Use a shift boundary
Record the planned start and end, including the end date. Decide how the organisation assigns the work period to an attendance day and document that convention. The calendar date of an out-punch should not, by itself, determine which shift it belongs to.
Review breaks and nearby events
Look for events immediately before and after the scheduled period. A late exit may belong to the previous night's shift, while an early arrival may belong to the next one. Break handling and maximum pairing windows should be explicit. Unusually long periods need review rather than automatic acceptance.
Check the month-end handoff
A shift that starts on the last day of the month may finish after the payroll attendance cutoff. Agree how that incomplete shift is handled and when its final result becomes available. Keep the same convention in attendance reports, manager approvals and payroll inputs.
Worked example
For an illustrative 22:00–06:00 shift, elapsed time is eight hours before break adjustments. Group the two timestamps into the same shift record rather than treating 06:00 as a new day's arrival.
Practical checklist
- Store dates with every timestamp.
- Document shift-day attribution and pairing windows.
- Test a shift crossing both midnight and month-end.