A manager scanning a weekly total for anything over 40 hours feels like due diligence. It isn’t, not by itself. A timecard showing 43 hours could mean someone approved a late shift ahead of time, or it could mean a duplicate entry nobody’s caught yet. Those look identical on a summary screen, and a rushed Friday approval doesn’t have time to tell them apart.
The U.S. Department of Labor recovered $146.4 million in back wages for overtime violations in fiscal year 2025. That’s reason enough to give an unusual entry more than a glance before payroll closes, and checking mid-week instead of on deadline day gives you room to actually investigate and adjust the next shift if you need to.
Why manual approvals miss unauthorized hours
A supervisor looking at a weekly total can’t see how those hours accumulated. An approved late shift and an uncaught duplicate punch can add up to the exact same number on a summary screen. Each one needs a different response. A sign-off that skips those details is just a rubber stamp with a manager’s name on it.
Timecards that land right at the deadline make this worse. There’s little room to ask questions, and the employee who could explain an odd entry has often already left for the day.
Start by checking entries that look like time nobody actually worked. Those ghost hours deserve a second look before anyone changes what’s payable. Give supervisors something to work with when a shift gets flagged:
- The original punch times for each flagged shift
- The scheduled start and finish times
- The employee’s explanation for a missing punch
- The name of anyone who changed an entry
- The reason recorded for each correction
Does unauthorized overtime still have to be paid?
Yes. A covered employee who qualifies for overtime has to receive it for compensable hours worked, and an advance-authorization policy doesn’t change that obligation, according to the Department of Labor.
Under federal rules, overtime kicks in after 40 hours in a workweek, at one and one-half times the regular rate. Check your state’s rules too, since some go further than federal law.
A manager’s approval documents whether the extra work followed policy. What determines pay is whether the work actually happened, the paperwork around it is a separate question. If an employee stays late to finish an order without asking first, the answer is still the same: verify the hours, pay what’s owed, then deal with the policy question separately. Make sure employees know how to ask for extra time before their shift ends, so a manager actually gets the chance to approve it or hand the work to someone else with hours to spare.
Catching overtime risk before the week ends
None of this works without current punches and an accurate schedule. An employee who’s logged 34 hours by Thursday, with an eight-hour shift still on the calendar, is one shift away from overtime. Catching that Thursday instead of Monday gives a supervisor time to shuffle coverage or decide the extra cost is worth it.
TimeTrak Systems, for example, has a projected hours feature built for exactly this, spotting overtime before it happens instead of after the pay period closes. If you’re evaluating any time-tracking software for this, ask specifically which warnings it generates and who actually receives them. A warning nobody’s assigned to act on doesn’t help anyone.
Open punches matter here too. An employee who forgot to clock out can end up looking like they worked hours they didn’t, which is its own kind of payroll leakage separate from actual unauthorized overtime. Investigate the two causes separately, but keep every hour that was genuinely worked on the record.
What managers should check before approving timecards
Whatever approval process you use, managers need enough detail to actually investigate a flagged record instead of approving or rejecting it blind. Start by deciding who owns each kind of issue and how fast they need to close it out.
Have employees check their own records before a manager even looks. They’re usually the fastest way to explain a forgotten punch.
Meal deductions need a closer look whenever an employee says they worked through lunch. Per the Department of Labor’s guidance on hours worked, an unpaid meal period requires the employee to be completely relieved of duty. Being on the schedule for a break doesn’t meet that bar by itself, so check whether the deduction matches what was really taken.
Keep the original entry visible alongside any correction, with a record of who changed it and why. Then set rules that apply before payroll closes, while there’s still time to fix something:
- Assign a backup reviewer for an absent supervisor
- Require a reason for every manual adjustment
- Notify employees when a correction changes their recorded hours
- Escalate unresolved questions before the payroll deadline
- Restrict editing access to designated staff
Frequently asked questions
Can you average hours across a two-week pay period?
No. Federal overtime calculations use each workweek separately, even if your pay period spans two of them. An employee who works 44 hours one week and 36 the next still has four hours of overtime in the first week. The Department of Labor doesn’t allow averaging the two together.
Does weekend work automatically qualify for overtime?
No, not on its own. Federal law doesn’t require overtime pay just because the hours fall on a Saturday or Sunday, the workweek total is still what determines eligibility for a covered, nonexempt employee. A company policy or union agreement might promise a weekend premium anyway, so check yours and check your state’s rules before assuming either way.
How do different hourly rates affect overtime?
If an employee works two roles at different pay rates for the same employer, federal rules generally call for a weighted-average regular rate: add the earnings from both rates together and divide by total hours worked. A few arrangements are allowed to calculate it differently, so verify your specific payroll setup before approving the number.
Make the call before the hours add up
Good overtime tracking buys you time to look into an odd entry and adjust the next shift before it becomes a bigger problem. It still needs a manager behind it who can confirm what actually happened and document why.
Our graphical timecards make a missing punch or an unexplained absence something you can see at a glance, and our projected hours feature flags overtime before you assign the work that causes it.
