Time Calculation Settings

In the Time Calculation section of Time Away From Work > Time Off Policy, you can configure how Dayforce calculates the duration of time away requests without specified times.

Depending on how your instance of Dayforce is configured, the Time Calculation section might be divided into one, two, or three sections: Hours, Weeks, and Days.

Hour Calculation

The following settings are available in the Hours section:

Primary Hour(s) Calculation, Secondary Hour(s) Calculation, Tertiary Hour(s) Calculation, Quaternary Hour(s) Calculation

If the policy is configured to use all day or half day requests without specified times, select a calculation method from the associated drop-down lists, placing them in the required sequence.

For each request, Dayforce uses the calculation method selected from the Primary Hour(s) Calculation first. If this doesn’t yield a result, Dayforce uses the method selected in Secondary Hour(s) Calculation, until a duration is determined. If none of the methods yield a result, the duration of the request is zero. For example, you can select Average Daily Hours in the Primary Hour(s) Calculation drop-down list so that Dayforce calculates TAFW using an employee’s average daily hours value. If an employee doesn’t have an average daily hours value in their employee profile in People, Dayforce moves on to the next calculation selection to determine the request’s duration.

Similarly, consider if you select a calculation method that determines TAFW using an employee’s scheduled hours, shift rotation, or work pattern details. If Dayforce doesn’t detect a shift or work pattern on the day that the employee requested off, the next calculation method is triggered.

The following calculation method options are available in each drop-down list:

Hour calculation options

Setting	Description
[None]	Dayforce uses zero. Typically, this option is used only to restrict Dayforce to use prior options. For example, to restrict Dayforce to only calculate the duration based off of the employee’s schedule, select Schedule Net Hours from the Primary Hour(s) calculation drop-down list and [None] from the rest. With this configuration, employees can take paid time away only on days that they’re scheduled to work. If the request occurs on a day when the employee isn’t scheduled, Dayforce would calculate a duration of zero hours. As a result, the request doesn’t generate a pay adjustment or deduct any time from the employee’s balance.
Average Daily Hours	Dayforce uses the value of the Average Daily Hours field in the employee’s records in the Employment Status tab of the Employment > Employment Settings screen in People.
Normal Weekly Hours	Dayforce uses the value of the Normal Weekly Hours field in the employee’s records in the Employment Status tab of the Employment > Employment Settings screen in People, divided by five. For an employee with a value of 40 specified in the field, Dayforce calculates a duration of eight hours.
Schedule Gross Hours	Dayforce uses the duration of any shift employees are scheduled to work, including the duration of scheduled meals and breaks. For an employee scheduled from noon to 8:00 PM, with an hour meal at 6:00 PM, Dayforce calculates a duration of eight hours.
Schedule Net Hours	Dayforce uses the duration of any shift employees are scheduled to work, minus the duration of any meals or breaks scheduled during that shift. For an employee scheduled from noon to 8:00 PM, with an hour meal at 6:00 PM, Dayforce calculates a duration of seven hours.
Shift Rotation	Dayforce uses the duration of any shift rotation’s shift that the employee is scheduled to work, excluding meals and breaks. For example, for an employee with a rotation that specifies an eight-hour shift with a one-hour meal break, Dayforce calculates a duration of seven hours.
Shift Rotation Gross Hours	Dayforce uses the duration of any shift rotation’s shift that the employee is scheduled to work, including meals and breaks. For example, for an employee with a rotation that specifies an eight-hour shift with a one-hour meal break, Dayforce calculates a duration of eight hours.
Specified Hours	Dayforce doesn’t base the duration of all day and half day requests on variable. Instead, it uses a constant value of eight hours for all day requests and four hours for half day requests.
Work Contract Net Hours	Dayforce uses the average hours for working days in the employee’s work pattern. For example, an employee is assigned a weekly contract for 20 hours, and their shift pattern specifies three days off and four days working (either a fixed shift or fixed hours). This means that the average number of hours worked per day is five (20/4), so the time away from work request would have a five-hour duration.
Work Pattern Net Hours	Dayforce uses the net hours associated with that day in the employee’s work pattern, including meals and breaks. For example, if the employee’s work pattern net hours specifies a four-hour day, the time away from work request for that day would have a four-hour duration.

Week and Day Calculations

In the Weeks and Days sections, you configure how Dayforce calculates time away requests based on an employee’s average week or day.

Before You Begin: You must configure your balances to support week and day balance unit types. To do this, in Pay Setup > Balances in the Units tab, select a balance unit and in the Base Unit Type drop-down list, select Day or Week. See Configure Daily and Weekly Balance Units.

The following settings are available in the Weeks and Days sections:

Weeks:

Primary Week(s) Calculation, Secondary Week(s) Calculation, Tertiary Week(s) Calculation, Quaternary Week(s) Calculation

Days:

Primary Day(s) Calculation, Secondary Day(s) Calculation, Tertiary Day(s) Calculation, Quaternary Day(s) Calculation

Each drop-down list in the Weeks and Days sections contain the following options:

Week and day calculation options

Setting	Description
[None]	Dayforce uses zero. Typically, this option is used only to restrict Dayforce to use prior options. For example, to restrict Dayforce to calculate only the duration based off of the employee’s schedule, select Schedule in the Primary Week(s) calculation or Primary Day(s) calculation drop-down list and [None] from the rest. With this configuration, employees can take paid time away only on days that they are scheduled to work.
Fixed	Dayforce uses the value of the Average Daily Hours field in the employee’s records in the Employment Status tab of the Employment > Employment Settings screen in People.
Otherwise Working Day	Dayforce uses the otherwise working day average. This average represents a day upon which an employee would typically be scheduled and work if it wasn’t a public holiday or leave day. After you select this option, Dayforce shows the Otherwise Working Day section in Time Away From Work > Time Off Policy. In this section, you configure how Dayforce calculates the otherwise working day average for your employees. See Calculation for the Otherwise Working Day.
Schedule	Dayforce uses the sum of hours that the employee is scheduled to work.
Shift Rotation	Dayforce uses the duration of any shift rotation’s shift that the employee is scheduled to work, excluding meals and breaks.
Work Pattern Net Hours	Dayforce uses the net hours associated with that day in the employee’s work pattern, including meals and breaks.