1. Overview

A shift defines when an employee is expected to work. Rules define how MAttendance treats late arrivals, early exits and extra hours. Together they decide each day's attendance status and feed payroll.

2. Creating and Editing Shifts

Open Shifts from the sidebar (Organisation section, Admin / HR). Creating, editing and deleting shifts is for Admins. The cards at the top show total shifts, active shifts and how many employees are assigned.

  1. Click Create Shift.
  2. Fill in the fields below and save.
FieldMeaning
Shift NameFor example "Morning Shift".
Start Time / End TimeThe expected working hours.
Overnight ShiftTurn on when the shift ends on the next calendar day (e.g. 22:00–06:00).
Buffer (minutes)Grace period after the start time before an arrival counts as late.
Min Break (minutes)The minimum break expected during the shift.
Max Overtime (minutes)Cap on overtime for the shift. Leave blank for unlimited.
ActiveInactive shifts cannot be assigned.
Deleting a shift. A shift cannot be deleted while employees are assigned to it. Move them to another shift first.

Shifts are assigned to employees on the employee record, with a from-date, so a change of shift keeps its history (see Employee Records → Assignments).

3. Shift Swaps

Two employees can exchange shifts for a day. A swap needs three people to agree: requester → target → manager.

Requesting a swap

  1. Open Shift Swaps from the sidebar (My Workspace section) and click Request Swap.
  2. Under Swap With, select the colleague.
  3. Choose the Swap Date and submit.

Responding and approving

  • The colleague sees the request and chooses Accept or Decline.
  • The manager then sees it under Pending Approval and chooses Approve or Reject.

Each request shows the three steps and where it currently stands. My Swaps lists your own requests.

4. Half-Day Rules

Go to Settings → Rules → Half-Day Rules. An employee is marked Half-Day when either threshold is crossed:

  • Late-In Threshold — minutes after shift start.
  • Early-Out Threshold — minutes before shift end.

Enter both values and click Save.

5. Late Deduction Rules

Under Settings → Rules → Late Deduction Rules, click Add Rule:

FieldMeaning
Grace MinutesLateness within this many minutes is ignored.
Late Days ThresholdNumber of late days in the month before a deduction applies.
Deduction ModeFixed Amount or Percentage of Salary.
Deduction Amount / PercentThe value for the chosen mode.
ActiveOnly active rules are applied.

Deductions are applied when payroll is generated — see Payroll Guide → Late Deduction Rules.

6. Overtime Rules

Under Settings → Rules → Overtime Rules set:

  • Daily, Weekly and Monthly Limit (minutes) — the most overtime that will be counted.
  • OT Rate (multiplier) — for example 1.5 for time-and-a-half.
  • Alert Threshold (%) — warn when an employee reaches this share of the limit.
  • Requires Approval — overtime counts only once approved.

For Gulf employees, overtime during Ramadan follows the reduced hours set in Gulf Compliance → Ramadan Periods.

7. Weekly Off and Holidays

  • The organisation's default weekly off days are set in Settings → Organization; an individual employee's weekly off can be set on their profile.
  • Holidays are managed in Settings → Holidays — see Leave Management → Managing Holidays.

Week-offs and holidays are marked on the attendance calendar automatically each night.

8. Office Timings

Each office can have its own weekly opening hours. Go to Settings → Offices and click Timings on the office's row. For each day of the week set the Open and Close time, or mark the day Closed, then click Save.

The same page is where you set each office's address, time zone, geofence location and radius, and — if an office pays in a different currency from the rest of the organisation — its own currency (leave it blank to inherit the organisation's).