Attendance Policy

An attendance policy turns a clock reading into a verdict. It says how many minutes late is still on time, how many late marks make a half day, and how many half days cost a day's pay.

Where

Time Management › Setup › Attendance Policy

Who uses it

The implementation consultant, once per set of attendance rules

When

Read the note below before you fill this in

Needs first

Nothing

What it is for

A punch is only a time. Somebody has to decide that 09:14 against a 09:00 shift is on time and 09:46 is a half day. That decision is two steps, and this screen holds both of them.

The first step counts. A rule says "from 15 minutes, count this as one Late". The second step charges. A rule says "from 3 Lates, deduct 1 day". Separating them is what lets a client be strict about marking and lenient about paying, or the other way round.

Read this before you configure it. On a current PeopleNest the attendance engine does not read this screen. The same two lists of rules, in the same shape, live on the Time Template, and that is where the grace minutes, the late and early rules, the half day rules, the absent rules and the short hours slabs are actually read from when a day is judged and when Payroll Attendance is built. The sandwich day rule is on the Calendar. If a client asks you to change what a late mark costs, the change belongs on the time template the employee's shift uses, not here.

What this screen is still good for is a written record of the client's agreed policy that is not buried inside one shift's time template. Some clients keep it for that and name it on the Employee Policy Profile. Nothing is calculated from it.

Every field, in plain words

Header

Field	What it means	What to put in it	Notes
Policy	The short code for this set of rules.	OFFICE	The code you will see on the Employee Policy Profile. One policy cannot use a code another already has.
Name	What the policy is called in words.	Office staff attendance rules

Condition

One line per counting rule. This is the "when does it count" half.

Field	What it means	What to put in it	Notes
Line #	The line number.	Fills itself. Leave it.
Type	What this line is counting.	Late	Pick it from the list. Every value is explained below.
From Minute	How many minutes past the shift time before the line applies. Below this figure nothing is counted, so this is the grace.	15	A Late line with 15 here means anyone in at 09:15 or later against a 09:00 shift is marked late, and 09:14 is on time.
Counter	How many of the thing this one occurrence is worth.	1	Leave it at 1 unless the client wants one occurrence to count double. Blank behaves as 1.

The Type values, and when to use each:

• Late - the person arrived after the shift started. The usual first line on any policy.
• Early - the person left before the shift ended.
• Half Day In - arrived so late that the morning is written off. Use this where a client wants a late arrival past a point to stop being a late mark and become a half day straight away.
• Half Day Out - left so early that the afternoon is written off.
• Absent In - arrived so late that the whole day is written off.
• Absent Out - left so early that the whole day is written off.
• Half Day - a half day reached some other way, counted directly.
• Absent - a day with no attendance at all.
• Short Hours - hours short of the shift on a day that was attended. Use this where a client cares about hours worked rather than arrival time, for example a factory running a flexible start.

Decision

One line per charging rule. This is the "what does it cost" half.

Field	What it means	What to put in it	Notes
Line #	The line number.	Fills itself. Leave it.
Type	Which counted thing this line charges for.	Late	Use the same names as the Condition lines.
From Count	How many of them must be reached before anything is charged.	3
Absent Day	How much is charged when that count is reached, in days.	1	A line of Late, from 3, 1 day means three late marks cost one day.

How to configure it

1. Agree the client's written rule first, in their words: "fifteen minutes grace, three lates is a day, in after ten is a half day."
2. Open the screen and type a Policy code and a Name, for example OFFICE and Office staff attendance rules.
3. On the Condition tab add a line for each thing to be counted. Late from minute 15 with counter 1. Half Day In from minute 60 with counter 1. Early from minute 15 with counter 1.
4. On the Decision tab add a line for each charge. Late from count 3, absent day 1. Half Day from count 2, absent day 1.
5. Save.
6. Now put the same two sets of lines on the Time Template each shift uses. That is the copy the system reads.

Scenarios

"Our factory and our office cannot have the same grace"

They do not have to, and they will not share this screen either. The factory shift and the office shift are two different time templates, so each one carries its own grace minutes and its own slabs. Write the two policies down here if the client wants them recorded in one place, but configure the real numbers twice, once on each time template.

"Three lates should cost a day, but only three in the same month"

The count is taken over the pay period that Payroll Attendance is run for, so a monthly pay period gives the client exactly what they asked for. Put Late from count 3 charging 1 day on the time template, and the count restarts with each month's sheet.

What it is connected to

• The Employee Policy Profile is where a policy written here is named against an employee.
• The Time Template carries the live copy of these rules and is read every time a day is judged.
• Payroll Attendance applies the decision slabs from the time template to turn counted lates, half days, early leavings and short hours into deduction days.
• The Calendar decides whether the sandwich day rule applies.

If something looks wrong

• "I changed the grace minutes here and nothing changed on the attendance sheet" - the grace that is read lives on the time template the employee's shift uses. Change it there.
• "The code is already taken" - another policy is using it. Pick a different code.