> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://learn.withessential.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://learn.withessential.com/administration/settings/set-up-time-and-pay-for-timecards.md). # Set up Time & Pay for timecards Time & Pay turns on time cards for your business and sets the pay period and overtime rules used to compute them. ## Turn on time cards Switch on **Time cards** to let technicians review and submit a weekly timecard, and let managers approve it. This adds the Timecards page and nav item, and puts clocked visit time onto each technician's timecard. ## Choose a pay period Pick **Weekly**, **Bi-weekly**, or **Semi-monthly** — the cycle technicians submit timecards for. Bi-weekly needs a starting point: pick any day in the week your two-week cycle should start on. It snaps to your configured week-start day and decides which of the two weeks each period begins on. **Week starts on** sets the first day of the workweek (Sunday through Saturday), used both for weekly pay periods and for capping overtime — this matters even on a semimonthly or misaligned bi-weekly cycle, since overtime is still calculated over calendar workweeks. See [Timecard statuses and overtime rules](/field-operations/timecards/timecard-statuses-and-overtime-rules.md). ## Set overtime rules Enter the **Weekly cap (hours)** — hours worked past this in a workweek are flagged as overtime — and the **OT multiplier** applied to those hours. ## Track travel & commute time Switch on **Travel & commute** to track drive time separately from job time. Once it's on, the technician's **On My Way** tap on a visit starts a travel clock that stops automatically when they clock in — so timecards and job costing can treat driving by your policy instead of lumping it into job time. (Businesses without GPS features still get the On My Way button; it just records the travel span.) Then choose how the **first drive of the day** is paid: * **Paid in full** — the whole first drive counts as paid time. * **Unpaid** — the first drive is the technician's own commute. * **Paid beyond a threshold** — the first drive is unpaid up to the threshold you set (in minutes); only time beyond it is paid. For example, with a 60-minute threshold a 90-minute first drive pays 30 minutes. * **Paid in full when over a threshold** — short first drives are unpaid, but one that runs past the threshold is paid from the first minute. All driving a technician does before their first clock-in of the day counts as the first drive — including a stop at the supply house on the way. **Drives between jobs are paid** is on by default: under the FLSA, job-to-job travel during the workday generally must be paid. Check with your payroll advisor before turning it off. Paid travel counts toward the weekly overtime cap; unpaid travel stays visible on the timecard but doesn't add to paid hours or overtime. Whether travel counts toward **job costs** is a separate choice on the Job Costing settings page — see [Turn on Job Costing and set cost rates](/administration/settings/turn-on-job-costing-and-set-cost-rates.md). Save once you've made a change; a Discard option appears alongside it to drop unsaved edits. > **Where to find it:** Settings -> Work Management -> Time & Pay This page needs the job-costing manage permission — the same permission that manages Job Costing settings and cost rates. That's a separate permission from reviewing and approving timecards day to day, so a role can configure Time & Pay without also being able to approve a timecard, or the reverse — see [Review, approve, or send back timecards](/field-operations/timecards/review-approve-or-send-back-timecards.md). ## Related guides * [Turn on Job Costing and set cost rates](/administration/settings/turn-on-job-costing-and-set-cost-rates.md) * [Review, approve, or send back timecards](/field-operations/timecards/review-approve-or-send-back-timecards.md) * [Timecard statuses and overtime rules](/field-operations/timecards/timecard-statuses-and-overtime-rules.md) * [Track and submit your timecard on mobile](/field-operations/mobile/track-and-submit-your-timecard.md) --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. GitBook is the documentation platform designed so that both humans and AI agents can read, navigate, and reason over technical content effectively. 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