Understanding Rounding Rules for Web Clock Punches
Who is affected?
Employees in the following workgroups are the only users who create punch time entries via Web Clock. Only
these employees are subject to the Rounding Rules for clock punches.
1.
2.
3.
TEMPORARY
STUDENTS
WORK STUDY
If you are uncertain whether an employee uses Web Clock (i.e. is a clock puncher) please contact your Payroll
Department representative for clarification.
General Information




For punch time reporters, a segment is defined as the duration between one punch and the next punch.
The system is configured to define a Rounding Interval as 15 minutes.
The system is configured to define the Rounding Marker at 7.5 minutes.
Actual clock punch times are recorded as hh:mm:ss format.
The Rounding Rules
There are two distinct rounding rules applied to time reported via Web Clock (punch time). These are
configured in the system and are automatically applied.
1. Round punches before rules
a.
b.
This rule rounds each individual punch to the nearest quarter hour. This is the first rule
applied before any other business rules pertaining to Time and Labor are enforced.
The system determines whether to break toward the prior quarter hour or the next quarter
hour (the Rounding Interval) based on a 7.5 minute Rounding Marker discussed below.
i. If a punch is made prior to the rounding marker – in our system 7.5 minutes - the
system rounds down to the beginning of the interval.
ii. If a punch falls either directly on or after the rounding marker, the system rounds
up to the end of the interval.
1. Round down example: John Doe enters an IN web clock punch at 8:02:37
am. The quarter hour interval encompassing this punch is 8:00 am to 8:15
am. The Rounding Marker for this interval is 8:07:30 am which is 7.5
minutes past the interval start. Per system configurations, this punch will
round down to 8:00 am since the actual punch time is before the Rounding
Marker.
2. Round up example: Jane Smith enters an IN web clock punch at 8:07:35
am. This punch will round up to 8:15 am as it falls after the 7.5 minute
mark for the interval, albeit by a mere 5 seconds.
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2. Round duration after rules – Day
a.
b.
This rule is applied after . . .
o Rule #1, ‘Round punches before rules’
o Any other applicable business rules for Time and Labor are applied
 An example of one of these other Time and Labor rules is that when a
STUDENT employee reports a total of more than 40 hours/week through
any combination of selected Time Reporting Codes, the excess amount is
reported under the SOT code for Student Overtime.
The ‘Day’ option tells the system to sum all like segments that belong to a single day and
then apply rounding rules to that day.
Web Clock Rounding Scenarios
Example 1: Employee has a single punch IN and OUT for the day, both of which work to the employee’s
disadvantage. No other Time and Labor rules impact the punches for the day (or week) so rounding rule #2
has no effect.
Actual punch
IN
OUT
8:12:07 a
2:06:29 p
After rounding
rule 1
IN
OUT
8:15 a
2:00 p
Punch round
advantage to
employee
Elapsed
time
disadvantage
disadvantage
--5.75 hr.
(per time
segment)
After rounding
rule 2
Total time
5.75 hr.
5.75 hr.
Example 2: Employee has multiple punches for a single day, all of which work to the employee’s advantage.
No other Time and Labor rules impact the punches for the day (or week) so rounding rule #2 has no effect.
Actual punch
IN
MEAL
IN
OUT
7:36:12 a
11:28:47 a
12:34:09 p
4:27:38 p
After rounding
rule 1
IN
MEAL
IN
OUT
7:30 a
11:30 a
12:30 p
4:30 p
Punch round
advantage to
employee
Elapsed
time
advantage
advantage
advantage
advantage
--4.0 hr.
--4.0 hr.
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(per time
segment)
After rounding
rule 2
Total time
8.0 hr.
8.0 hr.
Example 3: Employee is in the STUDENT workgroup and reports time via web clock for 5 days in a work week.
The total punch time exceeds 40 hours for the week by 0.25 hrs. Other Time and Labor processing rules are
applied in this case.
Actual punch
After rounding
rule 1
Punch round
advantage to
employee
Elapsed
time
(per time
segment)
After rounding
rule 2
Total time
IN
7:05:13 a
IN
7:00 a
advantage
--MEAL 11:39:27 a MEAL
11:45 a
disadvantage
4.75 hr.
8.0 hr.
8.0 hr.
IN
12:28:30 p
IN
12:30 p
advantage
--OUT
3:41:16 p
OUT
3:45 p
advantage
3.25 hr.
IN
7:14:10 a
IN
7:15 a
disadvantage
---MEAL 11:31:00 a MEAL
11:30 a
neither
4.25 hr.
8.25 hr.
8.25 hr.
(see note below)
IN
12:05:42 p
IN
12:00 p
advantage
---OUT
4:06:03 p
OUT
4:00 p
disadvantage
4.0 hr.
IN
6:58:39 a
IN
7:00 a
disadvantage
---MEAL 11:20:21 a MEAL
11:15 a
disadvantage
4.25 hr.
8.0 hr.
8.0 hr.
IN
12:10:17 p
IN
12:15 p
disadvantage
---OUT
3:53:30 p
OUT
4:00 p
advantage
3.75 hr.
IN
7:06:19 a
IN
7:00 a
advantage
---MEAL 11:29:50 a MEAL
11:30 a
advantage
4.50 hr.
8.0 hr.
8.0 hr.
IN
12:06:02 p
IN
12:00 p
advantage
---OUT
3:29:30 p
OUT
3:30 p
advantage
3.50 hr.
IN
7:02:18 a
IN
7:00 a
advantage
---MEAL 11:39:27 a MEAL
11:45 a
advantage
4.75 hr.
8.0 hr.
8.0 hr.
IN
12:30:15 p
IN
12:30 p
advantage
---OUT
3:40:40 p
OUT
3:45 p
advantage
3.25 hr.
This is what happened on Day 2 of this week.
1. Rounding rule 1 was applied resulting in two rounded segments of time for the day: 4.25 hr. and 4.0 hr.
2. After all punches were entered for the week, per other Time and Labor business rules the time is automatically split
into two different Time Reporting Codes as follows: 40.0 hrs. STU (regular hours) and 0.25 hrs. SOT (Student
Overtime).
3. Time is already rounded so rounding rule #2 has no impact here.
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