Shift Length Rule

Dayforce Implementation Guide
Version
R2025.1.1
Shift Length Rule

This rule describes shift lengths using multiple criteria: how many hours you can, or should, schedule employees during a single shift, the days that the rule includes, and what’s considered a night shift.

Shift Length Rule settings
Setting Description
Min Threshold The minimum number of minutes that employees must be scheduled during a shift.
Max Threshold The maximum number of minutes that employees must be scheduled during a shift.
Include Unpaid Meal Breaks Count unpaid meal breaks toward the minimum and maximum thresholds.
Include Holidays Run the rule on holidays.
Included Pay Adjust Codes
Excluded Pay Adjust Codes		 The pay adjustment codes that the rule includes or excludes when determining how many hours an employee was scheduled to work. For example, if training time counts toward an employee’s scheduled hours for the day, select the training pay adjustment in the Included Pay Adjust Codes setting.
Min Severity
Max Severity

The response to a minimum or maximum threshold violation:

  • Critical: You can’t save or post the schedule.
  • Error: You can save the schedule, but you can’t post.
  • Informational: You’re alerted to the problem, but no action is required.
  • Warning: You’re alerted to the problem, but you can still save the schedule.
Include Sunday
Include Monday
Include Tuesday
Include Wednesday
Include Thursday
Include Friday
Include Saturday		 The days of the week to that you want the rule to run on.
Percent during night to be a night shift The percentage of time that a shift must be in the night period for the rule to consider it a night shift.
Minutes during night to be a night shift The number of minutes that a shift must be in the night period for the rule to consider it a night shift. If you configure both the Percent during night to be a night shift and Minutes during night to be a night shift settings, the shift qualifies as a night shift when it meets either requirement.
Start of night
End of night		 The night period’s start and end times. Leave these times as the default (that is, 12:00 AM to 12:00 AM) and the rule doesn’t distinguish between night shifts and shifts at other times of the day.
Include unpaid meal breaks in night shift qualification threshold Include unpaid meals and breaks when the rule calculates the percentage or minutes that shifts fall within the night period.
Exclude night shifts Exclude shifts that qualify as night shifts. This allows configuration of “if/else” behavior.
Evaluate at segment level Count segments toward a shift’s length if the segment contains an eligible pay adjustment code.

Example 1

You must schedule employees who work weekdays for a minimum of five hours, up to a maximum of nine hours, not including meals. You should receive a warning if your schedules don’t meet this requirement.

To configure the rule for this example:

  1. In the Min Threshold field, enter 300.
  2. In the Max Threshold field, enter 540.
  3. In the Min Severity and Max Severity drop-down lists, click Warning.
  4. Select the Include Monday, Include Tuesday, Include Wednesday, Include Thursday, and Include Friday checkboxes.

If you schedule an employee to work a four-hour shift on a Thursday, Dayforce marks the shift with a warning icon () and shows a warning message in the Problems panel.

Example 2

You must schedule employees who work shifts any night of the week between 12:00 AM and 5:00 AM for a minimum of seven hours, up to a maximum of eight hours, not including meals. You shouldn’t be able to save or post schedules that don’t meet this requirement.

To configure the rule for this example:

  1. In the Min Threshold field, enter 420.
  2. In the Max Threshold field, enter 480.
  3. In the Min Severity and Max Severity drop-down lists, click Critical.
  4. Select the Include Sunday, Include Monday, Include Tuesday, Include Wednesday, Include Thursday, Include Friday and Include Saturday checkboxes.
  5. In the Minutes during night to be a night shift field, enter 180.
  6. Note: The Percent during night to be a night shift field might be used in cases where you enter the same value in the Min Threshold and Max Threshold fields.
  7. In the Start of night field, enter 12:00 AM.
  8. In the End of night field, enter 5:00 AM.

Say that you schedule an employee for a nine hour shift on Thursday, from 10:00 PM to 7:00 AM. Because the shift exceeds the maximum shift length requirement, Dayforce marks the shift with a problem icon () and shows a critical message in the Problems panel.