Virtual TimeClock Knowledge Base

Split Shifts

While Virtual TimeClock is not necessarily designed to handle split shifts, you can use the Display Group shift settings to apply shift rules based on the time of day employees begin work. This article will explain how to handle split shifts in Virtual TimeClock.

About Split Shifts
The term split shift is a way to describe a worker’s shift that is disrupted for an extended period of time and the employee returns to work later in the day; they do not work one continuous shift for their workday. This is especially popular in industries like retail, hospitality, and manufacturing where employees often have multiple shifts. Some common split shift times are morning, evening, or overnight. For example, an employee can work a morning shift then come back for an evening shift. Most companies consider this a different shift because their time off the clock is not a meal break, but rather it is an extended break in the middle of a workday.

Overtime and Split Shifts
The main concern with shift rules is that overtime hours are calculated correctly and according to the laws. For most industries, a split shift is considered two separate shifts and therefore overtime does not apply, but confirm the laws in your area. Learn more about overtime settings in the Overview of Overtime article.

Setting Up and Assigning Shifts for Split Shifts

  1. You will need to create a shift in Virtual TimeClock for your split shift workers. If you're new to creating shifts, follow the steps in our how to create shifts Knowledge Base article to set up a shift for your split shift workers.
Note: You will likely need to create multiple shifts with the appropriate shift rules for each time of day your workers begin a new shift. After your workers have been clocked out for a specified number of hours, the time clock considers their clock in as a new shift, so you must create multiple shifts.
  1. After your shift is configured you need to assign it to a group of users. Follow the steps in our how to assign shifts Knowledge Base article. Read the section about assigning shifts to groups of users. If you use multiple display groups, you must assign the shifts to each display group.

Configuring Other Time Clock Settings
There are two important settings in the time clock you need to review in order for split shift hours to be totaled and displayed correctly on your employee timecards.

  1. Select Turn Administration On from the File menu.
  2. Select Time Settings from the Configure menu.
  3. Review the Time & Overtime Calculations settings.
    1. _ hours clocked out before restarting daily totals. This setting controls how daily overtime totals are calculated for multiple daily shifts. It determines how much time a worker needs to be off the clock before the daily totals are restarted. By default, daily totals restart after 6 hours. You can change this to a smaller or larger number in order for overtime hours to be calculated correctly.
      • If you set it to 6 hours before daily totals restart, then as long as an employee clocks out and back in within 6 hours, Virtual TimeClock will still consider that as one shift and apply the daily overtime rule assigned to the employee.
      • If it is set to 6 hours and your employee punches out and then punches back in after 6 hours, Virtual TimeClock considers this the start of a new shift and restarts daily overtime calculations.
Time Settings in Virtual TimeClock showing Hours off the clock setting
  1. Include hours worked past midnight with prior day. See the Overnight Shifts article in our Overtime Knowledge Base section for more information about overnight shifts and how they impact overtime calculations.

As you can see the Virtual TimeClock Shifts feature can be utilized a variety of ways including to create specific shifts for your split shift workers.

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