What is a grace period?
In Octal HR, the grace period is a per-shift setting: how many minutes after the shift start time an employee can check in and still be considered on time. A check-in after shift start plus the grace period is marked Late.
Because it belongs to the shift, every employee assigned to that shift shares its grace period. A morning office shift might allow 15 minutes, while a factory floor shift requiring an exact handover might allow 0 minutes.
Where it applies: The grace period drives the automatic Late status derived from biometric device punches. When HR enters attendance manually or via Excel import, the status they select is kept as-is and is not recomputed from the grace period.
Check-in grace period
The grace period defines how late is "on time." An employee who punches in within the grace window is recorded as Present, not Late.
Punch at 09:00–09:15 → Present / on time
Punch at 09:16 or later → Late
Half-day hours
Alongside the grace period, each shift has a half-day hours setting — the minimum hours that count as a half day. This is used when deriving status from a completed pair of punches (check-in and check-out):
Worked less than 4 hours → Absent
Worked 4 to under 8 hours (up to twice the half-day hours) → Half Day
Worked 8 hours or more → Present (or Late if checked in after the grace period)
Visual timeline
The diagram below shows how the grace period sits at the start of a 09:00–18:00 shift with a 15-minute grace period:
Check-in within the yellow zone → on time | Check-in after it → Late
Recommended Configuration Settings
Scheduling tip: During seasonal periods, special business events, or temporary operating schedules, consider creating dedicated shift variants with adjusted grace periods, working hours, or attendance rules. Assign employees to these schedules as needed and revert to standard shifts when the period ends.
Configure per shift
The grace period belongs to the shift, so it is changed by editing the shift or by assigning the employee to a different shift — there is no separate per-employee grace override.