Breaks Maintenance

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The Breaks Maintenance screen is used to create and maintain rules which apply to breaks that the employees of your organisation may take (e.g. lunch breaks, coffee breaks, designated smoke breaks).

Periods of grace can also be applied to breaks to ensure that employees clock in and out accordingly, and penalties may apply if an employee takes no break, or takes less time for their break than they should (this typically applies to organisations which operate flexitime).

Breaks can also be assigned to specific work patterns.

How do I define a break?

Click New.

Enter a Code. This must be a unique identifier and can be up to six alphanumeric characters.

Enter a Description.

Select the Break Type, a fixed period, a number of hours and minutes or a flexitime amount.

If the break type is period or flexi, enter the Start and End time. If the period type is hours, enter Hours Before and Deduct After. Hours Before is the minimum amount of time that the employee must work in that shift before they can take the break. Deduct After is the amount of time before the break is deducted.

Click Save.

The following additional fields are available:

Tick Paid Break if the break is a paid break.

Tick Must Clock if the employee must clock out and in at the start and end of the break respectively.

If required, you can select grace periods in In Grace and Out Grace. Grace periods are defined on the Grace/Penalties Maintenance screen.

If the employee is to be automatically clocked out at the start of the break, select the appropriate Auto-Out setting and, where applicable, the Auto-Out Time.

For period or hours break types, you can tick Record Undertaken if you want Optimum to record the breaks that are taken.

For hours break types only, tick Continuous if continuous hours are required before the break.

For flexi break types only, select the Penalty Type and the amount of Penalty time which is applied if the break rules are broken. You can also set the maximum time allowed for the break in Max. Break.

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