Lunch Deduction

The Lunch Deduction plugin automatically registers a fixed amount of unpaid time (typically a lunch break) on a chosen activity when an employee’s check-in record satisfies a trigger. The deducted time reduces the worked total for that day.

When to use

Use this plugin when employees are not expected to clock out for lunch, but an unpaid break should still be subtracted from their worked time — either at a fixed time of day or once they have been present long enough.

Parameters

Trigger modes

Spans time window

Spans time window deducts the break when a single check-in record covers the whole configured window.

How it works:

• The employee must be clocked in at or before Window start and clocked out at or after Window end .
• A record that only partially overlaps the window does not trigger the deduction.

Example: with a window of 10:30–14:00, an employee clocked in 08:00–16:00 has a lunch deducted; one clocked in 11:00–18:00 does not.

Minimum record duration

Minimum record duration deducts the break when a single check-in record lasts at least the configured number of minutes, regardless of when it falls.

How it works:

• The trigger is evaluated per record, not on the day’s total. An employee who genuinely clocks out for a break produces two shorter records, so no lunch is deducted on top of the break they already took.

Example: with a minimum of 6h00, a single record of 08:00–16:00 (8 h) triggers the deduction; two records of 08:00–11:00 and 11:30–15:00 do not, because neither reaches 6 hours on its own.

Reason gate

The reason gate limits which check-in records can trigger the deduction, based on the reason recorded on each record. It applies to both trigger modes.

• Reason mode = Excluded : records with one of the selected reasons never trigger the deduction; all others do.
• Reason mode = Required : only records with one of the selected reasons trigger the deduction.
• Leaving Reasons empty disables the gate — every record counts.

When an Excluded reason (for example a “No Lunch” reason) is recorded on the session, no break applies for that day at all: the automatic deduction is skipped, and a break the employee had set by hand on the activity is removed too.

Placing the break at a fixed time

By default the break is duration-only: it subtracts Duration (minutes) from the day’s worked total with no specific placement. Setting Lunch start instead pins the break to an exact interval — from Lunch start for Duration (minutes) , in the workspace time zone.

A placed break also reduces any allowance earned over a time window it overlaps, since the employee isn’t working during the break. For example, an evening supplement paid 18:00–22:00 with a 30-minute break placed at 19:00 pays 3.5 hours, not 4.

Employees can review and adjust the break from their timesheet check-in records — change its start or duration — and it is shown in the check-out dialog before they clock out. A break placed outside the clocked hours is not deducted, and the timesheet flags it so the start can be corrected.

How it works

1. After the employee clocks in and out, each check-in record is checked against the reason gate and the selected trigger.
2. At most one deduction is registered per day, on the chosen activity, as unpaid time (it does not credit the norm).
3. A manual entry on the same activity overrides the automatic one, and the employee can remove the deduction for a given day (and restore it later).

Examples

Fixed midday break

For a workplace where everyone takes lunch around noon:

1. Add the Lunch Deduction plugin
2. Set Activity to your lunch activity
3. Set Duration (minutes) to 30
4. Set Trigger to Spans time window
5. Set Window start to 11:00 and Window end to 13:00

Break after a long shift

For employees on irregular shifts who should have a break deducted once they pass a certain length:

1. Add the Lunch Deduction plugin
2. Set Duration (minutes) to 30
3. Set Trigger to Minimum record duration
4. Set Minimum record duration to 6h00

Exclude certain presence types

To keep the deduction from firing on, say, course or travel time:

1. Configure the trigger as above
2. Set Reason mode to Excluded
3. Add the course/travel reasons to Reasons

Troubleshooting