Short answer: pay = tracked hours + paid breaks, minus unpaid overruns, times the rate, plus overtime. Work from the tracker's numbers, not from a spreadsheet someone filled in on Friday.
Payroll errors usually come from rules that were never written down: Are breaks paid? What about idle time? What counts as overtime? Decide these once, then let the numbers do the work.
Decide the rules once
- Breaks: paid, with a fixed length (for example 60 minutes for lunch and two 15-minute tea breaks). Time beyond a short grace period is unpaid.
- Idle time: auto-paused after a few minutes, so it never reaches payroll.
- Overtime: hours above the weekly threshold at your overtime rate.
- Short days: either accept them or deduct them. Write down which.
Hourly vs salaried
Hourly: hours multiplied by rate. Salaried: a fixed amount, with tracked hours used only for overtime and short-day rules. Mixed teams are fine as long as each person has one clear rule.
A simple monthly process
- Lock the period on a fixed day.
- Review missing-hours requests and approve or reject them.
- Check weeks that go over the overtime threshold.
- Run payroll from the approved hours.
- Keep the history so you can answer questions later.
Paying in different currencies
If your team is spread across countries, pay each person in their own currency and total in yours for the books. Having rates stored per person avoids last-minute conversions.
Mistakes to avoid
- Paying from memory or messages instead of tracked time.
- Changing rules mid-month without telling people.
- Deleting records right after payment. Keep them for disputes.
TrustHours calculates payroll from tracked hours with salary or hourly rates, 40 currencies, overtime and short-day rules, on Team and Business plans.
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