Meals Settings

Enable meals. When enabled, employees can clock out for meals on Dayforce clocks. Further, Dayforce automatically adds meals of appropriate lengths when managers add shifts to the schedule, and managers can manually schedule meals.

You can configure the number of meals and their durations using the Meal Allocation settings in the Meal & Break Rules tab.

Clear this checkbox to disable meals. When disabled, employees can’t clock out for meals and they can’t be added to the schedule, either automatically by Dayforce, or manually by the manager.

Validate the times employees clock out for meals against their schedule. When enabled, employees can’t clock out for unscheduled meals without manager approval.

Clear this checkbox and employees can clock out for meals regardless of when or if the meals are scheduled.

Validate the length of meals employees take against the lengths of meals employees are scheduled to receive. Select one of the following meal length validation options:

• To the Minute
• To the Second

By selecting an option in the drop-down list, you’re both enabling this functionality and specifying the degree to which Dayforce validates meal lengths taken by employees against their scheduled lengths (either to the minute or the second).

When configured, employees can’t clock in early from their meal, regardless of whether the meal is scheduled or unscheduled (depending on which minimum length setting you’re configuring). However, Dayforce still accepts late clock entries when this functionality is enabled.

For example, an employee is scheduled for a 30 minute meal and they must clock out for at least 30 minutes when taking their meals. With this validation enabled, clock entries are rejected if employees attempt to clock back in to work without taking their entire scheduled meal.

Note: If employees aren’t scheduled to receive any meals, this validation doesn’t prevent them from taking meals and it doesn’t validate the duration of the meals.

Clear this field by clicking the X to allow employees to take meals of any length.

Note: This setting works separately from the Validate Meal setting. Dayforce can validate the length of a meal (if you’ve selected an option in the Validate Meal Length drop-down list) without validating when it was taken (if the Validate Meal checkbox is cleared).

The minimum duration of meals employees must take when they work unscheduled shifts. For example, you can configure Dayforce so that employees must take 30 minute meals. An employee that clocks out for a meal can’t clock back in until at least 30 minutes have elapsed.

This setting is available only if you’ve made a selection in the Validate Meal Length drop-down list.

Enter the minimum duration of meals, in minutes, and the clocks reject meal-end clock entries when the minimum meal length isn’t reached by employees working unscheduled shifts or shifts with unscheduled meals.

Note: For Dayforce clocks operating in standalone mode, the Meal Length Validation must be enabled in the clock program in order for the clock to validate the minimum length of meals on unscheduled shifts. See the Clocks Guide.

The minimum duration of meals employees must take when they work scheduled shifts. For example, Dayforce can be configured so that employees must take 30 minute meals. An employee that clocks out for a meal can’t clock back in until at least 30 minutes have elapsed.

This setting is available only if you’ve made a selection in the Validate Meal Length drop-down list.

Enter the minimum duration of meals, in minutes, and the clocks reject meal-end clock entries when the minimum meal length isn’t reached by employees working scheduled shifts or shifts with scheduled meals.

Note: If a minimum length isn’t specified through this setting, and you’ve enabled the Validate Meal Length setting, Dayforce validates the length of the meal against the scheduled length (that is, if the employee’s meal is scheduled for 60 minutes, they can’t clock in before 60 minutes have passed).

The number of minutes that employees can clock in early for meals, and Dayforce adjusts the clock entry to match the schedule. For example, enter 3 and employees can clock in from meals up to three minutes early and the clock entry is adjusted to the scheduled time.

The number of minutes that employees can clock in late for meals, and Dayforce adjusts the clock entry to match the schedule. For example, enter 3 and employees can clock in from meals up to three minutes late and the clock entry is adjusted to the scheduled time.

The direction in which clock entries are rounded, based on your threshold settings (configured using the Meal Round Numerator and Meal Round Denominator settings for meal clock entries). Additionally, this setting also affects how Dayforce rounds the duration of meals when the Meal Duration Rounding checkbox is selected. The drop-down list options are:

• Both: Dayforce rounds qualifying clock entry times and meal durations both up and down. Both represents the default rounding functionality. If no selection is made in the drop-down list, Dayforce acts as if Both is selected and rounds clock entries and meal durations both up and down.
• Up: Dayforce rounds up only qualifying clock entry times and meal durations.
• Down: Dayforce rounds down only qualifying clock entry times and meal durations.

For example, you can configure your time entry policy to round late clock entries that are eight minutes or greater up to the next quarter hour. If a clock entry is seven minutes late or less, the clock entry time remains as-is and isn’t rounded (for example, if a meal is scheduled to end at 12:30 PM and the meal-end clock entry is entered at 12:37 PM). If a clock entry is eight minutes late, the clock entry time is rounded up to the next time segment (following the same example, a 12:38 PM meal-end clock entry is rounded up to 12:45 PM).

Note: This drop-down list appears in the Meals tab only if the Rounding Direction role feature is configured in System Admin > Roles, in the Features tab, under Pay Setup > Time Entry Policy.

Dayforce uses the values specified in the Meal Round Numerator and Meal Round Denominator fields to round the meal durations. Additionally, if configured, Dayforce uses the rounding direction you’ve specified in the Rounding Direction drop-down list when rounding meal durations.

For example, if you enter 5 in the Meal Round Numerator field and 10 in the Meal Round Denominator field, Dayforce rounds durations to the nearest 10 minute increment. An employee clocks out for their meal at 12:00 PM and clocks back in at 12:32 PM, resulting in a 32 minute meal. When Dayforce is configured to round meal durations in both directions, Dayforce rounds the employee’s meal to down to 30 minutes. Had the employee clocked in at 12:36 PM instead (resulting in a 36 minute meal), Dayforce would have rounded the meal up to 40 minutes.

Note: Dayforce enables this checkbox only if both the Round Meal Start and Round Meal End checkboxes are cleared. Similarly, when this checkbox is selected, Dayforce disables both the Round Meal Start and Round Meal End checkboxes.

Set the point after the fraction of the hour (specified in the Meal Round Denominator field) clock entries and meal durations are rounded to, in minutes. For example, if your organization rounds clock entries in both directions, a value of 7 means clock entries between the fraction and 7 minutes are rounded back, while clock entries after 7 minutes are rounded forwarded to the next fraction.

Dayforce automatically records or “inject” meals into employees’ time and attendance records when employees don’t record them. The timing and duration of injected meals can be based on the employee's schedule or on durations set in the employee’s time entry policy.

The Auto Inject Meal/Break Using Schedule checkbox (in the Meal & Break Rules tab) helps control this behavior. When selected, Dayforce injects meals based on employee schedules. For example, an employee scheduled from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM with an hour meal at 1:00 PM works their shift but doesn’t record their meal. With Auto Inject Meals and Auto Inject Meal/Break Using Schedule selected, Dayforce injects a meal at 1:00 PM for an hour.

Now, if the Auto Inject Meal/Break Using Schedule checkbox wasn’t selected, Dayforce inserts the meal based on the Meal Allocation settings of the Meal & Break Rules tab, which set the duration of meals for different shift lengths. In this example, the Meal Allocation settings define a 45 minute meal for an 8 hour shift. So, Dayforce inserts a 45 minute meal in the middle of the shift.

When employees work unscheduled shifts, Dayforce injects meals based on your Meal Allocation setting configuration.

Dayforce automatically extends any meals that were recorded with a shorter duration than scheduled.

For example, an employee has a scheduled meal from 2:00 to 2:30, and clocks out at 2:05 and clocks back in at 2:20, which is only a 15 minute meal. With the Auto Extend Meals checkbox selected, Dayforce increases the meal’s duration so that it’s 30 minutes, the same as the scheduled meal.

Note: The Extend Meals By Split checkbox controls how meals are extended.

Clear this checkbox and meals aren’t extended when employees record short meals.