How do I create break regulations and set up automatic break deductions?

With TimeStatement's break regulations, you can store statutory or company break requirements in the system and apply them automatically to your employees' working hours. You can define from which working time a specific break time is required and whether the break may be split up.

TimeStatement already offers country-specific default regulations for several countries. You can use them directly, adapt them to your company's requirements or add your own break regulations. You can also have the break time deducted from the work time automatically if the required break wasn't recorded or wasn't recorded in full.

Creating a break regulation

To create a break regulation or edit an existing one, open "Management" > "Presets" > "Pause". Click an existing break regulation to edit it, or select "+ Regulation" to create a new one.

When creating a new break regulation, you can either select a country and use its default regulation or create a custom regulation. Then enter a name and specify from when the regulation is valid. You also define which employees the regulation applies to. This way, for example, employees in different countries or regions can be assigned different break regulations.

Use the active/inactive status to specify whether the break regulation is currently applied. If you want TimeStatement to take missing break time into account automatically, also enable the "Enforce pause time" option. When this option is enabled, TimeStatement automatically deducts the missing break time from the work time if the required break wasn't recorded or wasn't recorded in full. Then click "Save" to create the break regulation.

Defining break rules

A break regulation can consist of several individual break rules. This lets you store different break requirements for different daily working times. For example, one rule can specify that a 30-minute break is required from a certain working time, while a 45-minute break is required from a longer working time.

To do this, open the break regulation and click "+ Create Rule". For each break rule, specify from which working time the rule applies and how much break time is required. You can also specify whether the break time may be split up.

After setting the values, you can check the preview and then save the rule. You can edit or delete existing rules at any time.

Automatic break deduction

When the "Enforce pause time" option is enabled, TimeStatement checks the work and break time recorded each day. If the required break time was recorded in full, the work time stays unchanged.

If no break time or too little break time was recorded, TimeStatement automatically deducts the missing break time from the daily work time according to the break rule.

This way, you can make sure that the break requirements are applied even if employees don't record their breaks or don't record them in full.

Viewing breaks

Employees can view their recorded breaks directly in the work time view under "Timesheets" > "Worktime". The "Show pause time" option is enabled there by default, which shows the break time for each weekday in a separate row.

Alternatively, break times can be viewed in the monthly statement, which can be downloaded for individual employees as a PDF or Excel file.