About TimerOff

TimerOff is an independent tool for managing time off in lieu — the practice of giving employees time off instead of paying them for overtime worked. We built it because that arrangement almost always fails for the same reason: nobody keeps an honest record.

The problem we set out to fix

Time off in lieu starts as a reasonable compromise. A business hits a busy stretch and cannot fund an overtime bill; an employee is willing to bank the extra hours and take them back later. Both sides agree, verbally, and everyone gets back to work.

Then the record decays. The manager notes the hours in a diary or a spreadsheet nobody else opens. The employee counts the hours in their head. Weeks pass, the busy period drags on, and when the employee finally asks for the day off there are two different numbers in the room and no way to settle which is right. Sometimes the balance is simply refused because the team is still short-staffed — which is exactly why the overtime happened.

The compromise wasn't unfair. The administration was. That's a solvable problem.

What we built

TimerOff makes the arrangement mutual and permanent. The employee logs the hours they actually worked, with 24-hour start and end times, on the day they worked them. The employer approves those hours and chooses the conversion rule — hour for hour, time and a half, double time, or day for day. The conversion produces a balance both parties can see at any moment without asking each other.

From there, the employee books against that balance: full days, a date range, or a specific number of hours on a single day, so four banked hours can become a real half day rather than an awkward negotiation. The employer approves or declines, and a decline requires a written reason. Everything carries a timestamp and a name, and nothing can be edited after submission — that lock is enforced in the database, not just in the interface.

For staff who work on site, an optional shift tracker records GPS-verified clock-in and clock-out events. We think of that as evidence for both directions: proof for the employer that the hours happened, and proof for the employee when their hours are questioned.

Who it is for

Small and mid-sized employers who genuinely cannot pay a cash overtime premium in every busy period, and the employees who work those hours: hospitality and retail teams, agencies with deadline crunches, clinics and care providers on rotas, field and maintenance crews, and salaried professionals who are not paid hourly at all and for whom time is the only compensation on offer.

It is deliberately narrow. TimerOff is not an HR suite, a payroll engine or a scheduling platform. It does one job: keep the TOIL ledger honest.

What we believe

• Both sides see the same number. A balance only one party can read is not a record, it is a claim.
• Nothing is credited without approval, and nothing approved disappears. Employees can't inflate a balance and employers can't quietly reduce one.
• A refusal deserves a reason. Declines require a comment, because "no" without explanation is where trust goes.
• The policy belongs to you. We don't set your conversion rate, cap your balances or impose an expiry rule. We make whatever you agree visible and enforceable.

Independence and limits

TimerOff is an independently built product. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or reselling any payroll provider, HR platform or employer. We don't sell your data, and we don't take a position in disputes between the parties using it — the record does that job better than we could.

We are also clear about what TimerOff isn't: it is a record-keeping tool, not legal advice. Employment law on overtime and time off in lieu varies considerably by country, sector and employee classification, and in some places substituting time off for statutory overtime pay is restricted. Check your local rules, or take professional advice, before adopting a policy. Our policy template is a starting point for that conversation, not a substitute for it.

Where it's going

The current focus is payroll reconciliation: making accrued TOIL easy to value at period end and to settle when someone leaves, and eventually connecting directly to common payroll providers so the balance doesn't need to be re-keyed. Beyond that, the roadmap is driven by what people using it actually ask for.

Get in touch

Feedback, bug reports and feature requests are genuinely welcome — a lot of what TimerOff does now came from people describing how their own arrangement broke down. Email support@timeroff.com or use the contact form. New here? Start with how it works or the TOIL guides.