Time formats

The system interprets how you enter time as follows:

Time of day formats

For time of day, the system ignores the colon.

  • For minutes, enter the hours followed by the minutes. The colon is optional.
  • For 7:15 a.m., enter 715.
  • For 7:30 a.m, enter 730.

12-hour format:

  • From 0:00 to 11:59 is a.m. For 7 a.m., you can enter 7, 7a, 700, or 7:00.
  • From 12:00 to 11:59, add p for p.m. For 5:00 p.m., enter 5p. 12:00 is noon, or you can enter 12p or 12. 00:00 is midnight, or you can enter 12a.

24-hour format:

  • Range is from 00:00 (midnight) to 23:59.
  • For 5:30 p.m., enter 1730.
  • The system does not accept 24:00. Enter 12a, 0, or 00:00 for midnight.

The system converts decimal times into hh:mm format.

  • If you enter 7.5, the time is 7:30 a.m.
  • If you enter 7.5p, the time is 7:30 p.m.

Duration formats

For durations, the system does not ignore the colon.

  • For minutes, enter the hours followed by a colon and the minutes.
  • For 8 hours and 15 minutes, enter 8:15.
  • For 8 ½ hours, enter 8:30. If you enter 8:30, the duration is 8:30 hours.

For whole hours, you do not have to enter the minutes. For 8 hours, enter 8 or 8:00.

The system converts decimal times into hh:mm format.

  • If you enter 8.5, the duration is 8 ½ hours and is displayed as 8:30.
  • If you enter 6.27, the duration is 6:16 (6.27 = 6 h + (0.27*60 min) = 6 h + 16.2 min = 6:16).
  • Unless otherwise stated, durations can be greater than 24 hours.

Midnight and day divides

By default, a day starts and ends at 12:00 midnight. This is called the midnight divide. Sometimes, however, a different time is defined (in the pay rule's fixed rule) for when one day ends and a new day begins. This is called the day divide.

When a shift spans the midnight divide, the timecard indicates that a new day has started by displaying purple phantom punches at midnight to end one day and start another. This is also true if a non-midnight day divide is defined in the fixed rule. The totals and the Rules Analysis tool reflect the correct day divide, but the timecard displays phantom punches.

In the following example, the first shift starts at 6PM on Saturday and ends at 8AM on Sunday. The purple phantom punches show the midnight divide.