Set up the right time-tracking solution for your different staff groups

The most important question to start considering for each staff group:

Should working hours (plus or minus time) be credited to an hour bank, which can be used for time off?

-or-

Is the time registration for salaried or hourly paid employees, who should not have access to hour bank?

Once it is clarified which main category applies to a staff group, a time tracking method must be selected under the chosen main category.

The process for setting up time registration for a staff group is shown in the figure below:

Time Tracking – without hour Bank

There are 4 time registration methods to choose from:

3 active methods, where the employee actively registers their working hours or absences daily.
(Start/end time) (Hours only) (Check in/out)

1 deviation method, where the employee must edit if there's any deviations from the normal working hours or absences.
(Adjust time - hours only) (Adjust time - start/end time)

📑 Setup guide: fixed paid Employees

📑 Setup guide: Hourly paid Employees

Time Tracking – with hour bank

There are 3 time tracking methods to choose from:

1 deviation method, where the employee only registers if there's any deviations from the normal working schedule
(overtime, time off, absence).

1 active method, where the employee must daily register their working hours or absences
(Check in/out).

1 method for overtime/time off, which should be chosen with care. It does not calculate actual working hours according to the EU's 48-hour rule.
See when this method is used in the "Exceptions to the rule" section below.

The hour bank can also be used as a leave balance with fixed accrual.
For example, for the 6th week of vacation. See the "Exceptions to the rule" section below.

📑 Setup guide

Use the policy list to perform a check

A policy should not have access to both time registration methods. Either with a hour bank or without a hour bank. You must choose one of the two methods. The primary time method for the staff group.

The policy list shows which method is activated for a staff group's policy. If two methods are linked, one must be disconnected:

Use the Setup Admin employee list to perform a check

Your employees should only have access to one time registration method. Otherwise, it will be difficult for your employees to figure out which of the two methods to use. You could say it’s double registration of the working hours to have access to both solutions, and it's not motivating for your employees:

The yellow icon represents time tracking without an hour bank, and the brown icon represents with an hour bank. There should only be one icon per employee. Hover over the icon to see which time tracking method is activated on the policy (e.g., check in/out with hour bank).

Actual working hours according to the EU's 48-hour rule

A report is linked to each of the two main modules under HR Statistics -> Report Library:

Time registration - WITH Time Bank 
Time registration - WITHOUT Time Bank

The reports calculate the actual working hours per week per employee and the average working hours for a selected period.

Therefore, it is important that the working hours are stored correctly in the right report for each employee and are not spread across both reports, because then the overview is lost.

This is achieved by ensuring an employee is set up with the correct solution as described above. The correct primary time tracking method sends the employee's working hours to one of the two reports:

📑 Report: WITHOUT Time Bank

📑 Report: WITH Time Bank

Exceptions to the rule above

There are 3 exceptions to the rules above, where the employee gets access to both solutions. Both WITH and WITHOUT an hour bank:

1. When the primary method is without hourbank

However, there are special cases (a few times a year) where overtime is ordered. This overtime should be credited to time off. Or where the employee simultaneously maintains their hour bank records under special rules. In this case, time registration is activated both with and without an hour bank. Choose method no. 3 "Overtime without working hours calculation". This keeps time registration without an hour bank as the primary method.

2. When the primary method is with hour bank

However, there is a need to also register time on project job codes. In this case, access is also given to one of the 3 active time registration methods without an hour bank, so time can be registered on job codes.

3. When the hour bank has fixed accrual and is used for absence

The hour bank can be linked to fixed accrual (monthly or yearly). For example, for the 6th week of vacation. In other words, the hour bank balance should only be used for taking time off, not for accruing overtime hours:

1) No time registration method is chosen! Because the purpose here is to use the hour bank for an absence balance, not for accruing hours via overtime. Use the On/Off button to reset any selected time method and then set the button to "ON". 💁 It is possible to use both Time registration - with an hour bank and have fixed accrual linked to the hour bank balance!
2) The desired accrual is linked to the hour bank. 💁 Accrual is linked to the policy under the tab: Time registration - with hour bank
3) Access is granted to: Time Registration - With hour bank on the employee's master data card. 💁 With the above settings, the employee is given access to take absence hours that are accrued on a fixed basis, but isn't given access to accrue overtime hours.

Message flow and rules that support the EU Labour Market Directive

There are a number of messages and rules designed to support your choice of time registration method(s).