Why your overtime budget keeps blowing out (and how to fix it before the next audit)

Every year agencies promise to "get on top of overtime" — yet the numbers keep rising.

The most common reasons budgets blow out are:

• No single source of truth for real-time overtime data
• Managers approving overtime as an easy fix for understaffing
• Poor forecasting of peak demand periods
• Lack of visibility into recurring patterns (e.g., same staff or shifts every month)
• Managers using overtime as an informal reward system for high-performing or preferred staff

The fix is surprisingly simple: one clear 48-hour audit that shows exactly where the leakage is happening. Once you see the patterns, the fixes become obvious and the savings follow quickly.