Virtual TimeClock Knowledge Base

Time Rounding

Time rounding is an important setting that impacts how your employee hours are totaled and displayed on reports. The ability to round start and stop times during timecard totaling gives employees a grace period for punching the clock without overtime adding up.

Virtual TimeClock always records and displays the actual start and stop times that employees clock in or out no matter what time rounding setting is chosen. Rounding settings allow you to round start and stop times to the nearest minute (no rounding), the nearest tenth hour or the nearest quarter hour. The rounding option you choose is crucial for totaling hours, and applies to all employees in all groups, so select your rounding rule carefully. 

To access time rounding settings:

  1. Select Turn Administration On from the File menu.
  2. Select Time Settings from the Configure menu.
  3. Find the Rounding Time Worked section and choose the appropriate option.
  4. Select Apply to save changes.
Virtual TimeClock Time Rounding

Rounding Start and Stop Times in Virtual TimeClock
The U.S. (and many other countries) allow employers to track employee time to the nearest minute, tenth, or quarter hour. To follow this regulation the rounding must be impartial, which is exactly how every edition of Virtual TimeClock functions.

Virtual TimeClock will always record and display the exact times employees clock in or out on reports and in the Entry Editor window. It's important to understand that rounding is applied to an employee’s start and stop times, not the total hours for the day.

Below are the options for rounding hours in Virtual TimeClock:

  • None : Hours will be totaled to the minute on reports. For example if an employee works 7 hours and 56 minutes on the timecard the total hours will be 7:56 (or 7.93 in decimal hours).
  • Tenth Hour : Remember that a tenth of an hour is 6 minutes. Therefore, any entry made within 3 minutes before or after every tenth hour increment will be rounded to the nearest tenth hour (i.e :00, :06, :12, etc.). For example, if an employee clocks in at 9:02, the timecard will record 9:02, but for rounding purposes 9:00 will be used to calculate the hours worked. Learn more about 1/10th hour rounding >
Virtual TimeClock Tenth Hour Rounding
  • Quarter Hour : Any entry made within 7 minutes before or after every quarter hour increment will be rounded to the nearest quarter hour. (i.e. :00, :15, :30, :45) For example, if an employee clocked in at 7:53am on reports the time will be displayed as 7:53am, but for rounding and totaling purposes, 8:00am will be used to calculate the hours worked. Learn more about 1/4 hour rounding > 
Virtual TimeClock Quarter Hour Rounding

How Rounding Effects Employee Timecards
It's helpful to see an example of what an unrounded vs rounded timecard looks like in Virtual TimeClock. Below is an example of a timecard with no rounding applied:

Virtual TimeClock Unrounded Time Card

Below is an example of a time card with tenth hour rounding in effect. Notice that the original start/stop times are recorded, while the totals reflect the rounding:

Virtual TimeClock Rounded Time Card

Changing Rounding Settings
Any changes to rounding rules will apply to the current and future payroll periods. The rule will not retroactively apply to past periods. Refer to your company policies to determine which rounding option to choose. You can see the effect of the different rounding options by making the change in the Time Settings window and running or refreshing a report to see the impact of the rule.