When an employee enters an overtime reduction, they can specify the number of overtime hours to be reduced. A common “misconception” is that these hours from the overtime reduction request should affect the working time account. That is not the case, because the hours would be deducted twice.
Example
An employee has 8 h of scheduled working time entered for a Wednesday. They decide to reduce overtime and enter an overtime reduction of 8 h for a Wednesday, which is also approved. On Friday they open their working time account.
1) If the overtime reduction were deducted (which it intentionally is not):
For Wednesday, Timebutler would determine 8 h of scheduled working time. The employee has entered 0 h of working time (since they did not work). This results in a balance of -8 h. Now the overtime reduction of 8 h would also be deducted. So Timebutler would calculate a balance of -16 h.
2) If the overtime reduction is ignored in the working time account (this is how it is configured):
For Wednesday, Timebutler would determine 8 h of scheduled working time. The employee has entered 0 h of working time (since they did not work). This results in a balance of -8 h. The overtime reduction is ignored; it has no impact on the calculation.
That means:
By comparing scheduled and actual time, the balance arises automatically and the 8 h deduction happens automatically. Since the employee enters no working time on that Wednesday, the deduction follows automatically.
So the overtime reduction serves only for information and also to request and get approval for the day off from the supervisor. The employee could also not work on that Wednesday without an overtime reduction, and 8 h of overtime reduction would likewise be deducted in the working time account.