Take a lunch break off your time
Record your break and take it off the job you were working on.
Your break gets its own entry on your timesheet, and its time comes off the job you were on - so the job only gets the hours you actually worked, not the whole stretch from start to finish.
Two places to do it
- Timesheets screen - Add lunch break, for a break you’re accounting for after the time is already logged.
- Stop Work screen - a Deduct Lunch Break tickbox, for a break you took during the job you’re finishing right now. See When you finish a job below.
Your office decides which of the two you get - you may have one, both, or neither. If neither is there, log your time either side of the break instead (see Two entries instead of one below).
From the Timesheets screen
Step by step: add a lunch break
- Tap Time Sheet on the home screen
- Tap Add lunch break - a small panel slides open
- The start and end times are pre-filled from the clock (roughly your last half hour). Change them to when you actually stopped and started again
- Tick Remove lunch time from job? if the break should come off a job you’ve already logged today
- Tap Select Time Entry and pick the job you were on when you took the break - only real job entries are listed, not other breaks
- Check the line underneath, e.g. “0:30 will be removed from time entry J1043 - Smith kitchen”
- Tap Save Lunch Break
Leave Remove lunch time from job? unticked if the break shouldn’t come off anything - you’ll just get a break entry on its own.
What you’ll see afterwards
Two rows in your day:
- the job you picked, with its hours reduced and Lunch: -0:30 underneath it
- the break itself, showing Taken off: J1043 - Smith kitchen
If the job’s hours didn’t change and there’s no Lunch: marker, the Remove lunch time from job? tick wasn’t on. Delete the break and add it again.
When you finish a job
If your Stop Work screen has a Deduct Lunch Break tickbox just above Save, you can account for the break as you finish the job instead of going to the Timesheets screen afterwards.
Step by step: deduct a break as you stop work
- Tap Stop Work on the job, which opens the Work Log screen
- Check the start and end times of the work itself, as you normally would
- Tick Deduct Lunch Break - a lunch start and end time appear
- Adjust them to when you actually took the break
- Check the line underneath: “0:30 lunch break - 8:00 will be recorded”
- Tap Save
You get the same two entries as the Timesheets screen route: your time on the job, already reduced, and the break itself. Everything in the rest of this page applies to it.
The break has to end after it starts, sit inside the hours you’re recording, and leave some time behind. If it doesn’t, you’ll get a message and nothing is saved - fix the times and tap Save again.
Changing your hours later
This is the bit worth knowing. When you open an entry that has a break taken off it, you’re editing the hours you worked, not the reduced number:
- Your start and end times stay exactly where you put them - nothing shuffles back by half an hour
- A note under the times reads “Includes 0:30 lunch break - 7:30 will be recorded”
- Change the times or the hours and the break is taken off again when you save. Take half an hour off the end of the day and your break is still deducted - it doesn’t disappear
- You can’t shorten an entry to less than its own break. Delete the break first if you need to go that short
See Editing time for the rest of the edit screen.
Getting rid of a break
- Delete the break - the time goes back onto the job entry
- Delete the job entry - the break stays on your timesheet, but stops coming off anything
You’ll be warned before either. Break entries themselves can’t be edited - if the times are wrong, delete it and add it again.
Two entries instead of one
You don’t have to use either lunch option at all. Logging two entries - say 09:00-12:00 and 12:30-16:00 - gets you to the same hours, and is the simplest thing to do if your office hasn’t set breaks up. See Logging time.
Working offline
A break is an ordinary timesheet entry, so it queues up and syncs like everything else. The hours on screen update straight away; once you’re back in signal the office sees the same numbers. See Working offline.
Troubleshooting
- No Add lunch break button - your office hasn’t turned the option on. Check the Stop Work screen for Deduct Lunch Break, or log two entries instead
- No Deduct Lunch Break on Stop Work - same thing: that one is a separate option your office switches on
- My hours look short - check under the entry for a Lunch: marker. That’s the break coming off, which is what’s meant to happen
- I picked the wrong job - delete the break and add it again against the right one
- The break saved but the job’s hours didn’t change - the Remove lunch time from job? tick was off
- Can’t shorten an entry - it has a break on it. Delete the break first
See also
- Logging time - recording hours in the first place
- Editing time - correcting an entry you already logged
- Submit your timesheet - the weekly submission flow