One of the most often misunderstood features of TimeSource is the In Zone and Out Zone fields on the Department screen. If the In Zone and Out Zone fields are configured incorrectly, employees can be assigned either to much or to little time for a shift, and in some cases, a negative time for a shift.
Each department has its own In Zone and Out Zone. Each In Zone and Out Zone defines the regular shift employees work in the department. The benefit of defining a regular shift using In and Out Zones is your employees can punch in early or out late without accumulating additional time.
Listed below is an example of how the In and Out Zones are configured and used correctly.
Example: You have two departments, Dayshift and Nightshift. The regular shift for the Dayshift department is 7:00 am to 3:00 pm and for the Nightshift department is 3:00 pm to 11:00 pm. The figure below shows how the In and Out Zone for each department could be configured in TimeSource:
The underlined times of the In Zone and Out Zone field defines the regular shift start and end time.
| Shift Start | Shift End | |
|---|---|---|
| Dayshift | 7:00a | 3:00p |
| Nightshift | 3:00p | 11:00p |
The additional time setting in each In Zone and Out Zone defines the slice of time each In and Out Zone is in
effect. Take for example the Dayshift In Zone:
| DEPT NAME | IN ZONE |
|---|---|
| Dayshift | 6:30a to 7:00a |
By setting the In Zone from 6:30a to 7:00a an employee can punch into the Dayshift department at any time
between 6:30 am and 7:00 am but they will only start accumulating time for the shift from 7:00 am on. The
opposite is true for the Out Zone:
| DEPT NAME | Out ZONE |
|---|---|
| Dayshift | 3:00p to 3:15p |
By setting the Out Zone from 3:00p to 3:15p an employee can punch out of the Dayshift department at any time
between 3:00 pm and 3:15 pm but their shift time will stop accumulating at 3:00 pm.
To further clarify the process lets look at a specific example:
Your employee punches into the Dayshift department at 6:47am and punches out at 3:08 pm. Since the 6:47 am in punch is between 6:30 am and 7:00 am the employee’s time for the shift will start accumulating from 7:00 am on. As well, since the 3:08 pm out punch is between 3:00 pm and 3:15 pm the employee’s time will stop accumulating at 3:00 pm. In this case even though the employee has worked and additional 21 minutes for the shift they will only be paid for 8 hours which is the regularly scheduled time for the shift.
