Shifts, week-offs and overtime · HivePayroll
Second and fourth Saturdays, half days and rotating week-offs, set up once.
Most workforce software assumes Saturday and Sunday are off and lets you tick which. That covers a fraction of how Indian companies actually work.
Indian week-offs are not a checkbox
Working patterns: four weeks, seven days, three states
A working pattern in HivePayroll is a grid of four weeks by seven days, and each day is one of three states: working, half day or off. That shape covers the arrangements above without a workaround:
- Second and fourth Saturday offSaturday off in weeks 2 and 4, working in weeks 1 and 3
- Alternate SaturdaysSaturday off in weeks 1 and 3, working in 2 and 4
- Every Saturday a half daySaturday set to half in all four weeks
- Six-day weekSunday off, the rest working
- Rotating week-offA different day off in each of the four weeks, as its own pattern
Named patterns, side by side
Each pattern is named, one can be the organisation default, and you can see how many employees are assigned to each, so a factory pattern and an office pattern coexist in the same company without anyone maintaining a parallel calendar.
Why it matters for pay
The pattern drives what counts as a working day, which is what loss of pay, attendance percentage and leave proration are all calculated against. Getting it wrong quietly distorts all three.
Shifts
Overtime, and the register you actually have to produce
Overtime is derived from attendance against the shift and pattern, not typed in. Two registers come out of it:
Overtime register
For management.
Statutory overtime register
A separate register, for inspection.
Holidays, per site
Calendars by location
Holiday calendars can differ by location, so a Bengaluru office and a Pune plant do not have to share a list.
Optional and floating holidays
Where you run them, employees choose their own from the list and those choices go through approval.
Short hours: measured, deducted only if you say so
Getting the attendance in
Shifts only matter if attendance reaches them. HivePayroll takes it from:
Web and mobile check-in
With an optional office-location boundary.
Directly from a biometric device
From a spreadsheet
By hand
Frequently asked questions
Can HivePayroll handle second and fourth Saturday off?
Yes. A working pattern is four weeks by seven days, so Saturday can be working in weeks 1 and 3 and off in weeks 2 and 4 — without a workaround or a manual adjustment each month.
Can different teams have different week-offs?
Yes. Patterns are named and assigned per employee, with one set as the organisation default, so a plant on six days and an office on five run side by side.
Are half days supported?
Yes. Each day in a pattern is working, half day, or off, so a standing Saturday half day is part of the pattern rather than a monthly correction.
Does HivePayroll produce a statutory overtime register?
Yes — an overtime register for management and a separate statutory overtime register, both derived from attendance rather than entered.
Does comp-off expire?
If you configure it to. Comp-off policies cover both earning and expiry, and you can see what is about to lapse.
Can different locations have different holidays?
Yes. Holiday calendars can be set per site, and optional holidays can be chosen by employees and approved.
Bring your week-off rule
Test the rule your current system can’t expressIf your company has a week-off arrangement that your current system cannot express, that is the thing to test. Book a free demo and ask for it to be configured on the call. Or see HivePayroll pricing. HivePayroll is free for up to 10 employees.
