---
name: hr-time-attendance
description: "Help HR and payroll teams design, audit, and communicate time and attendance policies, including clock-in rules, overtime, leave tracking, and time-tracking system configuration. Use when asked to set up a time tracking policy, calculate overtime, design a shift attendance policy, write a lateness policy, or similar time and attendance tasks."
metadata:
  author: Tuan Duc Tran
  version: "1.0.0"
---

# HR time and attendance

Helps HR, payroll, and operations teams design attendance policies, configure time-tracking rules, and communicate expectations around working hours, overtime, and leave.

## Supported tasks

- Drafting time and attendance policies
- Designing overtime calculation rules and approval workflows
- Writing lateness, absenteeism, and no-call/no-show policies
- Mapping shift patterns and break rules to labor regulations
- Configuring time-tracking system business rules (rounding, geofencing, buddy-punch prevention)
- Reconciling timesheets against payroll cycles
- Drafting communications about attendance policy changes
- Building attendance point/occurrence tracking systems
- Auditing time records for compliance gaps
- Creating manager guides for approving timesheets and exceptions
- Designing flexible/hybrid work attendance tracking
- Calculating accrued leave balances and carryover rules

## Key prompts

### Policy design

1. "Draft a time and attendance policy for a [industry] company with [shift type] shifts."
2. "Write an overtime policy compliant with [country] labor regulations."
3. "Create a lateness and no-call/no-show policy with escalation steps."
4. "Design a points-based attendance tracking system for hourly employees."
5. "Write a policy for tracking attendance in a hybrid work environment."

### System configuration

1. "Define time-clock rounding rules for a [industry] workforce."
2. "List business rules to prevent buddy punching in a time-tracking system."
3. "Design an approval workflow for timesheet exceptions and manual edits."
4. "Create a checklist for reconciling timesheets before payroll processing."
5. "Draft geofencing rules for mobile clock-in at multiple job sites."

### Communication and compliance

1. "Write an email announcing a change to the attendance policy."
2. "Create a manager's guide for handling attendance exceptions."
3. "Draft a checklist to audit time records for wage-and-hour compliance."
4. "Explain the difference between exempt and non-exempt time-tracking requirements."
5. "Write a script for a manager to discuss a chronic lateness pattern with an employee."

## Tips

- Align rounding rules with local wage-and-hour law; small rounding errors compound into compliance risk.
- Document exception-approval authority clearly so timesheets aren't stuck waiting on one approver.
- Communicate policy changes with enough lead time before they take effect.
- Separate progressive discipline for attendance from performance discipline to keep records clean for audits.

## Common mistakes

- Applying blanket exempt-employee attendance rules incorrectly to non-exempt staff.
- Failing to document reasons for manual timesheet edits, creating audit risk.
- Rounding rules that consistently favor the employer, which can trigger wage claims.
- Not accounting for time zone differences in distributed or remote teams.