How do employees reduce overtime?

TimeStatement calculates the overtime balance automatically based on an employee's target working hours.

There are two ways to reduce overtime: either the system reduces it automatically, which we recommend, or the hours balance is corrected manually with a closing. You don't need to use both methods at the same time.

1. Automatic overtime reduction

TimeStatement takes the employee's target working hours into account every day.

If an employee works less than the target hours on a day or doesn't record any work time at all, the missing hours are automatically deducted from the overtime balance. This reduces overtime automatically.

Example: An employee has 8 hours of overtime today and a daily target of 8 hours for tomorrow. If she works only 4 hours tomorrow, TimeStatement automatically reduces her overtime balance to 4 hours because she didn't fully meet the daily target. If she doesn't work at all tomorrow, her overtime balance is automatically reduced to 0 hours.

Showing the overtime reduction visually

To make the automatic reduction of overtime due to missing work time visible in the timesheet, you can create a custom timesheet entry type, for example "Overtime compensation". The hours concerned are then recorded with this entry type.

It's important that this is an unpaid absence. It doesn't affect the hours balance and only serves to show the missing work time transparently. Please note: Paid absences count as work time and therefore don't reduce overtime.

2. Correcting the hours balance manually

If you want to correct the hours balance directly, you can do this with a closing. To do this:

1. Go to "Management" and then "Users".
2. Select the person and click "Closings".
3. Click "Create Closing".
4. Select the "End Date".
5. Enter the adjustment you want in the "Correction" field to correct the hours balance directly. For example, if the "Period Balance" field shows 100 hours of overtime, you can enter −100 hours in the "Correction" field. This sets the hours balance to 0 and reduces the overtime directly. In the "Notes" field, you can record the reason for the correction so that it remains traceable later.
6. Click "Save".