Meal break set-ups depend on companies' agreements with their guards. Most of the time, companies pay the time that the guards are on their meal breaks. But in cases where meal breaks are unpaid, Guardhouse makes it easy to set this up and reflect it on reports. 


Setting up Meal Breaks: 

Setting up meal breaks can be done in three ways:

  • Schedule Page  - This is the most utilized way of setting up meal breaks. All meal break times added on the Schedule page will flow through to the Timesheets section. Here's how you can set up the meal break on the Schedule page:
    • Go to Schedule and create a shift as normal. 
    • Click on a shift and on the left-hand side, there should be a portion called Meal break. The value is zero (0) by default and is left as is when the meal break is paid for by the company. If not, input the duration allowed for the meal break for that shift. Please note that the time is counted in minutes. 
    • When the time is added, the system will automatically deduct it from the shift length.
    • Complete the shift details and hit Save Changes.
  • Timesheets - You can also add in meal break in the Timesheets section and this is helpful when there are just a few timesheets needing meal break additions. 
    • Go to the Break (m) column and edit the time there. This will automatically adjust the hours and pay computation in the Summary column. 
    • Add a note if  necessary
    • Hit Save. The adjusted times will flow to the Paysheets and Invoicing sections.
  • Paysheets - Adding meal breaks on the Paysheets section is also possible and all changes will be independent of the Timesheets. The meal break will not be reflected on the Timesheets section to maintain the integrity of the timesheets as the Invoicing section also relies on what is approved on the Timesheets section. Here's what you need to do to add meal breaks on the Paysheets section: 
    • Make sure you have the correct Pay Cycle and Cycle Start Date.
    • Go to the staff whose timesheets you would like to edit and add a meal break to.
    • Under the Break (Mins) column, click on the correct day and manually add in the meal break time. This will automatically adjust the Hours/Unit column as well as the Total computation of the guard's salary for the day and for the pay cycle. 

FAQs Section:


Q: Can I edit meal break times? 

A: Yes. This can be done on the Schedule Page, Timesheets, and Payroll sections.     


Q: Can I know the actual times that the meal breaks were taken?

A: Yes. To generate the report, there will be a few steps that need to be done: 

  • Go to Organization > Company > Settings > Timeclock > Allow Meal Breaks. 
  • Enable Allow Meal Breaks so the staff can update the start and end times of their breaks on the GH mobile app.
  • On the mobile app, the guards will now be able to record the start and end times of their meal breaks. They just need to hit the Clock In/Out button to do this.
  • To generate a report for the meal breaks taken by your guards, go to Reports > Timesheet report with Break. Filter the customer, site, choose the date range, and generate. 


Q: Can I customize when the meal breaks are taken (ex: on the 5th hour of the shift)?

A: Not at this time. The system will take the meal break from the longest/most expensive part of the shift. 

  • Scenario 1 Shift: 4 hours day rate, 6 hours night rate,  2 hours Sat rate --> The system will take the meal break from the longest part of the shift which is the 6 hours night rate.
  • Scenario 2 Shift: 6 hours day rate, 6 hours night rate ---> The system will take the meal break from the most expensive part of the shift which is the 6 hours night rate.


Q: Can I remove the meal breaks when invoicing?

A: Yes. Just go to Manage Invoice Items and manually remove the meal breaks. If you need to do it for all timesheets, click the Actions button and Remove breaks. This will automatically adjust the charge calculation. Just like the Paysheets, these actions will not affect what has been approved on the Timesheets section.


Q: When I  copy a shift with a meal break, is the meal break time copied as well? 

A: Yes. Copying shifts within the week or the succeeding weeks will also copy the mealbreak times. This is the same when creating shift templates. 


Q: Can meal breaks be taken several times within a shift? 

A: Yes, this is possible and these will also show on the report.