Skip to main content
How to create and apply Contract rules

Learn how to avoid over or under-scheduling your staff by setting up and applying Contract rules when creating schedules.

Saad Saeed avatar
Written by Saad Saeed
Updated over 3 months ago

What are Contract rules?

Contract rules help you compare the hours your employees are scheduled to work with the hours they’re contracted for. By setting these rules, you can easily see which employees have enough hours, who can take on more shifts, and who has exceeded their contract limit.


How to create Contract rules

To create Contract rules, go to Settings > People > Contract rules and click Create Contract rule.

  1. Give your Contract rule a name and description.

  2. Choose an interval (day, week, month, or year). If you use multiple intervals, you can set one as primary to be visible in the schedule.

3. Enter the details and set a start date. The start date determines when scheduled hours begin counting. For example, if the start date is 1 June with a weekly interval of 40 hours, the hours will be tracked from the 1st to the 7th, the 8th to the 14th, and so on. Press Save to complete this.

Tip: It's best to start on a Monday for weekly intervals or the 1st of the month for monthly intervals.

To exclude certain Shift types from the Contract rule, go to Applies to > Shift types and deselect them. For example, you can exclude training shifts or shifts with education from counting towards employees' weekly minimum hours.

You can always return to this page to edit or change a contract rule.


How to assign a Contract rule to an employee

1. Go to the People page and hover over the employee's name.

2. Click the pencil icon ✎ to edit.

3. In the Personal details tab, scroll to the Payroll section.

4. Select the desired Contract rule from the drop-down menu and press Save.


See Contract rules on the rota

When scheduling, you'll see colour-coded statuses for employees with Contract rules:

  • 🟢 Green: The employee is scheduled for the correct hours.

  • 🟡 Yellow: The employee needs more hours.

  • 🔴 Red: The employee is scheduled for too many hours.

Please hover over the status icon next to an employee's name to see how their scheduled hours compare to their Contract rule.

Clicking the icon gives a detailed overview and lets you switch between intervals if multiple are set.

Note: Scheduled hours include all assigned shifts within the interval, minus breaks and any excluded Shift types.


Using Contract rules when assigning shifts

When assigning shifts, pay attention to the colour-coded status next to each employee's name. This makes it easy to choose the right person for the shift.


See related articles:

ℹ️ Need more help?

🔍 Search the Help Center | See videos at Tutorials.Planday.com | Watch a webinar

💬 For personalised support

Login and contact our support team via the blue icon at the bottom if you have more questions or book a one-to-one professional training session with an expert.

Tags

This list helps people find the right information in the Help Center. It might have led you here if you were looking for this topic in another language or used certain keywords. To change the Help Center language, go to the top right corner of this page.

cont, contr

Did this answer your question?