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Creating a New Policy

1. Create a New Policy​

Objective: Establish the policy "container" that ties together settings for tenure, pay cycle, breaks, overtime, schedules, and more.

What to do:​

  • Navigate to Company → Setup → Policies and click Insert
  • Give it a Name that clearly describes this employee group (e.g. "Full Time New Hires")
  • Assign a Class (e.g. "Full Time")—this lets you group similar policies together
  • (Optional) Pick a Default Class so that if an employee outgrows this policy, InfiniTime can fall back to another set of tenure rules

Why it matters:​

  • Every employee is tied to exactly one policy
  • Classes let you chain policies by tenure (e.g. new‑hire → regular)

Example tenure setup:​

Policy NameClassMin Tenure (yrs)Max Tenure (yrs)
Full Time New HiresFull Time01
Full Time EmployeesFull Time199

2. Configure General Settings​

Objective: Define the foundational rules for who's in the policy and when they move on.

Key fields:​

  • Min/Max Tenure: Auto‑move employees after X years
  • Do Not Allow Breaks: Hide break punch options if your org never tracks breaks

When to skip:​

If your employees all share the same break, overtime, and schedule rules regardless of tenure, you can leave the tenure grid at its default or skip it entirely.

Tip:​

Tenure ranges must cover 0–99 yrs without gaps—InfiniTime won't know where to put someone if there's a gap.

3. Define Your Pay Cycle​

Objective: Tell InfiniTime how your organization's pay periods roll.

Fields to set:​

  • Start of Week: (e.g. Monday) affects "Last Week"/"This Week" reports
  • Pay Cycle Type: Weekly / Bi‑Weekly / Semi‑Monthly / Custom
  • Current Pay Period From: Anchor date for auto‑calculating current/last pay periods
  • Split Punches At: (overnight split) where an overnight shift should be split between periods
  • Edit Lockout: # days + time after a pay period ends when it becomes uneditable

Why it matters:​

  • Ensures "This Pay Period" and "Last Pay Period" always stay fresh
  • Edit‑lockout prevents late changes that can throw off payroll

Example:​

  • Pay cycle: weekly, starts Monday
  • Current period from 2025‑04‑07
  • Split at midnight or 2:00 AM for night shift
  • Lock out edits 5 days after period end at 8 AM

4. Build Your Break Rules​

Objective: Configure whether breaks are punched, auto‑applied, or both—and cap/minimum them.

4.1 Change‑to‑Break (punch‑in/out tracked)​

Use if: Employees punch for lunch/coffee.

Key settings:​

  • First Change If < X hrs → Paid or Unpaid Break
  • Second Change If < Y hrs → Paid or Unpaid Break

Example:​

First less than 0.33 hr→ Paid, Second less than 1 hr→ Unpaid

4.2 Auto‑Breaks (no break punches)​

Use if: You want to deduct breaks automatically.

Key settings:​

  • First Auto Break if > X hrs → Y hr Paid/Unpaid
  • "Only on Days with a Schedule" if you only want auto breaks on scheduled days

Example:​

After 6 hrs worked → auto‑deduct 0.5 hr unpaid

4.3 Break Limits​

Purpose: Enforce min/max per break and daily max.

Key fields:​

  • If Break > A and < B → min C / max D
  • Max Daily Break: cap total paid break per day

Example:​

Paid breaks between .01–.33 hr: min .01 / max .25; daily max .5

5. Tame Overtime​

Objective: Define when and how OT kicks in, map special cases, and set pay multipliers.

5.1 Basic Buckets​

  • OT1: Daily if >8 hr; weekly if >40 hr
  • OT2–OT4: Additional buckets for double‑time, weekend, etc

Pay Method:​

  • Amount: +$X/hr on top of base
  • Percent: +Y% of base (e.g. 50% = time‑and‑a‑half)
  • Rate: Fixed $/hr (ignores base)

5.2 Advanced Cases​

  • Deduct Daily from Weekly: California style—don't double‑count daily OT toward weekly
  • Consecutive‑Day OT: After N straight days → all hours on next day become OT; map to chosen bucket
  • Day‑of‑Week OT: e.g. any Saturday/Sunday hour → OT2

6. Schedule & Rounding​

Objective: Tie punches to schedules, round times for consistency, and optionally lock out off‑schedule punches.

6.1 Default Schedule​

Create a "policy schedule" template via Quick Schedule—everyone on this policy inherits it unless overridden per employee.

6.2 Unscheduled Rounding​

When: Punches outside scheduled grace periods.

How: Round to nearest .1, .25, or .5 hr at punch, pair, or daily level (7/8 split by default).

6.3 Scheduled Rounding & Lockout​

Grace Periods (in minutes):​

  • Early → marks "Early" exception

  • On‑Time → within window, no exception

  • Late → still "On‑Time," no exception

  • Round to Schedule: Snap qualifying punches to exact schedule start/end

  • Punch‑to‑Schedule Lockout: Block any clock‑in/out outside those grace windows

6.4 Auto‑Punch​

  • Auto Clock In/Out: Automatically insert daily punches at schedule start/end—great for salary or "always on" teams
  • Auto Punch to Schedule: Let InfiniTime insert break punches or switch departments/jobs per the schedule's Gantt chart

7. Exceptions & Notifications​

Objective: Track no‑shows, tardiness, missing breaks, DOT rules, accrual breaches, and alert the right people.

Scope:​

  • Company‑wide vs. individual policy
  • Policy‑based overrides company defaults
  • Absent: scheduled but no clock‑in
  • Tardy/Early: outside On‑Time grace
  • Missing Break: >X hrs without a break
  • DOT violations: HOS thresholds & approaching warnings
  • Accrual: approaching or exceeding time‑off balances
  • Excessive hours: daily/weekly pay period thresholds

Alerts:​

Email and/or SMS to employee or supervisor within X days.

8. Assign Shift Differentials​

Objective: Layer on premiums for evenings, nights, weekends, etc.

  1. Define shifts under Lookups → Scheduling Setup → Shifts, splitting any that cross midnight
  2. On your policy's Shift Differentials tab, Insert each differential:
    • Pick the shift, enable "Used for Differential," set premium
  3. Choose a Pay Method (Punch In, Punch Out, Zone, or Majority Hours) based on when you want the premium to apply

9. Map Unscheduled Hours​

Objective: If you pay "unscheduled" work at a different rate, map those hours into a chosen OT bucket.

  • Only after scheduled hours: toggle on if you want scheduled hours first, then map the spillover
  • Map: Reg/OT1–4 → OT2/3/4 as needed (e.g. any unscheduled reg hours → OT2)

10. Stand‑By Time (On‑Call)​

Objective: Auto‑award "on‑call" hours as Other Activity on specified weekdays.

On each Day of Week tab, Insert an Other Activity Type (e.g. "RN On‑Call") + guaranteed X hrs.

InfiniTime will place that Other Activity on every matching day for each employee.

11. Finalize & Review​

Objective: Ensure all pieces fit together before you go live.

Checklist:​

  • No tenure gaps, no overlapping differentials, thresholds sensible
  • Breaks, OT, rounding, schedules, exceptions all behave in a quick test user

Test:​

Assign a "sandbox" user, run through punch scenarios, confirm the policy delivers exactly the hours, breaks, OT, and exceptions you expect.