Attendance month close

How it works

1. After the month ends, HR opens Penalties and month close on the Attendance Punches page and picks the month.
2. The list shows each penalty with the employee, the date, the rule, the days and whether it applies or is waived: late marks and early-outs for the whole month, and late-rule half days on their date.
3. HR waives a penalty that should not stand, with a reason, or restores one waived by mistake.
4. Recompute rebuilds marks and penalties from the punches after late corrections or a rule change. A waived penalty stays waived.
5. Finalize freezes each person's month, penalty days included, as the payroll snapshot. It works only once the month is over, from the 1st of the next month.
6. A finalized month refuses corrections and penalty changes. HR can reopen it with a reason, and payroll then goes back to the older attendance records until the month is finalized again.

What you can set

• Finalize: available from the 1st of the next month, in the company's time zone.
• Waive: needs a reason, saved with who waived and when.
• Restore: puts a waived penalty back in force.
• Reopen: needs a reason, saved with who reopened the month and when.
• Paid days in Direct Payroll: a manual override first, then the finalized attendance month, always bounded by the joining and exit dates.
• Monthly penalty cap: applied before penalties reach the list, 3 days by default.

Why close attendance before running payroll

Monthly wages are due by the 7th of the following month under the wage payment timelines of the Code on Wages. That leaves HR the first few days of the month to settle attendance. If payroll reads attendance that is still moving, a late correction changes someone's pay after the payslip is out. Finalizing first means payroll works from a frozen month, and any later change is a deliberate reopen with a reason on record.

Worked example: closing September at a Chennai logistics office

On 1 October 2026, HR at a 120-person Chennai logistics firm opens September. The panel lists 14 penalties: 9 for late marks, 3 late-rule half days and 2 for early-outs. One late-rule half day belongs to dispatcher Karthik Subramanian, who was stuck on a waterlogged road on 18 September. HR waives it with the reason 'Road waterlogged, confirmed by the operations head'.

Two corrections approved that morning change September punches, so HR clicks Recompute; the waiver on Karthik's penalty stays. On 2 October HR finalizes September, and Direct Payroll reads each person's payable days from the frozen month. On 3 October, before the payroll run is finalized, a leave approved on paper but never entered comes to light. HR reopens September with that reason, the leave is entered, and HR finalizes the month again the same afternoon.

A month-close checklist

Month close goes faster when the same steps happen in the same order every month, ideally by the same person with a second person checking the penalty list. Writing the order down also means someone else can close the month when the usual person is on leave.

• Clear the correction desk and the missed punch-out list for the month.
• Chase pending leave, work from home and on duty requests with the managers concerned.
• Review penalties and waive only with a reason you would repeat to the employee.
• Recompute, then finalize from the 1st of the next month.
• Run payroll only after the month shows as finalized.
• If you reopen, write down why, fix the issue and finalize again the same day.

Frequently asked questions