Creating and Configuring Day Rules

Creating and Configuring Day Rules in the ClockRite Software

Day Rules allow you to set your day to day working parameters, including start and finish times, grace and rounding intervals, break deductions, and whether to flag late starts, absences, and early finishes

Before you start, it's helpful to think about the kind of information you'd like to get from the ClockRite Software . If you don't need to flag late starts and early finishes, for example, consider using a flexible Day Rule (like our 'Default' rule)  to capture working hours for all employees. It's easy to over complicate shift setup, and some customers find themselves with several near-identical Day Rules  where one or two would suffice. It's best to start simple and tweak your Day Rules once you have some clocking data in the system.     
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Pre-Configured Day Rules

ClockRite contains two pre-configured Day Rules, 'Default' and 'Example'. These Day Rules are intended to be used as templates, and can be copied or altered as needed to better suit your needs. 

Default The 'Default' Day Rule is very flexible, recording all Clockings made between 02:00 and 23:00 at standard rate of pay. All employees are allocated to this rule by default. If you don't need to flag late starts or early finishes and you don't use daily overtime rates, we recommend leaving all employees on the 'Default' setting.  
Example  The 'Example' Day Rule runs from 09:00 to 17:00 with 8 hours at standard rate (Rate 1) and up to 16 hours overtime (Rate 2). This shift will also flag Late Starts and Early Finishes, and round to 15 minute intervals with 3 minutes grace. When creating a new Day Rule we recommend copying the 'Example' rule and then altering it as needed.    

Creating New Day Rules

Access the Day Rules tab by clicking on the 'Shift Setup' Icon on the top toolbar. You'll see a list of Day Rules displayed in the top-left of the screen. Here you can do the following:

  1. Select an existing Day Rule to edit by clicking on it. 
  2. Copy an existing Day Rule by right clicking on it and selecting 'Copy'. (This feature is useful if you wish to create a new Day Rule with similar properties to one you already have).
  3. Create an entirely new Day Rule by right clicking anywhere on the list and selecting 'New.'
  4. Delete an existing Day Rule. Day Rules can only be deleted if they are no longer in use. 

Here are examples of two fairly common working patterns and the corresponding  Day Rules they would require in the ClockRite Software.

Example 1: Simple Monday to Friday Week (Standard Week)

Employees work Monday to Friday with the same start and finish times. On a Saturday they work until midday at an overtime rate. This example would require two day rules:

  1. A 'Monday - Friday' Day Rule
  2. A 'Saturday' Day Rule 

Example 2: An Early and Late Shift Each Day, with a Shorter Day on Friday

Employees work Monday to Thursday on either an early or a late shift. On Friday each shift is one hour shorter. This example would require four day rules:

  1. A 'Monday - Thursday Early' Day Rule
  2. A 'Monday - Thursday Late' Day Rule
  3. A 'Friday Early' Day Rule
  4. A 'Friday Late' Day Rule

In both cases separate Day Rules are only necessary in order to flag late starts, early finishes, and absences. If only total hours were needed, a flexible Day Rule (such as our 'Default' rule) would be a more simple solution. 

Below is an example of what a completed Day Rule might look like, based on the 'Monday to Thursday Early' shift in Example 2. There are four main things to consider when configuring a Day Rule, detailed underneath in the screenshot. See our Day Rule Glossary for a more in-depth breakdown of each option. 

1) Paid Hours and Overtime - (Go to Glossary)

In this section you can set the Start and Finish time for the day and determine how early or late staff must work before overtime applies. You can also define the number of hours to assign to those that are absent and, if you use  daily overtime (as opposed to weekly overtime), you can define the number of hours to pay at each overtime Rate. ClockRite will not pay more than the total number of hours in the 'Hours to Pay at Rate #' fields, so make sure this figure is in line with the highest number of hours you would reasonably expect staff to work to ensure all hours are accounted for.

If your staff have many possible start times it may be easier to set up a 'flexible'  Day Rule to capture all hours worked, rather than creating a new  Day Rule for each pattern of work. If you would like to set up a 'flexible' Day Rule, set the Start Time to the earliest time you would reasonably expect someone to clock in and the Finish Time to the latest they would clock out. 
Things to watch out for:
  • Paid Absence Hours should never be left blank. If you don't want to assign paid absence hours, enter '00:00' into this field
  • The 'Overtime Starts (After Shift)' field should never be left blank. Enter '0' if you wish to begin paying overtime immediately after the Day Finish or '59' if you don't want to pay overtime after the Day Finish
  • The sum total of all hours entered into the Hours to pay at rate # fields must not exceed 24:00
  • We generally advise that the 'Check for Min hours worked and Min number of clockings' option be left unchecked unless you specifically wish to track these things 

2) Breaks - (Go to Glossary)

There are effectively three ways to deal with breaks in the ClockRite Software. Options 1 and 2 can be used together, but option 3 must be used alone. 

  1. Employees manually clock their breaks at the Terminal: In this case employee's timesheets will reflect these clockings and totals hours accordingly.
  2. A pre-set number of minutes are deducted automatically using the 'Deduct Break' Feature: In this case employees who do not exceed the 'max clockings' (indicating that they have not clocked manually) will have their break minutes automatically deducted from the end of their shift. 
    3. ***********************************************************************************************************************
  3. Break clockings are automatically inserted using the 'Autoclock Break' feature: In this case ClockRite will automatically insert a break between two specified times. This feature cannot be used in conjunction with option 1 or 2.

We generally recommend ticking the  Allow Flexi Breaks box (bottom right of the Day Rules screen). This allows breaks to be clocked at five minute intervals around the hour, instead of rounding to every quarter hour.


3) Grace & Roundings - (Go to Glossary)

Here you can define how much leeway to allow when employees clock in and out. If employees exceed their Grace Minutes they will be rounded to the interval specified by Rounding Minutes. In the screenshot, clocking in more than 3 minutes late would result in the clocking being rounded forward to the next 15 minute interval. Those clocking out more than 3 minutes early would be rounded back to the previous 15 minute interval. The Allow Early Clock Out option allows staff to leave early without being flagged as an 'Early Finish.'

 If you want to generate reports detailing the exact number of minutes worked, set both Grace and Rounding minutes to '0'.

4) Late Starts, Early Finishes, and Absences - (Go to Glossary)

These checkboxes tell the ClockRite Software whether or not to flag Absence, Late Starts, and Early Finishes in the T&A screen. Late Start and Early Finish draw from the Day Start and Day Finish. The Absent option should be left unchecked if configuring a  Day Rule for a non-work day such as a Sunday, in which case the T&A screen would show 'Non Work Day' instead. 

Once you've created your Day Rules you're ready to move on to  Step 2: Adding Day Rules to a Shift.

If you're one of the lucky ones with a more complicated overtime pattern and/or a night shift or two, read on for more information. 

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Multiple Daily Overtime Rates

ClockRite supports a basic pay rate and four additional rates of overtime, referred to as Rates 1 to 5. If you are using daily overtime, hours to pay at each rate can be configured using the 'Hours to Pay at Rate #' options.  Click here if you use weekly overtime instead. 

In this example the Software will pay the first
8 hours at Rate 1, the next 4 hours at Rate 2,
and the final 4 hours at Rate 3, up to a total
of 16 hours. ClockRite will not pay more
than the total number of hours in the
'Hours to Pay at Rate #' fields.
In  this example, the software would pay
12 hours at Rate 2. This feature is useful
if you have an entire workday
(Saturday, for example), that pays an overtime rate  

Time Band Payments

As well as overtime rates based on the number of hours worked, ClockRite can also be set to pay a certain rate during a specified time period using the 'Time Band Payments' feature

In this example, ClockRite will pay Rate 2 between
17:00 and 22:00, regardless of total hours worked. 

If you enter a value in the 'Starts At' or 'Finishes At' fields, 'Pay Rate' must number 1 to 5, never blank or 0.


Creating a Night Shift Day Rule

A Night Shift constitutes any Shift that runs over midnight. In ClockRite, Night Shift Day Rules are configured in much the same way as standard Day Rules. The following example shows how a Night Shift Day Rule might be configured.

Example 3: Early, Late and Night Shift Each Day

Employees work one of three shifts; an Early Shift, Late Shift, or a Night Shift. If Employees work past midnight, a special rate applies. This example would require three day rules:

  1.  An Early Shift Day Rule
  2. A Late Shift Day Rule
  3. A Night Shift Day Rule

Below is an example of what a completed Day Rule might look like, based on the Night Shift Day Rule in Example 3. This Day Rule will check for absences, late starts, and early finishes. If an employee is more than 1 minute late, their start time will be rounded to the next 5 minute interval. Overtime begins at Rate 2 when employees work more than eight hours. Those who work between 00:00 (midnight) and 02:00 accrue hours at Rate 3 regardless of total hours worked. This Day Rule will also automatically insert a break for each employee between 23:15 and 23:45, provided they work a minimum of six hours.  

Once you've created your  Day Rules you're ready to move on to  Step 2: Adding Day Rules to a Shift. 

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