Breaks, Lunch, Automation & Punch In/Out Reminders with Fixed Schedules

Benefit to the OnTheClock User

• Employees may be sent a reminder to punch in and out for breaks, lunch and at the end of the day.
• You may view attendance reports for tardiness if this is set up because the employee will have a start time in the system.
• You may have punches automated for breaks and the end of the day so the employee doesn’t have to remember to do it. 
• Breaks and lunch may be paid or unpaid.
• You may restrict employees from punching in too early.   
• Note this feature is not required.  If it's not set up, employees may punch out for breaks and lunch at any time.

Reasons Why Automation Stopped                                                               How to Auto Deduct Breaks

How to Set up Paid/Unpaid breaks, Lunches and Automation                          Punch in Time Restrictions

Add Employee to a Schedule and Reminders

Automation will not take place if:

1. A manual time entry was created. (it was not created by the employee’s physical punch in/out buttons) 
2. An employee punched out before the break is qued to take place
3. An employee punched in after a scheduled break time
4. Having ‘Manual’ checked instead of ‘Auto’ 
5. Having a ‘Manual’ break listed and the employee not punching for that break
6. Blank break slots
7. Overlapping automation times
8. An administrator edits an employee’s punch that happened after the scheduled break time.

To set up breaks, lunch, punch times to be either manual or automatic, and whether a reminder is needed (see 2:12 in video)

1. Log in as the administrator.
2. Click “Schedule” at the top of the screen.
3. Select “Fixed Schedules”.
4. Click “Add Schedule” button.
5. Enter a “Schedule Name”.
6. Choose the number of breaks.
7. Enter “In Time”, “Out Time” to “In Time” for each break and “Out Time”.  
8. Choose the check box for either “Manual” for the employee to punch in themselves or “Auto” (see 3:30 in video for auto breaks) for OnTheClock to punch at the time specified.
9. Select how much of the break is paid in the “Paid” field.  If you choose "Some" enter the portion of the break to be paid (see 4:00 in video for paid breaks).  Example: 1 hour break, you want to pay for half of it, enter ".5".
10. If each day is the same, click “Copy Down” button under “Monday”. (See 5:30 in video for how copy down works)

Now select the employees who will follow this schedule, and who need the 10 minute reminder (see :54 in video for reminders).

1. Select either all or some.
2. Click “Apply” from red to green for those this applies to.
3. Click “Punch Reminder” from red to green for those who need to receive the 10 minute reminder to punch in and out.  Note the employee will need a mobile number on file for the text, and the username has to be an email address if sending an email.

Important Notes:

**This feature is not retroactive if it is set up after the "Start" punch time of the day this schedule will not apply to employees until the next day begins. If the employee misses a manual punch (start of the day, or break) all future auto punches and reminders for that day will stop.

**If you have "Auto" on employees MUST manually punch at the start of the day for the automation to take place.  This is set up to prevent an employee that is absent from being auto punched in.

Auto Deducted Breaks

You may set up the employee to have a break auto deducted after a certain number of hours

1. Log in as the administrator.
2. Click “Employees” at the top of the screen.
3. Scroll down in “General” settings to “Overtime & Breaks”.
4. Select the number of hours you would like the employee to work before automatically having a break deducted in “Auto Deduct Break”.
5. Select the length of the break-in “Break Duration”.
6. Click “Save Settings” button.
7. To turn this function off select "Off" in the drop-down menu under both "auto Deduct break" and "break duration".
8. Click save settings

Important notes: 

**This feature is retroactive. turning it on or off will affect all past time cards, in order to not change the times on your past time cards, you will want to archive all your past periods before applying this type of account change. Click here for more information on archiving

Don't Allow Early Punching

You may also set up employees to not be able to punch before a certain time

1. Log in as the administrator.
2. Click "Employees" at the top of the screen.
3. Select the employee to adjust.
4. Scroll down to the right side under "Additional Options" and enter a time in "Do not allow punching in before."
5. Click "Save Settings" button.

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