Configuring Weekly Off Days

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Pakistan country pack — this guide covers Pakistan-specific statutory rules. Octal HR is configurable for other regions too.

Overview

Off days are configured as part of each shift in Octal HR, via the shift's applicable days — the days the shift runs. Any day not ticked as applicable is a non-working (off) day for every employee assigned that shift — no manual entry required. The set of applicable days determines working days per month, which affects salary proration and leave calculations.

Common weekly off patterns in Pakistan

Pattern	Days off	Working days/week	Common in
6-day week	Sunday only	6	Manufacturing, retail, field sales
5-day week	Saturday + Sunday	5	Corporate offices, banks, multinationals
5.5-day week	Sunday + Half Saturday	5.5	Mid-size offices
Islamic week	Friday + Sunday	5	Some government and religious institutions
Half-Friday	Half Friday + Sunday	5.5	Private sector, Friday Jumma accommodation

Half-Friday / short Friday

Many Pakistani companies operate a shorter Friday to accommodate Jumu'ah prayers. In Octal HR, this is handled with a dedicated shift whose applicable days and hours reflect the shorter Friday:

Mon
Full

Tue
Full

Wed
Full

Thu
Full

Fri
Half (13:00)

Sat
Off

Sun
Off

Create two shifts: a "Mon–Thu Shift" (09:00–18:00) with only Mon–Thu ticked as applicable days, and a "Friday Short Shift" (09:00–13:00) with only Friday ticked. Saturday and Sunday are left un-ticked on both, so they are non-working days.

Configure weekly off in shift settings

Go to Attendance → Shifts → [Shift Name] → Edit.

Under Applicable Days, tick the days the shift runs. Any day you leave un-ticked (e.g., Sunday, or Saturday + Sunday) is an off day.

For a half-day Friday, create a separate shorter shift with only Friday as an applicable day (see Shift Schedules).

Save. All employees assigned this shift immediately have the updated off-day pattern.

Changing a shift's applicable days takes effect immediately for attendance processing. To move a group of employees to a different day pattern from a specific date, create a new shift and re-assign it with an effective date — assignment history is preserved.

Working on an off day

If an employee works on a day that is off for their shift, any overtime hours for that day are entered on the attendance record. Those hours are paid at the standard OT multiplier from the applicable overtime rule. A separate weekend multiplier can be configured on the rule for future use, but payroll does not currently switch multipliers automatically based on day type — if you need a higher payout for off-day work, reflect it by adjusting the OT hours entered. See Overtime Rules for the rule settings.

Payroll and proration

The set of applicable days directly affects how many working days are in a month — which is the divisor used for salary proration and daily rate calculations:

6-day week: ~26 working days/month
5-day week: ~22 working days/month
5.5-day week: ~24 working days/month

Octal HR counts these working days automatically each month from the shift's applicable days, minus any public holidays — there is no manual divisor to set. This count is used for proration when an employee joins or leaves mid-month, and for hourly-rate calculations.