Rounding Rules

This window establishes the rounding up rules for the employee punches or shifts. The Rounding Rules determine whether clock times will be taken forward or backward to the nearest time frame, in minutes, or be left at the actual times.

Prerequisites

  • A business requirements and or functional requirements document specifying the award conditions must be completed and approved.
  • Daily Rules must be setup.

Rules and Guidelines

  • Configuration changes should not be made without undertaking formal training or after consultation with Support.

Field Information

This is a five-character code that represents the Rounding Rules.

This is a description of the Rounding Rule

For each punch option, the handling of the punch time if the punch time varies from the scheduled time can be specified.

Preceda will round each punch as the employee punches in and out during the shift, using the values established in the Method, Factor, Grace and Minutes to Round to Schedule fields associated with each punch. The punch options include:

Options
Clock in Early
Clock in Late
Meal Out Early
Meal Out Late
Meal In Early
Meal In Late
Clock Out Early
Clock Out Late

Identify the rounding method.

Code Description
A No Rounding - Use the employee's actual clock in time.
B Back - Rounds the punch in back to the amount specified in the corresponding Factor field.
C Forward - Round the punch in forward to the amount specified in the corresponding Factor field.
D Forward or Back - Round the punch in back or forward by the amount specified in the Factor field, using the Grace field value to determine if to round forward or back. The Grace period must be specified.
E Round Back - Round the punch in back by the amount entered in the Factor field. The Grace field must be entered when the factor stops rounding back and starts using the ACTUAL clock in time.

 

This field holds the factor used in the calculation of the rounding.

Option Description
Actual Uses the actual Clock in time, no rounding is applied.
1/10 Hours Rounds the clock in to the tenth of the hour.
1/4 Hours Rounds the punch to the quarter hour.
1/2 Hours Rounds the punch to the half hour.
1 Hour Rounds the punch to the hour. Valid only for interval rounding.
  • When a scheduled punch in is received and no Minutes to Round to Schedule have been setup, or it is outside the Minutes to Round to Schedule, the rounding Method is used in conjunction with the Factor and Grace values.
  • Example:
    Employee Scheduled Clock in TimeRounding FactorGrace PeriodMethod
    8:00 a1/4 Hours5 MinutesForward and Minutes to Round to Schedule
    • An employee who clocks in at 8:08 a will be recorded as in at 8:15 a.
    • Has the Minutes to Round to Schedule been set to 10 minutes, the employee would have been recorded as in at 8:00 a.
    • If the punch has been made at 8:11 a, one minute past the round to schedule guideline, the system would have rounded to 8:15 a.
    • This feature is available only for scheduled employees and schedule clock in's.

 

 Specifies the number of minutes before or after a scheduled punch in time when an employee can clock in and have the clock round to the scheduled time.

This field is valid only if Method is set to Forward or Back and the Factor is either 1/10 Hours, 1/4 Hours, or 1/2 Hours. 

Any punch occurring on or before the Grace period is rounded back. Any punch that occurs after the grace is rounded forward. If the schedule Grace field is left blank, all clock in's are rounded forward.

Method Factor Grace
Forward or Back 1/4 Hours 5 Minutes

 

In this example, any rostered clock in is rounded back if the clock in occurs within 5 minutes past 7:00. Clock in from the 6th minute to the 14th minute will be rounded forward to the quarter hour.

 

Determines the period of time during which the Scheduled Rounding Rules are overridden and the clock in is rounded to the employee's scheduled clock in time.

Enter the number of minutes before/ after a scheduled clock in time during which the clock in will be rounded to the employee's scheduled clock in time.

These fields help prevent unauthorised time. The Minutes to Round to Schedule takes precedence over the time rounding. This is available only for scheduled employees and scheduled clock in's.

Schedule Minutes to Associate Mins Round to Schedule Method Factor Method Factor
7:00 a to 3:00 p 120 minutes Clock in Early 30 minutes Forward or Back 1/4 Hours Clock in Late Forward or Back 1/4 Hours

 

Any clock in from 5:00 a until 6:29 a will use the clock in early rounding and factor, any clock in from 6:30 a until 7:01 a will use the minutes to round to schedule of 30 minutes and be rounded to 7.00a, and any punch from 7.01a unit 9:00 a, will use the clock in late rounding and factor.

 

Indicate if the rounding factor is to be based on scheduled time or not.

Code Description
Y Base the rounding factor on scheduled time.
N Do not base the rounding factor on scheduled time. Use the top of the hour as a base.
Round Based on Schedule Factor Setting Scheduled Time Factor Intervals
N 1/10 Hours 8:10 8:00, 8:06, 8:12, 8:18
Y 1/10 Hours 8:10 8:10, 8:16, 8:22, 8:28
N 1/4 Hours 8:10 8:00, 8:15, 8:30, 8:45
Y 1/4 Hours 8:10 8:10, 8:25, 8:40, 8:55
  • This field applies to scheduled Begin Shift and End Shift time separately. The factor intervals could be different if the minutes on the Begin and End shift times are different.
  • An 8:10 a to 5:15 p schedule that uses this feature with 1/10 Hr rounding would use 8:10, 8:16, 8:22 etc for rounding the clock in and 5:21, 5:27, 5:33 etc for rounding the clock out.

 

This determines the point at which the Daily Rule Groups are integrated and processed within the existing Preceda Time Rules.

Options Description
Pre Daily Pre Daily and Overtime Rules
Initial Initial (i.e. data will be interpreted before Preceda Time starts to store the information for later use)
Post Daily Post Daily and Overtime Rules
Post Period Post Pay Period and Overtime Rules
Final Post Premium Rules and Configuration

 

 

An employee is considered to have an unscheduled clock in if the system could not find a schedule on that day, or the punch did not fall within the schedule margin for a punch. Set values in the following fields only if using punch rounding.

Specify the unscheduled punch rounding Method.

Code Description
A No Rounding. Use the employee's actual clock in time.
B Back. Rounds the punch in back to the amount specified in the corresponding Factor field.
C Forward. Round the punch in forward to the amount specified in the corresponding Factor field.
D Forward or Back. Round the punch in back or forward by the amount specified in the Factor field, using the Grace field value to determine if to round forward or back. The Grace period must be specified.
E Round Back. Round the punch in back by the amount entered in the Factor field. The Grace field must be entered when the factor stops rounding back and stars using the ACTUAL clock in time.

 

Specify the unscheduled punch round Factor.

Option Description
Actual Uses the actual Clock in time, no rounding is applied.
1/10 Hours Rounds the clock in to the tenth of the hour.
1/4 Hours Rounds the punch to the quarter hour.
1/2 Hours Rounds the punch to the half hour.
1 Hour Rounds the punch to the hour. Valid only for interval rounding.
  • When a scheduled punch in is received and no Minutes to Round to Schedule have been setup, or it is outside the Minutes to Round Schedule, the rounding Method is used in conjunction with the Factor and Grace values.

 

Designates the period during which the system rounds an unscheduled punch back instead of forward.

  • The unscheduled Grace field is valid only if rounding is set to Forward or Back and the factor is either 1/10 Hours, 1/4 Hours or 1/2 Hour.
  • Any punch that occurs at or before the grace will be rounded back.
  • Any punch that occurs after the grace will be rounding forward.
  • If the unscheduled Grace field is left blank, all punches will be rounded forward.
  • If the unscheduled IN rounding to Forward or Bank and the Factor to 1/4 Hour with a grace of 5 minutes, any unscheduled clock in's during the first 5 minutes past the quarter hour would be rounded back to the quarter hours, and rounded forward to the next quarter hour if the punch occurred between the 6th to the 14th minute past the quarter hour.

 

 

The transfer rounding fields sets up the specifications to be used for rounding transfer punches. The system will always round the punch to the same time on a transfer.

Specify the Transfer rounding Method.

Code Description
A No Rounding. Use the employee's actual clock in time.
B Back. Rounds the punch in back to the amount specified in the corresponding Factor field.
C Forward. Round the punch in forward to the amount specified in the corresponding Factor field.
D Forward or Back. Round the punch in back or forward by the amount specified in the Factor field, using the Grace field value to determine if to round forward or back. The Grace period must be specified.
E Round Back. Round the punch in back by the amount entered in the Factor field. The Grace field must be entered when the factor stops rounding back and stars using the ACTUAL punch in time.

 

Specify the Transfer punch rounding Factor.

Code Description
Actual Uses the actual Clock in time, no rounding is applied.
1/10 Hours Rounds the clock in to the tenth of the hour.
1/4 Hours Rounds the punch to the quarter hour.
1/2 Hours Rounds the punch to the half hour.
1 Hour Rounds the punch to the hour. Valid only for interval rounding.

 

Designate the period during which the system rounds transfer punches back instead of forward.

  • Enter the number of minutes during which a punch is rounded back.
  • The transfer Grace field is valid only if Method is set to Forward or Back and the Factor is either 1/10 Hour, 1/4 Hour or 1/2 Hour.
  • Any punch occurring on or before the grace period is rounded back.
  • Any punch that occurs after the grace is rounded forwards.
  • If the transfer Grace field is left blank, all punches are rounded forward.

 

 

This is the factor the system uses to round the interval or the shift (depending on the Shift or Punch option selected).

Valid options are: Actual, 1/10 hour, 1/4 Hour, 1/2 Hour, or 1 Hour.

  • Example:

    If rounding using Punch and the employee transfers between departments during a shift, the time worked in each department is rounded to the factor specified in the Round Interval field.

    If an employee works 4.77 hours in Department 00001 and 3.23 hours in Department 00002 and if the interval founding factor is set to Hours, Department 0001 time is rounded to 5.00 hours and Department 00002 time is rounded to 3.00 hours.

Whether the system rounds each interval of time between pairs of punches, or if it rounds only the interval of time that comprises the entire shift.

  • Example:

    If the company does not track time for each department, the Round Using Shift or Punch field can be set to Shift, the interval rounding factor to Hour. If the first punch is made at 8:05 a and the last at 5:04 p, the employee's record for the shift will be 8:00 and 5:00.

    • If the Interval Rounding Factor is set to Hours, punches recorded at exactly the half hour are round up to the next hour.
    • Therefore 8:30 a and 5:30 p become 9:00 and 6:00.
    • Be aware that with Punch rounding, if an employee punches in at 8:00 a, out of one department and in another at 12:30 p, and out at 5:00 p, the intervals are 4:30 p and 3:30 p which will round up to 5 and 4.
    • This means that the record will appear to credit the employee with working 9 hours instead of 8.