Handling Lunch Breaks with Virtual TimeClock

How to handle lunch breaks with your time clock software can be tricky business. It depends partly on your time and attendance rules, and partly on how you want your payroll reports to look. We'll look at 3 ways to handle lunch breaks using Virtual TimeClock software.

1. One option is to clock out completely for lunch breaks. This means time tracking completely stops while you're away. You would start work in the morning, stop work when it's time for lunch, start work again for your afternoon shift, and stop work at the end of the day. Your timecard entries may look something like this:

Start Stop Activity Regular

7:55 AM 12:00 PM In 4:05

1:00 PM 5:01 PM In 4:01

You'll end up with 2 timecard entries for the day.

2. Another option is to use the built-in worker lunch break functionality. This allows time tracking to continue even while you're at lunch, and you just have to decide if lunch is unpaid, paid, or only paid until a certain time threshold is reached. Your timecard entries may look something like this:

Start Stop Activity Unpaid Regular

7:55 AM 12:00 PM In 4:05

12:00 PM 1:00 PM Lunch 1:00

1:00 PM 5:01 PM In 4:01

You'll end up with 3 timecard entries for the day, and of course this example assumes your lunch break is unpaid. This is great for knowing how much time workers are spending on lunch, which is especially useful when planning phone coverage.

3. A third option is to use automatic time deductions to deduct a defined amount of time after a certain number of hours are worked. Your timecard report may look something like this:

Start Stop Activity Unpaid Regular

7:55 AM 5:01 PM In 1:00 8:06

This leaves you with just 1 timecard entry per day. Automatic time deductions are always unpaid and can be different for each employee.

I hope that gives you some ideas on how to handle worker lunch breaks. You can mix and match any way you want. For example, you may want your office employees to clock in and out for lunch but use automatic lunch deductions for your warehouse workers.

Jeff Morrow

Redcort Software