Keep earned time clear and fair
Connect scheduled hours, recorded work and approved leave so nobody has to argue from memory.
The challenge
Someone works beyond their scheduled hours, but an unconfirmed record leaves everyone unsure what time off is genuinely owed.
What good looks like
Agreed working hours, confirmed records and visible balances make time off in lieu fair and easy to use.
View how to
Check your working hours
Open Time and select My Hours. Review your current hours, anything awaiting confirmation and previous hours with their status. You can also see your scheduled hours and TOIL history. Update your working hours when needed so they reflect what you are expected to work each day and week.
Record the hours you work
Use Zizzy’s work clock and hours features to record your working time. Zizzy uses your scheduled hours to calculate TOIL. For example, working nine hours when you were scheduled for eight adds one hour to your balance.
Request your TOIL
Book TOIL from My Hours, or visit Time Off to check your balance and request leave. Once your manager approves the request, your TOIL balance updates automatically.
Read and search transcript
If your organization uses Zizzy's work clock and hours features, you may also have access to time off in lieu or toil. Head to the time section and select my hours to see your current hours, any hours awaiting confirmation, and your previous hours with their status.
You can also view your scheduled hours and toil history here. You can update your working hours here whenever needed.
These are the hours you're expected to work each day and week, and they help the work clock calculate any toil you earn. For example, if you're scheduled to work eight hours but work nine, Zizzy adds one hour of toil to your balance.
You can book toil here directly or visit the time off section to check your toil balance. To request it from here, select request leave.
Once your manager approves the request, your toil balance updates automatically. With Zizzy, booking time off in lieu is quick, simple, and straightforward for everyone.
TOIL needs more than a running total
Extra hours are easy to notice and surprisingly hard to settle. Someone stays late to finish a handover, covers a gap or works beyond their usual pattern. They expect to get that time back. Their manager remembers the situation differently, or cannot recall whether the additional hours were agreed at all.
Without a dependable record, time off in lieu becomes a negotiation based on memory. Careful employees keep their own notes. Others assume somebody else is tracking it. Managers approve requests inconsistently because they cannot see what was earned, what has already been taken or which hours still need confirmation.
The practical cost is more than untidy administration. People may quietly absorb extra work, postpone using earned time or feel awkward about asking for it. Managers spend time reconstructing events. What should be a straightforward exchange begins to feel like a favour.
Set the rules before counting hours
A calm TOIL process starts with a shared understanding of expected working hours. If the baseline is unclear, nobody can confidently identify what counts as additional work. Working patterns also need to stay current when contracted or agreed hours change.
Decide what qualifies before extra work happens. Be clear about whether it needs prior agreement, who confirms the hours and how requests to take them will be handled. People should also know whether TOIL must be used within a certain period and what happens when workload repeatedly prevents them from taking it.
Keep the human judgement alongside the arithmetic. An accurate balance does not make excessive working healthy or sustainable. Regularly accumulating TOIL can be a sign of poor cover, unrealistic deadlines or work concentrated with one person. The record should help that conversation happen, not replace it.
Connect the work to the time back
When an organisation uses Zizzy’s work clock and hours features, expected and recorded hours provide the basis for TOIL. Scheduled daily and weekly hours show what somebody was due to work. If they were scheduled for eight hours and worked nine, Zizzy adds one hour to their TOIL balance.
People can see their current hours, hours awaiting confirmation and previous hours with their status. Scheduled hours and TOIL history sit alongside them, so an old entry can be checked without relying on a private note or a half-remembered conversation. Working hours can also be updated when the expected pattern changes.
The earned time remains connected to the leave request. Someone can book TOIL from their hours or check the balance and request leave through the time off area. Once their manager approves it, the balance updates automatically. The useful change is simple: both sides can work from the same account of what was expected, what was worked and what has been taken back.
Seen how it works
Now see it with your own setup.
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