The difference between Scheduled and Enforced Breaks
When it comes to setting up employee breaks in 7shifts, it's important to understand the difference between Scheduled Breaks and Enforced Breaks. This helps ensure your break setup aligns with your team’s needs and any applicable labor rules.
Scheduled Breaks are added directly to a shift during scheduling. They act as visual cues but aren’t enforced. Employees can technically work through them unless you're using Time Clocking settings with Auto-breaks enabled (Settings > Company Settings > Labor & Compliance > Breaks). This ensures that unpaid scheduled breaks are automatically deducted from reports.
Enforced Breaks, on the other hand, are part of 7punches and trigger automatically based on shift length. These are only possible when:
- The employee is working a scheduled shift
- The break is marked as Enforced in your break settings
If enforced, employees must take their break and won’t be able to punch back in early.
| Scheduled Breaks | Enforced Breaks |
|---|---|
| Added to a shift manually by Admins or Managers during scheduling | Automatically applied based on rules set under Time Clocking > Breaks |
| Act as visual cues on the Schedule for when breaks should be taken | Require employees to take the break, with enforcement triggered by 7punches |
| Optional and flexible—employees can choose to skip them | Mandatory—employees cannot punch back in early if a break is enforced |
| Only deducted from labor costs if Auto-breaks are enabled | Automatically deducted from worked hours when break is enforced |
| Do not require the employee to be on a scheduled shift | Only apply if the employee is working a scheduled shift |
| Do not block punch actions | Will block early punch-ins if the break hasn’t been fully taken |