Defining Time Buckets
Often you would want to define a certain amount of extra pay for a specific working time. These are usually not directly bound to shift, that employees have to work within. In contrast, they are often based on local legislation or defined by collective agreements. This is why we do not only offer you the possibility to define shifts and allocate them amongst your workforce. Moreover, you can also freely define time buckets in order to meet the aforementioned needs. You may also use them for other purposes, such as over time that may be credited with a certain multiplicator.
Example 1: Two Time Buckets (one for regular salary + one type of extra pay)
The following graphic shows the correlation between the defined time buckets (in this case: 2) and the defined shifts (in this case: 3). As you can see, both can differ not only in the amount of defined time periods, but may also overlap. Hence, you can define your time buckets independent of any pre-defined shift allocation.
Example 2: Three Time Buckets (one for regular salary + two types of extra pay)
The following graphic shows the correlation between the defined time buckets (in this case: 3) and the defined shifts (in this case: 3). In this case, we used an example where the time bucket definition meets the definition of the time periods for the pre-defined shifts. However, even if you decide for the same amount of time periods, these can still differ from each other
Note:
In order to make use of these Time Buckets, you have to customize the system
You can find additional information about that topic here: Customizing HR for Dynamics
Time Buckets: Further Information
Using Time Buckets, you can allocate the delivered working hours of your workforce into as many buckets as you like. This enables you, to individually define, what you want to do with this time, i.e. how you want to credit this time, e.g. against your employees' time sheets.
How many time buckets can be defined for the workforce?
You may define lots of different time buckets. However, it is recommended to plan upfront, which of these defined time periods you will need. This allows you to limit the complexity in the execution of this system and to avoid the necessity of changes. We recommend to use as many as needed, but as few as possible. Once you defined all the necessary time periods that need to be differentiated throughout the company, you may find some that you can consolidate to reduce administration effort. Also, this allows for a better overview of the different regulations within your organisation.
What is the difference between Time Buckets and Shifts?
You can think of Shifts as the framework of your employees' working hours, whereas Time Buckets refer to how they actually used their working hours.
That means Shifts are meant to define:
- the planned start and end time of an individual employee,
- the tolerance you want to grant when clocking in and out,
- which employees are subject to this and
- where they are doing their work.
With Time Buckets however, you define, if performed working hours
- are to be remunerated with an extra pay attached to it,
- are to be credited against their time sheet with a certain multiplicator
- or are to be treated differently in any other way then other working hours.