 22:00 and 07:00 (or the hours you choose). It's off by default. The Act defines night work only for women (s.55 and s.57), and sets no general night premium, so this is for an allowance your organisation pays.
Snap and rounding
- Snap (10 minutes by default, up to 30): on a day with a shift, a first clock-in up to that many minutes before the start counts from the start, and a last clock-out up to that many minutes after the end counts to the end. Someone who comes in a few minutes early for the handover isn't owed extra time for it. Arriving late and leaving early are never snapped.
- Rounding (off by default): every other punch rounds to the nearest 5, 6, 10 or 15 minutes, up or down, never only one way.
Neither changes the punches or worked time; they decide counted time.
Work-rule sets
Some organisations have groups with different hours: office staff on 8-hour days, and guards or ward nurses on 12-hour shifts averaged over four weeks. A work-rule set gives a group its own working time and overtime rules, on every plan. Everyone else follows your organisation's own rules.
A set holds its own work days and standard day, kind of day and break, daily and weekly hours, daily and weekly overtime, averaging, snap, rounding and night time. Lateness grace and alerts, overtime approval, public holidays, leave and timesheets stay the same for the whole organisation.
Make a set
In Console → Attendance → Settings → Work-rule sets, choose New work-rule set, give it a name and a short description, such as "Ward nurses: 12-hour shifts, averaged over 4 weeks", and change what's different. Anything you leave starts from your organisation's rules.
Move people to it
Choose the people and the date they start on the set: today, up to 31 days back or up to a year ahead. Each person follows one set at a time, or your organisation's rules.
Change it when you need to
A change makes a new version from the date you choose, like your organisation's rules: days before it keep the version they had. Archive a set you no longer need, and its people go back to your organisation's rules from today; you can restore it later.
Making, changing, archiving and restoring a set, and moving people, are recorded in the audit trail. Whoever can change your attendance rules can change sets; everyone who can see attendance can read them.
Approve extra time
In the Console
Console → Attendance → Overtime lists the extra time waiting for you, oldest day first, then what's been decided. Each day shows the person, the site, the shift (or the standard day), their first clock-in and last clock-out, the counted time, the day's hours and the extra time, and whether it was a rest day or a public holiday (with its name). Approve, approve part or decline each one, or select several and approve them together. Filter by Waiting, Decided or All, by site, by dates (up to three months at a time) or by My team.
Extra time waiting also shows in Needs review, in Daily hours, on the person's timesheet with each day's decision, and on the person's attendance, and the menu, the bell and Home's Waiting for you say how much is waiting for you.
A timesheet can't be approved while extra time in its period is waiting, so decide it first. Once a timesheet is approved, extra time on its days can't be decided or undone until someone reopens it.
In Agoo Workspace
Managers decide on their phone too, on iPhone, iPad and Android. When someone who reports to you works past their hours and it needs your approval, a notification says so, such as "Ama Mensah worked 1 h 20 min past her shift at Main Campus on Mon 12 Oct". Tap it to open Extra time, where you approve, approve part or decline with a reason, the same as in the Console. Deciding needs a connection.
People see their own extra time and overtime on Me in the Workspace app, day by day ("1 h 20 min extra time, waiting for approval", "45 min of 1 h 20 min extra time approved", "6 h worked on a rest day", "3 h at night"), and the month's Overtime and Extra time waiting. They're told when a manager decides, in the app or by email if they don't have it, with the reason if it wasn't approved.
Notifications
| Notification | Who gets it | How |
|---|---|---|
| Extra time from your team | The line manager, once per person and day | In the app only; waits for quiet hours |
| Extra time waiting, each morning | Line managers with extra time still waiting, at 08:00 | By email, with a button to the Overtime page |
| Your extra time decided | The person whose time it is | In the app, or by email if they don't have it |
Each person can turn these on or off for themselves in Account → Notifications.
In the timesheet and its export
Daily hours, each person's timesheet and their attendance show every day's counted time, overtime, extra time and its decision, rest-day and holiday work and night time, with each person's totals for the period. The Daily hours export, on every plan, has these columns beside worked time and breaks:
| Column | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Counted | Worked time after snap and rounding |
| Regular | Counted time on working days, within the day's and the week's hours |
| Overtime (daily) | Approved extra time on working days |
| Overtime (weekly) | Regular time past the week's hours (or the averaging period's) |
| Rest-day work | Approved time on rest days |
| Holiday work | Approved time on public holidays and closed days |
| Extra time waiting | Extra time nobody has decided yet |
| Extra time not approved | Extra time a manager declined, or the part they didn't approve |
| Night | Counted time at night, when you've switched night time on |
Each person has a totals row, and the file's note explains the rules it was counted by. Payroll pays the hours at your rates. On Pro and Enterprise, the payroll export puts each kind of time under your own pay code and multiplier, such as OT at 1.5 for overtime, so payroll can pay each at its rate.
The Labour Act
| Section | What it says | In Agoo |
|---|---|---|
| s.33 | At most 8 hours a day or 40 a week, except as the Act provides | The default daily and weekly hours |
| s.34(b) | Longer days must average 8 a day or 40 a week over four weeks or less | Averaging of up to 4 weeks |
| s.35(1) | Overtime is the hours worked after those fixed by your organisation's rules | A shift's paid length, or your standard day, is the day's hours |
| s.35(2) | Nobody may be required to work overtime unless your organisation has fixed overtime rates | Your rates are yours to fix, and on Pro and above you record them as pay codes; Agoo counts the hours they apply to |
| s.36 | Shift work on an established timetable averages over four weeks or less | Work-rule sets with averaging for shift workers |
| s.41 | At least 12 hours' continuous rest between two working days (less in seasonal work, on at least 60 days a year) | The roster's Under 12 hours' rest warning |
| s.42 | 48 consecutive hours' rest in every seven days, Saturday to Sunday where possible | The roster's No 48 hours off in 7 days warning |
| s.43 | Public holidays don't count as rest periods | A holiday off doesn't count towards the 48 hours |
| s.44 | The working-hours and rest rules don't apply to task workers or domestic workers in private homes | Every rest warning is a warning, never a block |
| s.55 | A pregnant woman's night work (22:00 to 07:00), and overtime by a pregnant woman or the mother of a child under eight months, need her consent | Night time's default hours; the roster's consent warnings, from maternity leave already recorded, and consent recorded by HR |
The roster also warns when someone's rostered hours go over their weekly hours (s.33, or their contracted hours or work-rule set). How each warning works, and recording a woman's consent, are on Rosters.
The law sets no overtime rate. Paying time and a half is common practice in Ghana, not the law, so Agoo never applies a rate: it counts the hours, and your payroll pays them by your own policy or agreement. The multipliers in your pay codes start at 1.5 for overtime and rest-day work and 2.0 for public-holiday work, and are yours to change.
What managers see
- Late, early and absent flags on the attendance board as they happen, not at the end of the month. Someone is absent only once their shift has ended with no clock-in; until then they're not in yet.
- Extra time to decide, in the Console and on their phone, and each person's overtime on the timesheet.
- Missed clock-outs, so you can correct them before payroll.
Reminders on their phone
People with the Agoo Workspace app get two reminders about the shifts they're rostered on (on a published roster, or a weekly fixed shift), as notifications in the app only:
| Reminder | When (by default) | Button |
|---|---|---|
| "Your shift starts at 08:00" | 10 minutes before the shift starts, if they haven't clocked in | Clock in |
| "Still clocked in?" | 30 minutes after the shift ends, if they're still clocked in | Clock out |
- You choose the times. Owners and Admins set them in Console → Settings → Organisation → Clock-in reminders: Shift starting (how long before) and Forgot to clock out (how long after), or Don't remind to turn either off.
- Nobody on leave is reminded, and each reminder goes once, on the site's clock (an overnight shift ends the next morning).
- They ignore quiet hours, because they're about work people are rostered for. Each person can still turn them off for themselves in Account → Notifications.
- Free on every plan. Reminders never use your SMS allowance. People without the app aren't reminded.
Missed clock-outs still show to managers on the attendance board and timesheets, reminder or not.
Correcting punches
Managers can correct a punch, for example when someone forgot to clock out. Every correction keeps the original, records who changed it and why, and appears in the audit trail. The day's overtime is worked out again at once.
Lateness and overtime are calculated from the original punch time, even when a kiosk or phone was offline and synced later.
Rosters
Plan who works when at each site on a drag-and-drop roster, repeat it with patterns, import it from a spreadsheet and publish it to staff, who see their shifts in Agoo Workspace, claim open shifts and swap with colleagues, with the Labour Act's rest rules checked.
Leave
Staff ask for leave in the Agoo Workspace app and the right people approve it, from Ghana's legal minimums, with working days counted by the Labour Act, deputies while approvers are away and the leave year end done for you.