If you open the working time account in the view [Overtime balance as of the key date(/time-tracking/working-time-account/overtime-balance-as-of-the-cut-off-date/) and, for one or more employees, a very large negative number appears in the column “Overtime balance on dd.mm.yyyy”, the following causes may apply:
Time tracking start date not set
An admin can set the time tracking start date. If that has not been done, it can lead to a high negative overtime balance. For example, if you start time tracking on May 1 but have not entered a time tracking start date, Timebutler expects that working times were recorded for all days from January through April. But since no employee recorded working times before May 1, many negative hours result.
To check or set the time tracking start date, sign in to Timebutler as an admin and click at the bottom left on “Settings > More..”, then on the right on “Time tracking”. Change the “Start of time tracking” option and then click the blue “Save” button at the bottom of the page. Timebutler recalculates the working time account immediately.
Start date for a new employee not set correctly
When a new employee joins the company and you create a user account for them, you can set the time tracking start date for this employee individually, in addition to their hire date. If you did not specify the time tracking start date, you will run into the same problem described in the section at the top of this page.
To check or set the time tracking start date for the employee, sign in to Timebutler as an admin and click at the top left on “Employees > Employees > Overview”, then click the green pencil icon (=Edit) for the desired employee. Change the “Start of time tracking” option and then click the blue “Save” button at the bottom of the page. Timebutler recalculates the working time account for the employee immediately.
Absences such as vacation, sick leave, parental leave, … not entered
If an employee does not enter a longer absence such as vacation, sick leave, parental leave, etc., the working time account will not reduce the target working time. For example, an employee who does not enter 8 weeks of parental leave will not enter working times during the 8 weeks and will have overtime deducted for those 8 weeks.
You can check this by opening the [Calendar view of working time entries(/time-tracking/calendar-view/open-the-calendar-view-of-working-time-entries/). If calendar days are marked dark red for multiple days, many negative hours have accrued there and the likely issue is that a vacation request, sick entry, or other absence was forgotten. Enter the vacation or the absence, and the working time account will be recalculated immediately.
In some cases the vacation request or sick entry was entered but not requested, not yet approved, or entered with the status “In progress”. In this case, you must request and approve the entry or set it to the status “Processing completed” so that Timebutler includes it in the working time account.
Working time entries not recorded
If an employee does not record their working time entries, Timebutler subtracts the target working time from the overtime balance for each missing day. For time tracking, it is therefore necessary to enter all working times.
You can check this by opening the [Calendar view of working time entries(/time-tracking/calendar-view/open-the-calendar-view-of-working-time-entries/). If calendar days are marked dark red for multiple days, many negative hours have accrued there and the issue may be that working time entries were forgotten for those days. Click one of the days to see whether and which working times were recorded. The employee can then simply add the working times afterwards, and the working time account will be recalculated automatically.
Incorrect working time balance at the start of time tracking
You can set, for each employee, which overtime balance the employee starts with at the beginning of time tracking (=working time balance at the start of time tracking).
If, for example, an employee had an overtime balance of 42 hours at the start of time tracking, but Timebutler has, for example, 10 hours entered as the starting balance, Timebutler cannot display the correct overtime balance. Check and correct the working time balance at the start of time tracking as follows:
Sign in to Timebutler as an admin and click at the bottom left on “Settings”, then below that on “Working time balance”. If necessary, use the buttons above the list to switch to the calendar year in which you started time tracking. Check the overtime balances in the column “Working time balance at the start of time tracking” and correct them if necessary.
Absence does not reduce the target working time (for example parental leave, maternity leave, unpaid leave, …)
Timebutler automatically deducts vacation and sick leave in the working time account. For all other absence types, you can set whether they should also be included in the working time account or not.
For example, if an employee has entered 8 weeks of parental leave and the “Parental leave” absence type is set so that this absence type should not be counted in the working time account, Timebutler will deduct overtime in the working time account for those 8 weeks.
You can fix the problem by configuring which absences should reduce the target working time in the working time account. Read here how to set that [Absences reduce the target working time(/frequently-asked-questions/time-tracking/absences-reduce-target-working-time/).
Working time balance on 1/1 incorrect or does not match working time balance on 12/31
In some cases, the working time balance on 1/1 may show a very large negative number or may not match the working time balance on 12/31 of the previous year. If the starting balance on 1/1 is too low, the overtime balance will also be too low for the subsequent days in the year.
You can fix the problem with a few clicks. Read here how to proceed when the [working time balance on 1/1 is incorrect(/time-tracking/troubleshooting/working-time-balance-jan-1-does-not-match-working-time-balance-dec-31/).