System | Rules : Timesheets

Updated 2026-01-30 01:39:13 UTC Created 2020-10-07 04:37:36 UTC

Timesheet rules in Easy Employer define how the system handles discrepancies between rostered and actual shift times. These rules control automatic warnings, break management, shift creation, and rounding. Rules can be applied at the organisation level or customised for specific roles or users.

Contents

Video Overview

This video provides an overview of how timesheet rules function and interact with shift behaviour in Easy Employer:

Overview

Timesheet rules in Easy Employer allow you to apply validation logic across your organisation or override it for specific users or roles. These rules determine when warnings appear on timesheets and how shifts are processed based on rostered vs actual times.

Warnings are only triggered when the configured threshold is breached. Stricter thresholds will result in more frequent warnings, while lenient thresholds will suppress less critical discrepancies.

Organisation level rules

Organisation-level timesheet rules apply to all employees by default. These rules define how the system handles common timesheet validations and warnings, unless overridden at the role or user level.

  1. Click Organisation.
    Organisation navigation menu
  2. Click Settings.
    Organisation settings menu
  3. Click Rules from the sidebar.
  4. Click Timesheet Rules to expand this section.
    Expand timesheet rules
  5. You can now set rule values that apply to all users who don’t have role or user-level overrides.
  6. Hover over the help icon next to each rule for a description.
  7. Click Edit, enter your values, and then click Save.

Role level rules

Timesheet rules can be overridden at the role level to apply different settings to specific groups of users. This is useful for teams or departments that require exceptions from the organisation-wide defaults.

  1. Click Organisation.
    Organisation navigation menu
  2. Click Organisation structure.
    Organisation structure screen
  3. Select the role from the structure tree.
    Select role in structure
  4. Click Rules from the sidebar.
  5. Click Timesheet Rules to expand this section.
    Role-level timesheet rules
  6. Click Edit to change rule values, then click Save to apply changes.

User level rules

Timesheet rules can also be customised at the individual user level. This is useful when a specific employee needs different warning thresholds or exceptions from the default rules applied at the organisation or role level.

  1. Click Organisation.
    Organisation navigation menu
  2. Click Users.
    Users screen
  3. Select the user from the list.
  4. Click Rules in the sidebar menu.
  5. Click Timesheet Rules to expand this section.
    User-level timesheet rules
  6. Click Edit next to the rule you'd like to customise, enter your values, then click Save.
  7. Example: To adjust the start warning threshold to 45 minutes (instead of the default 30), update the value for the General shift start warning threshold rule.
  8. Any rule changed at the user level will override both organisation and role-level settings for that user.
  9. After saving, warnings will apply based on this user's personalised thresholds.

Reapply timesheet rules

Timesheet rules can be manually reapplied for an individual user, a single day, or the whole week. This allows you to modify a rule, reapply it, and immediately see the impact on the timesheet.

To reapply the rules:

Open the timesheet and choose the appropriate scope:

Single user

  1. Click the Actions button (cog icon) on the right side of the user's row.
  2. Click Reapply timesheet rules.
    Reapply rules for single user
  3. This will reapply rules for the full week for that user.

Single day for visible groups

  1. Select the groups to include using the Groups button.
  2. Click the Actions button (cog icon) at the bottom of the day column.
  3. Click Reapply timesheet rules.
    Reapply rules for single day
  4. Rules will reapply for the selected day for the visible groups.

Whole week for visible groups

  1. Select the groups to include using the Groups button.
  2. Click the Actions button (cog icon) in the bottom right corner of the timesheet.
  3. Click Reapply timesheet rules.
    Reapply rules for full week
  4. Rules will reapply for the entire week for the visible selected groups.

Shift warnings

This section describes the rules that determine when a warning is triggered on a timesheet based on clocked vs rostered shift data.

  • General shift start warning threshold:
    Value set in minutes. A warning is generated if the actual shift starts outside this threshold compared to the rostered shift start time. If the “Limit paid start time” rule is used, this warning only applies to late starts.
  • General shift end warning threshold:
    Value set in minutes. A warning is triggered if the actual shift ends outside this threshold compared to the rostered shift end time. Only applies to early finishes when using “Limit paid end time”.
  • Include leave shifts when calculating shift durations:
    Yes/No value. When set to Yes, worked and leave shifts on the same day are treated as one combined shift. Useful when partial leave is taken in a day.
  • Threshold for including a leave shift when calculating shift duration:
    Value set in minutes or hours. Used in combination with the above rule to define the maximum gap between worked and leave shifts to still be considered a single shift.
  • Forgot to clock on warning threshold:
    Value set in hours. A warning appears if the user hasn't clocked in by the defined time past their rostered start.
  • Early clock on warning threshold:
    Value set in hours. Triggers a warning if a user clocks on too early before the rostered start.
  • Break taken warning:
    Yes/No value. A warning appears if the user records a break that was not rostered.
  • Break not taken warning:
    Yes/No value. A warning appears if a break was rostered but not clocked by the user.
  • Roster and actual shift custom entities do not match:
    Yes/No value. Triggers a warning if custom entities on the actual shift differ from the rostered shift.
  • No rostered shift warning:
    Yes/No value. A warning is generated for any actual shift not linked to a rostered shift (shown as dotted lines in the timesheet).

Pay shift

This section covers how the system prioritises rules when calculating paid time from a shift.

  • Prioritise shift rounding:
    Yes/No value. Determines if shift rounding rules should take precedence over pay shift limiting rules.
    • Yes — Rounding is applied first, then any limiting rules.
    • No — Limiting rules apply first, then rounding.

Pay shift rounding

This section explains how the system rounds paid start, end, or total duration times for a shift.

  • Shift start time rounding:
    Options: None, Round up, Round down, Round to nearest. Controls rounding behaviour for the shift’s paid start time.
  • Start time rounding increment:
    Value set in minutes. Defines the increment used for rounding the paid start time.
  • Shift end time rounding:
    Options: None, Round up, Round down, Round to nearest. Controls rounding for the shift’s paid end time.
  • End time rounding increment:
    Value set in minutes. Defines the increment used for rounding the paid end time.
  • Overall shift duration rounding:
    Options: None, Round up, Round down, Round to nearest. Controls how the total paid shift duration is rounded.
  • Overall duration rounding increment:
    Value set in minutes. Affects the paid end time based on the rounded total shift duration.

Actual shift automatic breaks

This section defines how unpaid breaks are automatically added to worked (actual) shifts based on specific timing rules.

  • Automatically create break:
    Options: Yes, No, Based on roster shift. When set to Yes, breaks are created in the middle of the shift based on other rule settings.
  • Automatically create break every x hours:
    Value set in hours. Works in combination with the above rule to insert breaks every defined number of hours (e.g. 4 = a break every 4 hours).
  • Minimum shift length:
    Value set in hours. Defines the minimum shift duration before breaks are automatically added.
  • Days to apply:
    Options: All or Standard days. Controls which days the break automation applies to.

Leave shift automatic breaks

This section defines how breaks are automatically applied to leave shifts.

  • Automatically create breaks:
    Options: Yes, No, Based on roster shifts. When enabled, unpaid breaks are automatically inserted into leave shifts. If set to "Based on roster shifts", a break is added only if one was rostered.
  • Minimum shift length:
    Value set in hours. Specifies the minimum duration a leave shift must be before a break is automatically added.

Pay shift limiting

This section defines how to limit the paid time range for shifts to avoid overpayment.

  • Limit paid start time:
    Options: No limit, Allow up to x minutes, Restrict to roster start.
    • No limit: User is paid based on clocked time.
    • Allow up to x minutes: Leniency is applied using the Allowed start time threshold.
    • Restrict to roster start: No pay for time clocked before the rostered start.
  • Allowed start time threshold:
    Dropdown with options from No limit to 3 hours. Used with the “Allow up to x minutes” rule to define how early a user can be paid from.
  • Start time warning threshold:
    Dropdown with options up to 3 hours. Displays a warning when a user starts earlier than the defined value.
  • Limit paid end time:
    Options: No limit, Allow up to x minutes, Allow up to duration of rostered shift, Restrict to roster end.
    • No limit: User is paid based on clocked time.
    • Allow up to x minutes: Some leniency allowed; must be used with the “Allowed end time threshold”.
    • Allow up to duration of rostered shift: User can make up time for starting late but can’t exceed rostered shift length.
    • Restrict to roster end: No pay after the scheduled roster end time.
  • Allowed end time threshold:
    Dropdown with values up to 3 hours. Works with “Allow up to x minutes” to define how late the shift can end before pay is restricted.
  • End time warning threshold:
    Dropdown value. Triggers a warning if a user ends their shift more than x minutes late.
  • Duration warning threshold:
    Dropdown value. Triggers a warning if the actual shift duration exceeds the rostered duration by the specified amount.

Pay shift matching

This section describes how the start and end times of a paid shift can be automatically aligned to the linked rostered shift.

  • Match roster shift:
    Yes/No value. If Yes, the paid start time is adjusted to match the rostered start time. A linked roster shift is required for this to apply.
  • Match roster shift start threshold:
    Value in minutes. Defines how far the actual clock-in can deviate from the roster start time before the match rule is ignored. A value of 0 means the start will always match.
  • Match roster shift end:
    Yes/No value. If Yes, the paid end time is adjusted to match the rostered end time.
  • Match roster shift end threshold:
    Value in minutes. Sets how far the actual clock-out can deviate from the rostered end time before matching is ignored. A value of 0 means it always matches.

Automatically create shifts

This section outlines the system's behaviour for automatically generating shifts when no actual clocking data exists.

  • Automatically create shifts:
    Options: No, From roster shifts, From standard days, From either.
    • No – No shifts will be automatically generated.
    • From roster shifts – Shifts are created automatically if a rostered shift exists (no clocking required).
    • From standard days – Shifts are created based on a user’s standard availability, regardless of roster.
    • From either – Rostered shifts take priority. If no rostered shift exists, standard days will be used.
  • Show warning for automatically created shifts from standard days:
    Yes/No. If Yes, a warning is displayed when a shift is generated based on a standard day.
  • Show warning for automatically created shifts from roster:
    Yes/No. If Yes, a warning is displayed when a shift is generated from a rostered shift.

Automatically split shifts

This section controls how worked shifts are split to align with rostered shifts, especially when multiple shifts occur in one day.

  • Automatically split worked shift to match rostered shifts:
    Yes/No. If set to Yes, a single clocked shift will be split to match multiple rostered shifts for the day. Useful when users clock once for multiple roles.
  • Maximum gap between rostered shifts when splitting:
    Set in minutes. Determines how far apart rostered shifts can be and still be eligible for automatic splitting. Shifts beyond this gap must be manually clocked.
  • Minimum length of a split shift:
    Set in minutes. A rostered shift must meet this minimum length to be generated during automatic splitting. Shorter shifts are ignored and the previous/next shift continues.

Public holiday shifts

This setting determines which role is applied to automatically generated non-worked public holiday shifts.

  • Role for automatically generated shifts:
    Options:
    • Most commonly worked role – Uses the role the user works most frequently on public holidays.
    • Home role – Always uses the home role set in the user’s profile.

Other

This setting determines whether users are allowed to make changes to their own timesheet shifts.

  • Allow user timesheet changes:
    Yes/No. If set to Yes, users can edit their own timesheet shifts. Any shift changed by a user will be highlighted in blue on the timesheet for visibility.