Zones
Zones define special intervals of time as hour types, such as Evening and Weekend, when employees can earn shift differentials. Zone rules establish the required number of hours in a specified time period that an employee must work.
Use the Zone Rules page (Administration > Application Setup > Pay Policies > Work Rule Building Blocks > Zones) to set up zone rules.
- Pay As — Select a paycode A category of time or money that employees earn, for example, Regular Hours, Bonus, or Sick. and then select the pay as behavior for the pay code. For more information, see Simplified timekeeping configuration.
Consecutive days worked zones award overtime to employees who work a certain number of days in a row or a certain number of days in a week. Use the following information to set up this zone type.
- Number of Days — The number of days required to qualify for the consecutive day overtime. These days can be worked consecutively or during the week, depending on the consecutive type selected.
- Minimum Hours — The minimum number of hours required during a shift for the day to count toward consecutive day overtime. If the Consecutive Type is Days in a row, the consecutive day accumulator resets if the shift does not meet the minimum requirement.
- Last Day Minimum Hours — The minimum number of hours required on the last day of consecutive days to earn overtime pay for that day.
- Consecutive Type — The number of days in a row required to qualify for consecutive day overtime. Select one of the following reset methods:
- Days in a row — Resets the number of contributing days to 0 on the specified day number or day of the week. For example, if the value is 7, the count of contributing days automatically resets on the seventh day. This setting allows days contributing toward consecutive days work to cross the day divide Time that defines when one day ends and a new day begins. The day divide is defined in a pay rule. If a shift crosses the day divide, the pay rule defines how the hours are allocated: to the day before, the day after, or to the day on which the worked hour occurred..
- Days in a week — Resets the number of contributing days to 0 on the specified day of the week.
- Overtime overrides — Select one or more overtime rules that cancel the consecutive days worked zone rule when the following conditions are met:
- Part of at least one shift contains worked hours generated by one or more of the selected overtime override rules associated with the zone rule. The shift must be worked during a day that contributes to the consecutive days worked.
- The shift that contains the hours distributed by the selected overtime override rules must be worked on an unscheduled day.
- Processing order for overtime credit
- For consecutive day overtime credit, select whether to credit overtime to the latest shifts in the week or the earliest shifts in the week. You can also exclude holidays and specific days of the week from the overtime calculation.
- Note: These consecutive zone attributes do not cross pay period boundaries.
- Credit overtime to the latest shift(s) in the week — Select to have consecutive day overtime credited to the latest shifts in the week.
- Credit overtime to the earliest shift(s) in the week — Select to have consecutive day overtime credited to the earliest shifts in the week.
- Exclude holidays from calculation — Select to exclude all holidays from the consecutive day overtime calculation.
- Exclude days of week from calculation — Select the days of the week that you want excluded from the consecutive day overtime calculation.
- Overtime credit method
- Select the type of shift that receives overtime credit first for consecutive days worked in a pay period, unscheduled shifts or shortest shifts.
- Overtime credited to unscheduled shifts — Select to have consecutive day overtime credit applied to unscheduled shifts.
- Overtime credited to shortest shifts — Select to have consecutive day overtime credit applied to the shortest shifts.
- Priority for unscheduled and shortest shifts
- If both Overtime credited to unscheduled shifts and Overtime credited to shortest shifts are selected, then specify the priority for which type of shift receives overtime credit first, the unscheduled shifts (Unscheduled shifts receive overtime before short shifts) or the shortest shifts (Short shifts receive overtime before unscheduled shifts).
- Requires approval — Select if the action requires approval.
Holiday zones are for employees who work during a holiday. Add holidays to the Holiday Table before you create this rule.
Note: Update Holiday zone rules as new holidays are added to the Holiday table. It is recommended that previous holidays continue to be selected, in addition to new holidays, to accommodate Retroactive Pay Calculations. Do not forget to update every holiday zone.
If employees work on a holiday, it can affect their holiday credits. A holiday credit occurs when employers give employees a paid holiday.
Use the following information to set up Holiday zone rules:
- Available Holidays — Select the appropriate holidays from the holidays available.
- Holiday zone defined by — Select one of the following:
- Times in Holiday Table — Use the start and stop times in the Holiday table.
- Day Divide — Use the day divide that is specified in the employee's fixed rule. The Holiday zone is shifted to the day divide. For example, the day divide is 7:00 A.M. A holiday defined to run from midnight of one day to midnight of the following day is shifted by 7 hours. The holiday then runs from 7:00 A.M. to 7:00 A.M. This option works in combination with the Hours belong to option in the fixed rule.
Note: By default, a day starts and ends at 12:00 midnight. This is called the midnight divide The time when one day ends and another begins. When a shift starts on one day and ends on the next day, the system enters a purple punch to end the first day and another purple punch to start the new day.. When a shift spans the midnight divide, the timecard indicates that a new day has started by displaying purple phantom punches A punch, displayed in purple, entered by the system. For example, when a punch spans the midnight divide, a purple punch ends the first day and starts the next day at 12:00. at midnight to end one day and start another. You can, however, specify a time other than midnight for the day divide in the fixed rule. If you do this, the system will still display purple phantom punches The entries on a timecard that mark the beginning (in-punch) or end (out-punch) of a work interval, such as the beginning of a shift or transfer. at midnight to end one day and start another. The totals and the Rules Analysis tool reflect the correct day divide, but the timecard displays phantom punches. - Time deducted from holiday credit — Specify how worked hours affect holiday credits.
- None — Worked time does not affect the holiday credit.
- Amount worked — Reduces the holiday credit by the amount of time that the employee worked during the holiday.
- Entire credit — Eliminates the holiday credit if the employee works during the holiday.
- Holiday worked hours belong to — Specify where holiday hours belong.
- Use fixed rule setting — Use the Hours belong to option in the fixed rule to allocate hours worked.
- Scheduled in-day — If a scheduled shift begins on the holiday, the employees receive holiday credits.
- Scheduled out-day — If a scheduled shift ends on the holiday, the employees receive holiday credits for the entire shift.
- Day with majority worked hours — If the majority of worked hours in a shift occur on the holiday, the employees receive holiday credits for the entire shift.
- Day actually worked — The employees receive holiday credits only for those hours that fall within the holiday zone.
- Requires approval — Select if the action requires approval.
Use this zone type if a specific day of the week always earns a higher rate of pay. This type is referred to as Day of Week overtime, or Specific Day overtime.
Use the following information to set up a days of week zone type.
- Days of the week — The days of the week to which the zone applies.
- Zone applies to — Select one of the following:
- Hours Worked Between Day Divides — Any hours worked on the specified day between 12:00am and 11:59pm (assuming a 12:00am Day Divide) earn the overtime day rate. This method is common in organizations where employees do not work shifts that cross the Day Divide. Select this option to have the zone apply for the entire shift.
- Hours Applying to Day — The zone applies only to a specific day or days, based on the Hours Belong to option in the Fixed rule. Hours Belong to specifies the day that hours count to when a shift crosses the Day Divide.
- Requires approval — Select if the action requires approval.
Use this zone type to enable employees to earn shift differentials during certain portions of the day. Specify minimum amounts of time that employees are required to work during the zone or during their shifts to qualify for the differential. Except for the start and end times, the qualifying options are all optional.
- All qualifiers can be defined separately.
- Any shift worked within the zone that satisfies all the qualifiers earns the differential rate.
- Rounded Rounding is a way to simplify payroll accounting and reporting, and to enforce shift start and end times. Punch rounds divide hours into equal segments of an hour. time is used to determine whether the shift satisfies the minimum.
- Hours within the early or late expansion margins do not count toward the minimum in a zone qualifier.
- A punch must be within the expansion margin for the time to accrue at the differential rate.
- Rounded time is used to determine whether a punch falls within the early or late expansion margin.
- All of the qualifiers are defined as a time of day. Employees must satisfy all of the qualifiers before they can earn Daily Shift Differential.
- Start — The beginning of the zone. Employees must punch in at or after this time to qualify for the zone.
- End — The end of the zone. Employees stop accumulating zone hours at the End time.
- Minimum Hours — The minimum time required to qualify for the shift differential.
- Within zone — The minimum amount of time worked to qualify for the shift differential. Rounded punches are compared to this minimum. Any time worked within expansion margins is not included. Employers can use this feature to prevent employees from earning a higher pay rate if their regular shifts briefly enter the zone.
- Within shift — The amount of time that an employee's rounded shift length must equal to qualify for the shift differential.
- Expansion Margins — The amount of time before or after the zone that employees can still earn a shift differential. Hours worked during the expansion margins do not count toward the zone minimum. Employees must meet the zone and shift length requirements.
- Early — The amount of time before the zone start time that counts toward the shift differential.
- Late — The amount of time after the zone end time that counts toward the shift differential.
- Qualifiers — Select from the following:
- Based on — Specify whether actual punches or scheduled start times are compared to the Must Start or Must End times.
- Select Unscheduledto allow unscheduled employees to earn this type of zone hour.
- Select a Must Start Work or Must End Work option to specify a specific time of day during which employees must punch in or punch out. Select one or both of the following:
- At or After — Employees are required to start or end their shifts at or after the time specified.
- At or Before — Employees are required to start or end their shifts at or before the time specified.
The weekend differential establishes an extended period during which employees can earn overtime. For example, in a hospital, the weekend differential starts at 11:00 PM on Friday night (to match the start of the third shift) and ends Monday morning at 7:00 AM. Any nurse who works a shift in this zone earns a higher rate of pay.
- Any shift worked within the zone that satisfies all the qualifiers earns the weekend differential rate.
- If you define both minimum qualifiers, the shift must satisfy both before the weekend rate is earned.
- Rounded time is used to determine whether the shift satisfies the minimums.
- Hours within the early or late expansion margins do not count toward the minimum in zone qualifiers.
- A punch must be within the expansion margins for the time to accrue as weekend. (These qualifiers work just like the daily shift differential qualifiers.)
- Rounded time is used to determine whether a punch falls within the early or late expansion margins.
- Shifts can be scheduled or unscheduled.
- The Must start work and Must end work qualifiers reference the selected start and end days.
- Weekend differential takes precedence over the Hours belong to option.
Use the following information to set up a weekend differential.
- Start Time and Start Day — Set the time and day to identify the beginning of the weekend zone. The default is 12:00 A.M. on Saturday.
- End Time and End Day — Set the time and day to identify the end of the weekend zone. The default is 12:00 A.M. on Monday.
- Minimum Hours — The minimum amount of time to qualify for the weekend differential:
- Within zone — The minimum amount of worked time required to qualify for the weekend differential. Rounded punches are compared to this minimum. Time worked during expansion margins is not included. Employers can use this feature to prevent employees from earning a higher pay rate if their regular shifts briefly enter the zone.
- Within shift — The length of an employee's rounded shift required for the weekend differential.
- Expansion Margins — The amount of time before and after the zone that qualifies for the weekend differential. Employees are required to meet the zone and shift length requirements. Hours worked during the expansion period do not count toward the zone minimum.
- Early — The amount of time before the zone start time that counts toward the weekend differential.
- Late — The amount of time after the zone end time that counts toward the differential.
- Qualifiers — Select qualifiers if an employee's actual punch or schedule is used to compare to the Must Start Work and Must End Work times. Select from:
-
- Based on — Specify whether actual punches or scheduled start times are compared to the Must Start Work or Must End Work times.
- Select Unscheduled to allow unscheduled employees to also earn this type of zone hour.
- Must Start Work or Must End Work — Specify a specific time of day during which employees are required to punch in or punch out. Select one or both of the following:
- At or After — Employees are required to start or end their shifts at or after the time specified.
- At or Before — Employees are required to start or end their shifts at or before the time specified.