Vacation and sick leave are automatically deducted in the working time account. For all other absence types, you have two options:
1. Not deducted in the working time account
By default, absence types other than vacation and sick leave have no effect on the working time account. The absence is recorded, but Timebutler does not treat it as worked time.
This means employees must still enter a time entry for any day they work — even if they have also entered an absence such as training, vocational school, or home office.
Example: An employee has 8 h of planned working time on Monday and enters a training absence for that day. Because training does not reduce planned working time under this option, Timebutler still expects 8 h of actual working time. If the employee enters no time entry for that day, the working time account shows 8 h planned and 0 h actual — a deficit of 8 h.
To avoid this, the employee must enter both the training absence and a time entry for the hours worked.
2. Define absence types that reduce planned working time
As an admin, you can configure each absence type individually to reduce planned working time.
If you activate this for training, the calculation works as follows: an employee has 8 h of planned working time on Monday and has entered a full day of training. Timebutler automatically reduces the planned working time for that day. Even without a time entry, the employee has a balance of 0 h on that day. Entering the training absence is sufficient — no additional time entry is required.
With option 1, the rule is simple: employees must always record all working time performed, regardless of whether it was in the office, in training, at vocational school, or elsewhere. Entering only a training absence without a time entry is not sufficient. The advantage is that working time can be recorded to the minute for each day.
With option 2, employees only need to enter the absence (e.g., training) — no time entry is required. The trade-off is that working time cannot be specified to the minute: Timebutler deducts the daily planned working time regardless of the hours actually worked.
To check or change which absence types reduce planned working time, log in to Timebutler as an admin, click Settings > More… in the bottom left, then click Absence types on the right. The Reduces planned working time column shows which absence types have this option active. To change the setting, click the green Edit button (pencil icon) on the left in the row of the relevant absence type. Check Reduces planned working time and click Save.
Screenshot: “Absence reduces planned working time” setting
