Breaks using 7punches

If you are using 7punches, you can enable the ability for Employees to clock in / out for their breaks in order to remain compliant with your regional labor requirements.

Enabling Breaks

Here's how to enable this in your 7shifts account:

1. Head to Time Clocking > Settings.

2. Scroll down and check the box next to Allow breaks.

3. Once the breaks feature is enabled, you can select your break type. Choose if all your breaks will be Paid or Unpaid. 


Please note that all breaks are labeled simply in-app as "Break," without specifying if they are paid or unpaid.

4. Be sure to click Save at the bottom of the page.

Custom & Enforced Breaks

If you would like some breaks to be paid and others to be unpaid, select Custom / Enforceable when enabling the Breaks feature. 

1. To select your Break type, click the drop-down menu and select your preferred type.

2. Click + Add break and fill in the following requirements to adhere to your labor laws:

• Break type - 'Paid' or 'Unpaid.'
• Break name - This will be what's listed for employees to choose from when punching in / out for their breaks.
• Break length - The number of minutes this break should be.
• Shift length - The number of hours an employee needs to be scheduled for it to quality for this break. This setting determines when enforced breaks are automatically triggered.
• Enforced - Select if the break is mandatory for employees to take. Enforced breaks in 7punches are automatically triggered when an employee's scheduled shift duration meets the shift length criteria defined within the break settings.
  
  We will notify your managers currently working with a push notification (Break Alert) if your employees are at risk of missing these mandatory breaks.
  ⚠️ Custom breaks will appear as options for employees based on their scheduled shift's duration.
  ⚠️ An 'Enforced Break' is only possible when the employee is punched in for a scheduled shift. If the employee is punched in without a scheduled shift, the 'Enforced Break' will not apply. 

3. Click Save when you're done.

Employee Perspective

At the beginning of their shifts, Employees clock in as they normally would with their unique punch ID. When it's time for their break, the Employee will punch in again and will be presented with this screen: 

Once the Employee returns from their break, they simply punch in again and will see how long they were on break for:

Admin & Manager Perspective

Admins, as well as Managers with the 'Can manage time punches' permission enabled, can see the breaks (paid or unpaid) as they happen. To see this, head to Time Clocking then select the appropriate Pay Period.

Active breaks:

Completed break:

Break Time and Labor Hours

When an employee takes a break, is that time subtracted from their worked labor hours? How are breaks applied when they are taken over more than one Day Part?

Paid Breaks (not over 2 Day Parts):

• No time is subtracted from labor hours worked.

Paid Breaks (over 2 Day Parts):

• Punching in and out for breaks is not tracked the same way as punching in and out for a shift.
• No time is subtracted from labor hours worked, and the first punch remains as the start of the shift.

Example: If a location has an AM day part from 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM and a PM day part from 12:01 PM - 3:00 PM, and an employee punches in at 8:00 AM, then takes a paid break from 11:45 AM - 12:10 PM, their shift start time will stay at 8:00 AM, and no break time will be subtracted.

Unpaid Breaks (not over 2 Day Parts):

• Break time is subtracted from labor hours worked.

Unpaid Breaks (over 2 Day Parts):

• The break time is subtracted exactly by the time of the break that falls in each day part.

Example: If a location has an AM day part from 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM and a PM day part from 12:01 PM - 3:00 PM, and an employee punches in at 8:00 AM, then takes an unpaid break from 11:45 AM - 12:10 PM, their shift start time will stay at 8:00 PM. 15 minutes of worked labor will be subtracted from the AM day part, and 9 minutes of worked labor will be subtracted from the PM day part.

Does Day Part rounding have an impact?

• No. Rounding only considers the clock in/out time of punches, not breaks.

Worked Hours and Wages Report

In addition to viewing the recorded breaks from the Pay period, you can see breaks (paid or unpaid) on the Worked Hours & Wages Report. You can find this data by going to Reports > Worked Hours & Wages > Get Report.