When you enable the Prefill Breaktime setting for the Touchscreen QBIS will automatically apply the breaktime to the employee’s daily time report.  QBIS allows you to also define the logic to use for this automation.

For the automatic prefill of breaktime functionality to work the employee must be connected to a schedule that specifies Arrive and Leave times, these can be:

  • A schedule created in the HR module that is set to track Arrive/Leave times
  • The Company Standard Schedule

Note: Prefilled breaktime will only be applied to the days for an employee for when they are scheduled to work.

QBIS Recommends:  To have the best accuracy for prefilling breaktime define the break start and end times inside the schedule (only possible in HR schedules).

Here is how it works

The Touchscreen will prefill the breaktime for an employee using the schedule they are connected to.  When the schedule does not specify when the break starts and ends the system calculates these values based on settings configured on the Touchscreen Settings page.  These settings are:

  • When the break is supposed to start; and
  • How to calculate the break duration

Prefilling the Break Start Time

Depending on how the employee’s schedule is setup will determine how Touchscreen sets the Break Start time.  The logic for this is:

  1. If the Schedule has defined a Break Start Time, then these values are used.
  2. If the schedule does not have a defined Break Start Time, then the Touchscreen will determine the break start time using one of two methods depending on what setting you have chosen. The setting is called “Set When the Break Time Should Start”.
    1. If you selected “At the Common Break Start Time” then the Common Break Start Time will be used.
    2. If you selected “After Scheduled Start Break” then the employee’s scheduled Arrive Time together with the time you have set for “After Schedule Arrive Time” will be used.

 

Prefilling the Break Duration

After prefilling the Break Start Time, the Touchscreen determines and prefills the Break Duration.  Depending on what setting you have chosen for the “Set How to Calculate Break Duration”, will define how the Touchscreen sets the break duration.

What happens when an employee Clocks breaktime when the system is set to Prefill breaktime?

Because the employee can also register break time during the day (when Prefill Breaktime is enabled), we need to tell the Touchscreen how to handle these situations.  To do this, use the setting called “Set How to Calculate Break Duration” to define how you want QBIS and the Touchscreen to treat these scenarios. There are 4 options to choose from:

  • Ignore Employees Manual Entries
  • Allow Shorter Breaks
  • Allow Longer Breaks
  • Allow Shorter and Longer Breaks

Ignore Employees Manual Entries

When this is set, any breaktime the employee clocks on the Touchscreen will not be used for calculating the break duration.  Instead, the system will use the Scheduled Breaktime or the Common Breaktime.  Note: QBIS will still record these manual entries for documentation purposes.

Allow Shorter Breaks

When this is set, the Touchscreen will sum up any manually entered breaktime by the employee for the day and if this total is lower than the scheduled break time/common breaktime this value will be used for breaktime.

Allow Longer Breaks

When this is set, the Touchscreen will sum up any manually entered breaktime by the employee for the day and if this total is higher than the scheduled break time/common breaktime this value will be used for breaktime.

Allow Shorter and Longer Breaks

When this is set, the Touchscreen will sum up any manually entered breaktime by the employee for the day and this value will be used for breaktime instead of the scheduled breaktime/common breaktime.

When is Breaktime Added to the Employee’s Timesheet?

The Touchscreen prefills the employee’s break time when the employee clocks out for the day.

If the setting “Auto-Sign Out” is enabled for registering Leave time for employees that have forgotten to clock out, the system will apply the breaktime values at the same time it is registering the Leave Time for the employee.

FAQs

What happens when an employee forgets to clock out for the day, will the Prefilled Break Time be calculated?

In the event where the employee forgets to stamp out QBIS can be configured to Auto Sign-Out for the employee.  If this is set, then QBIS will prefill the breaktime at the same time the system auto-clocks out for the employee.

If the system is not set to auto-clock out for the employee, then no Prefilled Break Time will be registered for the employee.

What happens when an employee manually clocks to start their break but forgets to clock that their break is over?

Because the system cannot guess when the employee returned from their break, the Break End Time will be calculated depending on how QBIS is setup:

  • If Prefill Breaktime setting is enabled then all manual breaks will be ignored and break duration will be calculated from either the employee’s scheduled break duration or Common Break Duration. The calculated break duration will be added into previous breaks.
  • If Prefill Breaktime setting is not enabled then all manual breaks will be ignored and break duration will be calculated from Company Standard Working Hours. The calculated break duration will be added into previous breaks.

What happens if the employee’s scheduled Start (Arrive) or Stop (Leave) time collides with the Common Break Start Time and Break Duration?

This could happen if the Touchscreen is configured to use the Common Break Start Time and the employee is attached to a schedule that does not specify the break start/end times. If this happens then no prefilled break time will be registered.

What happens if I forget to clock out for the day?

If an employee forgets to clock out for the day, one of 3 things can happen, depending on how QBIS is setup:

  • If the Auto Clock-Out setting is enabled, the system will automatically sign out the employee according to their scheduled leave time for the day.
  • If the Auto Clock-Out setting is not enabled and if the employee clocks in within 24 hours from when they previously clocked in, then they need to press the Stop button before the Start button become available.
  • If Auto Clock-Out is not enabled and the employee does not clock in within 24 hours from when they previously clocked in, then nothing will happen and the day will be left uncompleted.