Schedule Based Restrictions

When Schedule Based Restrictions are turned on, employee schedules are downloaded to the HandPunch to restrict the times that an employee can punch. This can reduce unauthorized overtime as well as early “in” and late “out” punches. An employee’s individual schedule is used to restrict access. A separate schedule is defined for each employee providing the ultimate in flexibility. The software synchronizes with the HandPunch approximately every 5-10 minutes, to provide the HandPunch with the most accurate and live scheduling updates.

By default, the HandPunch will not accept “in” punches earlier than 7 minutes to the start of the schedule and “out” punches after 7 minutes to the end of the schedule. It will If an employee attempts to punch in earlier than 7 minutes, or late out after 7 minutes, they will get an error at the HandPunch which will read, “TIME RESTRICTION”.

If the employee was supposed to be at the facility but their schedule has not been updated yet in the scheduler (i.e. on a weekend), the employee should notify a higher authority, or someone with time card access, of the exact time of their arrival or departure. This person can then add the restricted punch manually on their time card.

To avoid the above scenario, staffing coordinators should make schedule changes in the scheduler as soon as they are aware a change, to minimize time zone restrictions at the clock. Once the employee punches and gets restricted at the clock, their punch will need to be added manually.

Even after an employee’s punch has been restricted, it is a good practice to have the staffing coordinator update the employee’s schedule in the scheduler for accuracy’s sake.

A report can be run to see all punches that have been rejected due to the time zone restriction. This report displays verified punches made at the time clock that were outside of an allowable punching time zone. See image below: