---
title: 'Overtime decisions'
summary: 'The end-of-period reconciliation for one employee: balance, accumulated overtime, how much to pay out as cash, how much to bank as time-off. One decision per employee per period.'
section: features
tags:
  - crud
  - tempus
  - overtime
updated: '2026-06-17'
---

> An **overtime decision** in Tempus is the **end-of-period reconciliation** for one employee: how much of their accumulated overtime to pay out as cash, how much to bank as compensatory time-off. One decision per employee per [period](tempus_overtime_periods.md), generated at period close.

## Overview

When a period closes, the system generates one decision per employee, combining the period's [declarations](tempus_overtime_declarations.md), the employee's starting [compensatory balance](tempus_contracts.md), their [decision preference](tempus_overtime_decision_preferences.md), and the company's overtime configuration. So if 50 employees are on the company, a close generates 50 decisions.

## What it does

Each decision carries two editable values:

- **To pay** (H:mm) - paid out as cash by payroll.
- **To increment** (H:mm) - added to the compensatory balance as time-off credit.

The system enforces `To pay + To increment = Overtime`. Both are pre-filled from the employee's preference, the company's caps and minimums, and the starting balance, and HR can override each row before the period is submitted. The preference used is the one in effect **at period close**, so changing it later affects future periods only.

Once the period is submitted, *To increment* adds to the employee's compensatory balance (visible on their Voxbi profile) and *To pay* becomes a cash payroll entry for the next cycle.

> [!CAUTION]
> Editing a decision after submission has no effect on payroll. To correct a submitted decision, raise a payroll-side correction.

## See also

- [Overtime periods](tempus_overtime_periods.md) - the bounded windows.
- [Overtime declarations](tempus_overtime_declarations.md) - the input hours.
- [Overtime decision preferences](tempus_overtime_decision_preferences.md) - the default for the split.
- [Overtime submissions](tempus_overtime_submissions.md) - the payroll-side bundle.
- [Contracts](tempus_contracts.md) - the balance updated by *To increment*.