How it works
- HR opens Shifts and Roster and switches the roster on for the company. Nothing changes for anyone until it is on.
- HR clicks Seed defaults to add General, Morning, Evening and Night, or Add shift to create one from scratch.
- For each shift HR sets a code such as GEN, a name, a colour for the roster, the type, the start and end times and the break in minutes.
- HR sets the full-day and half-day hours, grace in and grace out, the night shift flag and the weekly off pattern, which is written out as a sentence.
- HR picks a default shift, which covers every day that has nothing on the roster.
- A shift no longer in use is archived. Days already on the roster keep its code, and an archived shift can be restored.
What you can set
- Code of up to 20 characters, such as GEN, and a name, such as General.
- Type: Fixed, Flexible or Split.
- Start and end times, and break minutes.
- Full-day hours, 8 by default, and half-day hours, 4 by default. Half-day hours cannot be more than full-day hours.
- Grace in and grace out in minutes; 0 means the policy grace from the attendance rules applies.
- Night shift flag for shifts that end after midnight.
- Colour shown on the roster.
- Seeded shifts: General 9 am to 6 pm with a 60-minute break, and Morning 6 am to 2 pm, Evening 2 pm to 10 pm and Night 10 pm to 6 am with 30 minutes each, all with Sunday off.
- Default shift: used on days with nothing on the roster.
Why every shift needs its own numbers
A single office-wide rule for timings does not fit most Indian workplaces. A hospital's nurses start at 7 am, its OPD staff at 9 am, and its billing counter runs till 10 pm. A factory's maintenance crew may have a shorter break than the line. When each shift carries its own start, grace, break and hours, a nurse arriving at 7:12 am and a billing clerk arriving at 2:12 pm are each judged against their own shift, and full-day hours match the work the shift was designed for.
Worked example: shifts at a Coimbatore hospital
A 200-bed hospital in Coimbatore seeds the four default shifts and edits them. Nursing uses Morning, 7 am to 3 pm with a 30-minute break, 7.5 full-day hours and 5 minutes of grace in, plus matching Evening and Night shifts, the Night one flagged as a night shift. Administration stays on General, 9 am to 6 pm with a 60-minute break, 8 full-day hours and the policy grace of 10 minutes. HR sets General as the default shift, so a new clerk with nothing rostered is judged against 9 am.
On Monday, staff nurse Divya Krishnan punches in at 7:12 am. Her shift's own grace ends at 7:05 am, so she is late by 7 minutes, even though the office grace is 10 minutes. The same morning, accounts assistant Arun Prakash punches in at 9:08 am and is on time under the 10-minute policy grace. Each day is judged by the rule that fits the job.
Keeping the shift master tidy
The shift master tends to grow. Every new ward, client or production line asks for one more shift, and after a year nobody knows which ones are still in use. A short review each quarter keeps the list small enough that supervisors pick the right shift the first time.
- Use codes people already say on the floor, such as GEN, A, B and C, or MOR and NGT.
- Give each shift a distinct colour so the day roster reads at a glance.
- Set shift-level grace only where the job needs it, and let the policy grace cover the rest.
- Archive shifts nobody has worked for a quarter; past roster days keep their code.
See shift master in a demo
We show it on a video call with your own shifts, leave types and rules. Free for your first 50 employees.
Book a free demoSee pricingFrequently asked questions
What is a shift master in HRMS?
A shift master is the list of shift templates a company works, each with a code, timings, break, full-day and half-day hours, grace times and a weekly off pattern. Rosters and attendance refer to it, so late marks, early exits and full days are judged against the right shift for each person and date.
Can one shift have a different grace time from the company rule?
Yes. Each shift has its own grace in and grace out in minutes. When a shift's grace is 0, the grace set in the attendance rules applies. This lets a hospital give its nurses 5 minutes of grace while office staff keep the company's 10 minutes.
What happens to past rosters when a shift is archived?
Nothing changes for them. Archiving only removes the shift from the lists used for new assignments. Days already on the roster keep the shift's code, so past attendance is still judged against it, and an archived shift can be restored whenever it is needed again.