The ‘calendar days’ include all days. Working days, holidays, non-working days, weekends  – basically all 7 days in a week.  This means that holidays and Sundays, for example, are valid as vacation days. If working days are used, then weekly holidays and non-working days are not counted as vacation days.

Note: Are you sure about using calendar days for vacation instead of working days? Please double check if you are allowed to do so and if you’re aligned with your Government Rules. This change has an effect on all vacation days from this year and in the future. 

Changing Attendance Time Template

• Click on the upper arrow to open the list of templates available for you.
• If you want to edit a template, just click on the ‘pencil’ icon.
• If you want to delete a template, just choose the department name assigned to it and click on the ‘x’.
• You can also “clone” existing templates, so you will keep the settings and can adjust it for a new staff-attendance template.
• To add a new attendance template, just click the ‘+ add new’ button.

Note: You cannot create more than 20 attendance templates.

After clicking the  ‘+ add new’, name your template with the right department name, as you wish. If you want to change the new department to the ‘default’ one, just switch the button on, as shown below.

Note: The highest priority has the ‘personal attendance template’. When you didn’t assign the team member with a personal attendance template – but the member is in a team – the team/departments attendance template will be assigned to the member. If you didn’t either assigned one of those, the “company attendance template’ will be assigned to the member. 

• If there isn’t selected a template and the member isn’t assigned to a team, then the member will use the ‘Company Default Template’
• If there is selected a special template and the member is/isn’t (doesn’t matter) assigned to a team – in these two cases the member will use the ‘selected special template’ ( hint: if there is selected a template, then it’s high priority)
• If there isn’t selected a template but the members is assigned to a team, then the member will use the ‘Team Special Template’ (if a special template is assigned to the team)

Next, in order to connect your staff to the right department rules, simply go to ‘Contacts’ -> ‘Staff’ -> choose your staff member and pick the correct department below.

In order to connect a ‘team’ to a specific department, simply go to ‘contacts’ -> ‘teams’ -> ‘update team’ and choose the department, which you want to connect with the team.

If some users in your team are in a special attendance template, then you can see the info here:

Vacation entitlement when switching template

So if the users attendance template has changed, zistemo will recalculate the vacation days pro-rata to the year and employee’s vacation days will be updated.

Example:
Vacation days from user profile: 25
Vacation days from new template: 19
Current date 18.05.2020 – day in the year = 139th day
Days in current year (2020) – 366 Days

Template #1: 25 Days
Template #2: 19 Days
Already taken vacation days: 12,5 Days

Calculation:
(25/366) x 139 -12,5 = -3,005
(19/366) X 227 – 3,005 = 8,779 Days

Rounding:
Zistemo round it up to 0.5 if it’s more than 0.1 and rounds to full day after 0.6

Manually changed vacation

If some admin did manual changes to the user’s vacation days, you will be asked how zistemo should proceed regarding of vacation days. You have three options:

• Calculate pro rata of the year: zistemo calculates vacation days from the new template for the user as explained above
• Keep current amount of vacation days: Amount of vacation days won’t be touched, it stays the same
• Apply vacation days from new template: In this case the user’s vacation days will be changed to the default value form the new template. It won’t be calculated pro rata to the ear.

In any case you will see a preview of how many vacation days the user will have in each case

Clock-in Rules

1. If you want to ‘activate’ the ‘mobile clock in rules’ you have to switch the function ‘on’, so far the user clock in/out on a web app and then use the mobile when already clocked in.
2. Here you can add a new Clock in Rule template or edit the current one and switch between them.
3. You can add here new geofences. Read the steps below.
4. You can also ‘activate’ or ‘deactivate’ each geofence.
5. Here you can ‘edit’ or ‘delete’ one of your geofences.
6. If you want to ‘activate’ the ‘Network clock in rules’ you have to switch the function ‘on’
7. You can add here new IP addresses or DNS. See below how to do it.

How to add a new geofence?

Click the ‘Add geofences’ button and:

1. Enter the Description you want to use.
2. You can Search here your preferred street, city, etc.
3. Press ‘save’.

How to add an IP-Address?

1. Enter the Description.
2. Enter the new IP-Address or DNS.
3. Hit the ‘save’ button.

More about geofences and locations here

Clock-out Rules

Clock-out rules can be used only if clock-in rules are activated. If active, the geo location of the user’s clock-out will be tracked when using the mobile app, the IP-adddress if using a desktop device. If the user is outside of the clock-out rules he would be still able to clock-out.

Add a notification to receive instant messages per E-Mail, system bell or your messaging integration about clock-out violations.

You can review anytime the tracked location of the user’s clock out per attendance time record:

The escalation rules are disable by default. If you want to use them, please enable them.

First, set your preferred hours for the escalation rules. Just click on the times and adjust them accordingly, depending on when you want the escalation rule to send a notification:

If you want to add a notification, just click the ‘Add notification’ button. Set your options and click ‘Save’:

If you want to use Slack as a channel, please make sure that your staff’s accounts are connected to Slack direct messaging: Learn more

Based on a Traffic Lights system, the plus and minus hours are divided into three areas – green, yellow and red.
You can change the notifications for the yellow and red area. Whenever you modify notifications in the yellow section, it will take effect in the yellow notifications list below. The same applies to the ones in the red area, as shown below:

If you wish to delete or edit your notification rules, simply click the ‘pencil’ for editing or the ‘x’ to delete the rule:

In case you want to set some limits to your employees’ breaks, you can easily do it here – the number of daily breaks they’re allowed to take, the maximum duration of each break or daily time limit of rest breaks. In case the employee breaks any of these rules, their additional absence is automatically registered as “clocked-out time”.

Accept short breaks as paid time:
If you choose this option, you can pick the times and rules by simply clicking on the orange numbers and change them as you wish.

Calculate short breaks as unpaid time:
If you want to calculate short breaks as unpaid time, select this option.

Add new short break rules:

You can also add the notifications to your staff in case someone had longer break then allowed or if they exceeded the daily limit of breaks. The user added to the notifications will be informed about it via the selected notification system – Email, Slack, Bell Notifications:

Please note: When using short breaks and automatic meal break rules the short break counts into the daily break time . Example:
Work time: 7:00–13:00
Standard break time: 0:30 if daily work time is more than 3 hours
Short break: 10:00–10:30
Daily break time (total): 0:30

You daily break must be at least 0:30. Because you already made that break by yourself, it doesn’t have to apply standard break time rule.

Manage and create leave reasons and how they affect the paid or unpaid time. All types of leave can be easily added and managed on the attendance template. If you edit a leave type in on template it effects same leave types on other templates, so the changes are global and company wide.

If you want to add new leave reason click on the button ‘add leave reason’ on the upper right. You can activate or deactivate leave reasons by simply switching the button. You can use only active leave reasons on the absence calendar. If you want to edit or delete a leave reason, simply click on the pencil to edit or on the trashcan to delete it. You can’t delete leaves that are used on any absence calendar.

Add New Leave Reason

Since leaves reason are different in every country you can create super individual leaves for your company’s needs. Choose your preferred leave reason and choose from the listed options. Leave marked with a star (*) will be explained more detailed below.

• This leave type is only available to admin roles (Account Owner, Admin and Department Leader)
• This leave type subtracts days from vacation (will affect the number of vacation days)
• This leave type subtracts hours from flex time account (staff can use this leave type to compensate overtime, time of in lieu)
• This leave type is an off-site activity (business trip, customer visit, external training, trade show)*
  • This leave type requires clock-in/clock-out (staff needs to have start- and end time)
  • This leave type has meal allowances (e.g. if you’re away overnight)*
• This leave type is a sick leave (count as working time and doesn’t subtract hours from work time balance)*
• This leave type requires documentation (e.g. doctor’s note, visit reports or training certification)
• This leave type requires a substitution (if colleagues need to substitute a person who’s on leave)*
• This leave type needs to be approved (a supervisor have to approve this leave)
• This leave type requires a note (notes are mandatory)
• Show leave type for all users on department calendar (if active, everyone can see who’s using this leave)*

After you set up the ‘leave type’ don’t forget to press the ‘save’ button.

Off-Site Activity

Requires clock-in/clock-out

Meal Allowances

Sick Leave

Sick leave is the time you need to recover from a disease. In some countries sick leaves are paid for a certain period of time, in other countries it is generally not paid. In most European, South American, and Asian  countries sick leaves are paid from the company for a certain amount of time (ca. 6 weeks) and after that the health insurance takes over the continued payment of remuneration. In that case you should create two sick leaves, one for paid sick leaves and one for unpaid sick leaves. Please check your local regulations/laws about payment on sick leaves (e.g. Family and Medical Leave Act in U.S.).

However, if staff using sick leaves they can select between half day and full day leaves. Any smaller unit than half days will be micromanagement and won’t make sense to reflect in the system since the work time balance won’t be changed. The working plan will be reduced accordingly to the leave duration:
– full day = working plan is 0:00
– half day = working plan will be 50% reduced

If attendance time is tracked on a day that has a sick leave the working time won’t be automatically counted as overtime. Overtime will be calculated as for regular working days but you won’t get negative flex time balance.

Example 1:
Regular Working Plan: 7:30 hours
Actual Tracked Attendance Time: 8:00 hours
Overtime: +0:30 hours

Example 2:
Regular Working Plan: 7:30 hours
Actual Tracked Attendance Time: 5:00 hours
Overtime: 0:00

Working time on half day sick leaves

If the working time is greater than the working plan that day the overtime will be calculated regularey. E.g. working time is 6:00 hours (7:00–13:00), plan is reduced to 4:00 hours. So, the overtime for that day will be 2:00 hours.

If the working is less than the working plan the overtime will be always 0:00 and there won’t be any negativ overtime and the plan will be automatically reduced.

Working time on full day sick leaves

All working time tracked on a day with a full day sick leave won’t be counted as overtime since the working plan will be equal to the actual tracked hours. Only if you tracked more time than your regular working plan there will be overtime. E.g if you regular working plan is 8:00 hours, day has full day sick leave and you worked 9:00 hours you would 1:00 hours overtime. If you would have worked 5:00 you would have 0:00 hours as overtime (no negative overtime).

If the working is less than the working plan the overtime will be always 0:00 and there won’t be any negativ overtime and the plan will be automatically reduced.

Leave Substitution

For some staff it’s useful to have a substitution if that person’s on a leave. If you need to have substitutions for staff who’s on a specific leave, just enable “Requires substitution”:

Please note that for this kind of leave the person who’s the substitute have to approve first, only after that the supervisor can approve the leave (if you using also “This leave type needs to be approved”)

Show Leave for Everyone on the Department Calendar

If active, every user can see who’s using this leave type on the department calendar. But for some leave reason you maybe don’t want everybody to know what’s going on (e.g. maternity protection or personal time-off). So, if you don’t want that everybody see the leave reason just keep this field deactivated and other persons just sees “a leave” (hashed field in the department calendar). If you want that supervisors (Admins, Department Leaders and HR Admins) can see this leave type you can select that only data captures, team members and team leaders cannot see this leave type on the absence calendar.

Using Leave Types

Staff can use all active leave reasons in their absence calendar. You can either create a leave on your absence calendar…

… or on the department calendar by selecting the days and click on “create”.

Then, you can select

• leave type (here you can see all active leave reason from your attendance time template)
• start/end date
• start/end time (e.g Lunchtime till Evening is a half day, Morning till Evening is a full day)
• substitution (you can even request for substitution even if it’s not mandatory for this leave reason)
• notes

You can either save and submit the leave for approval (if it doesn’t needs to be approved it will be saved as approved automatically if you click on this field) or you can save it as a draft. Once you submitted your leave for approval, you will be notified if your leave was approved or rejected.

If your leave is approved, you need to request a change which needs to be approved by your supervisor again.

Please note that when leave type/absence settings is updated, it doesn’t affect already created leave types and absences. Please delete and create a new absence to apply new settings.

if you want to edit or delete a mandatory holiday simply click on the ‘red x’ to delete or on the ‘pencil’ to edit.

You can easily add a mandatory holiday by just clicking on the ‘add mandatory holiday’ button.

If you want to add a specific holiday which is not listed, just click ‘add holiday’ and enter your preferred settings.

If you want to repeat a specific holiday each year, please select this option:

More Actions

The option “reload holidays” will set your public holidays to default.
The option “load holidays from previous year” you can overtake the holidays from last year by just clicking it.
You can also load holidays from other attendance time templates

Work-Time rules

The “Work time rules” section (Settings -> Attendance) is where you set up the daily time interval when employees’ presence is used for time calculation. Attendance outside this timeframe is automatically marked as unpaid and will show up on the calendar and in the analytics reports.

Note: This is related to the flex time model which is set as default under the ‘Flex time model’:

If you want to change the hours, just click on the orange numbers and replace them with your preferred times.
You can also choose which workdays you want to use for your staff:

Here you can set your ‘Weekly holiday’:

On this page, you can also set up notifications for your employees if they break the Attendance Time rules set up by you (if they clock in too early or clock out too late). The user added to the notification will receive the info about any wrong clock in/out via the selected notification system (Email/Slack/Bell Notification):

Note: This option is disable by default, enable it if you want to use it. 

Note: If you’ll assign another time model for a certain user and uncheck ‘As default’ box,

please go back to this page (Work Time Rules) and check if all settings are correct for this user.

Ignore work times rules

Sometime it maybe happen that your staff members need to work outside their work time rules. Then, their time will be tracked as not payable and won’t be calculated to their flextime balance. In this case you can activate the feature that the system ignore the work time rules and all tracked attendance time will be payable. You can find that in the Staff Details -> Flex-time Settings

Standard break time: reduce the predefined time per working day:

Here you can define the breaking rules you want to apply to your staff working routine. To edit the hours and minutes just click on the ‘orange’ numbers. You can also add new ‘break rules’.

Logic: If the total attendance time per day is more than the defined hours, the systems checks if you had take a break as defined on the rules. If there are no break it automatically adds the defined time as break to your attendance time only (not project time). If there’s an existing break within you attendance time records it may add more breaks until it reaches the defined break time.

Standard break time: reduce the predefined time per working day with office shutdown time:

Here you can define the break rules you want to apply to your staff’s schedule. To edit the hours and minutes just click on the ‘orange’ numbers. You can also add new ‘break rules’ for more detailed breaking rules. Do not forget to press ‘save’ after you finished.

Clock for the break:

Choose this option if you want your staff to clock in/out each time they take any kind of break.