Go2Clock: Understanding Shift Pattern Rules
Shift patterns are the foundation of how Go2Clock calculates hours, breaks and pay. This guide walks through every setting available within the Shift Pattern section, explaining what each one does and how it affects your reports. Use the menu below to jump straight to the section you need.
This is a reference guide covering every shift pattern setting in Go2Clock. Use the menu below to find the section you’re looking for rather than reading top to bottom.
Basic Rules
This section covers how each shift pattern is named, and the core start and finish times that define it.
Shift Identification Name
The shift name is used to identify the shift pattern when creating your pattern library. Most companies need multiple shift patterns to accommodate different working hours and shift types. A clear, consistent naming convention makes ongoing admin and maintenance easier.
Example
The image shows a shift pattern library where each pattern has been given a clear, descriptive name.
Shift Period Times
These settings dictate the expected start and finish times for the shift, and influence the behaviour of the shift rules applied to it. Add a start and end time and Go2Clock will automatically calculate the expected work hours for the shift.
If the shift spans beyond midnight, enable the Night Shift option beneath the start and end times. This ensures reports correctly calculate worked hours, overtime and attendance totals for night shift employees.
Allowed Clocking Time Window
This setting flags certain reports within Go2Clock if an employee clocks in or out within this window. It does not prevent employees from clocking outside the specified period on the devices or via the mobile web app.
We generally recommend setting this as the earliest and latest employees would be expected to clock, with companies without overtime eligibility typically defaulting to an hour before and after the scheduled shift.
Before/After Rules
This section covers how Go2Clock handles employees who clock in before a shift starts or clock out after it ends.
Deduct Early Arrival Time
When Deduct Early Arrival Time is enabled, any time worked before the official start of the shift is ignored and excluded from payroll calculations. The actual clocked times will still show in the report, anything before the shift is simply removed from the clocked working calculation.
Example
In both scenarios, the employee clocks in at 8:30am for a 9:00am shift and clocks out at 5:15pm. When Deduct Early Arrival Time is enabled, the employee is only paid from 9:00am, so the 30 minutes worked before the shift starts are ignored. When the setting is disabled, the report includes the full working hours from 8:30am to 5:15pm, as reflected by both totals.
Arrive Early Window
This setting creates a grace period before the shift starts. Any time worked within this window will not contribute towards either standard hours or overtime. However, if an employee clocks in earlier than the grace period, the additional time worked outside the window will contribute towards overtime up until the shift start time.
Example
The shift has an Arrive Early Window of 45 minutes. On Monday, the employee clocks in 30 minutes before the shift starts, which falls within the grace period — their hours are still calculated from the scheduled 9:00am start time. On Tuesday, the employee clocks in 1 hour early, exceeding the grace period. Because the employee clocked in outside the set window, the additional time before the shift is recognised and contributes towards overtime.
Deduct Minutes From Report Totals for Arriving Late
When the ‘Employees are allowed to be late on this shift’ toggle is disabled, employees who clock in after the shift start time are flagged as Late. This appears in both the tardy and legacy reports. When enabled, they’re instead shown as Allowed Late and are no longer flagged as late in the tardy report.
The ‘Minutes to automatically deduct when arriving late’ field allows an additional deduction to be applied for lateness, on top of the time already lost by arriving late. A grace period cannot be configured for this deduction, it applies to anyone who is late, even by a couple of minutes.
If you require employees to be marked as late without deducting any additional time, leave the toggle disabled and enter 0 minutes in the deduction field.
Example
In each scenario, the employee clocks in 15 minutes late. On Monday, the shift is configured to allow lateness, so the employee is marked as Allowed Late and their hours are calculated from 9:15am. On Tuesday, the employee is flagged as Late, but no additional deduction is applied, so their hours are still calculated from 9:15am. On Wednesday, the employee is flagged as Late with an additional 15-minute deduction configured. This results in the employee losing the original 15 minutes for arriving late, plus the configured 15-minute penalty.
Overtime Penalty When Arriving Late
When the ‘When employees are late overtime is no longer allowed’ toggle is enabled, employees who arrive late are prevented from accruing overtime for the shift.
The overtime grace period allows employees who arrive within a specified window to remain eligible for overtime. This grace period only works if employees are set to be flagged as late and the overtime penalty toggle is not enabled.
Example
The first scenario shows an employee who is permitted to arrive late, allowing them to remain eligible for overtime. The second scenario uses an Overtime Grace Period of 30 minutes, meaning employees who arrive within this period can still accrue overtime. In the final scenario, the employee arrives late with no grace period or permitted lateness, making them ineligible for overtime, only their standard working hours are calculated.
Leave Early Before Shift Ends
This setting allows employees to leave within a specified period
before the end of their shift while still receiving the rest of
their full expected working hours.
Example
In the first scenario, the shift allows employees to leave 30 minutes before the scheduled finish time while still being credited with their full expected work hours. Although the employee clocks out early, their hours are calculated up to the scheduled end of the shift. In the second scenario, the rule is disabled. The employee’s total hours are only calculated from their actual clock in and clock out times, resulting in fewer hours worked.
Leaving Late After Shift Ends
This setting creates a grace period after the end of a shift during which overtime will not be earned. Without this rule, employees who finish work a few minutes late each day would accumulate overtime.
Example
In the first scenario, the Clocking Out Window is set to 0 minutes, so the employee accrues overtime for the 2 minutes worked after their scheduled finish time of 5:15pm. In the second scenario, a 15-minute grace period has been configured, so the employee’s additional 2 minutes are ignored and do not contribute towards overtime. In the final scenario, the employee works beyond the 15-minute grace period, so the time worked after the grace period is recognised and contributes towards overtime.
Overtime Rules
This section covers how overtime is calculated, from switching it off entirely through to time-banded rates and premium overtime rules with qualifying hours.
Overtime Settings
Go2Clock offers four ways to control how overtime is calculated for a shift . From switching it off entirely, to treating all hours as overtime, to overriding the weekly overtime rule for this shift specifically. Each option is explained below.
No overtime is recorded regardless of the hours worked. Employees will only receive their standard shift hours.
Example
In the first scenario, overtime is enabled, so any hours worked beyond the employee’s standard shift contribute towards overtime. In the second scenario, overtime is disabled, meaning the employee is only credited with their standard shift hours, regardless of any additional time worked.
Every hour worked on the shift is treated as overtime. This is commonly used for overtime shifts that occur over the weekend.
Example
In both scenarios, the employee works the same number of hours. In the first scenario, the shift is configured so that all worked hours are treated as overtime and are recorded in the Overtime field. In the second scenario, the hours are treated as standard working hours instead.
All worked hours are converted into standard hours, even if employees work beyond their scheduled shift end time.
Example
The employee worked 11 hours, exceeding their scheduled shift length. With this setting enabled, all 11 hours were recorded as Standard Basic Hours, and none of the additional time is classified as overtime.
If you are using the Weekly Overtime Rule within the Legacy Report to calculate cumulative overtime, this option lets overtime be earned on this shift. It applies even if the employee has not yet reached their expected weekly hours.
Normally, the weekly overtime rule requires employees to work their standard contracted hours before additional hours begin contributing towards overtime. Enabling this override ignores this requirement and allows overtime to accrue daily instead, based on the shift rules configured.
Example
When the weekly overtime rule is enabled, the employee is expected to complete the 40 contracted hours that have been set. However, the employee is working a shift pattern on Tuesday that does not use the weekly overtime rule. This means the employee has qualified for 2.75 hours of overtime on the Tuesday shift.
Time Band Settings
Hours worked within the time band window are calculated at the time band rate rather than basic or overtime. This ignores existing shift rules and applies the time band rate to any hours within this period.
Time Bands can’t go over midnight and are only calculated on the Legacy Report. Hours worked within the time band will NOT count towards the daily overtime threshold.
Example
The shift includes a 2 hour Time Band. Any hours worked during this period contribute towards the Time Band total instead of being recorded as standard working hours.
Week End Premium Overtime Rule
The Week End Premium Overtime Rule allows employees to earn premium overtime once they have completed a specified number of hours within a defined qualification period.
This rule is only calculated within the v1 and v2_week_end_premium_overtime reports in the Legacy Reports section. Once an employee has been approved, the calculated premium overtime is exported to the Fixed Based Employee Payroll as a monetary value.
Determines how many hours an employee must work before they become eligible for premium overtime. If an employee does not reach this required number of hours they will not qualify for the premium overtime rate and all hours will be calculated as regular hours.
Determines the day from which the premium overtime rate can begin to be earned, provided the employee has met the required number of qualifying hours and once the Qualification Cut-off Time has been surpassed.
Determines the hourly overtime pay rate by taking the employee’s regular hourly pay. Go2Clock calculates this by taking the employee’s Regular Hourly Pay, set in the employee’s Pay Rates settings, and multiplying it by the set multiplier. The resulting hourly rate is then applied to any qualifying premium overtime hours worked.
Determines the time of day, on the set Premium Day, that employees can begin to earn premium overtime. Any hours worked up to the cut-off time are counted towards the employee’s standard working hours total, even if the required hours threshold has been met. If the employee has met or exceeded the required hours by the cut-off time, premium overtime will begin from the set point. If not, premium overtime will only unlock once the employee has completed the required hours.
The Premium Start Time defines when premium overtime becomes available for the Premium Day or following days worked. It allows premium overtime to accrue until the start of the next weekly payroll. The Premium End Time defines when the premium overtime period finishes. This is typically configured as 23:59 to ensure all overtime worked during the day is included.
For variations in the Premium Fixed Overtime Pay Rate Multiple during the week, you will need to set up separate shift patterns with the adjusted rate. The Premium Start Time and Premium End Time should also be set up for the days the pattern is assigned to. Saturday and Sunday, for example, can have different time periods. All other fields should remain the same amongst each shift pattern.
Example
The employee has completed the required qualifying hours before the set Qualification Cut-off Time. Because the employee has met the required threshold within the allowed period, any hours worked during the configured Premium Start Time and Premium End Time window are eligible for the premium overtime rate. Once approved, these premium overtime hours are exported into the Fixed Based Employee Payroll as a monetary value.
Example
The employee has not completed the required qualifying hours before the Qualification Cut-off Time. As the employee has not met the required threshold within the qualifying period, any hours worked during the premium period continue to be treated as standard hours. Once the required number of hours has been reached, this changes. Once the qualifying hours have been completed, any further eligible hours worked within the premium period can then be calculated at the premium overtime rate.
Break Rules
This section covers how breaks are deducted from worked hours, how clocked breaks are handled in reports, and how paid break entitlement is applied.
Compulsory Break Settings
There can be up to three automatic unpaid breaks configured for each shift, alongside two toggles controlling how and when they’re deducted from worked hours.
The left-hand field defines the break duration in minutes, while the right-hand field defines how many minutes must have been completed before the break becomes applicable.
These break rules are not cumulative. Once an employee qualifies for a higher break threshold, it replaces the lower break rather than being added to it. Unused break rules should be set to 0.
Example
The first scenario shows a shift with no automatic break deductions, so the employee is credited with all hours worked. In the second scenario, a 15-minute unpaid break is deducted once the employee has worked long enough to meet the configured threshold. The third and fourth scenarios demonstrate multiple break thresholds. As the employee works longer, they qualify for a larger break deduction, with each higher threshold replacing the previous deduction rather than being added to it.
When enabled, the unpaid breaks are deducted automatically from worked hours. If disabled, no automatic break deductions will occur. This only applies to the Legacy and Paid Break reports.
When enabled, unpaid breaks are deducted from standard hours only. When disabled, the rule deducts the break from overtime hours instead.
Ignore Clocked Breaks
When enabled, only the employee’s first clock and final clock are used to calculate worked hours. This option is commonly used where employees clock out for fire evacuation or monitoring purposes, but payroll requires a fixed unpaid break deduction regardless of actual break length.
If automatic break deductions are enabled, we generally recommend enabling this option to avoid break time being deducted twice.
Break clockings remain visible in the report, shown with a strike through to indicate they’ve been ignored when calculating total worked hours.
Break clockings are hidden entirely from the report, so only the employee’s first clock in and final clock out are displayed and used for the report calculations.
Example
In all three scenarios, the employee clocks out for a break between 12:00pm and 12:30pm. In the first scenario, Ignore Clocked Breaks is disabled, so the 30-minute break is deducted from the employee’s worked hours. In the second scenario, Calculate from First and Last Clocks Only is enabled, so the break clockings remain visible with a strike-through. In the final scenario, Calculate from First and Last Clocks and Hide Ignored is enabled, so only the employee’s first clock in and final clock out are displayed.
Paid Break Settings
Paid Break Settings only apply to the Paid Break Report and require Paid Break Rates to be configured.
Paid Break Rates should be configured to cover the different number of days an employee may work within the report period. This ensures Go2Clock can calculate the correct paid break entitlement based on the number of days the employee has worked. These can be set up by navigating to Settings > Paid Break Rates.
Example
The report is run on a weekly basis and the employee is entitled to 1 hour of paid lunch per working day. The Paid Break Rates have been configured to account for each possible number of working days within the week. If the employee works 4 days, the report calculates their entitlement as 4 hours of paid break.
When enabled, no paid break time is added to the report for this shift pattern.
Prevents the employee’s paid break entitlement from being applied to overtime shift patterns. This is useful where the shift represents an additional working period rather than a normal working day.
Prevents the employee’s paid break entitlement from being applied to half-day holiday shift patterns. This is useful where the shift represents a partial working period rather than a normal working day.
Example
In the first scenario, the employee is working their regular shift, so they’re entitled to the additional £10 paid break. In the second and third scenarios, the employee is working an overtime shift and a half-day holiday shift respectively. As these aren’t regular full working shifts, the paid break has been disabled for these patterns, so the additional £10 isn’t applied.
Holiday/Sick Rules
This section covers how half-day holiday and sick leave are configured as shift patterns, and how they’re recorded as paid or unpaid.
Half-day holiday and sick shifts should be created as separate shift patterns rather than modifying the standard shift. Otherwise this will result in holiday or sick hours being added to your regular working days. The clone function can be used to create a copy of your shift so you can enable holiday or sick settings to make the half-day pattern.
Half Day Holiday Settings
These settings determine how many hours of the shift are converted into holiday hours when a half-day holiday is taken. Half day holidays need to be set up as a shift so that shift rules still apply to the hours worked.
Half Day Sick Settings
These settings determine how many hours of the shift are converted into sick hours when a half-day sick is taken. As with half-day holidays, half day sick needs to be set up as a shift so that shift rules still apply to the hours worked.
Choose Between Paid or Unpaid Leave
When enabled, the holiday or sickness hours generated by this shift pattern are treated as unpaid leave.
Example
The first scenario shows an employee taking a paid half-day holiday, with 4 hours added to the Holiday total. The second scenario shows the same behaviour for a paid half-day sick absence, with the hours added to the Sick total. In the final scenario, the leave is configured as unpaid, so although the leave is recorded, the hours do not contribute towards the employee’s totals.
Rounding Rules
This section covers how clock times are rounded for reporting, and how overtime totals can be rounded separately from standard worked hours.
Clock Time Rounding
Time Rounding can be applied to employees’ clock times, rounding them to the chosen increment. This is commonly used to simplify payroll totals instead of calculating totals based on exact clock times. If you require reporting to be based on the exact minute, these options can be left blank.
The rounding applies to the report field’s status, not the clock status pushed from the device. Depending on which slot the clock record appears in on the report, that will decide what rounding applies.
Sets the rounding method applied separately to clock-in and clock-out times. Options include rounding up, down, or Directional with Grace. The IN Rounding in Mins and OUT Rounding in Mins fields set the increment each is rounded to.
Directional with Grace rounding uses the grace time settings below to round clockings down if they occur within the configured period, and up in the later half of the increment.
Setting the minutes to 0 is not allowed. To turn off rounding, change the ‘When Clocking’ dropdown to No Rounding instead.
The IN Grace Minutes and OUT Grace Minutes fields only apply when the rounding method above is set to Directional. They define the buffer period used to decide whether a clocking rounds down or up.
Enter only whole numbers for the minutes, for example 15 = 15 minutes. Decimals such as 15.5 are not allowed.
Example
In the first scenario, no time rounding is configured, so the employee’s clocking records and worked hours are calculated to the exact minute. In the second scenario, Directional with Grace rounding is configured with a 15-minute increment, causing clockings to round to the nearest 15 minutes based on the configured grace period. In the final scenario, Round Up is configured with a 15-minute increment, so every clocking rounds up to the next 15-minute interval, regardless of how many minutes past the interval the employee clocks.
Overtime Rounding
By default, overtime calculations inherit the standard Time Rounding rules configured for the shift. If overtime should be rounded differently from normal worked hours, separate Overtime Rounding rules can be configured here instead.
Unlike the standard Time Rounding settings, Overtime Rounding does not round the clock times displayed within the report. It’s only applied to the overtime totals calculated at the bottom of the report, leaving the employee’s recorded clockings and standard worked hours unchanged.
Sets the rounding method applied to the overtime total, for example rounding to the nearest block.
Sets the time interval overtime is rounded to.
For example, set to 15 to pay overtime in 15-minute blocks (0, 15, 30, 45 minutes).
A buffer applied before each rounding block. If the worked time falls within the grace period of a block, it rounds toward that block.
For example, with a 15-minute block size and a 3-minute grace period, 12 minutes worked would be rounded to 15 minutes.
Example
In the first reporting scenario, no overtime rounding is configured, so the employee’s overtime total is calculated using the exact amount of overtime worked.
Example
In the second reporting scenario, overtime rounding is configured to round to the nearest 30-minute increment. The employee’s overtime total is therefore rounded to the nearest 30-minute block.
Payroll Rates
This section covers how payroll rate codes are assigned to hours worked on a shift, and how additional pay elements like bonus rates and cash adjustments are configured.
Shift Pattern Payroll Rates
Assign a reference code for payroll reporting against each rate type: Normal Rate (time worked within the shift’s hours), Overtime Rate (time worked after the shift’s hours), Half Day Holiday Rate and Half Day Sick Rate (applied to half of the shift’s hours), and Time Band Rate (time worked within the time band window, set up in the Overtime tab).
Pay rate reference codes are managed from the Setup The List of Pay Rate Reference Codes button on this screen.
Example
The employee has completed a shift containing a combination of standard and overtime hours. Once the employee has been approved for payroll, the hours are allocated to the appropriate pay rate codes set up within the shift pattern and are displayed in the Shift Pattern Payroll Report. This report is then ready to be exported into the payroll software.
Bonus Rate
When Enable Bonus Rate is switched on, an additional payroll rate is applied to every hour worked on the shift. This can then be assigned a pay rate code so it can be exported to the Shift Pattern Payroll Report
Example
The employee has worked a combination of standard and overtime hours. The shift pattern has a bonus rate enabled, so the employee’s hours are also allocated to the Bonus pay rate. The standard and overtime hours remain allocated to their respective pay rates, while the same hours are additionally recorded against the bonus pay rate for payroll.
Cumulative Overtime Report Rate for This Shift
Determines which overtime field is populated within the cumulative report when an employee earns overtime. The selected field also affects which overtime rate is displayed within the Fixed Employee Based Payroll reports.
Example
The Cumulative Overtime Report Rate is set to x2. Any overtime earned on this shift is therefore allocated to the x2 overtime field within the Cumulative Overtime Report. When payroll is approved and exported, the overtime is also assigned to the corresponding x2 overtime rate within the Fixed Employee Based Payroll report.
Cash Adjustment
A Cash Adjustment allows a fixed monetary amount to be assigned to a shift. When an employee works the shift, the configured amount (Additional Flat Gross Pay Amount to Add to Shift) is added to their payroll regardless of the number of hours worked. This cash value is exported to the Fixed Based Employee Payroll as a monetary adjustment. If it also needs to appear within the Shift Pattern Payroll Report, a Pay Rate Code can be assigned via Cash Adjustment Rate for Payroll.
Cash Adjustment Hours to Add for Payroll determines how many hours are allocated against the selected Pay Rate Code for each shift worked. This lets the cash adjustment be represented as hours within the Shift Pattern Payroll Report, while retaining the monetary value for the Fixed Based Employee Payroll.
Example
The shift has a £10 Cash Adjustment configured, meaning the employee receives an additional £10 for each day they work the shift, regardless of hours worked. The Cash Adjustment Hours to Add for Payroll is set to 1 hour, so 1 hour is allocated to the selected Pay Rate Code within the Shift Pattern Payroll Report. Once approved, the Fixed Based Employee Payroll displays the £10 adjustment in the Cash Adjustment column, while the Shift Pattern Payroll Report records the equivalent 1 hour against the selected Pay Rate Code.
Zoned Timesheet Report Times & Pay rates
Zoned Rates allow up to four separate pay rates to be earned during predefined periods throughout the day. Unlike overtime calculations, these periods are fixed and not affected by other shift pattern rules. A single shift can be divided into multiple pay zones, each with its own payroll rate and pay rate multiplier.
This only works with the Zoned Report within the shift pattern reports.
Example
The employee works different hours throughout the week, with portions of each shift falling into different pay zones. The Zoned Report allocates the hours worked to the appropriate zone based on the configured time periods, allowing each section of the shift to be paid at its corresponding rate.
Extras
This section covers additional reporting features available within shift patterns.
Send a Tardy Report By Email
The Tardy Report can automatically email managers information about attendance for employees expected to work that shift on the current day. This is typically set to about one hour after the shift start time, to ensure absences and late arrivals are clearly separated.
The email field supports up to 100 characters, allowing multiple recipients to be entered as long as they’re separated by a comma and space. If you need more than two managers to receive the tardy report, we’d recommend setting up a default email that can automatically redirect the email to the relevant managers.
Example
At the configured time, managers receive an email summarising employee attendance for the shift. The email includes a CSV attachment containing each employee’s clock-in time together with their corresponding tardy status, allowing managers to quickly identify employees who were present, late or absent.
Need help configuring your shift patterns?
Get in touch and we’ll talk you through the settings and how they apply to your business.
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