An Access level determines what an employee can see and do in Planday. Assign access levels to employees who need additional permissions to manage schedules, people or account settings.

A Department represents a location or area of your business and has its own schedule.

Examples: First department (default), Restaurant East, Back of the house

An Employee form lets you customise which information is stored in employee profiles and who can view or edit each field.

An Employee group defines an employee's job role, such as Waiter or Cook. Employee groups determine which shifts employees can work and can also be used throughout Planday for scheduling and reporting.

An Employee type groups employees by their employment terms. Employee types can be used when applying Working time rules, Payroll supplements and other settings. These can be used to group full-time, part time, or seasonal employees.

Your Planday URL (also called your company or portal URL) is the unique web address for your Planday workspace, usually in the format companyname.planday.com. Employees use this URL to sign in to Planday on the web and in the mobile app to access their schedule and work-related information.

Auto-schedule is a tool that creates suggested schedules based on rules such as employee availability, contracted hours, leave and Working time rules. This feature is available on the Pro plan.

Availability lets employees indicate when they can and can't work, helping Schedule managers create suitable rotas.

Contracted availability is designed to show you whether you are scheduling an employee within specific periods. This is generally determined by an employment agreement or contract.

Contracted hours compare scheduled hours with contracted hours, helping you monitor staffing levels and overtime. You can then transfer

Contract rules compare scheduled hours against contracted hours, making it easy to identify employees who are under- or over-scheduled.

Draft shift is an unpublished shift you can create and assign in Planday while building a schedule. Employees can’t see it until you publish, and any already published shifts stay visible in the meantime.

An Open shift is an unassigned shift that eligible employees can request to take.

A Position defines the work an employee performs during a shift. Each Position belongs to an Employee group, ensuring only qualified employees can be assigned to it.

A Schedule template is a reusable set of shifts that can be applied to future schedules to save time and maintain consistency. This is helpful if you have repetitive scheduling patterns. You can always apply a template and modify the schedule to your liking.

A Section (also known as Sub-department or Headline) is a schedule element you can use to bundle several of your Positions – to indicate a larger activity area at the workplace.

A Shift type labels non-standard shifts, such as sick leave or trial work. Shift types can also affect payroll, overtime and reporting.

Working time rules help you schedule employees in line with local legislation or your organisation's working time policies.

A Break rule automatically adds breaks to shifts based on the time of day or the number of hours worked.

A Manual break is a paid or unpaid pause that you can add directly to a scheduled shift or to a Timesheet entry after the shift.

Punch Clock records when employees start and finish work using the Planday mobile app, shared tablet or a web browser.

Punch Clock breaks allow employees to clock breaks in and out using Punch Clock.

A Punch Clock entry records when an employee clocks in, clocks out and takes breaks creating a timesheet entry. Approved entries are used for payroll.

Punch Clock profiles determine which employees can use specific Punch Clock devices to clock in for shifts.

Timesheets provide a single, unified place to manage and approve employee shifts, breaks, and Punch Clock records.

Access the Timesheets page via:

Leave policies define how holidays or TOIL accounts are handled, including settings such as renewal, carryover, and duration for employees.

A Leave account tracks an employee's available leave balance. This could be the balance they earn each month, or a fixed balance issued under your work’s leave policies.

A Leave request lets employees request time off for manager approval from their available balance.

A TOIL account tracks an employee’s accrued Time Off In Lieu (TOIL), which increases when they work additional hours and decreases when they work fewer hours than required. They are set up via leave policies. The extra time can be taken as future leave or paid out as money.

Integrations automate the transfer of data between platforms, enabling you to export payroll information to accounting software, import sales figures from point-of-sale systems, sync HR records for employee management, or compile schedule details for strategic insights.

A payroll report is a file containing approved payroll information that can be integrated directly into your payroll setup. This report can be manually downloaded in XLS, CSV, or PDF formats to preview, making it ideal for workspaces that integrate with an external payroll provider and require a compatible file format.

A Payroll supplement automatically adds additional pay to shifts based on predefined rules, such as overtime, weekends or night work. Additionally, supplements can be manually added when editing shifts or directly within Timesheets.

A Revenue unit is a cost centre for recording and reporting revenue in a Department. New departments get one automatically, but more can be added to register further revenue.

A Salary is a fixed amount paid for a set pay period, regardless of the hours worked.

Salary codes (also called a Payroll ID) in Planday are used to identify and report different shifts, mainly when you use accounting software to process your payroll. For example, you can use salary codes to differentiate regular working hours, overtime, sick leave, or any other specific types of shifts for accurate reporting and payroll calculations.

A Wage is payment based on the number of hours or shifts worked.