Work schedules

How to create work schedule templates, set company and employee defaults, assign schedules, handle overlaps and cancel an assignment.

For HR admin · Last reviewed 9 October 2026

Overview

A work schedule is a weekly template that says which days an employee works and during which hours — e.g. Monday–Friday, 8:00 AM–5:00 PM. Schedules drive everything in the system that needs to know whether a given date is a working day:

• Daily Attendance and Daily Overtime calendars
• Leave day-counting (weekly offs are not charged against leave)
• Payroll working-day and hours calculations
• Reports that show an employee's workweek

The module has two parts:

Public holidays are a separate concept — they come from the Holiday Calendar master and layer on top of whatever schedule applies.

How the effective schedule is decided

For any employee on any date, the system resolves the schedule in three tiers, top first:

1. An approved schedule assignment covering that date (from Work Schedule Assignments). If several apply, the most recently started one wins.
2. The employee's default schedule — the Work Schedule field on the employee's profile.
3. The company default schedule — set in company Settings.

So an assignment is always a temporary or permanent override laid over the defaults. When it ends (or is cancelled), the employee automatically falls back to the next tier — nothing needs to be undone by hand.

Articles in this guide

1. How do I create a work schedule template?Settings → Work Schedule → Add (or open an existing one).
2. How do I set company and employee default schedules?Company default — Settings ▸ Employee ▸ Defaults → Default Work Schedule .
3. How do I assign a work schedule to an employee?Transactions → Work Schedule Assignments lists every assignment with employee, schedule, date range, type and…
4. What are the work schedule change types?Use Permanent when the employee is genuinely moving to a new workweek — it keeps the profile, reports and…
5. What happens when schedules overlap?An employee can only have one applicable assignment at a time.
6. Who is notified about work schedule changes?Each assigned employee receives an email stating the schedule name, the effective date (or date range) and…
7. How do I cancel a work schedule assignment?In Transactions → Work Schedule Assignments , click Cancel at the end of the row and confirm the prompt…

Where schedules take effect

As soon as an assignment is saved it is live everywhere the schedule is consumed:

• Daily Attendance / Daily Overtime — the working-day calendar, weekly offs and scheduled hours reflect the assignment from its start date.
• Leave — day counting charges only scheduled working days.
• Payroll — working-day/hour computations use the effective schedule per date.

To spot-check a single employee and date, the assignments list plus the employee's attendance calendar is usually the quickest confirmation.

Common use cases

A department moves to a 6-day week for the festive season Assign the 6-day template By filter → Department, type Seasonal, start and end dates set. Everyone reverts automatically after the end date.

One employee joins a night project for three months Assign the night template to the individual, type Project-based, with the project dates. Their profile keeps the day schedule; attendance follows nights for the period.

A new campus with different hours opens Create the template, then either bulk-assign it Permanent By filter → Location, or set it as the employees' profile default as they are onboarded.

Company-wide change of office hours Don't assign at all — edit the times on the default template itself (Settings → Work Schedule). Every employee resolving to that template picks the new hours up immediately.

Frequently Asked Questions

I assigned a schedule but nothing looks different. Check three things: (1) the schedule you assigned isn't the same one the employee already had via defaults; (2) the start date isn't in the future; (3) if you expected the profile to change, remember only Permanent updates the profile — the other types only drive the calendars.

Can an employee request a schedule change themselves? Not currently — assignments are made by HR from the Assignments screen and are approved immediately. A self-service request/approval flow is planned.

What happens when an assignment's end date passes? Nothing needs to be done — from the next day the employee resolves to the next tier (prior assignment, profile default, or company default).

Can I backdate an assignment? Yes. Set a past start date and the schedule applies retroactively wherever calendars are recalculated (e.g. attendance views of past dates). Use with care around already-processed payroll periods.

Two assignments cover the same date — which wins? The system prevents true overlaps by auto-closing the older one at save time (see section 7). If equal-priority records ever both cover a date, the one with the later start date wins.

Does deleting a template affect past assignments? Retire templates by unticking Status instead of deleting; a template that has ever been assigned or referenced should not be deleted.

Who can use these screens? Anyone with the Work Schedule access right — view level to see the master and assignments, edit level to create, assign and cancel.

Appendix

Assignment statuses

Resolution order (per employee, per date)

1. Approved assignment covering the date (latest start wins)
2. Employee profile default
3. Company default

Related masters

• Holiday Calendar — public holidays, layered on top of the schedule (Settings → Holiday Calendar).
• Overtime / Attendance — consume the effective schedule; see their own guides.