Time Entry Policies

Use the Time Entry Policies wizard to set up the rules for when employees can clock in and out of Dayforce. You can also quickly add new preconfigured policies and customize the specific parameters, as needed. After the initial load of employee data and site addresses, Activate installs and assigns basic time entry policies (for example, Hourly and Salaried) based on your employee work locations.

Time Entry policies define the time entry method that employees use and the optional rules and validation that Dayforce applies when employees enter their work time. For example, you can define Time Entry policies that round the time when an employee clocks in to the nearest quarter-hour. Or, Time Entry policies can consider time entries that are 5 minutes early or late as on time.

Time Entry Policies can greatly impact how Dayforce treats employees’ time clock time and timesheet entries. They also have other impacts in Dayforce. For example, some jurisdictions have specific requirements for certain types of employers and their employees about:

• Required meal, rest, recovery, and other breaks.
• Premiums for missed or shortened breaks.
• Waivers related to required breaks.
• Rounding of time worked.

How you configure Time Entry Policies is important. Give the setup your detailed attention and thoroughly test it. The exact requirements vary by jurisdiction. Different rules can apply to employers at the federal, state, and local levels. Sometimes, these rules are industry-specific. Special contractual obligations can apply that Dayforce isn’t aware of.

Important: Customers are responsible for reviewing, testing, and approving all time entries configured in Dayforce before moving them into Production.

Prerequisites

Employees’ Work Locations and Site Addresses must already be loaded. The Work Location addresses identify which time entries that Activate installs. Each time entry policy installed and assigned by Activate is preconfigured based on the legal/compliance requirements at the Provincial or State level.

Key concepts

Available time entry policies

The time entries that have been configured in Activate but not yet installed in Dayforce. You can select the policies in this section to show descriptive information about the policy. You can customize the policies in this section to fit your needs.

Note: You can copy, edit, or delete a newly-configured Time Entry that hasn’t yet been installed in Dayforce. It shows in the Available Time Entries section.

Installed time entry policies

All of the time entries that have been installed in Activate or created directly in Dayforce.

After completing Getting Started, Activate installs and assigns relevant Time Entry policies based on your employee work locations.

Note: When a Time Entry policy is installed in Dayforce, it can only be changed only in Dayforce.

Time entry policy templates

Several standard templates are available for you to install, based on your needs, and are categorized as:

• Common Policies
  • Hourly
  • Salaried
• Geographic Location.
  • California Hourly

Exception windows

Dayforce uses exception windows to:

• Mark an employee's timesheet records as either early or late based on whether the employee clocked in or out within a window of time before or after a scheduled shift start or end time.
• If an employee clocks in outside of the designated window of time, require a supervisor/manager override.

After setting up the Exception windows, Activate prompts you to configure the Grace periods.

Grace periods

Grace periods allow employees to clock in early or late within a specific threshold of time and still be considered on time. The grace period parameters include:

• Grace In Early
• Grace Adjust In Early
• Grace In Late
• Grace Adjust In Late
• Grace Out Early
• Grace Adjust Out Early
• Grace Out Late
• Grace Adjust Out Late

Note: Grace periods are always smaller than Exception windows. For example, if an employee tries to clock in more than 30 minutes early, an Early In Exception window of 30 minutes requires a supervisor or manager override. When the Grace window is set to 5 minutes, if the employee clocks in 1–5 minutes early, their time record isn’t marked early. But if the employee clocks in 6–30 minutes early, their time record is marked as early.

Tardy rules

You can set up two levels of tardy rules to differentiate the severity of time entry deviations for employees. For example, when an employee is 0–10 minutes early, Dayforce records it as “Early In OK.” However, when an employee is more than 10 minutes early, the system records their clock in as “Early In.”

The rule levels work as follows:

• One level of severity tardy rules: Applies all early and late times to a single set of tardy codes that you select.
• Two levels of severity tardy rules: Applies tardy codes based on the threshold of time in which the employee is early or late.

You select the thresholds and which codes apply for the respective levels. The available tardy pay codes are:

• UAT: Unallocated Time
• LL: Long Lunch
• E-Out: Early Out
• L-In: Late In
• E-In: Early In
• E-In OK: Early In OK
• E-Out OK: Early Out OK
• L-In OK: Late In OK
• L-Out: Late Out
• L-Out OK: Late Out OK

Meal rules

You can configure the Time Entry Policy to inject meals for employees automatically. To do so, the following parameters are required:

• Qualifying Shift Length
• Duration
• Minimum Time Before
• Minimum Time After
• Occurrences

You can add a maximum of four meal allocation rules in each Time Entry policy.

If an error exists, the Error icon () shows in the field. To see the error message, hover the mouse over the error icon.

Directionless clocking for meal clocks

You can automatically identify meal time entries with generic in and out clocks.

Rounding parameters

The rounding parameters include:

• Round Main
• Main Round Nominator for “In“ Time Entries
• Main Round Denominator for “In“ Time Entries
• Main Round Nominator for “Out“ Time Entries
• Main Round Denominator for “Out“ Time Entries

Tasks

To add new time entry policies:

To install time entry policies:

To edit time entry policies:

To delete time entry policies:

Results

Activate installs all of the configured Time Entry policies in Dayforce.

Updates in Dayforce

This wizard updates the Time Entry Policies page in Dayforce (Pay Setup > Time Entry Policies).

Next steps

• Review the configuration of the Time Entry policies installed by Activate. If you need to change any clock parameters for the Time Entry policies, go to Pay Setup > Time Entry Policy in Dayforce and perform the required changes.
• Use the Mass Employee Policy Changes feature in Change Employee Data to assign your new Time Entry Policies to employees.
• Do the following in Dayforce, if needed:
  • Configure Grace, Exceptions, and Rounding setups for Meals or Breaks.
  • Configure Break Allocation rules.
  • Add Meal/Break Penalty Rules to Pay Policies.
  • Configure Meal Subsidy rules.
  • Set up Cross-Linking if Labor Metrics and Cross-Linking configurations are required.
• After navigating back to Activate Central, two links show in the Time Entry Policies section:
  • Click View Installed Dayforce Elements to view the Dayforce elements installed in the Time Entry Policies wizard. If you run the wizard again, this report remains available.
  • Click View Activate Selections to download an Excel document containing every policy added using Activate in the Time Entry Policies wizard, including the answers to every question in the wizard. If you run the wizard again, this report remains available. See Activate Selections Report.

Questions

Note: Additional parameters can be configured in Dayforce.

Time Entry Policy Name

A descriptive name for the Time Entry policy you’re adding.

Time Entry Policy Description

A description of the policy. The description should be detailed enough to identify the major policy rules. You can expand this field to enter as much text as needed to describe the policy adequately.

How do these employees track their time?

• Time Entry Clock: Employees use a Dayforce clock to clock in and out. If you select this option, the Period Review option in Dayforce (Pay Setup > Time Entry Policy > Time Capture) is set to Timesheets.
• Time Entry: Employees use the timesheet to record when they work. If you select this option, the Period Review option in Dayforce (Pay Setup > Time Entry Policy > Time Capture) is set to Manager Timesheet.
• Auto Pay: Employees are automatically paid and don’t record their work time. If you select this option, the Period Review option in Dayforce (Pay Setup > Time Entry Policy > Time Capture) is set to Manager Timesheet.

Will schedules be created for these employees in Dayforce?

• Yes: Schedules are created for these employees in Dayforce.
• No: Schedules aren’t created in Dayforce for these employees.

Are supervisor/manager overrides required when an employee attempts to clock in on a day without a schedule?

• Yes: Employees must obtain a supervisor or manager override to clock in on unscheduled days.
• No

Should Dayforce require a supervisor/manager override at the clock when an employee is overly early or late?

• Yes: Employees must have a supervisor or manager override to clock in too early or too late.
• No: When they’re overly early or late, employees can clock in without a supervisor or manager override.

Are supervisor/manager overrides required when an employee attempts to clock in on a day without a schedule?

• Yes: Employees must have a supervisor or manager override to clock in when they aren’t scheduled to work.
• No: Employees can clock in when they aren’t scheduled to work without a supervisor or manager override.

If managers fail to post the schedules and an employee time entries in late relative to the unposted schedule, should Dayforce consider the employee’s time entry as a late time entry?

• Yes: Dayforce flags the employee as having clocked in late, even if the schedule was unposted.
• No: Dayforce ignores the unposted schedule and doesn’t flag the employee as having clocked in late.

Exception Windows

Note: You can configure additional exception parameters in Dayforce.

Note: For Time Entry policies with exception windows and grace windows, Activate validates that the policy's grace windows are smaller than the associated exception windows (clock in early, clock in late, clock out early, clock out late). If the exception window (integer) is nonzero, the grace period must be strictly less than the exception window. If the exception window (integer) is zero, the grace period can be any otherwise-valid integer.

Descriptions of the Exceptions

Rule	Description
In Early	When an employee clocks in earlier than X minutes before their scheduled start time, Dayforce triggers an exception that records the employee as having clocked in early and requires a supervisor/manager override. Enter 0 to allow employees to clock in as early as they like and not trigger an exception. Enter the value for X.
In Late	When an employee clocks in later than Y minutes after their scheduled start, Dayforce triggers an exception that records the employee as having clocked in late and requires a supervisor/manager override. Enter 0 to allow employees to clock in as late as they like and not trigger an exception. Enter the value for Y.
Out Early	When an employee clocks out 2 minutes or less early, Dayforce triggers an exception that records the employee as having clocked out earlier than their scheduled end time. When you enter 0, the system doesn’t trigger an exception.
Out Late	When an employee clocks in later than Y minutes after their scheduled start time, Dayforce triggers an exception that records that the employee clocked in late and must have a supervisor/manager override. Enter 0 to allow employees to clock in as late as they like and not trigger an exception.

Grace Period

Note: You can configure additional grace periods in Dayforce.

Note: For Time Entry policies with exception windows and grace windows, Activate validates that the policy's grace windows are smaller than the associated exception windows (clock in early, clock in late, clock out early, clock out late). If the exception window (integer) is nonzero, the grace period must be strictly less than the exception window. If the exception window (integer) is zero, the grace period can be any otherwise-valid integer.

Do you want to set up grace periods for these employees?

• Yes: Configure grace periods to allow employees to clock early or late within a specific threshold of time and still be considered on time.
• No: Don’t configure grace periods. Employees who clock in early or late aren’t considered on time.

How many minutes can someone clock in before their scheduled start and still be considered on time?

The number of minutes an employee can clock in before their scheduled start time and still be considered on time.

If an employee clocks within the early in grace period, should the clock time be automatically adjusted to match the scheduled start time?

• Yes: Enable Dayforce to adjust the early in clocks if they fall within the early grace period. Adjusted early in clocks are recorded as if the employee clocked in on time. Time Entries beyond the grace period aren’t adjusted.
• No: When the employee clocks in early but within the grace period, their clock time isn’t adjusted to match the scheduled start time.

How many minutes can someone clock in after their scheduled start and still be considered on time?

The number of minutes an employee can clock in after their scheduled start time and still be considered on time.

If an employee clocks within the early out grace period, should the clock time be automatically adjusted to match the scheduled end time?

• Yes: Enable Dayforce to adjust the late in clocks if they fall within the late grace period. Adjusted late in clocks are recorded as if the employee clocked in on time. Time Entries beyond the grace period aren’t adjusted.
• No: When the employee clocks in late but within the grace period, their clock time isn’t adjusted to match the scheduled start time.

How many minutes can someone clock out before their scheduled end and still be considered on time?

The number of minutes an employee can clock out before their scheduled end time and still be considered on time.

If an employee clocks within the early out grace period, should the clock time be automatically adjusted to match the scheduled end time?

• Yes: Enable Dayforce to adjust the early out clocks if they fall within the early out grace period. Adjusted early out in clocks are recorded as if the employee clocked in on time. Clocks beyond the grace period aren’t adjusted.
• No: When the employee clocks in early but within the grace period, the employee's clock time isn’t adjusted to match the scheduled end time.

How many minutes can someone clock out after their scheduled end and still be considered on time?

The number of minutes an employee can clock out after their scheduled end time and still be considered on time.

If an employee clocks within the late out grace period, should the clock time be automatically adjusted to match the scheduled end time?

• Yes: Enable Dayforce to adjust the late out clocks if they fall within the late out grace period. Adjusted late out in clocks are recorded as if the employee clocked out on time. Time entries beyond the grace period aren’t adjusted.
• No: When the employee clocks out late but within the grace period, the employee's clock time isn’t adjusted to match the scheduled end time.

Rounding Parameters

Note: You can configure additional rounding parameters in Dayforce.

Are these employees' clocks rounded before they are recorded on the timesheet?

• Yes: Employee's clocks are rounded before they’re recorded on the timesheet.
• No: Employee's clocks aren’t rounded before they’re recorded on the timesheet.

If clocks are rounded to the nearest X minute. Please enter the value for X:

The number of minutes to round the clock times to. For quarter hour rounding, X=15 minutes.Enter a positive integer.

Within Y minutes, the In Clock is rounded up to the nearest X minute mark. Please enter the value for Y.

For quarter hour rounding, when Y=7 minutes, Dayforce rounds up any clock that comes in 7-14 minutes after the start of the nearest quarter hour. You must enter a positive integer.

Are out clocks rounded differently?

• Yes: Out clocks have their own rounding rules.
• No: Out clocks use the same rounding rules set up for in clocks.

Out clocks are rounded to the nearest Z minute. Please enter the value for z:

The number of minutes clocks should be rounded to. For quarter hour rounding Z = 15 minutes. You must enter a positive integer.

Within W minutes, the Out Clock is rounded up to the nearest Z minute mark. Please enter the value for W:

For quarter hour rounding, when W=7 minutes, the system rounds up any time entry that comes in 7-14 minutes after the start of the nearest quarter hour. You must enter a positive integer.

Meal Break Parameters

You can configure the Time Entry policy to round meal break times, or allow a grace period for long or short meal breaks. You can also configure Time Entry policies to record meal breaks on shifts with a qualifying length automatically, even if an employee forgot to clock out for them.

Note: You can configure additional meal parameters in Dayforce.

Are these employees' meal breaks tracked in the timesheet?

• Yes: Meals are tracked in the timesheet.
• No: Meals aren’t tracked in the timesheet.

Are meal breaks paid?

• Yes: Pay employees for any time spent on a meal break.
• No: Don’t pay employees for time spent on a meal break.

Do you want meal breaks to be automatically injected into the employee's worked shift if the employee does not clock out for the meal break?

• Yes: If the employee doesn’t clock out for the meal break, record meal breaks in the timesheet automatically.
• No: If the employee doesn’t clock out for the meal break, meal breaks aren’t recorded in the timesheet.

Is a supervisor/manager override required if an employee attempts to clock back in for work before the allotted meal break duration?

• Yes: If an employee tries to clock back in for work before the allotted meal break duration, the system requires an override by a supervisor or manager.
• No: If an employee attempts to clock back in for work before the allotted meal break duration, the system doesn’t require an override by a supervisor or manager.

In minutes, how long of a meal break must an employee take before they can resume work for an unscheduled shift?

The minimum duration of meals that employees must take when they work an unscheduled shift. Options include 30 or 60 minutes or Other. For Other, enter a positive integer between 1 and 120.

In minutes, how long of a meal break must an employee take before they can resume work for a scheduled shift?

The minimum duration of meals that employees must take when they work a scheduled shift.

• Scheduled Meal Length: The employee must take the entire meal break that they’re scheduled to take. For example, if an employee is scheduled for a 60 minute meal, they must get a supervisor or manager override to clock in before the 60 minute meal break ends.
• 30: The employee must take a 30 minute meal break.
• 60: The employee must take a 60 minute meal break.
• Other: Enter the minimum duration for a meal that an employee must take when they work a scheduled shift. You must enter a positive integer between 1 and 120.

Directionless Meal Clock

Note: You can configure additional directionless meal parameters in Dayforce.

Should Dayforce treat pairs of in and out clocks made within the threshold of time as meal clocks?

• Yes: Start and End Shifts use manual controls. However, manual controls are unavailable for Start and End Meals, and Dayforce identifies clocks for meals automatically.
• No: Start and End Shift and Start and End Meal use manual control.

Dayforce will consider clocks as a meal if an out clock occurs X minutes arter an in clock. Please enter value for X.

Dayforce automatically considers clocks as a meal when an out clock occurs X minutes after an in clock. Enter a positive value.

Break Parameters

You can configure the Time Entry policy to round break times, or allow a grace period for long or short breaks. You can also configure Time Entry policies to record breaks on shifts with a qualifying length automatically, even if an employee forgot to clock out for them.

Note: You can configure additional break parameters in Dayforce.

Are these employees’ breaks tracked in a timesheet?

• Yes: Employee breaks are tracked in a timesheet.
• No: Employee breaks aren’t tracked in a timesheet.

Are breaks paid?

• Yes: Pay employees for time spent on breaks.
• No: Employees aren’t paid for time spent on breaks.

Do you want breaks to be automatically injected into the employee’s worked shift if the employee does not clock out for the break?

• Yes: If an employee doesn’t clock out for a break, inject a break into their worked shift.
• No: If an employee doesn’t clock out for a break, don’t inject a break into their worked shifts.

Meal Rules

Meal rules define what duration shifts must be to qualify for meals. Meal rules also specify the duration and number of breaks for qualifying shifts.

Do you want meals to be automatically injected into the employee's worked shift based on the employee's schedule if the employee does not clock out for the meal?

• Yes: Dayforce injects the meals based on the schedule. However, if no schedule exists on the day, Dayforce injects the meals based on the meal rule.
• No: Dayforce only injects the meals based on the meal rule.

Meal Allocations

Dayforce can require a meal allocation automatically based on the schedule or on the meal rules you set.

Note: To delete a row in the grid, click the x in the last column on the right.

Qualifying Shift Length

Click in front of “hours“ and enter the minimum duration in hours that a shift must be for it to qualify for meals. You can’t enter more than one qualifying shift length of the same duration.

Duration

Click in front of “minutes” and enter the duration of the meal break for the allocated shift length. For example, you can define a 45 minute meal duration for an 8 hour shift.

Min Time Before

Click in front of “minutes” and enter the number of minutes that employees must work before their meal.

Min Time After

Click in front of “minutes” and enter the number of minutes that employees must work after their meal.

Occurrences

Enter the number of meals that qualifying shifts receive.

Tardy Rules

Tardy rules define how Dayforce tracks employees who clock in early or late, and how employees are paid for extra and missed time.

Note: For an explanation of the tardy pay codes, see Tardy Rules (above).

Note: You can configure additional tardy rules in Dayforce.

Do you want to enable Tardy Rules?

• Yes: Select this option if you need to run reports to determine all of the times that employees are more than X minutes late. Also select this option to designate an employee as tardy but still pay the employee for the late time, as long as the employee arrived within Y minutes of the scheduled start.

  For example, select this option if you need to run reports to determine all of the times that employees are more than 15 minutes late, and you want to designate an employee as tardy but still pay the employee for the late time as long as the employee arrived within 5 minutes of scheduled start.

• No: Tardy rules aren’t enabled.

Do you need to differentiate levels of severity when employees are tardy?

Dayforce can be configured to track, and treat differently, varying stages or degrees of tardiness. For example, employees who arrive to work up to 30 minutes early are still paid for the time. However, employees who arrive to work more than 30 minutes early aren’t paid for the time, unless their supervisor or manager approves the time.

• Yes: Select this option to run reports to determine all of the times that employees are more than X minutes late. You would also select this option if you want to designate an employee as tardy but still pay the employee for the late time as long as the employee arrived within Y minutes of the scheduled start. The Define Shift Rules table shows for you to complete. You can enter a second pay code for each shift rule, if wanted.
• No: Complete the Define Shift Rules table. You can only assign one pay code for each shift rule.

Define Shift Rules

Descriptions of the Shift Rules

Rule	Desription
Arrive Early	The number of minutes “X“ that an employee can arrive earlier than the scheduled start time and the pay code to use to track the incident. If you’re differentiating the levels of severity when employees are tardy, select the pay code to apply when the employee arrives more than “X“ minutes early.
Arrive Late	The number of minutes “X“ that an employee can arrive later than the scheduled start time and the pay code to use to track the incident. If you’re differentiating the levels of severity when employees are tardy, select the pay code to apply when the employee arrives more than “X“ minutes late.
Leave Early	The number of minutes “X“ that an employee can leave earlier than the scheduled end time and the pay code to use to track the incident. If you’re differentiating the levels of severity when employees are tardy, select the pay code to apply when the employee leaves more than “X“ minutes early.
Leave Late	The number of minutes “X“ that an employee can leave later than the scheduled end time and the pay code to use to track the incident. If you’re differentiating the levels of severity when employees are tardy, select the pay code to apply when the employee leaves more than “X“ minutes late.