Flexible Hours Schedules

  • Last updated on September 19, 2023 at 6:36 AM
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This is the main article describing the Flexible Hours Schedule as a schedule type. If you'd like to read more about specific details, please check out the articles linked at the end of each section.

What is a Flexible Hours Schedule?

The Flexible Hours Schedule is a schedule with a set number of hours to be worked during a week or month (e.g., 40 hours per week, 160 hours per month). The employee can work any day during the defined period to fulfil these hours flexibly. As some values can't be pinpointed on a specific day, such as daily shifts or absences, this schedule type behaves a little differently than the others.

Let's see how this looks in practice.

Schedule Settings

First time adding a new schedule? Find out more about adding a new schedule to your Cloud account in this article:

Adding a New Schedule

First, let's see how you can set up your Flexible Hours Schedule:

Schedule Type

When you select Flexible Hours Schedules, you can define if your number of hours applies for a week or a month.

Absence Duration (Plus only!)

In an additional line, you can define the duration of a full-day absence for each day of the week. Find more about this below.

Tip: Find out more about the different Schedule Types in the following article:

Schedule Types

Break Type

A Flexible Hours Schedule can be combined with Conditionally Deducted Breaks. There are no Fixed Break Times, as the employees can work and take breaks whenever they want.

Tip: Find out more about the different Break Types in the following article:

Break Types

Rounding Type

Do you want to make use of our rounding feature? You can use interval rounding to adjust all clocking actions to a rounded value of your choice.

Tip: Find out more about the different Rounding Types in the following article:

Rounding Types

Absences and Flexible Hours Schedules

Regarding full-day absences, the way TimeMoto allocates absence hours has to work differently when the absence is planned over a Flexible Hours Schedule. Since there is no scheduled shift duration per day, the system can't know by default how many hours the employee was supposed to work each day.

Because of this, we introduced a new schedule setting that only applies when you select the Flexible Hours Schedule: the Absence Duration.

Here you can select how many hours TimeMoto should allocate for a full-day absence separately on each day of the week. The absence hours can be different for each day or the same. You can even leave some days empty. In that case, the assumed absence duration would be 0:00.

Tip: Find out more about how absences work with Flexible Hours Schedules in the following article:

Flexible Hours Schedules & Absences

Review Flexible Hours Schedules in the Timesheet

Flexible Hours Schedules are based on a weekly (or monthly) periodicity. As a result, you can only review timesheets containing this schedule if the reported period contains only complete weeks (or months).

Let's say your employee works under a weekly schedule (e.g., 40 hours per week). If you review their timesheet and the selected period contains an incomplete week, an error will appear that prompts you to change the periodicity to produce correct values.

You can always adjust the reported period by clicking on the calendar symbol next to the period number and then clicking on [Choose date] in the little pop-up.

Furthermore, in the daily view, you won't see any scheduled shift durations per day (marked as flex), as the scheduled amount of work is only defined in the total.

Tip: Find out more about how the Timesheet works with Flexible Hours Schedules in the following article:

Flexible Hours Schedules in the Timesheet

Flexible Hours Schedules in the Calendar

When planning a Flexible Hours Schedule in the Calendar, keep in mind that you cannot use this schedule on a single day only. TimeMoto only lets you complete an entire period to use this schedule. 

If the schedule is set on a weekly basis, you start on the first day of the selected week and end on the last day (even if the employee would not work on those days). Check your Regional Information settings in your General Information to see what day you set up as your first day of the week. Of course, you can include multiple weeks. Simply choose an applicable end date in the future using the date selector. 

If the schedule is set on a monthly basis, you start on the first of the selected month and end on the last day (even if the employee would not work on those days). Of course, you can include multiple months. Just like before, you can choose an applicable end date in the future using the date selector.

Remember that some other things behave differently, too:

  • You can add absence over single days based on a Flexible Hours Schedule. However, you cannot delete a single day. If you delete a Flexible Hours Schedule, you can only delete an entire week or month at once! 
  • Flexible Hours Schedules cannot overlap with other schedules for the same employee.

Tip: Find out more about how Flexible Hours Schedules work with the Calendar in the following article:

Flexible Hours Schedules in the Calendar

Flexible Hours Schedules in the Employee Card

Compared to the Calendar's settings, Flexible Hours Schedules work in a similar way when using the employee card. If you assign a Flexible Hours Schedule to an employee, the first date will always jump to the next first day of the week or month, depending on the schedule. 

If you want this start date to jump to a date in the past, you can always use the date selector after saving your settings to adjust the effective date.

Tip: Find out more about how Flexible Hours Schedules work with the Employee Card in the following article:

Flexible Hours Schedules in the Employee Card


Any questions?
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