The working time balance (overtime/minus hours) of a team member is not automatically carried over at the year's end, but starts again at zero on January 1st. Here we explain why this is the case, how you can still deliberately carry an existing balance into the new year, and how this also works with remaining vacation days from the previous year.
Why is the balance not automatically transferred?
Belbo generally assumes that an overtime or minus hours balance existing at the end of the year has already been settled – for example, by reducing it via vacation days or by paying out the overtime hours. For this reason, time tracking automatically resets the "Result since beginning of year" balance to zero on every January 1st.
If a team member's balance was not settled at the end of the year, the value is lost and no longer appears anywhere in the new year – it must then be manually and deliberately transferred to the new year.
Manually transfer balance at year-end
To carry an existing balance from the previous year, book a time compensation entry on January 1st of the new year for the affected team member in the amount of the remaining balance:
- Go to Settings > Time Tracking and select January of the new year.
- Click on the number in the "Result since beginning of year (overtime/minus hours)" row for the affected team member (this is still at zero at this point).
- Enter January 1st as the date for the compensation entry and provide a reason, e.g. "Balance carried forward from previous year".
- Depending on whether a positive or negative balance is to be transferred, select the "Build up hours" or "Reduce hours" mode.
- Enter the minute count of the previous year's balance and save the compensation entry.
- Determine the number of remaining vacation days (or hours) of the team member from the previous year.
- Calculate the minutes based on the team member's target working hours, e.g. 2 remaining vacation days à 8 hours = 960 minutes.
- Book another time compensation entry on January 1st in "Build up hours" mode for this minute amount, e.g. with the reason "Remaining vacation previous year".
- The remaining vacation is now available to the team member as an overtime credit and can be taken in the new year as regular overtime reduction.
From now on, the transferred balance counts again toward the "Result since beginning of year" for the new year.
Video
We have also recorded the process as a video:
Carry over remaining vacation
Just like the overtime/minus hours balance, the remaining vacation of a team member is also not automatically transferred at the year's end. There are two options for this:
Option 1: Enter as absence (simple)
Simply enter the remaining vacation in the new year as a normal absence in the schedule/calendar when it is taken – just like regular vacation.
Disadvantage: The remaining vacation is not settled in this way. Belbo does not maintain a separate account for how much remaining vacation has already been taken or how much is left – you must keep track yourself of when the remaining vacation is used up.
Option 2: Map via working time balance (with settlement, more complex)
More complex, but with clean settlement: you convert the remaining vacation into hours and book these hours as additional overtime on the working time balance. This way you can see at any time in the report exactly how much remaining vacation is left, and the reduction takes place like a regular overtime reduction.