Attendance policies in Personio define how employees' working time is scheduled, tracked, and counted as overtime. There are three types:

• Work schedules define when employees are expected to work.
• Time tracking policies determine how employees record their hours.
• Overtime policies control how overtime is calculated.

This article covers how to set defaults, assign policies, review existing assignments and definitions, edit or correct policies, and archive or delete the ones you no longer need.

Before making any changes, read the Balance recalculations section: changes can trigger automatic recalculations of time off, attendance, and overtime balances.

Before you start

• To edit or archive attendance policies, you need permissions to Account configuration > Attendance.
• To assign attendance policies, you need edit permissions to the Attendance data of the employee you're assigning the policy to.
• Before you assign a new attendance policy or edit an existing one, read the Balance recalculation section below.

Balance recalculations

Attendance and overtime balances

The system automatically recalculates employees' overtime and attendance balances when:

• An attendance policy was edited with an effective date in the past. Balances are recalculated for every employee that policy is assigned to.
• An employee's policy assignment in the past has changed.

In practice, this means the system triggers attendance and overtime recalculations when you:

• Assign a new attendance policy with an effective date in the past.
• Edit an attendance policy and set the effective date in the past.
• Replace a past assignment with a new policy.

Note: Overtime recalculations only go back to 1 November 2025. The system doesn't recalculate overtime for any changes before this date.

Time off balance

The system automatically recalculates employees' time off balances when:

• An attendance policy was edited with an effective date in the past or up to the end of the current holiday year. Time off balances are recalculated for every employee that policy is assigned to.
• An employee's policy assignment has changed in the past or up to the end of the current holiday year.

In practice, this means the system triggers time off balance recalculations when you:

• Assign a new attendance policy with an effective date in the past or up to the end of the current holiday year.
• Edit an attendance policy and set the effective date in the past or up to the end of the current holiday year.
• Replace a past assignment with a new policy.

Policy definitions

Every time you edit a policy, the system creates a new definition for it: a snapshot of the policy's settings with its own effective date. A single policy can have multiple definitions valid at different points in time, and you can review the full version history of any policy you've edited.

This means a policy is a timeline of definitions, each one valid from its effective date until the next one takes over. You'll see this concept come up when assigning, editing, or correcting policies.

Set default attendance policies

The system automatically preselects default attendance policies for assignment to new employees. You need to set a default work schedule policy and time tracking policy for employees.

However, you don't have to set a default policy for overtime policies. We recommend you do that only if most of your employees record overtime in the same way.

You cannot:

• Set archived policies as default.
• Set flexible or multi-weekly work schedules as defaults.

Set a new default attendance policy

To set a default attendance policy, follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings.
2. In the Time off & attendance section, click Attendance.
3. Depending on the kind of policy you want to set as default, click Work Schedules, Time Tracking, or Overtime.
4. Click the policy you want to set as default.
5. In the top-right corner, click the three dots, then Set as default.
6. Confirm the change.

Assign an attendance policy

Before you assign an attendance policy or replace a past assignment:

• Read the Balance recalculation section above.
• Only assign overtime policies from the date employees start tracking their working hours on Personio. If you assign these policies without the employees actively doing this, you might end up with incorrect overtime balances.

Assign attendance policies in bulk

To assign an attendance policy to several employees at the same time, follow these steps:

1. Click Organization.
2. Optional: Filter the employees to narrow your selection.
3. Select the checkbox on the left of all the employees you want to assign the same policy to.
4. Click Edit time policies, then choose the relevant option based on the type of policy you're assigning.
5. Start typing the name of the policy you want to assign, or select it directly from the dropdown menu.
6. Click Next.
7. Select when the new policy applies from.
8. Optional: if the assignment is temporary, for example a summer schedule, select Make this assignment temporary and select an end date. If there's no other assignment lined up after the end date, employees revert to the previously assigned policy.
9. Review any conflict warnings and blockers.
10. Submit the change.

Assign attendance policies individually

To assign an attendance policy to a single employee, follow these steps:

1. Go to the relevant employee profile > Attendance.
   1. To assign a work schedule, click the title of the work schedule widget > Assign new work schedule policy.
   2. To assign a time tracking or overtime policy:
      1. Click the three dots in the top-right corner.
      2. Select the relevant option.
      3. Click Assign new policy.
2. Select the appropriate policy.
3. Select when the new policy applies from.
4. Optional: if the assignment is temporary, for example a summer schedule, select Make this assignment temporary and select an end date. If there's no other assignment lined up after the end date, employees revert to the previous policy.
5. Review any conflict warnings and blockers.
6. Submit the change.

Replace a past assignment

You can replace any attendance policy assigned to an employee in the past. Follow these steps:

1. Go to the employee profile > Attendance.
   • If you want to replace a past work schedule, click the title of the work schedule widget.
   • If you want to replace a time tracking or overtime policy, click the three dots in the top-right corner and choose the relevant option.
2. Hover over the relevant assignment.
3. Click the three dots that appear on the right.
4. Select the new policy from the dropdown menu and click Next.
5. If you edit the assignment dates, the system automatically adjusts the policy that comes immediately before or after (whichever is affected), so there's no gap or overlap in the timeline.
   • If your edit creates a gap, the adjacent policy stretches to fill it.
   • If your edit creates an overlap, the adjacent policy is trimmed.
   • For example: if you shorten the end date of the new assignment, the policy that follows extends backward to cover the gap. If you push the start date earlier, the policy that precedes it is trimmed back, so the two don't overlap.
6. Review any conflict warnings and blockers.
7. Submit the change.

Conflict warnings and blockers

When you assign an attendance policy, the system checks for any potential conflicts the assignment can cause for your employees. For example: the selected schedule doesn't match an employee's weekly hours.

For most of these warnings, you can decide if you want to proceed with the assignment, or exclude the employee, directly from the warnings panel.

The only exception is when you don't have the necessary permissions to assign a policy to specific employees. In this case, the system excludes the employees automatically.

Review attendance policies

You can review attendance policies from two angles:

• By definition: how a policy's settings have changed over time, including any past, current, and scheduled definitions.
• By assignment: who has which policy, both currently and historically. You can do this for your whole organization at once or for a single employee.

Review policy definitions

Every time you edit the settings of attendance policy, the system creates a new definition for it. This means your policies can have different settings that are valid at different times. You can review your policies' definitions to understand how a policy changed over time. Follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings.
2. In the Time off & attendance section, click Attendance.
3. Find and click the policy you want to review.
4. If there's a scheduled change, you will see a note at the top of the panel on the right. Click View for more details.
5. Otherwise, scroll down to the More details section and click View complete timeline.
6. Here, you can see any past and current definitions and scheduled changes for your policy. Click any of them to see its settings and the change description left by the policy editor.

Review policy assignments in bulk

To see which attendance policy is currently assigned to which employee at a glance, follow these steps:

1. Click Organization.
2. At the top of the list, click Columns. Depending on the kind of policy you want to review, type “Work schedule policy”, “Time tracking policy”, or “Overtime policy”.
3. Select the columns.
4. The relevant column appears on the right. It shows all employees you have access to. You may need to scroll to the right to see it.

Review a specific employee's policy assignment history

To review the full attendance policy history of a specific employee, including the dates of any past and future policy assignment, follow these steps:

1. Go to the employee profile.
2. Click Attendance.
   • If you want to review their work schedule policy assignments, click the title of the work schedule widget.
   • If you want to review their time tracking or overtime policy assignments, click the three dots in the top-right corner and choose the relevant option.
3. Here, you can see a list of all the policies assigned to the employee with the relevant dates and the policy definition.

Edit or remove an attendance policy

You can edit attendance policies in several ways: update settings, correct a past definition, rename, or archive and delete the ones you no longer use. 

The impact of each change varies: settings edits create new definitions and can trigger balance recalculations, while name changes apply across the entire history.

Edit the settings of an attendance policy

Before editing the settings of any attendance policy, keep in mind:

• When you edit the settings of an attendance policy, the system creates a new definition for it. This way, you can decide when the new definition comes into effect, now, in the past, or in the future. You can review all the past and future definitions of your policies if they've ever been edited.
• Definitions have an effective date but no end date. Each new definition applies from its effective date onward, overwriting any definition scheduled after it. This means you can't change a past definition in isolation: any edit with a past effective date will overwrite the definitions that follow it.
• When you edit the settings of an attendance policy, the system recalculates time off, attendance, and overtime balances. This is especially relevant for your default work schedule, as it's likely to be assigned to most of your employees from their hire date.

To edit the settings of an attendance policy, follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings.
2. In the Time off & attendance section, click Attendance.
3. Depending on the kind of policy you want to edit, click Work Schedules, Time Tracking, or Overtime.
4. Click the policy you want to edit.
5. In the top-right corner, click the three dots.
6. Click Edit policy.
7. Apply the desired changes and click Next.
8. Select a date the new definition comes into effect.
9. Confirm the changes.
10. Write a note describing the policy changes. This appears in the list of policy definitions and helps you understand later why changes were made or what changed.
11. Save the changes.

Correct a past policy definition

If a past definition is incorrect, you can't fix it in isolation. You have two options:

1. Overwrite the version history.
   • Edit the policy with the correct settings and an effective date matching the incorrect definition. Then edit the policy again to recreate each subsequent definition to rebuild the timeline. We recommend doing this only if the policy has one or two definitions to correct.
2. Create a new policy.
   • If the version history is complex, it's safer to create a new policy with the correct definitions from the start, then assign it to the affected employees. This avoids mistakes when rebuilding several definitions in sequence. We recommend doing this if the policy has more than two incorrect definitions.

Edit an attendance policy name and description

Policy name and description changes apply to all past, present, and future policy definitions.

1. Go to Settings.
2. In the Time off & attendance section, click Attendance.
3. Depending on the kind of policy you want to edit, click Work Schedules, Time Tracking, or Overtime.
4. Click the policy you want to edit.
5. In the top-right corner, click the three dots.
6. Click Edit name.
7. Type the new name or description. The name should help you identify the schedule's settings at a glance. For example:
   • Work schedule: “Full-time, 40 hours, Mon–Fri”
   • Time tracking: “Clock in/out, 8-hour daily cap”
   • Overtime: “Daily overtime, deficit off”
8. Save the changes.

Archive or delete an attendance policy

If an attendance policy is not assigned, or scheduled to be assigned, to anyone, you can archive it. When you archive a policy:

• You don't lose any of the historical data associated with it.
• This has no effect on any people this policy was assigned to in the past.
• The system hides the policy from the list in your Attendance settings and during assignment.
• You can still retrieve archived policies by removing the status filter.
• You can restore and reuse archived policies at any time.

If a policy has never been assigned to anyone in the past, present, or future, you can delete it. When you delete a policy, you cannot retrieve it in any way.

To archive or delete a policy, follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings.
2. In the Time off & attendance section, click Attendance.
3. Depending on the kind of policy you want to archive or delete, click Work Schedules, Time Tracking, or Overtime.
4. Click the policy you want to archive or delete.
5. In the top-right corner, click the three dots.
6. Click Archive or Delete.
7. Confirm the action.