Attendance policies
The times a phone records and the hours somebody is paid for are not quite the same thing. A check-in at 9:03 is not a late arrival, and eleven minutes past the shift is not overtime. Attendance policies are the rules that turn one into the other.
They are reached from Attendance Policies on the attendance salary panel, and from the gear beside Auto CheckOut on the same tab. The raw times survive whatever the rules do to them: the Captured Log Time column keeps what the app sent, and Final Log Time is what the rules made of it.
Auto check-out
Section titled “Auto check-out”People forget to check out. Auto Check-Out closes off the day for them rather than leaving it open: the missed check-out is added at their shift end time, entered on the following day when they next check in.
Without it, a forgotten check-out leaves a day that never ended, and a month’s hours that cannot be read.
Time rounding
Section titled “Time rounding”Enable Time Rounding rounds check-in and check-out times to the nearest interval, so a shift starts on the quarter hour rather than at 9:07.
- Rounding interval is the size of the step, in minutes. At 15 minutes, 9:07 AM becomes 9:15 AM.
- Rounding direction is which way it goes:
| Direction | 9:02 with a 10-minute interval | 9:06 with a 10-minute interval |
|---|---|---|
| Nearest | 9:00 AM | 9:10 AM |
| Up (ceiling) | 9:10 AM | 9:10 AM |
| Down (floor) | 9:00 AM | 9:00 AM |
Grace period
Section titled “Grace period”A grace period is the few minutes either side of the shift that do not count against anybody. Enable Grace Period switches it on and Minutes sets how long it runs.
With a five-minute grace period, somebody checking in at 9:03 is recorded as starting at 9:00.
Where it applies is set by three tick boxes:
- Apply to Late Arrivals — extra minutes after the shift starts, so a slightly late start is not a late arrival.
- Apply to Early Departures — extra minutes before the shift ends, so leaving a few minutes early is not an early departure.
- Apply to Early Arrivals — extra minutes before the shift starts, so turning up early does not quietly become overtime.
Overtime
Section titled “Overtime”Enable Overtime Calculation decides whether hours beyond the shift are counted as overtime at all.
Overtime Eligibility Threshold is the minimum somebody has to work beyond their shift before any of it counts. It is a floor, not a deduction: with the threshold at 2 hours, 1 hour 45 minutes over is not overtime, and 2 hours 30 minutes over is 2 hours 30 minutes of overtime.
Overtime worked out here is what appears in the Overtime column on the attendance report and in the overtime box on the salary panel.
Short leave and half days
Section titled “Short leave and half days”Enable Short Leave and Half Day Rules covers the days somebody was there, but not for the whole shift.
- Short Leave Threshold (Early Departure) is how much of the shift can be missed before the day counts as more than a short leave. On an 8-hour shift with the threshold at 2 hours, leaving 2 hours early is a short leave and leaving 3 or 4 hours early is a half day.
- Short Leave Action decides what happens to one: Convert to half day, or Mark as short leave only.
- Number of Short Leaves for 1 Half Day is how many short leaves add up to a half-day deduction. At 2, two short leaves cost half a day.
- Half Day Threshold (Minimum Work Hours) is the least somebody can work and still be credited with half a day. On an 8-hour shift with the threshold at 4 hours: under 4 hours is a full day’s leave, 4 hours is a half day, and 8 hours or more is a full day.
Save applies the policies. They take effect on how attendance is read from then on, which is why it is worth setting them before a month you intend to pay from rather than during it.