Working Time Rules & Automatic Breaks

Working time rules are used to ensure legal requirements such as maximum working time, rest time and breaks. In addition, framework conditions such as flextime and core time can be specified. timr checks the time entries against these rules, deviations are displayed as a note.

Important: The working time rule is assigned to a working schedule model after it has been created (see Configuration of working schedule models).

1. Maximum daily and weekly working time
2. Breaks
2.1 Automatic breaks
     2.2 Fixed breaks
     2.3 Shortest break time to be considered
     2.4 Apply automatic or fixed break to project times
     2.5 Break configuration
3. Rest periods
4. Flexitime & core time
5. Overtime
6. Assign working time rule
7. Review of working time rules

To create or edit a working time rule open the "Administration/Working time rules" menu.

Marker 1: To define new working time rules or automatic breaks, go to "+ Add Working Time Rule".

Marker 2: If you want to edit existing working time rules, click on "Edit Working Time Rule" next to the corresponding entry in the list.

Marker 3: If you need slightly different rules for different groups of employees, you can simply duplicate and adapt existing rules.

Attention: If you edit existing working time rules and there are time records that are not yet closed, they will be updated based on the new rules. You will be notified of this in advance by the system. Therefore, if you want to introduce a new rule, you must create a balance beforehand.

1. Maximum daily and weekly working time

Under "General" you can define limits for the maximum daily and weekly working time (1). You can also specify that times are automatically cut off when the maximum working time is exceeded (2). For more details, see the documentation on limiting maximum daily working time and overtime.

2. Breaks

You can define 3 types of breaks in timr:

2.1 Automatic breaks (minimum breaks or legal breaks)
2.2 Fixed breaks
2.3 Fixed daily breaks

Marker 1: Define the minimum breaks, e.g. specified by law or contract. The break times are added up and entered in the working time rules. So if the first rule is 30 minutes after 6 hours, and the second rule is 45 minutes after 9 hours, this means a total of 45 minutes for the working day.

Marker 2: Define in which blocks the break can be divided. For example, if 15 minutes minimum duration is specified, 2 blocks of 15 minutes are possible. (See also 2.4).

Marker 3: If the setting "Automatically deduct minimum breaks" is activated, timr first checks if a break was booked manually. If this is not the case, the break will be deducted automatically. If less break was taken, only the difference to the required duration will be filled. If the setting is deactivated, you will only get a review that the specified break time was not booked or not booked sufficiently.

Marker 4: If this box is ticked, the break is not only deducted up to the minimum working time limit if the specified minimum working time is exceeded, but in full, even if this means that the minimum working time is not reached.

Marker 5: If you have defined break times, you can define the clock times (See 2.2).

Marker 6: If a fixed daily break per working day is to be deducted from a certain minimum working time, activate this setting (see 2.3).

Marker 7: If you want the break rules to be applied to the project time, activate this setting.

Example: With the setting as specified above, a total of 45 minutes break will be calculated automatically if there is no manual entry.
The time entries then look as follows: Working time from 7:30 to 18:00 is a total of 10 hours 30 minutes. Subtracting 45 minutes break gives a working time of 9 hours 45 minutes. The balance between target time and actual time is 1 hours 45 minutes.

2.2 Fixed breaks

In timr you can define fixed breaks at a certain time. These breaks will always be booked at the specified time, regardless of how much and when an employee has already manually booked a break. With a fixed break you can, for example, have timr automatically book internal company break regulations, such as a coffee break in the morning.

In our example an automatic break ensures that after 6h a total of 30 minutes break has been taken (marker 1). By ticking box 2, the minimum break will be automatically deducted.
Furthermore, a fixed break of 15 minutes is deducted between 9:00 and 9:15 (marker 3).

A fixed break is also added up. For example, if you want to display a break time of 45 minutes (with a fixed break of 15 minutes at 9 a.m. and 30 minutes at noon), you must enter a total of 45 minutes in "Minimum breaks".

As a rule, you only need 1 break model per company. However, if you have e.g. different break models for office and field staff or part-time models, you can also create several models.

2.3 Fix daily break

For the fixed daily break, the system checks whether the specified break duration has been taken throughout the day if the working day exceeds the specified hours. The break is topped up if necessary.
In contrast to the minimum break, it does not matter when these breaks were taken.

Note: This function does not automatically comply with the statutory break times!

Here is an example:

08:00 - 12:00 Working time
Break: 15min
12:15 - 14:30 Working time
Break: 45min
15:15 - 17:30 Working time

By setting the minimum breaks of 30 minutes after 6 hours of working time or 45 minutes after 9 hours of working time, a 15-minute break would be added to the working time from 12:15 - 14:30, as only a 15-minute break was taken after 6 hours of working time.
The total break per day would therefore be 1:15h.

In contrast, with the setting ‘Fixed daily break’ with an automatic break deduction of 45min from a minimum working time of 6h and the activated function ‘Include all other manually and automatically booked breaks’, an automatic break would no longer be inserted, as more than 45min, or 1h to be precise, has already been taken during the day.
In this example, the statutory break of 30 minutes after 6 hours would not be fulfilled!

2.5 Apply minimum breaks or fixed breaks to project times

2.6 Break configuration

We therefore recommend the setting "Manual breaks:Not allowed" and the recording of the break with stop/start of the working time. This also records the time of the break. For more information, refer to the documentation under "How to track the time of the break".

3. Rest periods

You can map legal requirements for rest periods in timr. You can define rules for daily and weekly rest periods as well as for public holidays.

• Daily rest period (marker 1): Here you define the duration of the daily rest period between 2 working days.
• Weekly rest period (marker 2): You have the option to define a Sunday rest (valid from 0:00 to 24:00) or a weekend rest, for which you define the latest start individually.
• Holiday rest period (marker 3): To ensure that the holiday rest is observed, you can configure a corresponding rule in timr.

4. Flex time & core time

If you have agreed a flexitime framework and/or core working hours with your employees, you can define them here.

Set the flex time framework.

Activate core time framework and define the times. Also take the lunch break into account here. If you define a continuous core time (e.g. core time 1 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.), you will receive error messages if a lunch break is stamped. 

5. Overtime limits

Here you can specify the allowed overtime for certain working time types. If you exceed this limit, you will receive a message. The last record of the day is always decisive.

You can find more information on the topic of overtime here.

6. Assign working time rule to a working schedule model

In order for the working time rule to be checked by timr, it must be assigned to a work schedule model. This can be done under Administration/Work Schedule Models. You can find detailed instructions on how to do this under Configuring Work Schedule Models. In most cases, only a few working time rules are necessary in a company to cover all specifications and break regulations.

7. Automatic validation of working time rules

If you define working time rules, these are checked during the automatic validation of working times in timr. If there are any deviations, you will see a corresponding note in the time & vacation account.

Note: You will find more information about automatic validation here.