Rounding Rules for Times and Durations

There are multiple aspects of time tracking which can be rounded from a minute (default) to up to an hour. Please keep in mind that changing these options will only affect future time tracking and timesheets which are still in progress but not timesheets which are ready for submission or have been already approved.

The following rounding rules are put in place.

The minimum default timesheet duration – that is the amount of time between punching in and punching out excluding the work breaks – is set to 15 minutes. Any timesheet shorter than that will be set to the selected value.
Example: an employee checks in at 9:00 and checked out at 9:10. The factual duration is 10 minutes. However 15 minutes will be written for this timesheet as the factual duration is less than the minimum duration.

There is a possibility to start a shift earlier than scheduled. Per default this period is set to 15 minutes and can be adjusted from 5 minutes to 2 hours. If this option is turned off completely, an employee will only be able to punch in exactly at the time the shift starts or later.
Example: an employee's shift starts at 9.00 but he checks in at 8:30. According to the settings, the earliest possible start is 15 minutes in advance, so the timesheet start will be noted as 8:45.

The starting and ending times can be rounded, too. Although the time tracking engine will track time up to a second, per default it will round times to a full minute. However it is possible to round times to the nearest (closer), next (later) or previous (earlier) minute. The difference between those options is the direction of time towards which the rounding rule will work. We provide a handy rule checker for these rounding rules for your to try out when setting these options. Start and end times rules can be set separately

Example 1: For the next examples we will assume that the employee has punched in at 9:47.
With the round rule set to "closer 10 minutes", the timesheet start will be set to 9:50.
With the round rule set to "earlier -10 minutes" the timesheet start will be set to 9:40.
With the round rule set to "later +10 minutes" the timesheet start will be set to 9:50.

Example 2: For the next examples we will assume that the employee has punched out at 12:37.
With the round rule set to "closer 5 minutes", the timesheet start will be set to 12:35.
With the round rule set to "earlier -5 minutes" the timesheet start will be set to 12:35.
With the round rule set to "later +5 minutes" the timesheet start will be set to 12:40.

Rounding for the break time can be set separately as well. The same logic as above will be applied for both the start and end of breaks. A rule checker is also provided.

Please note that changing these rules will only affect times going forward and not the times already recorded.