Time and Labor
The Six Rule Types and What Each One Is For
Six formula and template types configure validation, processing and compliance — and the three that answer rules differ by whether they read typed time or device time.
Learning objectives
- 1.Name the six formula and template types used to configure time validations, processing and compliance
- 2.Distinguish a time entry rule, a time calculation rule and a time device rule by what each one does
- 3.State where the delivered template and function names are published, and why this lesson does not name them
Why this matters
Every configurable behaviour in Time and Labor that looks like a rule is one of six types, and the type decides what the rule can see and what it is allowed to do. A rule in the wrong type is not merely miscategorised: it cannot reach the data it was written for, or it writes entries where it should only have produced a message.
If you skip this: A time calculation rule placed as an entry rule validates and produces a message, and the absence of derived time looks like a configuration gap rather than a miscategorisation.
What it is, why it exists, what breaks
What it is
Time validations, processing and compliance are configured with six formula and template types: Advanced time category, Time calculation, Time device, Time entry, Time submission and Workforce compliance.
Why it exists
The type is the unit of configuration. It is what a rule set is built from and what decides the object a rule reads, so the taxonomy is the fastest way to place a requirement in the right place.
What breaks without it
The three answering types do different jobs. A time entry rule validates entries and generates a message with a defined severity. A time calculation rule creates or updates entries and uses them to produce calculated results. A time device rule evaluates imported time events and creates time entry exceptions. Substituting one for another changes both the side effect and the data available.
Source: OTL-RULES-010, OTL-RULES-011
The six rule types and what each one does
Six types, of which three answer. They are separated by what data they read and what they are permitted to write. Listed in order: Time entry rule, then Time calculation rule, then Time device rule, then Time submission rule, then Advanced time category, then Workforce compliance.
Six formula and template types configure time validations, processing and compliance: advanced time category, time calculation, time device, time entry, time submission, and workforce compliance. Three of them answer, and they are separated by two questions rather than one. First, what data can the rule read. A time entry rule validates time card entries — time a person typed. A time calculation rule works from that same data. A time device rule evaluates time events imported from time collection devices, so typed time is not in its input at all. Second, what is the rule permitted to write. A time entry rule generates a message with a defined severity and changes nothing. A time calculation rule creates or updates time card entries and produces calculated results from formula logic, so it writes the data payroll will later consume. A time device rule creates time entry exceptions. The writable effect differs as much as the readable data, which is why substituting one type for another is not a miscategorisation: a rule in the wrong type produces nothing rather than an error, and the silence looks like a broken rule. The remaining three types are named here without described behaviour, because the page that states the taxonomy does not describe what advanced time category, time submission and workforce compliance do. The delivered template names, rule names, formula function names and database item names are published in a separate fast formula reference document, and this lesson names none of them.
What to take from this: The three answering types differ by two questions, not one: what data can they read, and are they permitted to write. Entry reads typed time and writes a message; calculation reads typed time and writes entries; device reads imported events and writes exceptions.
Source: OTL-RULES-010, OTL-RULES-011
The derived time that never appeared
A requirement asks for a calculated result derived from recorded hours. The consultant builds a rule, places it where entry rules live, and configures it to look at the recorded values. Nothing validates and nothing is derived.
- 1.The rule is authored and attached, and no error is reported.
- 2.It is written as a validation, so it produces a message rather than a calculated result.
- 3.Because it is an entry rule it is answering typed time, and the device-sourced events it also needed are not part of what it evaluates.
- 4.The missing derived time is investigated as a calculation scheduling problem, which is where the investigation starts furthest from the cause.
Takeaway: Ask two questions before writing any rule: what data does it read, and is it permitted to write? A rule that only produces a message can never produce a calculated result, however correct its formula is.
Source: OTL-RULES-011
Configuration model
Objects
Time entry rule
Validates time card entries and generates a message with a defined severity.
Risk if wrong: It validates and reports, and never derives. A requirement for derived time looks unimplemented rather than misplaced.
Time calculation rule
Creates or updates time card entries and uses the data to create calculated results based on formula logic.
Risk if wrong: It writes entries, so a rule that should only have warned now changes the data that payroll will consume.
Time device rule
Evaluates time events imported from time collection devices and creates time entry exceptions.
Risk if wrong: It never sees typed time, so a rule written for a time card produces nothing and no exception explains why.
Constraints
- Time validations, processing and compliance are configured with six formula and template types: Advanced time category, Time calculation, Time device, Time entry, Time submission and Workforce compliance.
- A time entry rule validates time card entries and generates a message with a defined severity.
- A time calculation rule creates or updates time card entries and uses the data to create calculated results based on formula logic.
- A time device rule evaluates time events imported from time collection devices and creates time entry exceptions.
Source: OTL-RULES-010, OTL-RULES-011
Common mistakes
Wrong: Using a time entry rule where the requirement is to derive time.
Symptom: The rule runs, produces a message, and no calculated result ever appears.
Fix: A time entry rule validates and generates a message. Deriving results needs a time calculation rule.
Wrong: Using a time device rule to evaluate a time card.
Symptom: The rule never fires for a worker who records time by hand, which reads as the rule being broken rather than as the wrong source.
Fix: A time device rule evaluates events imported from time collection devices. Typed time is not in its input.
Wrong: Assuming this lesson will name the delivered templates and functions.
Symptom: A search for a rule template name finds the type but not the template, and the absence is taken to mean the documentation is wrong.
Fix: The delivered template, rule, formula function and database item names are published in the Time and Labor Fast Formula References document, not on the rule-types page.
Diagnosing it
Symptom: A configured rule produces no message, no exception and no calculated result.
Category: rule formula
- 1.
Does the rule type match the data the rule reads?
If no: The rule is evaluating data its type never sees, which is silent rather than an error.
Evidence to capture: The rule type against whether the source is typed time or an imported device event
- 2.
Does the effect the requirement asks for match the effect the rule type can have?
If no: A rule that only generates a message cannot produce a calculated result, and one that writes entries should not have been chosen for a warning.
Evidence to capture: The requirement stated against the rule type chosen
- 3.
Is the rule actually part of a rule set that is attached to a processing profile?
If no: The rule exists and is evaluated by nothing, which is the same silence from a different cause.
Evidence to capture: The rule set membership and the profile it is attached to
Confirm: Confirm the rule type, the data the rule reads and the side effect the rule is permitted, and that all three match what the requirement stated.
Recall
Name the six formula and template types used to configure time validations, processing and compliance, and say what a time entry rule does that a time calculation rule does not.
Answer shape: Advanced time category, Time calculation, Time device, Time entry, Time submission and Workforce compliance. A time entry rule validates time card entries and generates a message with a defined severity; a time calculation rule creates or updates time card entries and uses the data to create calculated results.
Memory hook: Entry asks, Calculation answers, Device listens. Submission asks once, and compliance answers to a standard.
Source evidence
The six types and the behaviour of the entry, calculation and device rules were read from the rule-types page on 2026-10-05.
Release scope: FA Latest
Recorded gaps
- Claim OTL-RULES-012 records that the specific delivered rule template names, rule names, formula function names and database item names are published in the Time and Labor Fast Formula References (document 1990057.1) rather than on the general rule-types page. It is UNVERIFIED, so this lesson names the six types and deliberately names no template, function or database item inside them.
- Advanced time category, Time submission and Workforce compliance are named as types but their behaviour is not described on the page read, so this lesson asserts only what the page states and no more.
Related concepts
- Time entry rulesteaches
The entry rule type is the validating half of this taxonomy and has its own lesson ahead.
- Time calculation rulesteaches
The calculation rule type is the deriving half, and is the one most often placed in the wrong type.
- Worker Time Processing Profiledepends on
Rule sets are attached through the profile, so a correct rule attached to the wrong profile is equally invisible.
Self-check
An auto-graded assessment is attached to this lesson: assessment-otl-rule-types
Lesson progress
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