Applying break rules is a bit more complex than it appears at first glance. Several reasons can make it seem as if Timebutler applied the break rules incorrectly.
Breaks between multiple time entries
With multiple time entries, the periods between entries count as breaks.
If an employee, for example, enters a time entry from 8:00 - 12:00 (=4 h) and another from 13:00 - 18:00 (=5 h) and enters no break, Timebutler will still keep the break fields at 0 min in the time entries. The time from 12:00 - 13:00 then counts as a break, and that time was actually non-working, so the employee worked 9 h, including a 1 h break.
Attendance time versus working time
The following break rules are configured for an employee:
- Up to 8 h working time: no minimum break
- From 8 h to 9 h working time: at least 30 minutes break
- More than 9 h working time: at least 45 minutes break
Case 1)
The employee enters a time entry without a break with start 8:00 and end 16:17, thus 8 hours and 17 minutes.
People often assume incorrectly that you must add a 30-minute break to this time entry. That is not correct. If you convert 30 min of the 8 h 17 min working time into a break, you get 7 h 47 min working time. At 7 h 47 min, however, the rule says no minimum break is required.
Instead, you may only convert 17 min of working time into a break. The correct adjustment is: 8 h working time and 17 min break - and that satisfies the break rule.
Case 2)
The employee enters a time entry without a break with start 8:00 and end 17:22, thus 9 hours and 22 minutes.
People often assume incorrectly that you must add a 45-minute break to this time entry. That is not correct. If you convert 45 min of the 9 h 22 min working time into a break, you get 8 h 37 min working time. At 8 h 37 min, however, only a minimum break of 30 min applies, not 45 min.
So you may only convert 30 min of working time into a break. The correct adjustment is: 8 h 52 min working time and 30 min break - and that satisfies the break rule.
Reason for the wrong assumption
The “thinking error” in both cases is that people interpret the time from arriving at the office to leaving the office as working time and apply the break rules to it. But once you apply the break rules, you often need to apply a different threshold from the break rules because the working time has changed. So the time from arriving at the office to leaving is not the working time; it is the attendance time within which the working time and the break time must be arranged so that the break rules are satisfied.
Timebutler calculates correctly
Timebutler respects all these rules and calculates the necessary adjustments to the time entries. You [activate the break rules(/time-tracking/break-rules/set-up-break-policies/) and let Timebutler handle the rest.