Note:
This article is only relevant if you have employees who currently track overnight work. If they don't, you don't need to take any action. You'll still get access to the new feature, but adoption is optional. Your existing attendance records won't change, and any work schedules will remain valid.

Personio now supports overnight time tracking. This article explains what’s changing and what you need to do if you have employees who track time overnight. Review our dedicated article for a full overview of the new functionality.

Up to now, the system has split shifts at midnight, creating two attendance periods if an employee works at night. With overnight time tracking, your employees can now track night shifts that cross midnight. The system records these shifts as a single time entry. This helps you ensure accurate time tracking, compliance rules, and payroll processing for overnight work. It also means less manual work for you and a better experience for your employees.

As part of this transition, we recommend you do the following:

• Review your work schedule setup 
• Inform employees who work night shifts (even occasionally) about the changes

Key improvements

Transition timeline

Explore overnight time tracking

Employees can now track overnight shifts as one continuous time period. The system typically saves all overnight hours to the day the shift starts. It saves the entry with a +1 label to indicate that the period ends on the following day.

Examples:

In some instances, the system saves tracked time to a different day. Review these scenarios in our overview article to better understand attribution logic.

What you need to do

Step 1: Review or create overnight work schedules

Scenario 1: Employees on fixed shifts with start and end times

If an employee works fixed night shifts, create a fixed work schedule that reflects their real working times. For example, Monday to Friday, 22:00–06:00 (+1).

It’s important to do this because:

• With an overnight schedule, the system attributes the target hours for the shift to the day the shift starts.
• When the employee tracks time, the system also saves the tracked hours to the day the shift starts. Therefore:
  • Tracked hours match target hours.
  • You avoid unintended overtime or deficit hours caused by misalignment across days.
• When employees request full-day or half-day time off periods, Personio reduces the correct day’s target hours and calculates daily hours accurately. 

Scenario 2: Employees on rotating shifts with target hours per day

You may have employees who work frequently rotating shifts but have a target number of hours per day. If you already have a work schedule for these employees, you can continue to use it. You don’t need to make any changes.

If you haven’t already done so for these employees, create a fixed work schedule. Apply the following settings:

• Specify the target hours per day (for example, eight working hours per day)
• Leave start and end times blank.

Tip:
A schedule based only on target hours works well in both scenarios. It keeps daily target hours consistent, regardless of whether the employee works a day shift or an overnight shift.

Step 2: Understand the workday split threshold

This setting in work schedules defines how long a break can be during a night shift before the system treats it as the start of a new workday. Breaks shorter than this are counted as part of the same workday, while longer breaks start a new one. The default setting is four hours, but the accepted range is between two and fourteen hours. 

Review examples of how the workday split threshold impacts time tracking.

Step 3: Communicate the change to your employees

Send relevant communications to your employees. Inform them that:

• Overnight shifts now appear in Personio as one single period instead of two.
• They must track night shifts as one continuous period from the effective date. (See Step 4.)

Step 4: Assign the overnight work schedule to the relevant employees

1. If you created a new work schedule or schedules in Step 1, assign the new work schedules to the relevant employees. 
2. Set an effective date. Overnight time tracking is active from this date. Go to the Attendance settings and select Opt in to overnight tracking in the overnight tracking banner.

You have until 1 July 2026 to choose your own activation date. If you haven’t opted in by this point, we'll automatically enable the overnight tracking logic for you.

Step 5: Review payroll processes

If you use Personio Payroll and calculate SFN premiums based on recorded and approved working hours, the payroll date for night premiums will change.

For time-specific premiums (for example, night shift premiums), premiums will be associated with the attendance attribution day when they are paid as standalone premiums.

Example:

If a time-specific premium is bundled with another premium (for example, a Sunday or bank holiday), the attribution follows the bundled premium’s rules and continues to be associated with that calendar day.

Example:

If you don’t use Personio Payroll, you need to review how the new attribution of overnight time entries affects your premium calculations. Update your workflows if needed.

Understand how time off works for overnight shifts

Review how time off works for overnight shifts. 

Understand updates to existing time entries

This change doesn’t impact previously tracked overnight time entries. They’ll remain as they are.

However, if someone updates previous overnight time entries, the system applies the new logic. Importantly, the system decides on which day to re-attribute the hours to. This is important because the new feature typically attributes the entire overnight shift to a single day—usually the day the shift started (Day N).

Review the scenarios below.

Scenario 1: Someone with a target hours-only work schedule updates a time entry

You can expect the following behavior.

• If: The break between the overnight work period and the subsequent morning period exceeds the workday split threshold
  • Then: The system attributes any periods after the gap to the next day.

Examples (assuming the workday split threshold is four hours):

• If: Someone deletes the overnight part of the period
  • Then: The system attributes the remaining period to the day the period is tracked on (N).

Example:

Scenario 2: Someone with an overnight work schedule with defined start and end times updates a time entry

You can expect the following behavior.

• If: Someone removes the overnight part of the time entry (the hours worked on Day N+1).
• And if: The remaining hours (which occurred on Day N) overlap with the employee's fixed work schedule for the day before the shift started (Day N-1),
  • Then: The system attributes the remaining hours to the original start day of the shift (N).

Example (assuming the workday split threshold is four hours):

Access the temporary reporting solution

There are no changes to reporting as part of this release. This means that reports you create in the Analytics area don’t yet consider the +1 notation for overnight periods. For example:

• Tracked period: April 7, work 02:00 (+1) – 06:00 (+1)
• Displayed in reports: April 8, period start 02:00, period end 06:00

We plan to address this limitation later in the year. As a temporary solution, you can access a CSV export from the Attendance tab of each employee profile via the gear icon. This export includes all data related to overnight periods with +1 and -1 labels.

FAQ

Does this change existing time entries?

No. Existing overnight entries won't be migrated or modified and will remain as they are. 

How does the feature attribute hours that span midnight?

The feature typically attributes hours to the day the shift starts. The exception is if they overlap with the following day’s work schedule.

Do compliance rules work correctly across midnight now?

Yes. Compliance validation now applies across the full overnight period.

Can employees request time off for overnight shifts?

Yes. For employees on fixed overnight schedules with start and end times, the system applies time off for overnight shifts to the shift start day for full, half-day, and hourly time off periods. For schedules with target hours only (without fixed start and end times), the behavior remains unchanged.

Is there a maximum length for an overnight shift?

Yes. Attendance days can’t exceed 24 hours.

Which tracking methods support overnight work?

The following methods:

• Attendance page
• Clock‑in/out (web and mobile)
• Manual tracking on mobile
• Entrance App
• Import
• API

The manual tracking widget only records time for the current day and resets at midnight. Therefore, we recommend overnight workers use the clock-in widget instead.

What happens if an employee forgets to clock out?

The session stops automatically at 24 hours, and the system saves the period without an end time. The employee can add the end time later.