This article is specifically meant to help clients better understand how Overpass handles weekly agent compensation. If you are using Overpass as a contractor, please visit Contractors' Guide to Status-Based Billing instead.

Overpass makes compensating your team straightforward with our "status-based" system. In simplest terms, this means that we track what contractors are doing when they're logged into our site, and invoice you accordingly.

For the most part, these statuses update automatically, based on the contractor's activity. However, there are a few secondary statuses which can be changed manually by the contractor. Learning these differences will help you better understand your weekly invoices.

The status On Call is automatically shown when a contractor is actively engaged in an outbound or inbound call. Time spent On Call is billed at the contractor's hourly rate.

Before each call, the contractor will review the details and history of the specific person they're about to speak with. This period is called In Review, and is also billed at the contractor's standard hourly rate.

After an agent finishes a call they enter the Wrap-Up screen, which allows them to select the call outcome, write notes, edit contact information, and possibly schedule a follow-up call. This time is billable as usual.

When contractors log into Overpass, the default status shows as Ready. As they work, the status will automatically revert to Ready when they are still working in Overpass, but not in the three previous statuses (On Call, In Review, or Wrap-Up). This indicates they are working in the CRM, researching call history, or listening to recordings of previous calls.

All hours spent on Ready are billable/paid hours. However, please note that "Ready" will not appear on your weekly billing report. Rather, these hours will be shown as "On-System Work," meaning they were working on the Overpass system, doing something other than making dials.

To avoid over-billing, when any of the above statuses are engaged, the contractor will automatically be logged out after 15 minutes of inactivity.

Overpass also includes statuses which can be manually changed by the contractor, to reflect specific circumstances. These hours may be paid or unpaid, depending on the terms of your contract. Contractors can click directly on the Status button to display a drop-down, as shown here:

For best results, we strongly recommend conducting at least one initial training session with your contractors, along with periodic check-ins. Overpass contractors have generalized calling experience, but will greatly benefit from learning more about your specific product or service. During this time, contractors will select Training to ensure those hours are tracked and they are not logged-out during the session. Training is always a paid/billable status.

Some clients choose to have contractors perform additional tasks outside of the Overpass platform. This could include updating your personal database, writing a new script, researching competition, or prospecting clients. If this type of work has been assigned, contractors select Off-System Work in order to ensure they will remain logged in and will be paid for these hours.

If you have selected our Talent-Only plan, then 100% of your contractor's time will be billed as Off-System Work, since they will not have access to our dialer or CRM.

Agents can manually change their status to On Break to indicate a lunch break or other pause in their work shift. On Break time is generally not billed, unless your Overpass contract has specifically allowed for a paid break. If you are offering a paid break, you will not be billed for any break time past that specified amount.

Once an agent has logged out of the system, their status appears as Offline. These hours are obviously not paid and will not result in any billed time on your report. 

In addition to your daily and weekly email reports, you can track your primary statuses by clicking Monitor on each campaign. Note that you can change the time frame using the controls on the left side.

At the beginning of a campaign, contractors will spend more time In Review, as they get acclimated to the script. As they gain familiarity, you should expect to see at least 50% of their total billed time spent in the On Call status. For example, during a normal 8-hour shift, you'd expect to see around 4 hours of On Call time.

Wrap-Up is the next most important step, so we expect to see around 30% of billed hours spent in Wrap-Up (about 2.5 hours for each 8-hour shift.) The remaining 20% of a shift is generally spent In-Review, plus additional On-System Work (e.g., updating the CRM.)

Some variation is normal, but you notice that a contractor's hours are drastically different from these percentages (for instance, only 10% of time spent On Call), we recommend speaking to your contractor to see if they are experiencing difficulty or confusion. Of course, these estimations are based on a standard Talent & Tech shift and do not account for any Training or Off-System Work hours.

Some clients prefer to offer performance-based commissions or bonuses to motivate contractors. These cannot be tracked via our regular status system, and must be added to your weekly invoice manually. You can do this within the platform by navigating to Workforce > Invoice History.

Our system is designed to be intuitive and accurate, but mistakes or misunderstandings can occasionally happen. If agents accidentally work for more time than was approved, you have the ability to adjust these hours directly on your weekly invoice. If you have questions or corrections regarding your contractors' compensation, please reach out to billing@overpass.com.