What's covered in this guide?:
📝 New break rules layout
Some accounts now use a new layout for break rules, where breaks don’t add up. Other accounts still use the old layout, where a shift gets every break it’s long enough for.
Accounts are being moved to the new layout gradually. To check which one you have, go to Settings > All Settings > Shift Breaks and edit a rule set. If you see Add rule group, you’re on the new layout (see Rule groups). If you see Add rule, you’re on the old layout.
When your account is moved, your shifts get the same breaks as before. To keep the old behaviour, each break is copied into every longer rule group it applied to, so your rule sets may show more rows than before. When your rule sets are converted:
Two rules set 0.01 hours apart (for example, 10.5 and 10.51 hours) so that a shift got both are combined into one rule group at the shorter shift length.
Breaks already on past rotas and timesheets don’t change.
New rule sets use the new layout.
Automatic breaks
Automatic breaks are set up as break rules, grouped into break rule sets, under Settings > All Settings > Shift Breaks.
Once they’re set up, Workforce.com adds the right paid or unpaid breaks to shifts based on how long the shifts are. This lets you:
Include breaks in schedule costs without entering exact break times
Show staff which breaks they need to take
Add breaks to timesheets automatically when staff forget to clock them
How automatic breaks work
Each break rule sets out:
How long a shift must be before the break applies
How long the break is, in minutes
Whether the break is paid or unpaid
Whether staff must clock the break for it to appear on their timesheet
When a scheduled shift reaches the shift length in a rule, the break is added to the shift automatically.
Unpaid breaks are deducted from the shift’s scheduled hours.
Paid breaks don’t change the scheduled hours.
Automatic and manual breaks can’t be combined on the same shift. Adding a manual break to a shift removes all of its automatic breaks. Deleting the manual break brings the automatic breaks back.
Example
A rule says: shifts of 6 hours or longer get a 30 minute unpaid break, with no clock-in required.
Shift | Break applied | Scheduled hours |
9:00am – 2:45pm (5h 45m) | None | 5h 45m |
9:00am – 3:00pm (6h) | 30 min unpaid | 5h 30m |
9:00am – 3:15pm (6h 15m) | 30 min unpaid | 5h 45m |
Turn on break rules
Click the Settings cog, then All Settings, and select Shift Breaks. This opens the Breaks Settings page. Under Automatic breaks:
Tick Enable break rules.
Optionally, tick:
Require staff to nominate which break they are taking. When staff clock a break, they choose which break it is from the rules that apply to them. With this ticked, you can also tick Enforce minimum break durations, so staff can’t clock back in until the full break length has passed.
Paid meal breaks are worked time. Time spent on paid meal breaks counts towards overtime rules.
Click Save.
The Break rule sets section appears once break rules are enabled.
Create a break rule set
Every account has a Default rule set. It applies to everyone whose shifts don’t match a more specific rule set. To create another one, click Add new rule set in the Break rule sets section. To change an existing rule set, expand it and click Edit.
Who this applies to
Choose who the rule set applies to with any combination of:
Awards: employees on the selected awards
Award tags: employees with the selected tags
Age range: Apply to all age ranges, or Apply to a specific age range with a minimum and/or maximum age
Below these, a link shows how many employees the rule set applies to, for example Applies to 12 employees. It updates as you make changes, and you can click it to see who’s included. A rule set with no awards, award tags or age range applies to nobody.
Options: breaks on rotas/schedules have times
Tick Breaks on rosters have times if breaks should appear on schedules with set start and finish times, not just as a length.
When this is ticked, you can also set a buffer: Breaks cannot start or finish in the first or last X hours of the shift. Enter a value up to 2 hours; decimals such as 1.5 work too. For example, with a 1 hour buffer, a 12pm–5pm shift can’t have a break before 1pm or after 4pm.
Adding break rules
Under Break Rules, click Add rule and fill in:
Name (optional), such as “Meal break”
Shift length (hrs): how long the shift must be before the break applies
Break length (mins)
Paid Break: records the break as paid on the roster and timesheet
Paid Meal Break: available once Paid Break is ticked. The break won’t count as time worked and clears missed meal break penalties.
Clock In Required: the break is only added to the timesheet if the employee clocks it
To remove a rule, click the red bin icon. Click Save rule set when you’re done.
Each rule applies once the shift reaches its shift length, so a long shift can get several breaks. For example, say you have two rules:
shifts of 4 hours or more get a 10 minute paid break
shifts of 6 hours or more get a 30 minute unpaid break
A 7 hour shift gets both breaks.
Advanced settings: only apply within the first N hours
Click Advanced settings under a rule to see Only apply within first N hours. Use it to require the break to start at or before a certain number of hours into the shift. For example, enter 5 if a meal break must start within the first 5 hours of work.
Rule groups
Some accounts see Add rule group instead of Add rule. Each rule group has a shift length and lists every break that shifts of that length get. A shift only gets the breaks in the longest rule group it reaches; breaks don’t add up across groups.
To build a group, click Add rule group, enter the shift length, then click Add break for each break in that group.
Rule set priority and overlapping rule sets
An employee can match more than one rule set. When that happens, the highest-priority rule set applies.
Custom rule sets are numbered, and Set 1 has the highest priority.
The Default rule set always has the lowest priority.
New rule sets are added at the bottom, above the Default rule set.
To change the order, drag a rule set by the dots on its left. The numbers update automatically.
If some employees in a rule set also match a higher-priority rule set, you’ll see a warning: “Some employees also match a higher-priority rule set”. Click View employees to see who is affected. Those employees get the higher-priority rule set.
Breaks on schedules
Automatic breaks are added to a shift once it has both a start and finish time.
To see a shift’s breaks, click the shift and check the shift summary.
You can also click the three dots on the shift card and select Edit Breaks.
Breaks only show start and finish times if Breaks on rosters have times is ticked for the rule set.
Schedule warnings for breaks
When a shift’s breaks don’t meet its rule set, the schedule can show warnings such as:
Not Enough Breaks
Not Long Enough Breaks
Break(s) Too Early / Break(s) Too Late
Breaks Not In Bounds: the break falls inside the buffer at the start or end of the shift
Breaks Start Before: the break doesn’t start within the hours set in Only apply within first N hours
Breaks on timesheets
Break details appear on the right side of each timesheet shift, including:
Total break time, paid and unpaid
The number of automatic, paid and manual breaks
View breaks on approved timesheets, or Edit breaks on unapproved timesheets
On the timesheet’s colored bar, unpaid breaks show in gray. Paid breaks aren’t shown on the bar.
Breaks with Clock In Required ticked only appear on the timesheet if the employee clocks them.
Automatic breaks on back-to-back shifts
When an employee works back-to-back shifts on the same day, automatic breaks are based on the total time worked across those shifts, not each shift on its own. This covers task-based scheduling or working across several teams.
Shifts count as back-to-back when the gap between them is 60 minutes or less. That gap counts as an unpaid break. If the gap is long enough to cover a required unpaid break, no extra unpaid break is added.
For example, say shifts of 4 hours or more need a 30 minute unpaid break. If the gap between two back-to-back shifts is only 15 minutes, the 30 minute break is still added elsewhere in the shifts.
What employees see
In the mobile app, employees can see the total break time for each shift with breaks. If Breaks on rosters have times is ticked, they also see break start and finish times.
When an employee submits a missing shift in the app, they see an Automatic Breaks Warning: “If no manual breaks are added, the shift will automatically apply breaks where applicable.”
FAQs
Why does a shift have an automatic break when the employee didn’t take one?
Why does a shift have an automatic break when the employee didn’t take one?
Automatic breaks are added whenever no break is recorded. Adding a manual break to the shift removes the automatic breaks.
Can I limit automatic breaks to one per shift?
Can I limit automatic breaks to one per shift?
Break rules stack, so a shift gets every break it qualifies for. To make sure a shift only ever gets one break, set up your rule set with a single rule. For example, “shifts 6 hours or longer get a 30-minute unpaid break”. Longer shifts will then still only receive one break.
How do I set different break rules for different teams or departments?
How do I set different break rules for different teams or departments?
Create a separate rule set for each group in Settings > All Settings > Shift Breaks.
Each rule set can apply to staff based on their earnings template, earnings tags or age. To target a department, make sure those staff share an earnings tag or template, then pick it when you create the rule set. Anyone who doesn’t match a specific rule set uses the Default set.
How do I give longer breaks for longer shifts? (one rule set with several tiers)
How do I give longer breaks for longer shifts? (one rule set with several tiers)
Add more than one rule to the same rule set. Break rules stack, so a shift gets every break it qualifies for. For example:
Shifts 4 hours or longer: 10-minute paid break
Shifts 6 hours or longer: 30-minute unpaid break
A 7-hour shift would get both breaks, 40 minutes in total. If you only ever want a shift to get one break, use a single rule, such as “shifts 6 hours or longer get a 30-minute unpaid break.”
What happens if an employee matches more than one break rule set?
What happens if an employee matches more than one break rule set?
An orange warning appears on the affected rule set, showing which employees overlap and which set will apply. Only one rule set applies to each employee, decided by priority: Set 1 has the highest priority, and the Default set always comes last. To change the order, drag a rule set by its six-dot handle. New rule sets start at the lowest priority, just above Default.
Why didn’t an automatic break appear on a timesheet? (for example, clock-in was required)
Why didn’t an automatic break appear on a timesheet? (for example, clock-in was required)
Check the following:
The shift is long enough. It must meet the rule’s minimum length. For example, a 5h 45m shift won’t trigger a “6 hours or longer” rule.
The shift has a start and end time. Breaks are only added once both are entered.
There’s no manual break on the shift. Manual and automatic breaks can’t be used together, so adding a manual break removes the automatic ones. Delete the manual break and the automatic breaks come back.
The right rule set applies. The employee may match a higher-priority rule set with different rules.
Clock-in requirements. Check whether the rule set requires breaks to be clocked before they’re added to the timesheet.