About The Running Total

Fifty notes on overtime management and compliance, written for the people who have to answer for the hours: HR and payroll staff, operations and site managers, rota planners, and whoever is asked how many hours that person actually worked.

What it covers

What a working time limit is made of. Reference periods and rolling averages, and why the figure moves when nothing changed. Individual opt-outs, what they do and what they leave untouched. Daily and weekly rest, consecutive days and compensatory rest. The hours no single system sees: second employers, other sites, travel, on-call and required training. Finding people before they cross a ceiling. And the records all of it has to leave behind.

How the content is organised

Overtime rates, premium triggers and the economics of an hour, which are covered thoroughly elsewhere. Rota construction as a craft. Timesheet approval. Each of those treats the hour as a cost; this collection treats the limit as the object.

Examples and figures illustrate common operating patterns. Organisations should validate them against their own records, workforce arrangements and local requirements before changing a process.

Not advice

Nothing here is legal, payroll or health and safety advice. Which limits apply, what counts towards them, how they are averaged, when an opt-out is valid, what rest is owed and what records must be kept differ by jurisdiction, by sector and by collective agreement, and they change. Where a note touches on any of those it describes the shape of the problem, not the rule that applies to you.