Attendance award, penalty and fixed payment policies
These custom policies look at a whole payroll period: a perfect-attendance bonus, a penalty for being late too many times, a fixed allowance that shrinks for lateness or absence, or a bonus capped at a yearly amount. This article explains every policy on the Fixed attendance awards & penalties and Fixed payment with tardiness deduction cards.
Where: Settings › Payroll › Custom Policies
You need: write access to the Settings › Payroll right
How to add an award, penalty or fixed payment
- Open Settings › Payroll › Custom Policies.
- On Fixed attendance awards & penalties or Fixed payment with tardiness deduction, click Add.
- Pick the sentence that matches your rule and click the arrow.
- Fill in every blank, including Employment types or Groups, the name and the other payment type.
- Click Save, then recalculate one affected payslip and check the line.
All amounts here are per payslip: on a semi-monthly cycle, a bonus is paid in each half unless the policy says otherwise. Policies marked check-in only read attendance for employees required to check in; for anyone else, rewards pay in full and deductions never apply.
Which one, when
| You want | Use |
|---|---|
| A bonus for few lates and absences, with a leave limit | Attendance bonus |
| A bonus for few absences only | Absence count bonus |
| One flat penalty when lates pass a limit | Tardy penalty |
| An allowance reduced per hour late or absent | Fixed payment (tardiness) |
| An allowance reduced per absence | Fixed payment (absence) |
| An allowance from each employee's own amount, reduced pro rata per absent day | Fixed payment from a custom field |
Fixed attendance awards & penalties
Attendance bonus (check-in) — "If a … employee is tardy no more than … times per payroll period, and takes no more than … days of leave, then attendance bonus…". Pays the bonus if late-or-absent occurrences are within the limit and leave days are within the leave limit. Absences count as lates here. Leave the leave limit blank for unlimited. Typical use: perfect attendance with a limit of 0.
Absence count bonus (check-in) — "If a … employee is absent no more than … times per payroll period, then attendance bonus…". Pays the bonus if absences are within the limit. Lateness and leave are ignored.
Tardy penalty (check-in) — "If a … employee is tardy no more than … times per payroll period, then tardy penalty…". Despite the wording, the penalty is deducted once when the employee is late more than the number you enter. It is a single flat amount per period, however many times over.
Paid activity bonus — "…paid addition named … of … for every day of paid regular activity attended, including full leave days." Pays the amount for each date with an attended paid activity, full paid leave days included. Partial leave, overtime and unpaid activities do not count.
Hourly bonus on custom field — "…for every whole hour of work recorded, pay the rate defined in …". Hours worked on paid working activities × each employee's rate from a number custom field. Fractions of an hour are paid too. Paid leave does not count.
Hourly deduction (check-in) — "If a … employee works less than required … of …, then a deduction… equivalent to …% of the regular hourly wage". For each event of that activity shorter than the minimum, including absences, deducts the percentage of the basic hourly wage once per event — not per missing hour. It is filed under Attendance Policy.
Prorated monthly deduction (check-in) — "If a … monthly employee is absent too many times, create a prorated deduction named … based on …". Monthly-paid only, built for one customer's rule. It counts days with more than 3 hours of work or unpaid leave. If days worked fall below 18 (periods of 20 such days or fewer) or 19 (longer periods), it deducts the amount minus amount ÷ 22 × days worked. An amount of 0 uses the monthly salary. Test it carefully before use.
Fixed payment with tardiness deduction
Fixed payment (tardiness) (check-in) — "…will receive a fixed payment named … of … per payroll period, less … for every hour they are tardy or absent…". Pays the amount minus late hours × the hourly deduction, never below zero. An absence counts as a full day of expected hours. Typical use: a punctuality allowance.
Fixed payment (absence) — "…of … per payroll period, less … for every day they are absent for …". Pays the amount minus the daily deduction for each absent event of that activity, never below zero. A half-day absence still counts as one.
Fixed payment from a custom field — "…based on … per payroll period, less a deduction for every day they are absent for Working…". The custom field holds a monthly amount, split per payslip (halved on semi-monthly). It deducts the monthly amount ÷ the employee's monthly wage days for each absent day, part days in proportion, never below zero. Unpaid leave counts as absence. Any paid working activity counts, despite the word "Working".
YTD threshold bonus (under) — "…create OP named … of … or … less / ignoring absences … that shall be classified as … if under … per annum". Pays the amount (or each employee's custom-field amount), optionally reduced per absent day, but only up to what is left of the yearly threshold. The year-to-date total counts earlier payments with the same name since 1 January. Deduction wage basis lets you choose the absence divisor (EEMR, Fixed Monthly Days or Calendar Days) instead of the employee's own.
YTD threshold bonus (over) — the same sentence, ending "…if over … per annum based on OP of name …". Pays only the part above the threshold, based on the named under-threshold payment.
Use the under and over policies as a pair to split one benefit at a yearly cap — for example a tax-free portion and a taxable excess, each classified under the right other payment type.
Tips
- Read the Tardy penalty and Attendance bonus sentences carefully. Both say "no more than"; the bonus pays at or under the limit, the penalty applies over it.
- Pick the absence rule that matches your policy wording: per hour (Fixed payment, tardiness), per absence (Fixed payment, absence) or pro rata per day (custom field).
- Keep YTD pairs named consistently. The year-to-date total matches on the policy name.
Troubleshooting / FAQ
Q: The attendance bonus is paid to someone who was absent. Check they are required to check in. Without check-in, attendance is not read and the bonus pays in full.
Q: The tardy penalty is not deducted. The employee was late no more than the number you entered. The penalty applies only above it.
Q: The YTD bonus stopped paying. The yearly threshold has been reached for payments with that name.