Contents
Configuring Time and Attendance Rules
This article details the setup of rules to ensure that the clocked events of staff members are matched to bookings in the Provider Diary.
Staff members clock in and out for their shift via the CAMT device using their CPIK (Care Cloud Personal Identity Key) or scanning their badge. Care Cloud will attempt to match the clocked time to one of the available shifts in the Provider Schedule.
The timesheet is calculated after each staff member logs out. At this point, the role and the start and finish times are known, and a booking can be searched for. If the staff member’s role, the start time, and the finish time match a scheduled booking within configurable parameters, then the booking is matched.
If a booking is matched, the rules are then consulted to determine the late start and early finish tolerances and the amount of time to deduct, if any. These deductions can only be made when there is a successful match.
If a clocked event cannot be matched to a booking, the clocked event will be recorded in Care Cloud as an Unmatched Event and must be managed manually.
This article uses the following terms when explaining clocked events:
- Raw Time – the precise time captured by the CAMT device when an individual clocked in and out.
- Matched Time – the time that has been applied to a clocked event based on the defined start and end times for a scheduled booking to which the event has been matched.
Accessing Rules
It is accepted that staff members will not clock in and out at the precise time of the booking scheduled in Care Cloud. To allow for this, you can set tolerances and rules around bookings to ensure that the correct bookings are matched.
To access these rules:
- Navigate to Settings > Care Provider Setup > Time and Attendance Rules.
The 'Time And Attendance Rules' page is displayed:
The list of records displays the rule sets that are available. Where no other rule sets have been created, the rules in the Default Settings Applied to All Providers record will be applied to all bookings.
- Click on an existing rule to view/edit it. Alternatively, select the Create new record button to create a new rule.
The 'Time And Attendance Rules: Default Settings Applied to All Providers' page is displayed:
Configuring the Rules
Matching Parameters
The Matching Parameters are important for catching and matching bookings. These allow you to set the number of minutes before and after a booking start or finish time for which a staff member can clock in or out and still be matched to their booking.
For example, if a staff member clocks in within the number of minutes specified before the start time of a booking (see Early Start below), Care Cloud will aim to match that staff member to a booking that falls within the same period.
Field | Description |
Early Start | The number of minutes a staff member can arrive early at the start of their booking. |
Late Start | The number of minutes a staff member can arrive late at the start of their booking. |
Early Finish | The number of minutes a staff member can leave early at the end of their booking. |
Late Finish | The number of minutes a staff member can leave late at the end of their booking. |
Minimum Booking Length | The minimum number of minutes between a clock-in and clock-out event of a single staff member for the event to be considered eligible for matching to a booking. |
A staff member is scheduled for a booking that starts at 08:00 and the Early Start is set to 15 minutes.
If the staff member arrives at 07:46, Care Cloud will match the clocked event to the relevant booking because the arrival time is within 15 minutes of the booking start time.
If the staff member arrives at 07:40, Care Cloud will not be able to match the clocked event to the booking, because the arrival time falls outside of the period for which a booking can be matched. This will result in an ‘unmatched event’.
There is no ‘correct’ parameter; it largely depends on the combinations of bookings at your facility and how close they are together. As a guide, a 15 to 20 minute parameter should be sufficient.
It is recommended that guidelines are issued to instruct staff to only clock in up to the time specified in the time rules, to avoid too many ‘unmatched events’ occurring.
Tolerances
The Tolerances allow you to set the number of minutes from the set time of a shift that a staff member can clock in ‘early’ or ‘late’ and still be recognised as attending the shift in full:
- Late Start Tolerance specifies the number of minutes allowed for a person to clock in after the specified start time of the shift.
- Early Finish Tolerance specifies the number of minutes allowed for a person to clock out before the specified finish time of the shift.
Should a staff member exceed the set minutes, the Matched Time on the booking will be rounded up based on the parameter set for rounding (see below). If no rounding is applied, the Raw Time will be set to the booking.
A staff member is scheduled for a booking that starts at 08:00. The Late Start Matching Parameter is set to 15 minutes and the Late Start Tolerance is set to 5 minutes.
If the staff member arrives at 08:04, this is within both rules for matching and lateness tolerance. The booking will be matched and the start time will be updated to the Matched Time as defined on the booking schedule.
If the staff member arrives at 08:07, this is within the rules for matching but outside of the rules for lateness tolerance. In this instance, the booking will be matched, but the start time will be rounded up to the next ‘x’ minutes (see below).
Rounding options
The Rounding options allow you to automatically update the start or end time for a shift when a clocked event falls outside of the early or late tolerances that you have set. The staff member’s effective time will be rounded to the next number of minutes (as specified) past the hour. For a late start, the time will be rounded up; for an early finish, the time will be rounded down.
A staff member is scheduled for a booking that finishes at 14:00. The Early Finish Tolerance is set to 5 minutes and the Rounding Option is set to 10 minutes.
If the staff member clocks out at 13:58, this is within the specified Early Finish Tolerance. The finish time will be updated to the time defined on the booking schedule (14:00).
If the staff member clocks out at 13:52, this is outside of the rules for Early Finish Tolerance. In this instance, the finish time will be rounded down to 13:50.
Similarly, with the same parameters set to the late start options, if a staff member clocked in at 08:06 for a booking scheduled to start at 08:00, then the paid time will be rounded up to 08:10.
Manual Matching
When an event is manually matched to a booking, the Apply Rounding option allows you determine whether the clocked event times should be rounded to the next ‘x’ minutes past the hour (as per Rounding options above) or if the Raw Times should be used (by default, the times will be rounded up to the nearest minute).
- Yes - when a clocked event is manually matched to a booking, the times will be automatically updated using the rule set in the Rounding option field.
- No - when a clocked event is manually matched to a booking, use the raw times collected by the CAMT device will be used. Clocked events will be recorded to the minute for payment.
Providers
Are the settings of this rule to be applied to all providers or the specified provider only? This can be set in this section.
