Create a time policy

Set up the pay period, timesheet, approval, rounding, lock and overtime rules your team's time entries follow, and make one policy the organization default.

In the sidebar, open Settings, then choose Time Policies under Projects & Tasks. The page address is /settings/org/time-policies.

A time policy is the rulebook for time entries: how long a pay period is, whether entries need approval, whether a timer is allowed, how minutes round, when old entries lock, and when overtime starts. Most organizations need one policy, set as the default.

Before you start

• Your role needs the time policies permission to open the page, permission to write them to create or edit, and permission to assign them to set the default.
• Time tracking has to be turned on for your organization. If the page reads Time tracking disabled, ask your admin.

Steps

1. Press New policy. The New policy drawer opens.
2. Type a Policy name. Optionally set Effective from (leave it blank to apply the policy right away) and a Description for other admins.
3. Under Pay period, choose a Period type: Weekly, Biweekly, Semi-monthly, Monthly or Custom. Weekly and biweekly periods ask for a Week start; biweekly and custom ask for an Anchor date the pattern counts from; custom also asks for Custom length (days).
4. Under Time entry rules, switch on what you need: Timesheets groups entries into pay periods; Approvals requires review; Timer allows live timers; Require target insists on an account, project, work order or task; Require notes makes notes mandatory; Allow overlap permits overlapping entries.
5. Fill in Rounding (minutes), Minimum duration and Lock after (days) as needed. A new policy starts with 15-minute rounding and a 14-day lock. A blank field means that rule is off.
6. Decide Edit after approval. If Approvals is on, also decide Edit after submit.
7. Overtime starts on at 480 daily and 2400 weekly minutes (8 and 40 hours). Change Daily threshold (minutes), Weekly threshold (minutes) or Period threshold (minutes), or switch it off. Blank thresholds are ignored.
8. Press Create policy. The policy appears in the list.
9. To make it the one everyone uses, press Set default on its row (or open it and press Set as organization default), then confirm in the Set organization default policy dialog.

What you see

• The list shows each policy's Name, Status, Period, Overtime and Rounding. The default policy's name carries Organization default, and its Set default button becomes a Default marker.
• Press Edit on a row, or click the row, to reopen the drawer, change it, and press Save changes. Press Archive to retire a policy and confirm in the Archive time policy dialog; it stays in the list, and the Status filter set to Active hides it.
• The flask icon beside New policy (its tooltip reads Resolution preview) opens a drawer where an admin picks a team member and a moment in time, presses Run preview, and sees which policy applies to that person and why.

If something looks different

• New policy is missing and Edit is greyed out: your role cannot change time policies.
• Set default is disabled: your role cannot assign policies, or the policy is already the default.
• Archiving fails with "Policy has active assignments": the policy is the default or assigned to someone. Make another policy the default first.
• The Period type list is locked to Weekly: pay period customization is not included in your plan. The field says so.
• Timesheets, Approvals, Timer or Overtime is off again after saving: your plan does not include that feature.
• The list reads No time policies configured yet. Press New policy.

Open Time Policies