How is overtime counted?
Overtime is hours worked beyond the window somebody was scheduled for, measured against a threshold their employer defines. Eight scheduled hours and ten worked gives two hours over. Thresholds can be daily, weekly or both, and PeopleMuster supplies the accurate hours from attendance and timesheets that any threshold is applied to.
Overtime is a measurement before it is anything else. Work happened, it fell outside the normal window, and that quantity is the number.
What follows from the number is a separate question with an answer that varies by employer and by place. Thresholds differ. Conditions differ. Consequences differ most of all.
That is why nothing here states a figure. A page naming one threshold as general would be wrong for a large share of the people reading it.
The practical discipline is to get the hours right first. An argument about consequence is manageable. An argument about whether the hours happened at all is not.
Two sources can supply the hours, and they answer different questions. The attendance row says how long somebody was working. The logged time says which project absorbed it. They often disagree, and the gap between them is itself worth a look.
The threshold stays with the policy that owns it. Whoever applies the rule reads accurate hours from both sources and applies it the same way every time.
Where hours are flexible, a long Tuesday balanced by a short Wednesday is a moved hour rather than extra work. Counting every long day as overtime measures a rule the team already abandoned.
Capture authorisation at the time where your policy distinguishes requested extra hours from volunteered ones. A punch record cannot tell them apart afterwards.
Related questions
When does overtime start?
At whatever threshold your employer's policy and local rules set. Daily and weekly thresholds both exist and can apply together, and no general figure is stated here.
Does approved leave count towards a threshold?
Sometimes yes and sometimes no, depending entirely on the policy. Check the wording rather than assuming, because both conventions are common.
Where do the hours come from?
From the attendance record's working hours, and from logged time where the question is which project absorbed them. They are separate figures and can disagree.