Set attendance rules
This article explains how to configure attendance rules and how these rules can affect employee leave balances in Zenoti. You’ll learn how to define work hours, shifts, and attendance expectations for your organization, as well as how penalties or special leave adjustments are applied automatically. This guide also includes real examples of how the system calculates adjustments to leave balances based on attendance behavior.
Overview
Zenoti allows businesses to define attendance rules that determine how employee attendance affects leave balances. These rules can automatically apply penalties or make adjustments. By configuring attendance rules accurately, you can ensure fair and automated handling of attendance infractions and rewards.
Key terms
Attendance rule: A defined condition that checks for working day duration, early checkout, or late check-in.
Special leave adjustment: A positive or negative value added to the special leave balance based on attendance behavior.
Vacation days: The total number of annual leave days assigned to an employee.
Weekly offs: Scheduled days off per week as part of the employee’s shift configuration.
Prerequisites
Ensure that shift templates and weekly offs are configured for employees.
Vacation and special leave days must be assigned correctly in employee profiles.
At the organization level, click the Employee icon.
Go to Settings > Attendance Rules.
On the Define Attendance Rules page, in the Rule Name box, enter a name for the attendance rule.
In the For a list, select what the attendance rule is for: Working Day, Early Checkout, or Late Checkin.
In the boxes next to if attendance is between, select a time range for the rule in minutes.
Attendance rule type
Example
Working day
If you enter a time range of 480-540, the rule applies to employees who have worked between 8 to 9 hours on a day
Early Checkout
If you enter 30-60, the rule applies to employees who have checked out early by 30 to 60 minutes on a day.
Late Checkin
If you enter 30-60, the rules applies to employees who have checked in late by 30 to 60 minutes on a day.
Based on the type of attendance rule you are setting up, set up the penalty or special leave adjustment.
Click Add.
Attendance rule type | Value |
|---|---|
For early checkout and late check-in | In the Apply a penalty of box, add the corresponding penalty in terms of number days of leave. For example, if you want to deduct 0.5 days (half day) leave for checking in late by 60 mins, in the Apply a penalty of box, enter 0.5. |
For working day | in the Apply a special leave adjustment of box, enter a positive value to add to special leave balance, or negative value to deduct from the special leave balance. You can also enter decimal values. |
Note
Ideally, no two categories should overlap. However, Zenoti does not prevent you from setting up categories that overlap.
After you create the attendance rules, as employees check in/check out every day, the system applies the corresponding rule and the related benefits or penalties. You can see the leave balance from the Payroll > Attendance page.
In this scenario, an employee’s profile shows a leave balance of –6.58 and a special leave balance of –46. The system is configured to calculate attendance based on the schedule, and the employee’s profile includes 5 vacation days and 0 special leave days. However, the employee has taken 11 regular leave days and 46 special leave days since joining.
Zenoti calculates the regular leave balance by subtracting the 11 days taken from the 5 allocated, resulting in –6. If a partial accrual of 0.42 days is applied in the current month, the final balance becomes –6.58. For special leave, since no days were allocated but 46 were taken, the balance becomes –46.
The payroll report reflects these values as:
Leave balance: –6.58, since only 5 days were set in the profile but 11 were used.
Special leave balance: –46, because no days were allocated, but 46 were recorded as taken.
If employees should accrue leave monthly (e.g., 2 days per month), be sure to set the Vacation Days value in their profile to reflect the full annual entitlement (e.g., 24 for 2 days/month).
In another scenario, an employee’s special leave balance includes a +25 adjustment, which might seem unexpected. Here, the attendance calculation is set to Actual Check-In / Check-Out, and the organization allows 5 weekly offs per week. However, the employee’s schedule only records 0–1 weekly offs. The employee has 0 special leave days in their profile and has taken 46 special leave days overall.
Zenoti calculates the expected weekly offs as 5 weeks × 5 = 25 days. Since the system finds no weekly offs scheduled, it assumes 25 days were missed. These 25 missing weekly offs are credited back as an adjustment to offset the special leave taken.
As a result, the payroll report shows:
Special leave availed: 46, indicating the days the employee actually took.
Weekly off adjustment: +25, representing unused weekly offs being added as an adjustment.
Special leave balance: –21, calculated as 0 – 46 + 25 = –21.
Considerations
Adjustments like these are visible only after payroll is calculated.
It is important to ensure that weekly offs are properly scheduled in employee shifts to avoid incorrect deductions or penalties.
Attendance Details Report displays only what is explicitly scheduled; it does not reflect auto-adjustments made by the system after payroll processing.