Breaks, From Planning to Payroll
Each work policy picks a break policy: the break rules of one jurisdiction, plus how breaks are grouped, recorded, checked and paid. Shiftavo includes expected unpaid breaks in planned hours and labor costs, then checks recorded breaks when you switch the check on. Your team records the break kind at the kiosk or on their phone when there is a choice. Managers see missing, short, early or late breaks alongside the hours they review, including in the mobile approval queue.
Plan, Record, Review
Account for Breaks Before Publishing
Set working-time thresholds, duration, deadlines, clock-time windows, minimum blocks for split breaks and limits on every stretch of work. Paid and unpaid settings feed the hours and cost forecast. Check each shift alone, a calendar day, or a stretch of continuous work.
See What Your Hours Include
Hours confirmed from the schedule or entered by hand get the expected breaks filled in — across a workday, each shift gets its share. Or require punched breaks, so a missing one shows up. The preview shows breaks and paid hours. Existing punches stay intact.
Resolve Exceptions With the Time Entry
Check the warning, correct the break and review the hours. Filter break issues and include their messages in CSV and Excel exports. Flagged rows stay out of automatic approval; managers can approve after review.
One Policy per Jurisdiction
Change a Rule Once
A break policy holds a jurisdiction’s rules and settings, and many work policies can pick it. A rule can belong to several policies — the adults’ and the youth policy share one ladder — so a law change is one edit.
Your Country’s Policy on Day One
New companies in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France, Italy and the UK start with their country’s break policy, picked by the default work policy, and a separate youth policy. Every rule stays editable.
Start From a State’s Pack
Packs for 21 US states, Puerto Rico, Guam and the US Virgin Islands — plus Illinois hotel room attendants and New York factories — create a break policy with that jurisdiction’s rules in one step.
Ask, Explain, Pay
Two Questions About Today’s Breaks
Where a policy pays for missed breaks, people answer after clocking out — at the kiosk, in the app, even offline, or later on the web: did they get every meal and rest break they were entitled to?
Answers and Reasons Next to the Hours
Managers see the answers on the time entry, in the Time worked report and in the app, and record a reason where they know why a break was missed. Unexplained issues hold automatic approval.
Missed-Break Pay in the Payroll Reports
The policy works out the extra hours — per workday, per workday and kind, per missed break, or by the minutes missed. The payroll summary and detail carry them, in CSV and Excel too; your payroll applies the rate.
Breaks the Way Each Country Counts Them
A Long Enough Gap Is the Break
Shifts with a gap between them add up to one workday. In Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Italy the gap counts as the unpaid meal when it’s long enough — nothing extra is deducted.
Breaks on Standby, Counted by Country
Mark a break taken on standby. Switzerland and France count it; in Germany, Austria, Italy and the UK it’s working time, and the warning says so.
No Stretch Over the Limit
Germany wants a 15-minute break after six hours in a row at the latest; Switzerland adds a quarter hour for every stretch over 5½ hours. The plan places those breaks, and the warning names the stretch by its hours.
Keep Individual Waivers in Context
Record an allowed waiver on the person’s profile, note where the signed agreement is kept, and see when it started or ended and who changed it. Historical periods keep their waiver coverage. Daily checks combine the person’s relevant shifts, even across filtered views; a gap is never counted as work. Country policies cover Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France, Italy and the UK, and packs cover general state rules, not every exception — neither is legal advice, so review them against your own policy.
Where to Go Next.
The pages that sit next to this one — and the documentation when you want the detail.
US State Breaks
Meal and rest break packs for 21 states and three territories, with break questions and missed-break pay.
US State Breaks
Timesheet
Per-shift detail. Scheduled vs actual. Confirm, then approve — with optional two-step employee sign-off.
Timesheet
Kiosk
Shared tablet at the door. Four-digit PIN per person. It's bolted down, so the punch is tied to the site.
Kiosk
Time & Attendance
Clock-in becomes a timesheet row. Manager-approved hours flow into payroll.
Time & Attendance