Work Schedules

A work schedule is a named shift pattern: a start time, an end time, a late grace period and the days of the week it applies to. It tells SolaHR when each person is expected at work, which days are their days off, when a punch is late, and when a workday is over and can be reviewed.

Every organization has one Main work schedule. It is created for you from Settings → Attendance Defaults and applies to everyone who has no schedule of their own. When part of your team works a different pattern (a warehouse early shift, night guards, a six-day retail team), you add more schedules here and assign them to those employees on their profile. An employee's own schedule always wins over the main schedule.

Where to find it

• Sidebar: Time & Attendance → Work Schedules — URL /work-schedules.
• The page has a Back to Attendance button (top-right) next to Create Schedule.

The menu item appears when your plan includes work schedules and your role can view schedules or manage attendance.

The Main work schedule and Settings stay in step

The main schedule is not a separate thing from the attendance defaults you saved in Settings; it is the same four values shown as a normal, editable schedule:

Change one side and the other follows. Editing the main schedule here updates the attendance defaults, and saving the attendance defaults (in Settings or on the attendance Settings screen) updates the main schedule. The first time anyone opens this page, SolaHR creates the main schedule from your saved defaults, so nothing changes for anyone.

The main schedule carries the Default badge and the hint "Used for employees without an assigned schedule. Can be edited, but not deleted." It cannot be deleted: "The main work schedule cannot be deleted. You can edit it instead." The main schedule is the one set in Setup and Settings, so to change everyone's default hours you edit it rather than swap it for another schedule.

The schedules list

The header reads Work Schedules — "Manage attendance start, end, grace period, and working days." The main schedule is always listed first.

With no schedules at all (which only happens before the main schedule is created) the page shows "No work schedules yet." and Create Schedule.

Create a schedule

1. Click Create Schedule (top-right). You need Manage work schedules.

2. Fill in the dialog:

   Field	Required	Notes
   Name	Yes	Up to 255 characters, for example "Warehouse early shift".
   Start Time	Yes	HH:MM.
   End Time	Yes	Must differ from the start time. An end time earlier than the start time means an overnight shift that ends the next morning (22:00–06:00).
   Grace Minutes	Yes	0–240.
   Work Days	No	Tick each working day, Sunday to Saturday. With none ticked the schedule uses the organization's weekend days from Attendance Defaults.

   New schedules start with 08:00–17:00, 15 grace minutes and Sunday to Thursday ticked. Duplicate names are allowed. A new schedule is never the default one; the Default schedule checkbox is shown (disabled) only when you edit the main schedule.

3. Click Save. You see "Created successfully" and the list refreshes.

If a field is wrong, the dialog stays open, the field is highlighted and the message is shown under it.

Assign a schedule to an employee

A schedule does nothing for an employee until it is assigned.

1. Open the employee's profile and click Edit (or Change schedule on the schedule card), then pick Work schedule in the Work profile card. The hint reads "Sets this employee's working days and hours, including any regular weekend work." Leave it on Organization default to follow the main schedule.
2. Save. The Work schedule card on the profile now shows the schedule name with the badge Assigned to this employee and "Attendance uses this employee's assigned hours, grace period and working days. The main schedule does not override this assignment."

Without an assignment the card shows the main schedule with the badge Main organization schedule and "No individual schedule is assigned. Attendance follows the main schedule from Setup and Settings." The card lists Hours (with "Ends the following day" for overnight shifts), Grace and the seven days marked as working or resting. The field only appears for people who may view work schedules.

What an employee's effective schedule decides

The effective schedule is the employee's own schedule if there is one, otherwise the main schedule.

Days that are already over keep the schedule that was in force when they were stored. Editing a schedule changes today and the future; past days are not rewritten. A day evaluated from live data after a schedule change is marked "Schedule not recorded for this date — shown with the current schedule".

Edit or delete a schedule

• Edit: ⋯ → Edit, change the fields in Edit Schedule, Save: "Updated successfully". Editing the main schedule also updates the attendance defaults.
• Delete: ⋯ → Delete appears only for a schedule that is not the main schedule and has no employees. Confirm Delete Schedule — "Delete this schedule? (Warehouse early shift)". You see "Deleted successfully". If employees were assigned in the meantime: "This schedule is assigned to employees and cannot be deleted."

Statuses

Schedules have no workflow status. The only flag is Default, which belongs to the main schedule. A schedule with employees can be edited but not deleted.

Worked example 1: the main schedule

Al Noor Trading LLC (Dubai) runs its office Monday to Friday, 09:00–18:00, with 10 minutes' grace.

1. In Settings → Attendance Defaults the owner sets Work start time 09:00, Work end time 18:00, Late grace period (minutes) 10 and ticks Saturday and Sunday as non-working days. Save.
2. On Work Schedules the list now shows Main work schedule (Default) with 09:00 - 18:00, Grace 10, Work Days "Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday", and Employees 25, everyone with no schedule of their own.
3. Omar Haddad checks in at 09:08: on time. At 09:14 he would be 14 minutes late, counted from 09:00.
4. In February the owner opens Work Schedules → Main work schedule → Edit and changes the End Time to 17:00 for the winter hours. Settings now shows Work end time 17:00 as well.

Worked example 2: a warehouse shift and night guards

1. The Al Quoz warehouse starts at 06:00. HR clicks Create Schedule: Name "Warehouse early shift", Start Time 06:00, End Time 15:00, Grace Minutes 10, ticks Saturday in addition to the pre-ticked Sunday to Thursday, Save: "Created successfully".
2. HR opens Sara Khan's profile, Edit, Work schedule "Warehouse early shift", Update. The list shows Employees 1 for the warehouse shift and 24 for the main schedule.
3. Sara checks in at 06:05: on time. On Saturday 3 October she is expected at work, because her schedule ticks Saturday; on the roster her day state is Shift in progress, no check-in until she punches, not Not scheduled.
4. Two night guards work 22:00–06:00. HR creates "Night guard" with Start Time 22:00 and End Time 06:00. The roster shows their shift as 22:00–06:00 with overnight. A guard who checks in at 21:55 on Monday and checks out at 06:10 on Tuesday has one record for Monday with 10 minutes' overtime. Monday's workday is only reviewable from 06:30 on Tuesday.
5. HR tries to create a schedule with both times 08:00: the dialog refuses it because the end time must differ from the start time.

How it connects

Permissions and roles

Scoped roles from Team access work on their assigned employees only and do not manage organization schedules. See Team access.

Tips and common problems

Related

• Attendance
• Attendance review
• Holidays
• Leave
• Employees
• Timesheets
• Settings