How to manage break policies

How to manage break policies#

For: Admin You’ll need: The break rules your jurisdiction asks for, or a pack to start from.

You’ll create a break policy, decide what it does, fill it with break rules and have a work policy pick it. Duplicating and deleting a policy are covered at the end.

Open the break policies list#

  1. In the sidebar, go to Company → Policies & rules → Break policies.

Each row shows the policy’s name, how it groups work, its check tolerance (‘Off’ while recorded breaks aren’t checked) and its missed-break pay, with the number of rules it holds and of work policies that pick it. Add the pack or any other setting as a column with ‘Manage columns’, filter by grouping, missed-break pay or pack, and click a column header to sort.

Create a break policy#

  1. Click ‘Create’ in the top-right (on an empty list, the button reads ‘Create break policy’).

  2. Fill in ‘Name’ — for example the jurisdiction the policy implements.

  3. In ‘Start from’, keep the empty choice for a policy with the default settings and no rules, or pick a pack to copy a jurisdiction’s rules and settings. The pack’s note appears under the choice — read it. See How to set up breaks for a US state.

  4. Click ‘Save’.

The policy’s page opens. Beside its settings it lists the pack it came from, its ‘Break rules’ and the ‘Work policies’ that pick it.

Decide what the policy does#

  1. On the policy’s page, answer the questions: how work is grouped, whether restricted breaks count, how breaks are recorded, whether recorded breaks are checked and whether a missed break owes extra pay. See What the break policy settings do.

  2. Click ‘Save’.

A follow-up question appears only where its answer does something — ‘Day starts at’, for example, only for the two calendar-day groupings.

Add break rules#

  1. On the policy’s page, click ‘Create break rule’ under ‘Break rules’.

  2. Fill in the rule and click ‘Save’. You’re back on the policy’s page. See How to manage break rules.

A policy without rules owes no breaks — its page says “No rules yet: this policy owes no breaks.”

Have a work policy pick it#

A break policy does nothing until a work policy picks it.

  1. Go to Company → Policies & rules → Work policies and click the work policy.

  2. In its ‘Breaks’ section, choose the policy in ‘Break policy’.

  3. Click ‘Save’.

See How to manage work policies.

Duplicate a break policy#

  1. On the policy’s page, click ‘Duplicate’ in the top-right.

  2. Fill in a new ‘Name’ and click ‘Save’.

The copy has the original’s settings and pack, and the same rules — shared, not copied. Editing one of those rules changes it in both policies.

Delete a break policy#

  1. On the policy’s page, click ‘Delete’ and confirm in the dialog.

A policy that a work policy picks can’t be deleted — “Can’t delete — 1 work policy picks this break policy. Pick another one there first.” Deleting a policy also deletes the rules no other policy holds, except a rule someone waived: it stays, in no policy, so its waiver history is kept.

To delete several policies at once, tick their checkboxes on the list — or open the ▾ menu in the selection column header and choose ‘Select all pages’ — then click ‘Delete selected’ below the table and confirm with ‘Delete item’. Policies that a work policy picks are kept, and the message says how many.

Verify it worked#

The policy is in the list with its number of rules, and the work policy’s page names it under ‘Breaks’. Open a shift for someone under that work policy: its validation lists the policy’s breaks.