A working time model answers a single question: how long should this person have worked today? Everything else hangs off that figure. If somebody enters eight hours and their model says seven, that is one hour of overtime. If they are sick, Zirko credits them the day according to the model — and if nothing is in there, it is zero hours.
So: the models first, then time tracking.
Creating a model
Settings → Working hours tab.
- Click Create working time model.
- Give it a name — one your tax adviser will understand too: “Full time 40 hrs”, “Part time 25 hrs”, “Zero hours”. Not “Model 2”.
- Enter start, end and break for each weekday. The break is in minutes, not clock times — so
30, not12:00–12:30. - Days without work stay empty. An empty Saturday is not a mistake but the statement “there is no target here”.
- Under Assigned employees, choose who works to it.
You enter a night shift normally: 22:00 to 06:00. Zirko recognizes the change of day from the smaller end value and calculates eight hours.
The break must not be longer than the shift. Zirko reports that as an input error instead of quietly setting the day to zero. If a row will not save, that is almost always the reason.
Set the default model before the first person arrives
You can mark a model as the default model — every newly created employee gets it. Without a default, everyone new starts without a target time, records hours that are measured against nothing, and it only comes to light when somebody looks at the working time account. This applies to a one-person business too: you yourself are the first employee.
Summer and winter
If you work longer in summer than in winter, set up two periods under Seasonal settings, each with From week and To week. The winter period may run across the turn of the year (44 to 13).
A year sometimes has 53 calendar weeks — 2026 is one of them. Let your periods reach up to week 53. Otherwise, in years like that, one week stands there without a target time, and it is precisely in that week that no account adds up.
Enter only what is in the contract
A model holds the times agreed in the employment contract, not the ones somebody usually works. The model is the yardstick. Put it where the hours already lie and you are no longer measuring anything — and the length of a leave or sick day comes from exactly this model.
Changing works backwards
Zirko recalculates the target time every time from the model currently assigned — for last March as well. A correction therefore repairs all accounts at once. A genuine change, by contrast, falsifies the past: someone moving from full time to part time on 1 July would otherwise have overtime in January too.
For a change you therefore create a second model and assign that, instead of overwriting the old one. Record the balance of the previous day first. Assignment with an effective date does not exist today.