Shift Rules are the building blocks of scheduling, whether you’re using a Rota or Work Schedules. They contain information regarding working hours, rates of pay, break patterns and so on. They are used by Focus to ensure that employees get paid the correct amounts for working the correct number of hours on any given day.

They may appear a little daunting on first viewing, but you only need to know a few basics in order to create and use a Shift Rule. The aim of this guide is to cover these basics. To aid understanding, let’s look at a Use Case.

Use Case

You want to create a Shift Rule for a standard 09:00-17:00 shift, only clocking in and out at the beginning and end of each shift. Assuming employees clock in and out on time, they will be paid for 7 hours at the basic rate with no overtime being paid. They will also have a 1-hour unpaid lunch break.

Therefore, we will need to:

• Create a new Shift Rule
• Set the shift times to 09:00-17:00 with a basic rate of pay
• Ensure employees are not paid overtime
• Ensure employees are paid for 7 hours with a 1-hour unpaid lunch break

Creating a new Shift Rule

1. Select ‘Rules’ from the Menu Bar.
2. Select ‘Shift Rules’ from the Rules Tree.
3. Select ‘Create New’.
4. Select the ‘General’ tab.
5. Give the Shift Rule a ‘Name’. This should differentiate it from other Shift Rules. It’s a good idea to include the shift times to make the name instantly recognisable (eg. DAYS 0900-1700).
6. Give the Shift Rule a ‘Code’. This will appear against clockings on the employee’s Timesheet. It can only be a maximum of five characters in length (eg. DAYS).

Set the shift times to 09:00-17:00 with a basic rate of pay

1. Still in the ‘General’ tab, set the ‘Start Time’ to 09:00.
2. Set the ‘End Time’ to 17:00.
3. Set the ‘Standard Hours’ to 07:00. This is the usual hours worked for this particular shift. This is also the number of hours that Focus will use to work out any pay due to absence (eg. holiday).
4. Set the ‘Normal Rate’ to Rate 1. This should be the basic rate of pay that your System Administrator has set. This is also the rate of pay that Focus will use to work out any pay due to absence.
5. Save.

Ensure employees are not paid overtime

This next step will allow hours worked to be seen on Timesheets, whilst also limiting the time that the employees will be paid for.

1. Select the ‘Overtime-1’ tab.
2. In the first row of ‘Rate Bands’, set ‘From’ to 09:00, ‘To’ to 17:00 and ‘Rate’ to Rate 1 (basic rate).
3. Save.

Although you have entered similar information earlier in the process, this is a way for Focus to separate ‘I’m here’ from ‘I’m working’. For example, employees who clock in at 08:50 are ‘here’ but ‘not working’ yet.

Ensure employees are paid for 7 hours and receive a 1-hour unpaid lunch break

Without putting an unpaid break in place, employees would currently be paid for 8 hours.

1. Select the ‘Break After’ tab.
2. In ‘Worked’, insert 03:30.
3. In ‘Rate’, select ‘Rate 1’.
4. In ‘Deduct’, insert 01:00.
5. Save.

This basically means that after 3.5 hours of work, 1 hour will be deducted from the working day, making the daily total 7 hours for a full day.

Additional information

Leave all other settings as they are.

An exception to this may be ‘Cost Centre’ in the ‘General’ tab. You may wish to select a Cost Centre that your Shift Rule will allocate its time to.

The Shift Rule will now appear in the list with all the other Shift Rules, and can be used to build Rotas or Work Schedules, or simply assigned to specific days in an employee’s Timesheet.

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