Break Policies

MAIN MENU >   Policy > Break Policies

Break Policies have several uses. The primary use is to indicate when the TimeTrex system should expect an employee to take one or more breaks so it automatically sets the Punch Type to Break. The second use for Break Policies is to determine how long the break time should be, or specify that the break time automatically adds (pay) or deducts (dock) from the shift time for employees to whom the policy applies.

Break Policies function almost identically to Meal Policies, except for one difference. If you specify multiple Break Policies, each one activates after the actual break time matches the Active After time. (As with multiple Meal Policies, TimeTrex only uses the one that exceeds the Active After time.) This feature gives you the flexibility of configuring multiple breaks, each having a different length of time and Active After setting.

TIP:  This policy must be assigned to a Policy Group before it will become active. See Setting up Policies. Break Policies can be included in a Schedule Policy to apply for specific shifts.

See the Basic Operation section for details on viewing, adding, editing and deleting.

 

Break Policy Tab
FIELD DESCRIPTION
Type Specifies if this Break Policy defines a window for defaulting punch types to break, or if it will be used to modify the employees' total time for the day.
TYPEDESCRIPTION
NormalUsed to determine the break time an employee is expected to take for scheduling purposes, or a time window where the employee is expected to punch out for break so TimeTrex can default the punch type for the employee.
Auto-DeductAutomatically deducts the break time from the employees' time after their shift exceeds the Active After interval. This is useful when the employees are not paid for break, and they won't be punching in or out for break.
Auto-AddSetting Type to Auto-Add will cause an automatic addition of the break time to the employees' time once their shift exceeds the Active After interval. This is used when employees are paid for break, but you want them to punch In/Out for tracking purposes. Setting Type to Normal means that Break Policies are used to determine the break time an employee is expected to take for scheduling purposes.
Active After The amount of time that a shift must exceed before this break policy is activated.

For example, an employee might punch in for only 4 hours and then punch out to go home sick. You may not want to deduct the usual break from their shift. In this case, you could set the Active After to 5 hours, so that a break deduction will only occur when an employee works at least 5 hours. As with Overtime Policies, you can specify multiple break policies, each having a different Active After interval. You can configure it such that employees who work 4-hour shifts will only receive a 15-minute break, and employees who work 6-hour shifts may receive a 30-minute break.
Break Time When Type is set to Auto-Add or Auto-Deduct, this interval defines the length of time that will be added or deducted from the total shift time for all employees to whom this policy applies.
Auto-Detect Breaks By Determines how TimeTrex auto-detects breaks.
AUTO-DETECT BREAKS BYDESCRIPTION
Time WindowWill cause break punches to be detected relative to the employees' first punch of their shifts.
FIELDDESCRIPTION
Start WindowAmount of time that must elapse after the employee's first punch before their next punch is defaulted to break.

For example, if an employee punches in at 8:00 AM and usually goes for Break between 9:30 AM and 11:00 AM, setting the start window to 1.5 hours would cause TimeTrex to interpret any punch that happens 1.5 hours after the first punch as being Break.

Window LengthThe length of time after the Start Window that TimeTrex continues to default punches to Break. Outside this window, punches will default to Normal.

For example, if an employee normally starts their Break within a 1.5-hour window (between 9:30 AM and 11:00 AM), then you would set this value to 1.5 hours.

Punch Time (Proactive)This field uses a minimum and maximum value to constrain the interval that an employee may take for a break. This will proactively detect break punches when the employee is punching out and allow break punch reminders to be used. You must specify two additional values, which are described below.
FIELDDESCRIPTION
Minimum Punch TimeThe minimum amount of time that an employee can punch out for will be determined to be break.

For example, if employees usually take a break that is around 15 minutes in length, you could set this value to 10 minutes.

Maximum Punch TimeThe maximum amount of time that an employee can punch out for will be determined to be break.

For example if employees usually take a break that is around 15 minutes in length, you could set this value to 20 minutes.

Punch Time (Reactive)This field uses a minimum and maximum value to constrain the interval that an employee may take for a break. This will reactively detect break punches when the employee is punching back in from break and break punch reminders will be disabled. You must specify two additional values, which are described below.
FIELDDESCRIPTION
Minimum Punch TimeThe minimum amount of time that an employee can punch out for will be determined to be break.

For example, if employees usually take a break that is around 15 minutes in length, you could set this value to 10 minutes.

Maximum Punch TimeThe maximum amount of time that an employee can punch out for will be determined to be break.

For example if employees usually take a break that is around 15 minutes in length, you could set this value to 20 minutes.
Include Any Punched Time for Break When Type is set to Auto-Add or Auto-Deduct, checking this box will cause TimeTrex to adjust the break time by the difference between what an employee punches and what the break policy defines. This is used when you pay employees for a 30-minute break, but want them to punch in and punch out so you can track if they take more then 30 minutes. You do not want to pay them for any time that exceeds the 30-minute interval.

For example, you want to pay employees for a maximum 30-minute break. With a 30-minute Auto-Add break policy, when an employee punches out for a 30-minute break, they will not (by default) be paid for that time because they are punched out, or off the clock. However, TimeTrex applies this break policy and adds 30 minutes to their total paid time so they are paid for a break. If the employee punches out for a 45-minute break, TimeTrex will only add 30 minutes of paid time. They will not be paid for the extra 15 minutes that they took for break.
Include Multiple Breaks When Type is set to Auto-Add or Auto-Deduct, checking this box will allow TimeTrex to include multiple break punches when calculating the total break time.

For example, if you allow employees to take 30 minutes of break time at any point throughout the day, split into intervals (ie. three breaks in total, the first being 10 minutes, the second being 5 minutes, and the third being 15 minutes), this option will allow the employees' flexibility over when, how long, and how many breaks they can take.
Allocation Type Specifies how the break time is allocated within the employees shift if they have worked in more than one cost center (Branch, Department, Job or Task).
ALLOCATION DESCRIPTION
Proportional Distribution (Default)Allocates the break time to each Branch, Department, Job, Task proportionally.

For example, if the employee worked a 10.25 hour day and .25 hour was auto-deducted for a break with 4.0 hours in Branch A, and 6.0 hours in Branch B, than 40% of the break time would be allocated to Branch A and 60% allocated to Branch B.

At Active After TimeAllocates the break time to the Branch, Department, Job, Task that the employee was working at when the Active After time occurred.

For example, if the Active After time was 2 hours, and the employee worked from 8AM to 10:15AM (2.25 hours) in Branch A and 10:15AM to 5:00PM in Branch B and the break was .50 hours, then 0.25 hours of the break would be allocated to Branch A and 0.25 to Branch B. In the rare event when there is no way to allocate the break time to a specific cost center, it will fall back to using the proportional distribution method.

Pay Code Specifies the Pay Code that resulting time is recorded as.
Pay Formula Policy Determines how resulting time is converted to dollars. If a Pay Formula Policy is not explicitly defined then the Pay Formula Policy assigned to the above selected Pay Code is used instead.