How To Set Up Overnight Employees
A detailed guide on how to set up the overnight employees
Jeffrey Mo avatar
Written by Jeffrey Mo
Updated over a week ago

If you have employees who work overnight hours, they will be punching in and out on two different days. You can set up your Fingercheck account to accommodate these conditions. The way you want the system to recognize the overnight hours determines how you count employee punches. You have can use either of the following methods:

  • Create a window of time (starting from the first punch) that will count as being worked on the same day

  • Count all punches up to a certain time past midnight as being a part of the same workday


How to create a window of time to count as the same day

  1. Log in to your Fingercheck account as an Administrator.

  2. Go to the SETUP tab > System > Master Profiles.

  3. Select the master profile you want to use for overnight employees, or click Add to create one.
    The Master Profile Information screen appears.


  4. Complete the required fields (Code, Description, Pay Period, and Regular Division Earning).
    For more information about these fields, see How to Set up a Master Profile.

  5. In the Maximum Pair Hours field, enter the maximum number of hours an employee can be on the clock from their initial punch-in time that the system will still calculate as the same workday.

    For example, you might enter 13 hours, which would set a maximum of 13 hours from the employee's IN punch until the time card began registering hours for the next workday.

  6. In the Separation Minutes field, enter a duration of time in which your employees can punch in and out and still have that time count on the same day.
    For example, with maximum pair hours, your employee only gets two punches—in punch and out punch. If you want to allow your employees to take a break between those punches, enter a set number of minutes here, such as 30.

  7. Click Save.

  8. Apply the master profile to employees who will work overnight shifts.
    For more information, see How to Set up a Master Profile.

    In the time card below, an employee punched in at 6:00 PM and punched out at 6:00 AM (12 hours). Since the amount of hours falls under the number of hours we entered in the Maximum Pair Hours field (13 hours), the employee's time worked is calculated on the same day.



How to count all punches up to a certain time past midnight

  1. Log in to your Fingercheck account as an Administrator.

  2. Go to the SETUP tab > System > Master Profiles.

  3. Select the master profile you want to use for overnight employees, or click Add to create one.
    The Master Profile Information screen appears.

  4. Complete the required fields (Code, Description, Pay Period, and Regular Division Earning).
    For more information about these fields, see How to Set up a Master Profile.

  5. In the Latest Logout Time field, enter the latest time that employees can punch out.

    Any punches up to that time are considered a part of the same workday.
    This method is helpful if your business operations end at a set hour, and no employees will be punching past a certain time. Any punches that occur past that point are automatically part of the next day.

  6. In the Separation Minutes field, enter a duration of time in which your employees can punch in and out and still have that time count on the same day.

  7. Click Save.

  8. Apply the master profile to employees who will work overnight shifts.
    For more information, see How to Set up a Master Profile.


An example of how it works

Below is an example time card of an employee working overnight with the Latest Logout Time and Separation Minutes fields enabled.

Suppose the Latest Logout Time field is set to 6:01 AM and the Separation Minutes field is set to 45. On Friday, the employee punches in at 7 PM, punches out for a break at 12 AM, and punches back in at 12:45 AM. Then, the employee punched out at the end of their shift at 4 AM.

The last punch is within the allotted time (since the Last Logout Time is 6:01 AM), and the Separation Minutes rule keeps everything working smoothly. Because Separation Minutes was set to 60, the 45-minute break that the employee took allows the hours to be calculated for the same day. Had Separation Minutes not been set accordingly, the punches that occurred after the punch out would have been calculated on the next day.


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