The timesheet's primary purpose is to record and document employees' clocking actions and their worked time, including breaks and sometimes absences. But what if the numbers in the timesheet don't reflect what you expected?
In this article, we discuss settings that can impact your Worked Hours column and show you examples, which might even apply to you.
Here are the reasons in short (follow the link for examples and more details):
- Rounding: Rounding can change clocking times and decrease or increase the worked hours to that rounded value.
- Breaks: Breaks can be set up automatically or conditionally via the schedule and decrease the worked hours without breaks being manually clocked.
- General Break Deduction: Break deduction can be changed through the Breaks and Absences settings (or through paid breaks) and influence if breaks are deducted from the worked hours.
Reason #1 – Rounding
Rounding is a feature that (under certain conditions) adjusts clocking times to rounded values. This is usually set up in the employee's schedule (if the employee has an assigned schedule) or the General Information settings (if there is no schedule assigned). If you need clarification on your predefined rounding, please review your settings or ask a manager to give you more information.
Example:
An employee clocked in at 07:50 and clocked out at 16:05. There are no clocked or deducted breaks. Upon review, the employee finds out their timesheet only shows 08:00 worked hours. The [Clock in] and [Clock out] times were also changed to 08:00 and 16:00!
After consulting with their manager, they realise their schedule includes rounding at the scheduled start and end times: All [Clock in] actions registered up to 15 minutes before start time and all [Clock out] actions registered up to 10 minutes after end time are to be rounded to the scheduled start and end times, which in this case, were 08:00 - 16:00.
Therefore, the employees worked time amounts to a rounded 08:00 worked hours.
Tip: Find out more about rounding types, how to set up the settings you'd like and different combinations of schedule and rounding types in this article:
Reason #2 – Breaks
Breaks can usually be retraced by reviewing the clocking actions in the timesheet that are tied to breaks. There are cases in which breaks might be deducted from the employee's worked hours without being manually clocked by the employee.
Automatically Deducted Breaks
Automatically Deducted Breaks are prescheduled breaks at fixed times that are deducted without being clocked by the employee. These are always predefined in your (or the employee's) assigned schedule. If you need clarification on your predefined breaks, please review your schedule or ask a manager to give you more information.
Example:
An Employee clocked in at 08:00 and clocked out at 17:00. No breaks were clocked at the time clocks or the TimeMoto app. After checking their timesheet, the employee finds out that they were only credited 08:00 worked hours.
After a closer look, the employee sees a scheduled break in the respective column that was also deducted in the [Break] column.
Luckily the answer was found quickly after the employee talked to their manager. The manager told them their lunch break between 12:00 and 13:00 was already prescheduled and automatically deducted from the worked hours without being shown as manual clocking actions.
Therefore, the clocked time between 08:00 and 17:00 included 9 hours, but the break between 12:00 and 13:00 deducted 1 hour, which amounts to a net 08:00 worked hours.
Tip: Find out more about break types and break deduction, how to set up the settings you prefer and different combinations of schedule and break types in this article:
Conditionally Deducted Breaks
Conditionally Deducted Breaks are breaks deducted from worked hours under certain conditions. Just like automatically deducted breaks, they are not manually clocked by the employee and, therefore, not visible in the clocking actions themselves. Please review your schedule or ask a manager to give you more information if you are unaware of your schedule's settings.
Example:
An employee clocked in at 09:00 and clocked out at 16:00. No breaks were clocked via the time clocks or the timer. The employee was surprised to find an unexpected break in the timesheet that deducted 30 minutes from their worked time, showing only 06:30 worked hours.
After talking to their manager, they found out that the employee's schedule includes a conditionally deducted break that deducts 30 minutes of break time after at least 6 consecutively worked hours.
With a total clocked work time of 7 hours, the system deducted the conditional break, which makes 00:30 hours visible in the [Break] column and ultimately amounts to a net 06:30 worked hours.
Tip: Find out more about break types and break deduction, how to set up the settings you prefer and different combinations of schedule and break types in this article:
Reason #3 – General Break Deduction
Usually, breaks clocked at the time clocks or directly in your TimeMoto account are deducted from worked time as they are considered unpaid break time. However, this setting can be altered in the Breaks and Absences settings of the company account.
Option: not deducted from the worked time
Breaks might not be deducted from worked time altogether. In this case, all breaks clocked at the time clocks or the timer – even though they are shown as such in the timesheet – are still included in the employee's worked hours.
Example:
An employee clocked in at 08:00, had a break between 12:00 and 12:30 and clocked out at 16:30. Even though the break was clocked properly at the TimeMoto clock in the foyer, the employee realised later that their timesheet shows 08:30 worked hours.
After their direct supervisor couldn't explain this issue either, they consulted their manager, who could resolve it. In the [Breaks and Absences] settings of their cloud account, the break deduction settings were set to: "not deducted from the work time."
This means their break, even though it was properly clocked at the time clock, is not to be deducted from the employees' worked hours, amounting to a total worked time of 08:30 hours.
Note: Scheduling a paid break through the employee's schedule would have the same effect!
Option: breaks are only deducted after x minutes
Alternatively, breaks can be set to start deducting time only after a certain number of minutes. That way, any clocked break shorter than the number defined won't be deducted from the employee's worked hours.
Example:
An employee clocked in at 08:30 and clocked out at 17:30. Besides the 1-hour lunch break that they took between 13:00 and 14:00, they also clocked three about 10-minute long breaks throughout the day to have a quick coffee in the cafeteria. After reviewing the timesheet, they learned that only their lunch break was deducted from the worked time, not the three coffee breaks. This means they expected a worked total of 07:30, but in reality, the timesheet showed 08:00 hours.
They didn't mind, but they decided to speak to their manager to discuss how this came to be. The manager informed them that only breaks of 15 minutes or longer are deducted from the employees' worked hours like they've set up in the [Breaks and Absences] settings.
Since the three coffee breaks were only about 10 minutes each, only the lunch break was deducted from the employee's worked time, resulting in a net of 08:00 hours worked.
Tip: Find out more about break deduction and where to set it up for all employees by reading the following article:
If nothing else worked...
If none of these settings could've affected your timesheet numbers, a different issue might lie beneath. For more assistance, please refer to our contact form below.
Any questions?
Looking for answers but not sure where to start? Check out our Glossary! It's a great resource to help you find the information you need. If you need further assistance, please contact us via the Contact Form.
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