Time and Labor
Repeating Time Periods and What They Are Offered On
A period is not just a date range. Its usage decides which configuring pages can select it, and a period set up for the wrong usage is missing rather than broken.
Learning objectives
- 1.Name the five usages of a repeating time period and explain what usage controls
- 2.Explain why the time card period and the overtime period are allowed to differ
- 3.Explain what can and cannot be edited on a repeating time period after saving
Why this matters
A repeating time period looks like a start date, an end date and a length, and it is easy to treat it as nothing more than that. But the period also carries a usage, and the usage decides which configuring pages may select it at all. A period built for Accrual Processing can be entirely correct and still be unavailable where you were trying to use it.
If you skip this: The symptom is an option that is simply not in the list, which reads as a permissions problem or a missing record rather than as a usage mismatch.
What it is, why it exists, what breaks
What it is
A repeating time period has five usages — Time cards, Approvals, Accrual Processing, Overtime and Balances — and the usage decides which periods appear on which configuring page.
Why it exists
Eligibility is expressed by the period rather than by a rule on the page. One object, five places it can be used, and a period is only ever offered in the place its usage permits.
What breaks without it
A person's overtime period can match or differ from their time card period. That is permitted, and it is the reason the two are separate usages: setting them to the same period because they look like they should match removes the ability to start overtime on a different day.
Source: OTL-PERIOD-040, OTL-PERIOD-042
The five usages of a repeating time period
One period object and five uses. A period is offered only on the page its own usage names, which is why a correct period can be unavailable. Listed in order: One repeating time period, then Time cards, then Approvals, then Accrual processing, then Overtime, then Balances.
A repeating time period is one object with one usage, and the usage decides which configuring pages offer it. The five usages are time cards, approvals, accrual processing, overtime and balances. Eligibility is carried by the period rather than by a rule on the page, so a period that exists, is dated correctly and has the right length is still simply absent from a page its usage does not feed. That absence is the diagnostic: nothing on the page reports that a period exists with a different usage. The repeating length is constrained separately. All time card layouts support weekly and two-week repeating periods, and the responsive layout additionally supports a monthly one, so a monthly period is unavailable on any other layout. The overtime period can match or differ from the time card period, which is what allows overtime boundaries to sit on a different day from the card start. Editing is constrained too: a delivered repeating time period cannot be edited at all, and after saving your own period only the name and description remain editable, so the dates are final before you expect them to be.
What to take from this: The same object appears in five configuring pages and is not offered in the others. The failure is not a rejected value — it is an absent option, so nothing in the interface reports that a period exists with the wrong usage.
Source: OTL-PERIOD-040, OTL-PERIOD-041
The period that exists, is correct, and cannot be selected
An implementation needs a two-week time card period with a Monday start. An administrator creates it, names it, and sets the start date and length correctly. Later, a consultant tries to attach it to a worker time processing profile and finds it missing from the list.
- 1.The period is created with the right dates and the right length.
- 2.It is not offered on the page where the profile is configured.
- 3.The consultant concludes the period was not saved and recreates it.
- 4.The replacement is configured the same way and is equally unavailable.
Takeaway: Before recreating a period that cannot be selected, check its usage. A period that exists, is dated correctly and is unavailable is a usage mismatch, and recreating it reproduces the mismatch.
Source: OTL-PERIOD-040
Configuration model
Objects
Usage
One of Time cards, Approvals, Accrual Processing, Overtime or Balances. It decides which configuring pages may select the period.
Risk if wrong: The period is valid and unavailable where it was needed, and nothing on the page says why.
Time card layouts
Determines which repeating periods a layout supports: all support weekly and two-week, and the responsive layout additionally supports monthly.
Risk if wrong: A period of a supported length is still unavailable because the layout attached to it does not support that length.
Overtime period
May match or differ from the time card period, which is how overtime boundaries are moved relative to the card.
Risk if wrong: Overtime is calculated on boundaries nobody intended, and because the two periods are permitted to differ, nothing warns you they have been made equal.
Constraints
- Repeating time periods have five usages that decide which periods appear on which configuring page: Time cards, Approvals, Accrual Processing, Overtime and Balances.
- All time card layouts support weekly and two-week repeating periods; the responsive layout additionally supports a monthly repeating period.
- A person's overtime period can match or differ from their time card period.
- Delivered repeating time periods cannot be edited. After saving your own periods, only the name and description can be edited.
Source: OTL-PERIOD-040, OTL-PERIOD-041, OTL-PERIOD-042, OTL-PERIOD-043
Common mistakes
Wrong: Recreating a period that will not appear in the list it is needed on.
Symptom: The new period is also unavailable, and the behaviour looks intermittent or permission-related.
Fix: Check the usage first. Availability is decided by usage, not by existence, dates or length.
Wrong: Assuming the time card period and the overtime period must be the same period.
Symptom: Overtime boundaries cannot be moved off the card start, and the fix attempted is to change the card period instead.
Fix: A person's overtime period can match or differ from their time card period. They are separate usages precisely so they can differ.
Wrong: Expecting to correct the dates on a period once it has been delivered.
Symptom: The edit is refused, and the period in use cannot be brought into line with a changed requirement.
Fix: Delivered repeating time periods cannot be edited. Review the period before it is delivered, because the dates are final after that.
Diagnosing it
Symptom: A repeating time period that exists and is dated correctly does not appear in a list it is needed in.
Category: configuration
- 1.
Is the usage of the period one of the five the target page selects from?
If no: The period is correctly unavailable there. Usage decides the page, not the other way round.
Evidence to capture: The usage recorded on the period against the page being configured
- 2.
Is the repeating length one the layout attached to this use supports?
If no: All layouts support weekly and two-week periods, and only the responsive layout additionally supports monthly, so a monthly period is unavailable on any other layout.
Evidence to capture: The layout in use and the repeating length of the period
- 3.
Has the period been delivered, so that the dates are now fixed?
If no: The dates are final rather than wrong. That is a different problem from the period not appearing.
Evidence to capture: Whether the period is a delivered period or one of your own
Confirm: Record the usage and the repeating length of the period, and the layout in use, and confirm the period is offered on exactly the page whose usage it carries.
Recall
Name the five usages of a repeating time period, state which repeating periods a responsive time card layout supports that others do not, and say what can still be edited on your own period after saving.
Answer shape: The five usages are Time cards, Approvals, Accrual Processing, Overtime and Balances. All layouts support weekly and two-week periods, and the responsive layout additionally supports monthly. After saving your own periods, only the name and description can be edited.
Memory hook: Cards, Approvals, Accrual, Overtime, Balances. Usage picks the page; the page never picks the period.
Source evidence
The five usages, the layout support matrix, the relationship between the overtime and time card periods, and the editing restriction were read from the Repeating Time Periods page on 2026-10-05.
Release scope: FA Latest
Recorded gaps
- The page presents these as a usage table; this lesson describes which page each usage feeds and does not claim any behaviour of the periods themselves beyond what the rows state.
- The worked example on the page contrasts a Saturday and a Monday start for the overtime period. That example is recorded rather than reproduced, and this lesson does not assert which is correct for a given workforce.
Related concepts
- Worker Time Processing Profilereferenced by
A worker time processing profile links a repeating time period, and the usage is what decides whether it can be selected there.
- Worker time entry profileteaches
The entry profile governs the card a worker fills in, and the card period is one of the periods this lesson is about.
Self-check
An auto-graded assessment is attached to this lesson: assessment-otl-repeating-time-periods
Lesson progress
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