Overtime and Allowances

With the Overtime and Allowances module, you can define individual rules for the automatic detection and calculation of overtime and allowances, tailored to your company and legal requirements.

With the configured overtime rules, the system automatically detects which type of working time applies and clearly assigns the hours to the correct accounts:

• Extra hours (e.g. within the scope of flexitime) are credited to the standard time account.

• Actual overtime – i.e. additional working time beyond the contractual or statutory normal working hours – is assigned to the overtime account.

• Allowances for overtime, night, sunday, or public holiday work are calculated automatically and displayed separately in time on an allowance account.

This ensures that all working times are recorded correctly, transparently, and traceably.

In the individual time account and in the timesheet, you and your employees can see at a glance when hours were worked and how they should be accounted for.

 

1. Configuration of Overtime and Allowance Rules

1.1. Create Overtime Accounts
1.2. Initiated Overtime
1.3. Activate Overtime Account

2. Viewing and Managing Overtime Accounts

2.1. View Time Account
2.2. View in Time Report

3. Payout, Transfer, Adjustment

4. Included Overtime

5. Frequently Asked Questions about Overtime Calculation in timr

5.1. What happens if rules overlap?
5.2. How does calculation work on public holidays?

 

1. Configuration of Overtime and Allowance Rules

1.1. Creating Overtime Accounts

Under “Administration”/“Overtime and Allowances”, you can add a new overtime account or view existing ones. The corresponding allowance account is created automatically.

Click Add Overtime Account in the top-right corner to open the entry form.

Set the following parameters to create a new overtime account:

Marker 1: Select a category. This determines how the base hour of the overtime is recorded and posted:

• Category Overtime
  Both the base hour and the allowance of the overtime are assigned to the overtime account and the corresponding allowance account.
  This way, these hours and allowances are handled separately and can, for example, be easily paid out.
  A manual transfer to the time account is also possible if compensation leave is intended.

• Category Allowance
  The base hour is automatically credited to the regular time account without manual transfer and can be consumed directly via time off in lieu.
  The overtime allowance itself is recorded separately on the allowance account and can, for example, be paid out.

This ensures that working time and allowances are handled flexibly and in line with your company requirements.

Marker 2: Assign a name for the overtime and allowance account. The name entered will automatically appear at the end of the timesheet and ensures clear allocation of recorded times.

Marker 3: Assign a short name for the overtime and allowance account. The short name will appear directly in the daily view of the timesheet and should be only a few characters (max. 6 characters) long.

Example: DO50 – for overtime with a 50% allowance that applies after the 10th working hour.

💡 Tip: For payroll, the allowance rate is usually the most relevant detail – keep this in mind when assigning the short name.

Marker 4: Define the percentage allowance that is automatically calculated in time. The resulting additional hours are automatically assigned to the allowance account.

Marker 5: Specify whether the rule applies on a daily or weekly basis – i.e. whether overtime or allowances should be calculated based on daily or weekly working time.

Marker 6: Mark all days on which the rule should apply.

Marker 7: Decide whether the rule should apply only to initiated overtime or to all overtime. If selected, the rule only applies when a working time type marked as “initiated” is used. If a non-initiated working time type is used, the hours are credited as extra hours to the time account.

More details on initiated overtime in section 1.2.

Marker 8: Define the exact conditions for when the rule should apply. Options are:

• Full Day: Applies for the whole day regardless of hours worked.

• Time period: Applies only within a defined time range (e.g. 20:00–06:00 for night allowances).

• Daily working time over x hours: Applies only after the daily limit is reached.

• Combination of time period + daily limit: Applies only if both conditions are met.

• From Exceeding The Target Working Time: Applies after standard hours are exceeded.

• From Exceeding The Target Working Time by x hours: Applies only after an additional threshold is exceeded.

• Combination of working time exceeded by x hours + time period: Applies only when both conditions are met.

 

1.2. Initiated Overtime

As described in Marker 7, you have the option to specifically define initiated overtime.

1.2.1 What is Initiated Overtime?

Initiated overtime is not just extra hours, but specifically ordered or approved time worked beyond contractual hours.

It differs from voluntary extra hours, such as in flexitime, without explicit instruction.

With this feature, only initiated overtime is recorded separately and accounted for correctly. This ensures proper handling of special times (e.g. standby duty) so employees can reliably claim compensation or time off.

Example:
An employee with flexitime works from 20:00 to 21:00 on standby duty. Although this falls within flexitime, it was explicitly assigned by the employer. By booking with an initiated working time type, this hour is recognized as assigned overtime and, for example, rated with a 50% allowance.

1.2.2. How to configure Initiated Overtime

Link a working time type with an overtime account defined as “initiated overtime”:

In the working time type, activate the initiated option.

In the overtime account, activate assigned overtime.

If both are set, the overtime rule applies only when the initiated working time type is booked. Otherwise, hours are credited as regular extra hours to the time account.

Important: If a working time type that is not marked as initiated is used, the system does not count the recorded hours as overtime but as regular extra hours. These are credited to the time account – not the overtime account.

1.2.3. Example: Difference between initiated and non-initiated overtime

Let’s say an employee works 3 hours longer than required on a Friday. There’s an overtime rule that only applies to initiated overtime.

Case A: No initiated working time type

• The employee records their time with a neutral working time type (e.g. “Attendance Time”, not configured as initiated).

• The overtime rule is not applied, since the working time type is not configured as initiated.

• The 3 additional hours count as voluntarily worked hours and are credited to the regular time account.

• No booking is made to the overtime account, and no allowance is calculated.

Case B: Initiated working time type

• The employee records their time with a working time type marked as initiated (e.g. “Initiated Overtime”).

• The overtime rule recognizes the initiated booking.

• The 3 hours are automatically credited to the overtime account.

• If configured, an allowance is also calculated (e.g. 50%) and credited to the allowance account.

 

1.3. Activating an Overtime Account

To activate rules, you must link them in the respective working time rule:

Step 1: Go to Administration/Working Time Rules, click the three blue lines, select Edit Working Time Rule.

Step 2: Open the Overtime/Allowances tab and activate the desired overtime account with its rules.

Different overtime rules per working time rule

To map different overtime rules in your company e.g., due to different collective agreements or for specific groups such as apprentices timr offers a flexible solution:

In the working time rule that you assign to an employee’s working time model, you can activate different overtime accounts.

Once the corresponding overtime accounts are configured in the working time rule, the system automatically recalculates the time accounts for all affected employees whenever their working time model includes the respective rule.

 

2. Viewing and Managing Overtime Accounts

2.1. View Time Account

Once the overtime rules are activated, you can view the overtime status as follows:

For administrators: Under Time Account/Current Balances or /All Accounts

For employees: Under Time Account

Here you and your employees can see the current total of all overtime and allowances:

• Last period: Carryover from the last balance (status after the monthly balance was done)

• Current period: Total overtime and allowances recorded in the current period (since the last balance) 

• Total: Current overall balance of overtime and allowance accounts as of today – i.e. Last period + current period minus included overtime, corrections, payouts and transfers

Important: If the category is defined as overtime, both base hours and allowances are displayed separately. If it is defined as an allowance, base hours are credited to the time account and only the allowance goes into the allowance account.

💡 Tip: Hover over the hours to open a pop-up summarizing the different overtime and allowance accounts.

In our example, the +1:21 hours (under Current period and Total) are made up as follows:

• 0:44 h were worked beyond the daily working time of 10 hours (DO50: Overtime >10h)

• A 50% allowance applies to this, adding another 0:22 h

• In addition, 0:10 h were worked beyond the weekly working time of 40 hours (WÜ40: Weekly overtime >40h)

• A 50% allowance is also applied here, adding another 0:05 h

Total: 0:44 h + 0:22 h + 0:10 h + 0:05 h = 1:21 h

In our example, the +16:57 hours under Total are broken down as follows:

• 6:26 hours are credited to the WO50 account, which means that 6:26 hours were worked in excess of the weekly working time of 40 hours in the current period (WO50: Weekly Overtime > 40 hours)
• In addition, there were already 2:56 hours on this account from the last balance (Account old)
• These overtime hours with the 50% surcharge result in a new balance of 14:03 hours.
• In the current period, 1:12 hours were worked in excess of the daily working time of 10 hours (DO50: overtime > 10 hours).
• This is subject to a 50% surcharge, resulting in an additional 0:36 hours.
• From the old period, 0:44 hours of overtime with a 0:22 hours surcharge were carried over to the daily overtime account, resulting in a new balance of 2:54 hours.
  
  

2.2. View in Time Report

Marker 1: Total overtime and allowances per period: The recorded overtime and allowances are shown at the end of the Target/Actual Hours column.

Marker 2: Daily view of time bookings: In the daily view, you can see on which day how much overtime was generated and to which overtime account it was automatically booked (Marker 3).

At the bottom of the timesheet, you will find a detailed breakdown of all overtime and allowance accounts – separated by each configured overtime account.

The overview includes, in addition to the current total balance, the following information:

• Account old: Carryover balance from the previous period

• Current: Overtime worked in the current period

• Included: Number of overtime hours covered by a monthly lump sum

• Corrections: Manual adjustments made by authorized persons

• Transfers: Hours moved to other accounts, e.g. into the time account

• Payoffs: Overtime hours already paid out

• Account new: Calculated balance after all of the above adjustments

• Total: Overall balance to due date

Example:
In this example, Karin worked 168:03 h with a contractual target of 169:24 h.

• 0:44 h of this was booked as overtime and does not flow into the time account but into the overtime account DO50.

• With a 50% allowance, this adds another 0:22 h.
  → The total of 1:06 h goes to the overtime account.
  → The time account shows a balance of -2:05 h.

Example:
In this example, Karin worked 176:52 hours with a target time of 161:42 hours.

• 7:38 hours of this are recorded as overtime and are not transferred to the time account, but to the overtime accounts WO50 (6:26 hours) and DO50 (1:12 hours).
• The surcharges result in an additional 3:49 hours.

→ 7:38 hours are transferred to the overtime account.
→ The time account shows a balance of 7:32 hours.

 

3. Payout, Transfer, Adjustment

By displaying overtime separately, you retain full control over what happens with those hours.

If you want to pay them out or transfer them, you can do this under “Time Account”/“All Accounts” using the “Correct Time Account” button. Proceed as follows:

Marker 1 & 2: Select the desired employee and the due date for which the overtime or allowances should be processed

Marker 3: Select the applicable overtime or allowance account on which you want to perform an action

Marker 4: Choose the action:

• Payoff
• Correction
• Transfer to the time account

Marker 5: Here you can see the current balance of overtime or allowances as of the selected date. Clicking the arrow automatically enters the total number of hours into the input field.

Marker 6: If you do not want to process the entire balance but only a partial amount, you can enter it manually here.

Marker 7: By default, an automatic note is saved for the action. You can adjust or add to this note, e.g. with the reason for the payout or transfer, or the month for which you are paying out overtime.

Payoffs, corrections or transfers are recorded in the timesheet and also exported in the export of the balances. For more information, see the following documentation: Export Time Account Balances, Time Sheets and Payouts

4. Included Overtime

If you have an all-in contract or included overtime, you can configure from which account the overtime should be deducted or how overtime should be handled. You can find detailed information in this documentation: Included Overtime / All-In

 

5. Frequently Asked Questions about Overtime Calculation in timr

5.1. What happens if rules overlap?

If several rules overlap, the following priorities apply:

• The rule with the higher allowance takes precedence.

• Daily rules take precedence over weekly rules.

5.2. How does calculation work on public holidays?

1. Work on a non-working public holiday (according to the working time model):
If work is performed on a non-working public holiday (as defined in the working time model) and a corresponding holiday rule is configured, the hours worked are fully counted as overtime including allowance.

2. Public holiday falls on a regular working day:
In this case, the holiday is initially paid like a normal working day.
If additional hours are worked on that day, the following applies:

• • Hours within the contractual working time are paid as regular hours.

  • Only hours beyond the contractual time are counted as overtime with allowance – provided that a corresponding rule is defined.
    
    

Important legal note

The rules and configurations available in timr allow flexible, company-specific setups.
Whether the chosen implementation is legally permissible depends on the applicable collective agreement, legal requirements, and company agreements.

Please review the legal framework in your company or consult a labor law expert.