Introduction to official working hours with start and end time

Official working hours with start and end time are used when employees have a fixed daily work schedule – for example 08:00–16:00.

This method is typically used for employee groups with stable working hours and forms the basis for calculating flextime, overtime, and absence.

If working hours vary from day to day, it is recommended to use official working hours with net hours instead.

Choice of standard hours method

BitaBIZ supports three options:

Start and end time per workday (this article)
Used when employees have fixed daily working hours.
Net hours per day
Used when working hours vary, but the total number of hours per day is known.
No standard hours
Typically used for hourly employees or salaried employees without an hour bank and without standard hour management, but with the possibility of accruing overtime.

Create official working hours with start and end time

Set up official working hours for an employee group on a policy

Official working hours entered on a policy automatically apply to all employees assigned to that policy.

To set up working hours on a policy, go to:

Setup Admin → Modules → Edit policy → Workweek

Select the standard hours method: “Enter official start and end time per workday”
Enter the start and end time for each workday
Click Save

Breaks

When setting up the workweek on the policy, you need to consider how breaks should be handled.

If the breaks are unpaid, they should be created on the policy so they are deducted from working time
If the breaks are paid (e.g. paid lunch), no break should be created, as it would otherwise be deducted from working time

Read more about custom unpaid breaks here.

Set up official working hours for an individual employee

If an employee has different working hours than the rest of the employee group, the standard hours can be configured individually.

To set up working hours for an individual employee, go to:

Setup Admin → Edit employee → Workweek

Select: “The daily working hours are created and managed here”
Enter the start and end time per day
Click Save

Important:

The employee’s master data always overrides the policy
Standard hours can vary between even and odd weeks
Changes apply going forward only

Maximum plus hours per day (flextime only)

If you use flextime, you can limit how many overtime/plus hours an employee may accrue in the hour bank per day.

This can be configured by going to:

Setup Admin → Modules → Edit policy → Workweek → Enter a value in the field “Max. plus hours”

If the employee registers more plus hours than allowed, the hour bank will only be updated with the maximum number of hours.

Changes to standard hours

It is important to understand how the system handles changes to working hours:

When standard hours are changed on a policy or on an employee’s master data card, the historical standard hours used for previously saved registrations are retained.
The change to standard hours will only apply to new future registrations.

In other words, when standard hours are changed, the history of previously registered working hours is preserved, and changes apply only going forward.

Registrations that use start and end time

Time registration without hour bank

The method “Edit the day’s standard hours if there is a deviation” requires standard hours.

The system automatically creates the day’s standard hours on working days where no absence has been registered, and the employee only edits the registration if there are deviations.

The working hours are created automatically at 09:00

Flextime Flextime uses standard hours to settle working time in the hour bank based on the day’s plus or minus hours.
Time off in lieu The day’s working hours are pre-filled with from and to times for the full workday. The employee can adjust the time for the time off in lieu, but only within normal working hours.
Overtime The app automatically suggests from/to times for the overtime either before or after official working hours, depending on when the registration is created. Overtime can only be registered outside normal working hours.

Other vacation hours When the registration is created, the day’s working hours are pre-filled with from and to times for the full workday. The employee can adjust the time within normal working hours. Other vacation cannot be created outside normal working hours.
Sick hours When the registration is created, the day’s working hours are pre-filled with from and to times for the full workday. The employee can adjust the time within normal working hours. Sick hours cannot be created outside normal working hours.

Related guide

If employees do not have fixed start and end times, official working hours can instead be configured using net hours.

FAQ

How do we know whether to use start and end time or net hours?

Use start and end time if employees have fixed working hours with specific times (e.g., 08:00–16:00).

Use net hours if employees do not have fixed start and end times, but work a fixed number of hours per day (e.g., 7.5 hours).

Create official working hours - with start and end time per day