Managing work restrictions is important because it helps organization's stay compliant with regulations, support employee well‑being, and maintain operational efficiency. It reduces fatigue, prevents scheduling conflicts, and strengthens risk management by minimising legal or safety issues.
Key features of Work Restrictions:
Customisable Policies:
Define minimum and maximum hour limits for employees over daily, weekly,
fortnightly, or custom periods.
Define user group-specific clock on and off reminders.
Flexible Period Types:
Daily restrictions: apply limits per day.
Weekly restrictions: apply limits per week.
Rolling periods: for weekly policies, predict upcoming breaches during the
current week based on submitted/rostered hours.
Threshold Alerts:
Multi-level alerts (Warning, Critical, Breach) help you act before violations occur.
Real-Time Notifications:
Immediate alerts when employees approach or exceed limits.
Integrated Validation:
Rostering checks prevent publishing non-compliant schedules.
Comprehensive Summaries:
View hours worked, scheduled hours, and projected breaches in one place.
Configuring the Work Restrictions module:
Work Restrictions is a premium Definitiv feature. If you would like to activate it, you can contact your Account Manager or Customer Success Manager. Once enabled, you can create a policy.
Create Policy by following the steps below:
Navigate to Admin, Policies, Work Restriction Policies, New Work
Restriction Policy.
Name: Descriptive information about the restriction.
Time Frame (Days) Length: The number of days over which hours are tracked (e.g. 7 days for weekly, 14 days for fortnightly).
Commencement Date (DD/MM/YYYY)
Rolling Period: place a tick in the box if you require a rolling period; by default, it will go to fixed if not ticked.
Fixed Period: Hours are tracked in distinct blocks (e.g. Week 1, Week 2, etc.) that
align with the commencement date.
Rolling Periods: Hours are continuously tracked over a sliding window (e.g.
always looking at the last 7 days).
Hour Constraints: Each policy can enforce two types of constraints.
Minimum Hours Constraint
Sets a minimum number of hours an employee must work within the period.
Useful for ensuring employees meet minimum work requirements.
Can be enabled or disabled independently.
Maximum Hours Constraint
Sets a maximum number of hours an employee can work within the period.
Useful for preventing overwork and ensuring compliance with labour laws.
Can be enabled or disabled independently.
Set Thresholds: For each constraint (minimum or maximum hours), you can define multiple thesholds at different percentage levels.
Set Notifications: When thresholds are reached, the system can automatically notify relevant parties:
Employee: the effected employee
Line Manager: the employee’s direct manager (as per Teams Chart configured)
Project Manager: Managers of the specific Projects the employee is assigned to (Project Managers must be configured under Admin, Structure, Projects)
Custom Users: Any additional users you specify.
Clock On & Off Reminders: With Clock On & Off Reminders, you can specify how
many minutes before or after a scheduled event a notification is sent.
Specify how many minutes after which the notification should be sent.
Specify the timeframe (either before or after).
Specify which event (either Clock On or Clock Off)
Set Notifications: When thresholds are reached, the system can automatically notify relevant parties:
Employee: the effected employee.
Line Manager: the employee’s direct manager (as per Teams Chart configured).
Project Manager: Managers of the specific Projects the employee is assigned to (Project Managers must be configured under Admin, Structure, Projects).
Custom Users: Any additional users you specify.
Definitiv automatically tracks hours from multiple sources:
Submitted Timesheets: Actual hours worked that have been submitted.
Approved Leave: Leave applications that have been approved count toward scheduled hours.
Scheduled Shifts: Future roster entries and work schedules.
Timeclock Events: Real-time tracking of clock-in/clock-out events.
Work Restrictions are integrated into the rostering system to prevent non-compliant
schedules:
When creating or publishing roster entries, the system:
Calculates total hours, including the new roster entry.
Checks against all applicable work restriction policies.
Displays validation errors for maximum hour violations.
Displays validation warnings for minimum hour shortfalls.
Prevents publishing if validation errors exist.
How do I report on the Work Restrictions?
Employee Work Restriction Policies: View what policies are assigned to employees.
Time Attendance Work Restrictions: View the current threshold level, worked,
scheduled and threshold hours.
TimeClock Status: Monitor ongoing clocked-in events and identify long-running shifts.
TimeClock Variance: Compare scheduled hours to actual hours to identify deviations.
Important Notes
Permissions: Access to Work Restrictions features is controlled by specific
permissions.
View Employee Work Restrictions: Required to view work restriction policies and summaries
Edit Employee Work Restrictions: Required to assign or modify employee work restrictions
Manage Work Restrictions: Required to create, edit, or delete organization-level policies.
Hour Constraints do not determine pay outcomes; they are informational for
compliance.
Reminders and real-time alerts require the time clock feature; without
schedules/rosters or advance timesheets, prediction accuracy may be limited.
Users can close forgotten clock events using the “Forgot to end shift” workflow
where permitted.