What is a half-day?

Each shift has a half-day hours value — the minimum hours that count as a half day. When Octal HR derives status from a complete pair of biometric punches, hours worked below the shift's full-day requirement (but at least the half-day hours) become a Half Day. Below the half-day hours, the day is Absent.

Example — half-day hours set to 4 on an 8-hour shift:
Worked < 4 hours → Absent
Worked 4 to under 8 hours (up to twice the half-day hours) → Half Day
Worked ≥ 8 hours → Present (or Late if checked in after the grace period)

The half-day hours value is configurable per shift, so you can set different rules for part-time staff, field staff, or contract workers.

How half-days are set

Auto-derived from biometric punches (short hours)

When a check-in and check-out are captured from a biometric device, Octal HR compares the hours worked against the shift. If the hours are at least the shift's half-day hours but below twice that value, the day is auto-marked Half Day. Overnight shifts spanning midnight are calculated correctly.

Manual marking

An authorized HR user sets the status to Half Day directly from Daily Attendance, or via the Excel import. Manually set and imported statuses are kept as-is and are not recomputed from punch hours.

Payroll impact

A Half Day status deducts exactly 0.5 days of salary from gross pay for that day:

Formula:
Half-day deduction = Monthly Basic ÷ Working days in month × 0.5

Example: Basic salary PKR 60,000 / 26 working days × 0.5 = PKR 1,154 deduction
(Deduction appears as "Half Day Deduction" on payslip)

The divisor (26 days, 22 days, or calendar days) depends on your payroll configuration. See Attendance–Payroll Integration for proration divisor settings.

Leave vs half-day: A Half Day attendance status always deducts 0.5 day of salary. Approved paid leave is a separate On Leave status and does not carry a half-day salary deduction.

Configure half-day rules

1
Go to Attendance → Shifts → [Select Shift] → Edit.
2
Set the Half-Day Hours field — the minimum hours that count as a half day. Punch-derived days below this are Absent; from this up to twice this value are Half Day; at or above the full-day requirement they are Present.
3
Save the shift. The value applies to attendance derived from device punches going forward.

Tip: Set the half-day hours based on employee roles and work schedules. Shift-based environments may require a higher threshold, while office-based teams often use a lower one.

Reports

Monitor half-day patterns from Attendance → Reports:

  • Monthly Attendance Summary — Per-employee totals for the month, including half-days
  • Attendance Detail — Day-by-day records for an employee, showing each half-day and the hours worked
  • Late Arrivals — Filter for late check-ins; useful alongside half-day trends