# Create a Shift

Define the hours, the break, the working week and the dates a pattern applies between.

Three fields are required and the rest have sensible defaults. The two toggles are what turn a nine-to-five into a real rota.

- Select **New Shift** on the Shifts screen.

  ![The Add Shift form, with the breadcrumb Worklink, Shifts, Create Shift. A Shift Details section holds Shift Name marked required, Break Duration in minutes set to 60, Start Time 09:00 and End Time 17:00 both marked required, and a read-only Total Work Hours field reading 7h. A toggle reads Crosses midnight (night shift). A Work Days row offers Mon to Sun pills and a Select all checkbox, with the note Leave all unselected to use the company-wide work days from Attendance Policy. A second toggle reads Use different timings on some days. An Effective Period section holds Effective From, required and set to 08/09/2026, and an optional Effective To.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/worklink/shifts/shift-create.png)
- Name the shift, then set **Start Time** and **End Time**. **Total Work Hours** fills itself in from those two less the break, and cannot be typed into.
- Set the **Break Duration** in minutes. It is subtracted from every day on this pattern, which is why nine to five with an hour's break shows as seven hours.
- Turn on **Crosses midnight** for a night shift, so an end time earlier than the start time is read as the next morning rather than as an error.
- Choose the **Work Days**, or leave them all unselected to inherit the company-wide pattern from the Attendance Policy.
- Set **Effective From**, and **Effective To** only if the pattern is temporary. Then **Save**.

## The two toggles

- **Crosses midnight** (night shift): Tells Worklink the end time belongs to the following day. Without it, a 22:00 to 06:00 pattern reads as a negative span.
- **Use different timings on some days** (per-day overrides): Lets one or two days differ while the rest keep the defaults above, such as a short Saturday against a standard week.

> **Note:**
>
> **Leaving Work Days empty is a decision, not an omission**
>
> An empty selection means "use the company-wide work days from the Attendance Policy". That is often what you want, and it keeps a single change to the policy flowing through every shift that inherits it.

> **Tip:**
>
> **Effective To is how you retire a pattern**
>
> A shift nobody should be on any more does not need deleting, which would orphan the history. Give it an end date instead: assignments stop applying after it, and every past day stays judged by the pattern that was in force.

> **Note:**
>
> **Lateness tolerance is not here**
>
> How many minutes late counts as Late is an Attendance Policy setting, not a shift one, so it applies across every pattern. Look under Settings if a grace period is what you are trying to change.