What is the Working Time Account?

The working time account (WTA) compares the planned times to the times from the schedule or time tracking along with absences and holidays and calculates overtime, which can be confirmed by the employee on a monthly basis.

 

1. Important introduction
2. Overview
3. Setting up accounts (Settings)
4. Examples of typical settings
5. Working time account and adjustments
6. Time Account
7. Employee view, Review, Approval, Closing
8. Frequently asked questions and further support

What is the Working Time Account?

The working time account calculates target versus actual hours and enables maintaining an overtime account per user. This second version of our working time account will perspectively be furnished with additional features. Currently the target hours of each user are set manually and then are compared with time tracking timers or work assignments of the schedule along with holidays and paid absences. At the end of each calculated month overtime can be booked on the user's time account.

1. Important introduction

The words and terms used in the area of the working time account (brev: WTA) are often manifold. Our WTA follows the idea of comparing the goal working hours with the actual worked hours and a calculation of the discrepancy and absences and public bank holidays in order to receive the overtime of a user. In this regard, overtime we understand synonymously with plus hours or additional hours or whatever is worked too much. At the same time, we use it as a headline for the final figure of the calculation. Hence, overtime may also be a negative figure. These actual minus hours are synonymous with negative or missing hours.
The actual worked hours (clock hours) are taken either from the schedule or from the time tracker, precisely assignments and timers.
Absences are only calculated when marked as "paid" and if "corrected days" have any value, while special days are only calculated when marked as "holiday".
The time account runs separate to the WTAs and allows to take along overtime and to work it off while optionally equalizing monthly WTAs to zero.
Our WTA does not offer any calculation of payrolls and wage keys (yet).

2. Overview

When klicking "Working Time Accounts" you'll land on the overview page featuring some key figures. In the beginning this page is empty, since every user needs to be set up and activated individually for the WTA first. In the area above you may choose between the two links WTAs and settings. When klicking on WTAs you'll find a list of all WTAs set up yet and the filter options that help you to identify WTAs. If your time filter covers a WTA period only partly, it will also be shown. It becomes clearer with the following example:
The WTA is calculated April 1st to April 30th. Set the filter 30th April until the current day (August 20). We'll receive the WTAs of August, July, June, May and April.
With the other filters you may look for specific employees or departments.
E.g. choose "bar" and we'll receive all WTAs of employees working in that department and which are calculated inside the given time frame.
You may reset the filters on the right of the screen.

If you want to see details of a user's WTA or access their time account, just click the linked time frame in the row. On the following page there is an X-button that leads you back to the overview. More details about the specific WTAs continue with 5 and 6.

The first-time setup of a WTA or the adjustment happens via the link "settings" next to the gearwheel. Existing WTAs can be adjusted by clicking the user's row in the overview.

3. Setting up accounts (Settings)

For every user you'll have to create an individual WTA according to the due hours. The standard settings are set in a way, that most WTAs can be set up quite quickly. Templates are not yet available, but at the end of this section you'll find examples for typical settings.

When accessing the settings you'll find a list of users and their settings if there are any created yet. You may want to deactivate the calculation of a user. Klick the according user and un-switch the "Activated" checkbox. The settings will remain but all existing WTAs of the user will be deleted and cannot be brought back!

To create a new one hit the blue button "Set up working time account". A set up wizard will be launched in order to walk you through.
The first step is to select the user that you want to create. Next, select the data source for the calculation. If you use the time tracker for the user, make sure to also select, whether all or only verified timers should be calculated. When using the schedule and actually the assignments, changes in the reports section will also have an effect on the WTA of the user. If you want to correct errors, open a WTA as draft first and then you'll have to change assignments (schedule or reports) or timers (time tracker).

Regarding the absence calculation, you can chose between any absence (also requests) or only those verified by admins and managers.

Next and very important is the choice of period of calculation which helps you to adjust the WTA to your payroll management. Staffomatic's WTAs work on a monthly basis and for most companies the nominal months will play the dominant role, so leaving the standard setting with 1 is just fine to receive only January, February, March and so forth. If you want to calculate from the mid of the month, you may put 15 and the calculation will then continue until the 14th of the next month included.

Most companies will set up WTAs somewhere during the year. This is why you are asked how you want to start in the next step. You may want to start with the current month but have a piece of paper or excel file that covers the current overtime balance of the user. You may book the current overtime on the time account of the user, but at this stage this is not important and therefore will be covered later in the article. If you have the full data of absences, schedules or timers set up for the user in the previous months already, you may also chose an earlier month. The first calculation will then take some time later.

Step 3 is about setting the target hours, hence translating the user's contract into the WTA setting. Each step offers a detailed explanation. Calculating target hours on a monthly basis only applies to freelancers, mini jobbers or other irregularly working staff. More frequently the daily basis is chosen where the combination of working days and daily target hours sum up to the monthly target figure (which then, of course, varies from month to month).
Later, any minute that is worked less or on top of the target hour per day will be counted as overtime, while monthly target hours don't carry a daily overtime review.

In the last part absence calculation is set. When the calculation is done on a daily basis, the only choice we have here is to rule out calculation of bank holidays and special days marked as holidays. This makes sense, when a user frequently works on such days (like often the case in the gastronomy and hospitality sector). Such users should be regarded with an individual paid absence category for those days they ain't working.
When monthly WTA calculation is set, another option appears in this space offering to set specific hours to be calculated per corrected day of an absence. Also freelancers or mini jobbers etc. usually have a right for vacation or paid sickness.
Three corrected days in a paid absence result in three days with the set number of hours each. Half corrected day result in one day with the set number of hours multiplied with 0.5.
Example: User A works Mo-Fr 8h (WTA). His absence request gets confirmed for Friday until Monday 12am (1.5 corrected days) resulting in 6 hours accounting for Friday and Monday in the WTA each. If we want to have the complete 8 hours for Friday and the 4 hours for the half day absence on Monday we need to create two separate absences.
You may also set in the first section of the settings, that also unconfirmed absences will be calculated.
User B works 100 hours per month and each corrected day will be calculated with 6 hours (WTA). The admin confirms a paid absence request due to sickness from Wednesday 12am until Friday (2.5 corrected days). Each day will account for 5 hours ((6+6+3)/3). The user needs to work only 85h in order to fulfill the monthly target hours.

For instance on Holy Night it is the case that you might have a half-day-holiday, or you maybe have a company celebration that accounts for 5 working days and a length of 7 days. When creating a special day or editing holidays, you'll find an option to tell the system how many days shall be calculated by the WTA. Sticking to the first example, you could set a whole day holiday, because the day is called Holy Night. Workers will have to work half the day before returning to their families, so you set 0.5 in the "Settings for working time account users".

4. Examples of typical settings

32h part time week: 

Daily basis, 6h, Mo-Fr.
Working only 4 days a week? Change target hours to 8.
In general it's all about dividing the weekly target hours by the number of working days.

You want to set distinct target hours per day? Bear in mind that absences are then treated exactly as the target hours, hence you will receive distinct calculations per absence.

Minijob:

Staffomatic can't do any payroll or wage jobs. On the other hand, making sure not to exceed a limited payroll per month only requires some pre-calculation.
Let's say the worker is only allowed to earn £500 and receives an hourly pay of £20. 500/20 makes 25 hours per month max.
Deactivate holidays and absences are to be dealt case by case.
Sticking to the example, the average daily workload will be 0.83 hours which could be selected as absence target hours. Caution! Holidays that are situated on a weekend (or a day where the company is closed) will be calculated. Move to special days and deactivate the holiday option for those days!

Freelancer:

Free employees usually don't have WTAs. On the other hand, there might be agreements on a specific target time or wage. The setting is then to be set exactly the same way as for minijobs (see above).
Attention! For the WTA it's not important whether the contract runs via TEAs, the actual company or completely unofficial. Translate the joint agreement into the WTA settings as it was an official contract.

5. Working time account and adjustments

When accessing the detailed WTA page of a user, you may switch between the user's WTAs by using the little arrowed buttons next to the information about the time frame.
The final figures of the opened WTA are always on top of this page, followed by a detailed list of every day of the current WTA.
On the right side starting with the Status that allows you to give information whether someone has checked the correctness of a WTA and hence closed it or if it is still a draft. Right beneath you'll find the time account (for more information continue with point 6). Next is the annual overview that gives information about the current year. Open a WTA of another year in order to see the according annual overview. Last but not least is a summary of settings for the user's WTA.

The detailed daily list should be self-explanatory, nevertheless its notable that those days marked as "Off days" and with yellow color are the same that were not marked as working days in the settings.

If errors or bugs appear, please first check the following things:

• The calculation may take up to ten minutes. Sometimes it helps to delete cookies & cache of the browser
• Data source is schedule: Open the WTA (should not be closed) and change shift and assignment in the schedules, so that the WTA will be correct. Its just not enough to open and close it again.
• The same is true for time tracker as data source. Only change timers or create or delete ones as longs as the according WTA is open as draft.
• Holidays / Special Days: Will only be calculated when marked as "holiday".
• Absences: Will only be calculated when marked as "paid" and along with some value in "corrected days".
• Creation, deletion or changes in holidays and absences will only take effect in the WTA when the according WTAs are opened as draft.

6. Time Account

The time account or overtime account gives you the chance to set a starting parameter as mentioned above, you can transfer hours to and from a WTA and hence enables to work off minus hours or to lay down overtime. Each booking will be displayed along with the name of the booking person, and inside the time account can be viewed in reference to the actual WTA or generally all bookings listed chronologically.

Starting parameters: Depending on the time when the WTA is started or if it was organized manually until now, you may choose a starting parameter in the time account. Move to the first WTA of the user and open the time account. Deposit the number of hours without transferring it from the current WTA.

Taking overtime hours along: There are two ways of dealing with overtime hours.

1. Equalizing each WTA so it will have the final figure of zero (requires a transfer of hours to the time account) or
2. Just taking the overtime figure from the current WTA and depositing or withdrawing it from the time account (without transferring it).

You can handle this as you wish, since its a matter of taste. The second version is a little better in order to even understand months later, where the hours in the time account root from. It is always helpful to note in the time account, why a booking was made.
There is no automated booking of overtime hours, this feature will come with the next version. Before closing a WTA, there might be three situations.

1. There are minus hours! You need to withdraw from the time account. If you want to balance the WTA to zero (see above), you have to withdraw while transferring to the WTA. Withdrawing from the time account is reducing the overtime that was probably made in previous months.
2. There is 0 overtime. Perfect! Nothing to be done!
3. There are overtime hours! You need to deposit in the time account. If you want to balance the WTA to zero (see above), you have to deposit while transferring from the WTA. This way you mark hours that have been worked too much and make them available for hours with less worked hours in the future.

When there was work out of the schedule or time tracker or corrections need to be done, you just need to make sure to always check for the transfer checkbox which links a booking to the WTA that is opened in the background. Out of schedule and time tracker usually requires to uncheck the box, corrections require to open the box.

7. Employee view, Review, Approval, Closing

The employee views the working time account (WTA) just like the admin, but only their own, and they have no settings option. For each user for whom a working time account (WTA) has been created, a widget appears in the employee profile that summarizes key WTA values.

The employee receives an invitation to review the WTA when the admin requests the review. The employee can contest errors in the WTA using the comment field on the right and wait for confirmation of the WTA until the issue is resolved. There are no specific deadlines; these are to be defined through individual agreements. The employee is prompted to review the WTA via email with a direct link, and, in turn, the corresponding admin receives an email when the review is completed.

Now, even after recording overtime, the monthly WTA can be concluded.

 

8. Frequently asked questions and further support

I set up an employee's WTA. Why isn't it showing up?
It will take some time to see WTA showing up after creating or adjusting them. If you still can't see the WTA after 10 minutes, please delete cookies and cache of your browser and try again. Please make sure, that the employee has an existing timer or a shift assigned to.

For further help please contact the support.

I set calculation for day 20, but why is today missing in the WTA?
The day of calculation involves all completed days. Whatever day you put, the calculation will start on that day and end the day before, so the use of data will be made available for that specific day.

What happens when a user is often midnight shifting?
The calculation will be made for the day where a timer or an assignment starts. The same is true for a midnight between two months. An assignment from 31.12. 20:00 until 01.01. 4am will lead to a net working hour, 31.12., 8 hours.

What is a drafted and closed Working Time Account all about?
As soon as the month is over and all figures seem to be correct and overtime hours have been noted (and maybe transferred), admins may close a WTA to give information that everything is correct and prevent the WTA from being changed through mistakes in the schedule or time tracker. Corrections will only take effect when opened as draft again beforehand.

I need to open a WTA again, what happens?
If during the time of closure changes in the time period have been made, they will take effect in the WTA after a while. This, on the other hand, will take a while. It is better to make changes only when a WTA is open.

What happens when I create, edit or delete a special day that is marked as a holiday?
Geöffnete WTAs in draft mode will be recalculated after a while, if the checkbox in the settings "calculate holidays" is activated. Closed WTAs will remain unchanged.

One user is calculated by monthly target ours, but why is a holiday calculated that lies on a day where we are closed?
In the settings of a special day you can adjust, whether the day should be taken as a holiday or not. When the target ours are set on a monthly basis, the system needs to know somehow about the opening hours. Move to the settings of the special day and un-switch the option holiday, hence the day won't be calculated in the WTA.

Will overtime hours automatically be transferred to the next month?
Unfortunately it is not possible in the current version. You may find further information under point 6 "taking overtime hours along".

Why ain't all timers/tracked times calculated?
Either they got created after the WTA was closed or some timers weren't verified. Check the settings of the user, maybe you only allow verified timers to be calculated.

We do have Sunday premium pays and wage keys. How do I set them?
In the current version of Staffomatic and the WTA there are no wage functions included. We do look forward to receiving suggestions in this respect in order to find the best practical solutions in the future.

How is the annual review calculated? 

The annual review is calculated as if the calculation periods start with the first day of a month. So in fact, it is an annual review of 01.01. until 31.12. 

Further questions?

Open the chat window on the bottom right (little speech bubble) and start a conversation. Tell us the keyword WTA as well as your inquiry, feedback or feature wishes for the future.