Create Shifts & Manage Schedules

A shift in Clokio is a reusable template that defines when an employee's workday starts and ends, and how long their break should be. Instead of configuring work hours for each employee individually, you create shift templates and then assign them to employees. This means if you have 50 employees working the same 9-to-5 schedule, you only need to create the shift once.

Common shift names include "Morning Shift," "Evening Shift," "Night Shift," "Standard Office Hours," or "Weekend Shift." You can name them anything that makes sense for your business.

Step-by-Step: Create a New Shift

1. 1 Open the Admin Dashboard and navigate to Shifts from the sidebar menu.
2. 2 Click the "Create Shift" button to open the shift creation form.
3. 3 Enter a Shift Name that clearly describes the shift, such as "Morning Shift" or "Evening Shift."
4. 4 Set the start time (when employees should begin working) and the end time (when the workday ends).
5. 5 Specify the break duration in minutes (for example, 30 or 60 minutes). This is the expected lunch or rest break during the shift.
6. 6 Click "Save" to create the shift template. You can now assign it to employees.

Example Shift Templates

While the basic shift template defines your standard working hours, Shift Details let you fine-tune the schedule for each day of the week. This is essential because many businesses do not operate on the same hours every day. For example, a store might open at 9:00 AM on weekdays but at 10:00 AM on Fridays, or a company might have a shorter workday before the weekend.

What Are Shift Details?

A ShiftDetail is a specific schedule entry for one day of the week within a shift. Each shift can have up to 7 shift details -- one for each day of the week (Monday through Sunday). For each day, you can define:

• check_circle Start time: When the workday begins on that specific day
• check_circle End time: When the workday ends on that specific day
• check_circle Whether the day is active: If this day is a working day for this shift or a day off

Configuring Which Days a Shift Applies To

When you create or edit a shift, you will see a weekly calendar where you can toggle each day on or off and set specific times. For example, if your business operates Sunday through Thursday:

1. 1 Open the shift you want to configure and go to the "Schedule Details" tab.
2. 2 You will see a row for each day of the week. Toggle on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Leave Friday and Saturday toggled off.
3. 3 For each active day, set the start and end times. You can use the same hours for all days, or customize individual days.
4. 4 Save your changes. The shift now has a complete weekly schedule that Clokio uses to determine expected attendance.

Example: Different Hours on Different Days

In this example, the shift runs Sunday through Thursday with standard hours, but Thursday ends at 3:00 PM instead of 6:00 PM (a shorter pre-weekend day). Friday and Saturday are days off. Clokio will only expect employees to clock in on the active days and will use the correct start/end times for each day when calculating lateness, early departures, and work hours.

Once you have created your shift templates, the next step is to assign them to your employees. Each employee has one active shift at any given time. The assigned shift tells Clokio what hours the employee is expected to work, which is the basis for determining whether they are on time, late, or absent.

Method 1: From the Employee Profile

1. 1 Navigate to Employees in the sidebar and click on the employee you want to assign a shift to.
2. 2 In the employee detail view, find the "Shift" field (usually under the work details section).
3. 3 Select the shift from the dropdown menu (for example, "Morning Shift" or "Standard Office").
4. 4 Save the employee profile. The shift assignment takes effect immediately.

Method 2: From the Shift Management Page

1. 1 Go to the Shifts page and click on the shift you want to manage.
2. 2 In the shift detail view, you will see a list of currently assigned employees.
3. 3 Click "Add Employees" and select the employees you want to assign to this shift.
4. 4 Confirm the assignment. These employees will now be expected to follow this shift's schedule.

How Shifts Affect Attendance Tracking

The shift assignment is what allows Clokio to calculate critical attendance metrics. Without a shift, the system would not know when an employee is supposed to arrive or leave. Here is how the shift drives attendance tracking:

Clokio can automatically detect and report overtime hours based on rules you define. Overtime tracking helps you stay compliant with labor laws, manage payroll costs, and identify departments or employees that consistently work beyond their scheduled hours.

Daily Overtime Threshold

The daily overtime threshold defines how many hours an employee can work in a single day before their additional hours count as overtime. For example, if you set the daily threshold to 8.5 hours, any time worked beyond 8 hours and 30 minutes in one day is classified as overtime.

1. 1 Go to System Settings in the admin dashboard.
2. 2 Find the "Overtime" section in the attendance settings.
3. 3 Set the daily overtime threshold (in hours). For example, enter 8.5 for eight and a half hours.
4. 4 Save the settings. Clokio will now automatically calculate daily overtime for all employees.

Weekly Overtime Threshold

In addition to the daily limit, you can set a weekly overtime threshold. This catches situations where an employee works slightly over their daily limit each day, accumulating significant overtime over the week. For example, with a weekly threshold of 42 hours, an employee who works 8.5 hours each day (Sunday through Thursday) would accumulate 0.5 hours of weekly overtime even if they stayed within the daily limit.

Grace Periods for Late Clock-Ins

Sometimes employees arrive a minute or two after their shift start time due to elevator wait times, parking, or other minor delays. Clokio allows you to set a grace period -- a window of time after the shift start during which the employee is still considered "on time." For example:

• check_circle With a 5-minute grace period and a 9:00 AM shift start, an employee who clocks in at 9:04 AM is considered on time.
• check_circle An employee who clocks in at 9:06 AM would be marked as late by 6 minutes (the full time past the shift start, not past the grace period).
• check_circle You can configure the grace period in System Settings under the attendance section. Set it to 0 minutes if you want strict punctuality enforcement.

Overtime in Reports

Once overtime rules are configured, overtime hours appear automatically in all relevant reports: