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A shift template is the policy the day engine measures against. Without one, a day record has no expected start time, no grace period, no half-day cutoff and no overtime threshold — so getting templates right is a precondition for attendance meaning anything. Shifts & rosters → Templates.

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Anatomy of a template

  • Code — the reconciler’s category: G general, M morning, E evening, N night, F flexi.
  • Name — what people see, e.g. “General 9–6”.
  • Type — fixed, flexible, rotational, field or custom.
  • Tags and an optional SKU for your own classification.
  • Effective from — the date this template’s policy starts applying.
  • Start and end time, and the working hours they come to.
  • Unpaid break minutes, with an optional break window naming when it falls.
  • Auto break deduct — whether the break is deducted automatically rather than requiring punches around it.
  • Auto checkout after — a time at which an unclosed shift is closed off, so a forgotten punch-out does not run overnight.
  • Grace period minutes — how late someone can arrive before the day records late minutes.
  • Grace arrival mode — soft or hard.
  • Grace departure minutes — the equivalent allowance at the end of the shift.
  • Half-day cutoff hours — work below this many hours makes the day a Half.
Which days of the week are rest days for anyone on this template. These become WeeklyOff day records, and they are what makes overtime on those days earn comp-off.
  • Eligible after — minutes worked before overtime starts accruing (default 570, i.e. 9h30m).
  • Cap per day — the most overtime one day can produce (default 180 minutes).
  • Weekday multiplier — the rate for ordinary overtime (default 1.5×).
  • Holiday / rest-day multiplier — the rate when overtime falls on a holiday or weekly off (default 2×).
  • Approval threshold — the point beyond which overtime needs explicit approval (default 120 minutes).
A template applies to all locations by default, or to a named subset. Use the subset when a site genuinely runs different hours rather than creating near-duplicate templates.

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Draft and published

A template starts as a draft. Drafts can be edited freely and are invisible to the rest of the system.
A draft template cannot be rostered. Publish it before you try to assign anyone to it, or the roster will not offer it.
Publishing makes it available for assignment. Published templates remain editable — changes apply from the moment they are saved, and days already reconciled are not retroactively re-judged unless something else causes them to re-derive.

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Building one

1

Start from an existing template if you can

Duplicate copies every field into a new draft. Two shifts that differ only in start time should be a duplicate-and-edit, not two hand-built templates that will drift apart.
2

Set the timing

Start, end, break and working hours. The editor shows a daily timeline you can drag — the grace and overtime zones update live as you move the handles, which is the fastest way to sanity-check a shift.
3

Set the policy numbers

Grace, half-day cutoff, weekly offs, overtime thresholds and multipliers.
4

Scope it

All locations, or a named subset.
5

Publish

Only then can it be assigned.
Overnight shifts render the timeline read-only. A shift crossing midnight cannot be dragged; set its times numerically.

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Insights

An existing template’s editor carries side panels driven by real data:
  • Assigned employees, broken down by location.
  • Impact preview and a compliance check, derived from the template’s own policy fields — working hours against statutory expectations, break adequacy, overtime caps.
  • Recent edits, from the audit log.
A brand-new, unsaved template shows empty states rather than fetching.

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Deleting

Deleting a template that employees are assigned to, or that day records reference, is refused. Reassign first.
The template list’s toolbar is deliberately minimal — there is no CSV import/export of templates, and the grid/list toggle and search chips are not wired. Templates are a small, slow-changing set; build them in the editor.