Set your break and lunch rules

Your break rules say what a shift of a given length gets: how many rest breaks and lunches, how many minutes each, and whether they are paid. Timesheets pay by these rules and mark any day that fell short. Set them in Settings > Payroll under Breaks & lunch.

Set your rules

1. Go to Settings > Payroll and jump to Breaks & lunch.
2. Next to Start from:, click your state's law button (for example California law) or A common policy, then change anything you like.
3. Under Rest breaks and Lunch / meal, each row reads like a sentence: Shifts of [hours] or more get [how many] x [minutes], [paid or unpaid].
4. Click Add a break rule or Add a lunch rule for another row, or the remove button to delete one.
5. Check the What a shift gets table, which shows the result for 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 hour shifts.
6. Click Save beside the section heading.

How rows work

For each kind, the highest row a shift reaches wins. With "4 hours or more get 1 x 10 min" and "8 hours or more get 2 x 10 min", a 6-hour shift gets one break and a 9-hour shift gets two. Shift length is clock-in to clock-out, breaks included.

New businesses start with a common policy: one paid 10-minute break from 4 hours, two from 8 hours, and an unpaid 30-minute lunch from 6 hours.

Your state's law as a check

• If your rules give less than your state requires, a warning lists exactly where: "These rules give less than ... law."
• If you mark a lunch shorter than 30 minutes as unpaid, the editor notes that federal law treats it as paid time. If you mark a rest break of 20 minutes or less as unpaid, it notes that federal law pays those, so they stay paid.

When a break does not match the rules

Open What happens when a break doesn't match these rules under the editor. In short:

• An extra rest break is still paid, up to the minutes in its row (20 if no row applies), and the day is marked.
• A rest break longer than its row: only the extra minutes are unpaid.
• A lunch on a shift too short for one: 30 minutes or more is unpaid, shorter is paid, and the day is marked.
• A break or lunch that was due and not taken: the day is marked on the timesheet. Pay is not changed.

These marks appear in red under the Break and Lunch figures on the timesheet, for example "Break ran 14 min; 10 min is paid, 4 min unpaid".

Different rules at another location

If a location is in a different state, it can follow that state's law instead of your company rules. Go to Settings > Locations and change that location's rules from Company rules (Settings > Payroll) to its state's law. People are paid by the rules of their home location. A second location is part of Pro.

Good to know

• Break rules are free on every plan.
• Staff record breaks on the clock with Start Break and End Break, and lunch with Start Lunch and End Lunch.
• Changing the rules re-prices every timesheet, report and export that reads them. Saved pay history keeps what it saved.
• Every change is recorded in Settings > History.
• Kloqk does not deduct a lunch that was not punched. If staff do not punch lunch, add it on the timesheet.