Set expected hours overrides

One expectation rarely fits a whole company. A design team on a 32-hour week, contractors expected for 24, and an executive who should not be chased for timesheets at all can each get their own number without touching anyone else’s. Overrides sit on top of the org baseline configured in Monitor timesheet compliance.

How an override is chosen

For each person, expected hours resolve in a fixed order; the first match wins:

1. User override, including the per-user exempt flag.
2. Team override, from any team the person belongs to.
3. Role override, matched on their organization role.
4. Org default: per-user capacity or the fixed weekly number, whichever the baseline uses.

A user override therefore always beats a team override, and a team override always beats a role override. The editor shows this order as a hint: user, then team, then role, then org default.

Add overrides

1. Open Organization Settings, go to the Configuration tab, then the Timesheets section.

2. In the Compliance enforcement panel, find the Expected hours overrides editor. It has three sections: Teams, Roles, and Users.

3. In each section, use the picker to add a team, role, or member, then type the weekly hours for that row. Remove a row to fall back to the next level in the order.

4. On a user row you can also tick Exempt. An exempt user is skipped entirely: no expected hours, no nudges, always reported as Exempt.

5. Save the panel. Overrides apply from the next compliance computation.

When someone is on multiple teams

If a person belongs to two teams that both carry an override, the Multi-team conflict setting in the editor header decides which one applies:

• Most generous (lower hours): the default. Picks the lower expectation, on the principle that multi-team members should not be overburdened.
• Most restrictive (higher hours): picks the higher expectation.
• First team (alphabetical): deterministic, order-based.

Tip

The Exempt flag here is permanent until you remove it. For temporary absences like parental leave or a sabbatical, a date-bounded compliance exception expires on its own and leaves an audit trail.

Best practices

1. Model at the most general level that works. A role override applies to all current and future members of that role; a user override applies only to one person and needs updating when they leave. Use roles for structural patterns, users for individual exceptions.
2. Use Exempt sparingly; prefer date-bounded exceptions. A permanent Exempt flag is hard to find later; a compliance exception expires on its own and shows up in the audit trail. Reserve Exempt for genuinely permanent roles (CEOs who don’t log time at all).
3. Pick Multi-team conflict policy consciously. Most generous (lower hours) is the kind default that prevents over-burdening. Most restrictive (higher hours) suits orgs where the team carrying higher expectations should win. Document the choice so future admins know why.
4. Review overrides quarterly. People change teams, roles change shape, contractors leave. Quarterly review prevents the override list from growing stale.
5. Cite the override in compliance reports. When someone reads “Alex was 32h-expected this week” without context, they assume it’s a bug. A note in the dashboard (“Alex: part-time override since Q1”) removes confusion.

Troubleshooting / common pitfalls

• My override isn’t applying. The resolution order is fixed: user > team > role > org. If a user override exists for the person, it wins regardless of any team or role override. Check for a user-level override that’s overriding your intent.
• A multi-team person’s expected hours look wrong. Check the Multi-team conflict policy. Most generous picks the lowest; Most restrictive picks the highest. The policy applies org-wide, not per team.
• Removing an override didn’t lower the person’s expected hours. They likely have another override at a different level. The resolution falls through level by level, so removing the role override doesn’t help if a user override exists.
• Exempt user is still receiving timesheet reminders. The exempt flag was set after the reminder batch already fired. Reminders fire per-deadline; the next cycle will skip them.
• The Override editor is empty. Three causes: (a) Pro+ required; (b) governance manage permission required; (c) the panel hasn’t been saved with any overrides yet.

How this combines with other features

• Overrides + Compliance. Overrides feed the per-person expected hours that compliance reads. Without overrides, every person uses the same org default. See Monitor timesheet compliance.
• Overrides + Capacity Planner. They’re independent today; overrides for compliance, Capacity for resource planning. Some orgs align the two manually.
• Overrides + Per-project allocation. Allocation in the per-project compliance view scales the expected number further. A 32h override at 50% allocation = 16h expected on that project. See Track compliance per project.
• Overrides + Audit log. Every override add/change/remove writes an audit row. Compliance disputes can be traced. See Read audit logs.

Coming from another tool

Tool	Mapping
Microsoft Project Online Resource Pool	Per-resource availability ≈ this concept
ServiceNow Time Card	Direct concept
Spreadsheet exception list	Onplana adds first-class structured overrides
Float	Per-user FTE settings ≈ overrides
Custom HRIS integration	Many orgs sync HRIS data into Onplana via the API to drive overrides

FAQs

Do overrides change the Capacity Planner? No. Overrides feed compliance expectations only. The Capacity Planner keeps showing the availability numbers you set per week.

What happens if I set both a role and a user override for the same person? The user override wins; that is the resolution order doing its job. The role override still applies to everyone else with that role.

Can I reorder the resolution chain? The order user, team, role, then org default is fixed in the product. If a rule feels upside down, model it at a more specific level: a user override beats everything.

Does an override apply retroactively? No. Overrides change expected hours from the next compliance computation forward. Historical weeks keep the expected hours they were calculated with.

Can I bulk-import overrides from a spreadsheet? Not via the UI today. The MCP API supports bulk operations if your org runs an HRIS-to-Onplana sync. Otherwise the picker handles a few dozen overrides comfortably.

Will my overrides survive an org migration? Yes. Overrides are part of the org settings export and travel with the organization data.

Related

• Monitor timesheet compliance — what overrides feed into
• Grant compliance exceptions — date-bounded exemptions vs permanent Exempt
• Plan team capacity — separate availability tracking