Meal Break Rules

Meal Break Rules allow for the Company Administrator to add automatic unpaid meal breaks which will appear on the employee timecards.  These are separate from the breaks which appear on the employee calendars, which will never show on the timecard (unless using the based on floating break type as described below).

Meal Break Rules get added to Pay Rule Sets.  One or more meal break rules can be added to a pay rule set.

To add a new Meal Break Rule, select the Meal Break Rules link in the Time and Attendance Settings tab and then click the + Add New button:

Name (required) - enter a unique name for the new meal break rule

Rule Type (required) - select a value from the dropdown list

• Automatic based on continuous hours worked - to be used when the meal break is always the same length and based on a minimum number of hours being worked continuously
• Automatic based on floating break - to be used when the meal break should be created based on the floating break which is on the employee's calendar
• Automatic based on scheduled shift - 
• Variable length based on continuous hours worked - to be used when there could be more than one meal break and the length can vary

Penalty pay code for violation - the pay code to be used when an employee does not take a meal break and thus will be paid for it.

Employee can waive penalty - this allows the employee to indicate they skipped their meal break but do not wish to be paid for it.

Require infraction comment for employee no meal break request - if selected, indicates that the employee must enter a comment when adding a no meal break infraction.

Active - indicates whether the meal break rule is active or not (and thus is selectable in the Pay Rule Set UI).

Display Order - numeric value indicating the order the meal break will appear in the list screen

Minimum minutes for punches - 

Maximum minutes for punches - 

Description - enter a description for the new meal break rule

Depending on the rule type selected, there will be additional fields that need to be filled out. 

If Automatic based on continuous hours worked is selected:

Exclude non-working shifts when abutting a working shift - select this if non-working shifts (i.e. PTO) should not be included when calculating continuous hours worked

Minimum hours worked - numeric value indicating the number of hours that must be worked to receive the meal break

Meal break minutes - numeric value indicating how long the meal break should be

Meal break offset hours from shift start - numeric value (in hours) indicating the positioning of the meal break within the shift

Maximum gap to not break continuous shift - numeric value (in minutes) indicating that a gap is allowed in the continuous hours check.  Setting this value to zero indicates that no gap is allowed.

If Automatic based on scheduled shift is selected:

Minimum hours worked - numeric value indicating the number of hours that must be worked to receive the meal break

Meal break minutes - numeric value indicating how long the meal break should be

If Variable length based on continuous hours worked is selected:

Exclude non-working shifts when abutting a working shift - select this if non-working shifts (i.e. PTO) should not be included when calculating continuous hours worked.

Allow Multiple Breaks - select this option if employees are entitled to multiple breaks depending on how many hours they work (one per meal break range)

Maximum gap to not break continuous shift - numeric value (in minutes) indicating that a gap is allowed in the continuous hours check.  Setting this value to zero indicates that no gap is allowed.

One or more Meal Break Ranges can be added by clicking the + icon.  When the Allow Multiple Breaks setting is enabled, the employee will receive a break for each range their continuous shifts falls into.  For example, if there is a 0-5 range and a 5.01-10 range setup, if any employee works 9 consecutive hours, they would receive two breaks (one for each range).

Hours Range - enter numeric values

Break Length in Minutes - length of the break

Break Offset in Hours - placement of the break within the shift