Break stamping: real breaks instead of flat deductions

Two answers when clocking out

With the function switched on, Jobilino asks when clocking out: “Break or end of work?” There is no more choice than that – whether it is paid or unpaid is decided later by the evaluation, not by the employee.

Tipp: Jobilino never asks when clocking in. The question belongs to finishing, not to starting.

The break is the gap, not an entry

When an entry is finished with “break”, the time until the next clock-in on the same day counts as a break. Jobilino stores no separate time entry for it but derives the gap from the existing stamps.

Tipp: That is the heart of it: a booked “break” would be a claim. A gap between two real stamps is evidence – with a start, an end and a duration.

Several breaks a day are normal

Your staff may take as many breaks as the work requires. Jobilino adds up every gap in a day – whether that is one lunch break or five short interruptions makes no difference to the total.

Open the setting

Administration → Time tracking. There you will find the switch “Break stamping (‘Break or end of work?’)”. From then on the question appears at every clock-out – in the app, in the web app and with NFC.

Tipp: The change takes effect immediately and only going forward. Times already recorded do not change.

The automatic break has to go

The switch “Add a break automatically after 6 hours” and break stamping exclude each other – both together would deduct twice. Jobilino rejects the combination on saving.

Tipp: Should the two ever meet, break stamping wins and the automatic deduction is switched off – the break that was actually stamped is the more defensible figure.

Deactivate old break time types

Some companies still carry a bookable time type “break” from earlier years. Break stamping makes it redundant and it leads to duplicate figures. The settings page lists the affected types with a note.

Tipp: A booked break entry produces neither a gap nor a paid break – it only looks as though it does.

Tell the team

The question at clock-out is new and self-explanatory, but it changes a habit. One sentence to the team is enough: anyone going on a break picks “break”, anyone finishing for the day picks “end of work”.

Tipp: Cancelling aborts the clock-out rather than forcing one of the two answers – nobody clocks out by accident.

Store the value with the client

In the client settings you define how many break minutes are paid per day: 0, 10, 15, 20, 25 or 30 minutes. The default is 0 – without an entry every break stays unpaid.

Tipp: The value belongs to the client, not to the employee. That way you reflect what the respective contract or collective agreement provides for.

The break belongs to the client before it

Every break is allocated to the client of the entry that precedes it. Someone working for client A in the morning and client B in the afternoon can receive two credits in one day – one per client, each up to that client's limit.

No project, no paid break

A break after an entry without a project, and therefore without a client, stays entirely unpaid. It still counts towards the break duration but earns no credit.

Tipp: If paid breaks are the rule at your company, make sure times are consistently booked to projects.

Paid means paid, not worked

The credit goes into the “paid” total, not into “worked” – exactly like public holidays and leave. Overtime and time deficits are unaffected.

Tipp: That matters for payroll: a paid break increases the hours to be paid, but nobody builds up overtime with it.

Monthly view

The monthly overview shows a card of its own with the break total, the paid and unpaid share, and a marker on each day where a break was stamped.

PDF and Excel

Both exports list the breaks exactly as the screen does – per day and as a monthly total, split into paid and unpaid.

Tipp: So the evidence you hand to inspectors and clients is the same as what your team sees on screen.

Live overview

Anyone who clocked out with “break” appears in the daily overview explicitly as “on a break” – not as absent and not as finished.

A closed month

At the month-end close Jobilino freezes the breaks: the paid share goes into the billing total, and the split into paid and unpaid stays documented.

Tipp: Changing the paid minutes at a client later therefore only takes effect going forward – months already settled stay as they were.

Through the manual form

When creating a time entry, pick “break” as the entry kind and give the break window – from when to when the break was taken.

Tipp: The option only appears while break stamping is switched on.

What Jobilino makes of it

No break entry is created. If an entry ends exactly at the start of the break, it is marked as “break”. If an entry spans the break window, Jobilino splits it into two halves – both keep the time type, the project and the contingent.

Tipp: The result is exactly the same as a stamped break, paid break per client included.

When it does not fit

If there is no matching stamp, or the window only partially overlaps, Jobilino rejects the entry with a message rather than guessing. The same applies to entries in a closed month or awaiting approval.

Tipp: In that case check first whether the day's times are correct at all – usually a stamp is missing, not the break.

Marking it afterwards

When editing an existing entry there is also the switch “break after this entry”. With it you correct a wrongly answered question without changing any times.

Forgetting to clock out

When the nightly automation closes an open entry, it always sets “end of work” – never “break”. Otherwise a break would be created that never ends.

Breaks across midnight

A break running past midnight is not counted: the closing clock-in falls on the next day. On night shifts, add such breaks manually.

Very short interruptions

Gaps of under a minute do not count as a break. Clocking straight back in therefore produces no break time – for instance after answering the question wrongly by accident.

Statutory break rules are something else

Further down the same page are the break early-warning system and the rest-period check. They monitor legal limits and warn; break stamping is what records the break in the first place. Both can be switched on independently.

Tipp: The sensible order is: record first, monitor second. Without stamped breaks, an early-warning system can only judge the raw working time.