> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.begin.eu/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# The hour columns
> What norm, scheduled, worked, overtime, undertime and the period balances each mean.
A report can show several hour figures side by side, and they answer different questions. This page says what each one counts, and why a calculated total may not match the rows above it.
## Planned, worked, and the norm
Three figures describe a person's period before any overtime rule applies.
| Column | What it counts |
| ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Scheduled hours** | The hours the schedule planned for. It does not know what happened. |
| **Reported time** | Clock-out minus clock-in, as recorded. |
| **Paid time** | Reported time after break, rounding and premium rules apply. |
| **Total hours** | Clock-out minus clock-in, breaks included. |
| **Norm hours** | The standard working hours for a full-time role over the period. |
**Norm hours** is the yardstick. It comes from the person's contract and their country's working-time rules, not from anything they did. Overtime and undertime are measured against it.
## Overtime and undertime
| Column | What it counts |
| ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Overtime** | Hours above the norm: scheduled hours in a Shifts report, or paid time in a Time entries report. |
| **Undertime** | Hours below the norm, using the same scheduled-or-paid source as Overtime. |
| **Overtime/undertime** | The two combined as one signed figure. |
Overtime and undertime are two positive columns. **Overtime/undertime** is the same information as a single number: positive above the norm, negative below it. Use the pair for payroll, where hours owed and hours short are separate conversations, and the combined column when you only want the net position.
## The period balances
Some overtime policies accrue over a multi-month window — a quarter, for example — rather than resetting every month. Three columns describe that window.
| Column | What it counts |
| --------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Period overtime** | Overtime accumulated across the overtime reference period. |
| **Period undertime** | Undertime accumulated across the overtime reference period. |
| **Period overtime balance** | The running balance for the whole reference period, as of this month. |
The period balance is a **running** figure. It reports the accounting window that contains the end
of your date range, not the range itself. On a rolling range such as **Last 30 days**, the period
columns will describe a different window than every other column on the same row. Set the range to
a whole calendar month before you read them.
If nobody on the report accrues overtime over a period, the columns say so instead of repeating the monthly pair:
> Period overtime and undertime are unavailable because nobody on this report accrues overtime over a period. Their period figures would repeat the monthly ones.
## When a figure is unavailable
An empty hour cell is not always a zero. Begin distinguishes "we measured nothing" from "we refused to compute this", and explains the refusal. You will meet these:
* **Not grouped by person** — the calculator works one person at a time, so a position, location or label group has nothing to sum.
* **A filter is applied** — a norm covers the whole contract, so a filtered subset cannot divide it.
* **The country of work is not supported** — norm and overtime are unavailable. Scheduled and worked hours are unaffected.
* **You cannot see draft shifts** — norm, overtime and premium hours are unavailable, because each would count hours you cannot open.
* **The person has left the workspace** — calculated figures stop. Their shift count and recorded hours are unaffected.
In every case the report tells you which figures are affected and which are not. Read the message before assuming a number is missing.
## Why a total may not equal the rows above it
This is the question that generates support tickets, so it is worth a minute.
**Hour totals are calculated. Break, count and time-off columns are summed.** A calculated total is not the arithmetic sum of the rows above it, because policies and rounding apply to the calculation rather than to each visible row.
Concretely, a total can differ from its source records because of:
* planned unpaid breaks, paid breaks and unpaid breaks
* public holiday classification
* evening and night premium rules
* total-result rounding, which rounds the period total to a set number of minutes
None of these is an error. Each is a policy your workspace configured, applied where it belongs.
To see the difference for yourself, open **Why totals differ** on a summary row. The **Hours reconciliation** panel lists each metric, the adjustment applied, and the calculated result — for one person, or across everyone on the report. When nothing was adjusted it says so plainly:
> Calculated hours match the source rows.
Rounding is applied once, to the total. Begin does not round each row and add the rounded numbers
up — that would drift. So a column of rounded-looking rows can legitimately add to a different
total than the one shown.
## Charts read a different path
A chart block reads the source records directly rather than the hours calculator, and says so:
> These figures come from the source records, not the hours calculator, so they may differ from a table block over the same period.
For payroll figures, read the table.
## Next
Decimal hours, and what happens when a report is too large.
Sources, columns, and the record-versus-summary choice.
## Still need help?
Email the Begin team and we'll get back to you.
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