How TeamSense calculates attendance points

What this changes

Until now, TeamSense displayed attendance points that were calculated somewhere else — usually a spreadsheet — and imported into the app. With the Points System, TeamSense calculates those points itself. You set your attendance policy up once, and from then on every attendance occurrence is scored against it automatically.

The practical difference: your spreadsheet stops being the system of record. Balances stay current whether or not the person who owns the spreadsheet is at their desk, supervisors can see where their team stands without asking HR, and employees can check their own balance by text.

Setting up your policy

Upload your written attendance policy and let TeamSense pull the configuration from it.

Most policies can be uploaded and made live in under 30 minutes. You'll want two things on hand:

• your written attendance policy, and
• your current balance spreadsheet, so starting balances can be imported and employees pick up exactly where they left off. (New policies can start everyone at zero instead.)

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What you can configure

• Occurrence types and point values — the occurrence types you track and the point value of each
• Rolling window — how long points stay on an employee's record
• Discipline thresholds — up to five steps, for example verbal → written → final → suspension → termination
• Probationary variant — an optional separate threshold table for employees inside a tenure window you define
• Conditional modifiers — rules that adjust an occurrence’s point value based on the context around it — holiday weeks, late notice versus no notice, repeat absences, and so on
• Attendance point offsets — which balances (PTO, vacation, or a program you define) can cover which kinds of infractions
• Policy scope — all employees, or a specific division
• Effective date — when this version of the policy takes effect

You can run as many policies as you have distinct rule sets — different divisions, sites, or union agreements. Each employee is governed by exactly one policy at a time.

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How an absence gets scored

When an attendance occurrence is created, TeamSense scores it against the policy that was in effect on the date it happened, applies any conditional modifiers that fit the circumstances, and checks the event for protected-leave and job-abandonment signals.

A note on modifiers: when more than one applies to a single absence, the adjustments add together. An absence that was both unreported and adjacent to a holiday will carry both adjustments. Every rule that fired is visible on the occurrence, with the base value and what each rule changed.

Modifiers can only score on information TeamSense actually has. A holiday-adjacency rule needs your observed-holiday calendar; a clock-in rule needs your punch data. If a rule depends on data that isn't flowing into TeamSense, it can't be applied without manual intervention by your team.

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Protected leave (FMLA)

TeamSense looks at each occurrence for FMLA indicators — the occurrence reason, employee notes, and supervisor notes. What happens next depends on how solid the signal is:

• Confirmed by a concrete source — when a system of record confirms the leave (an HRIS leave status, a supervisor confirmation, a timecard, or a source you've designated as authoritative), TeamSense waives the point to zero and logs it. HR can override that later.
• Self-reported — softer signals are flagged and routed to HR for review before any point is applied.

This is per-occurrence detection. TeamSense does not yet detect patterns across events — recurring intermittent absences an employee never declares — and it does not detect ADA, workers' compensation, or military leave. Those are caught by HR during review, using an override.

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Job abandonment

When consecutive no-call/no-show absences reach the threshold you define in your policy, TeamSense attaches an informational flag to the occurrence and shows you the history behind it. The flag doesn't do anything on its own — TeamSense never marks an occurrence as abandonment and never initiates a termination. Every one of those decisions stays with you.

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Reviewing and applying points

By default, TeamSense confirms and applies ordinary occurrences on its own and routes the ones that need judgment to your HR team. If you'd rather review every single event before any point lands on an employee’s balance, that's a single setting you can switch on.

Reviewing happens on the attendance summary page. For each occurrence you'll see:

• the source, date, and employee
• the calculated point value, with each modifier rule that was applied
• any flags attached to the event, such as protected leave or job abandonment

From there you can:

• Confirm — keep the calculated value as-is.
• Override — set a different value, including zero, with a reason. The balance recalculates immediately.
• Apply an offset — draw from an eligible balance — PTO, vacation, or a program you've defined — to suppress the point. The occurrence records which balance was used and how much. You can reverse it with a note, which re-assesses the point.

Offsets are applied by hand today. TeamSense won't draw from a PTO or vacation balance on its own, so if an employee had time available and still received a point, it means the offset hasn't been applied yet — not that something went wrong.

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Changing your policy later

Policies are meant to change. Every edit creates a new version with an effective date, and past occurrences stay scored under the policy that was in force on the day they happened. TeamSense never silently re-scores history.

Before you activate a change, turn on preview. Preview shows you exactly what the new policy would calculate against your real attendance occurrences — point values, which modifiers would fire, which offsets would be consumed, which flags would attach, and who would cross a threshold. Nothing lands on a balance, nothing is written to the audit trail, and no employee is notified.

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The audit trail

Every point assessment, modifier application, offset, confirmation, override, and policy edit is logged with who did it, when, why, and what the value was before and after. When a point is disputed months later, the answer is in the record — tied to the exact policy that was in effect that day.

What supervisors and employees see

Supervisors see current point balances for their team and how far each person is from the next discipline threshold, so they can coach before a threshold rather than after. Access is controlled by your own roles and permissions — and if it suits your workflow, you can extend point confirmation to supervisors as well as HR.

Employees can check their own balance two ways: by text on the SMS channel they already use, or in the app on their profile. Employees see the TeamSense-calculated balance only once an active policy applies to them; until then they see the imported value.

When an employee crosses a discipline threshold, TeamSense sends that employee a warning by text or email, and the crossing appears on their record and in attendance insights. TeamSense does not push threshold alerts to supervisors or HR, and it does not forecast absenteeism.

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What's not included today

Worth knowing up front, so there are no surprises when you're configuring your policy:

Common questions

Why doesn't the TeamSense balance match our spreadsheet?

Some difference during the changeover period is normal. The usual causes are a protected-leave override that hasn't been applied yet, timing on when an event was confirmed, a multi-day absence your policy treats as one occurrence, or a rule the spreadsheet was applying inconsistently. Open the per-occurrence detail for the employee — it shows the calculated value, every rule that fired, and any offsets — and reconcile from there. If the gap still doesn't make sense, contact Support with the employee and the specific events.

An absence scored more points than we expected. Why?

Usually one of two reasons. Either a modifier stacked with another one — adjustments added together when several apply to the same event — or a rule depended on data that isn't reaching TeamSense. Check the event details to see which rules fired and what each contributed.

Do we have to review every event?

No. TeamSense confirms and applies ordinary events on its own and routes the judgment calls to you. If you'd rather approve everything, switch the account to manual review.

Can supervisors confirm points instead of HR?

Yes. Permissions are configurable, so you can extend point confirmation to supervisors if that matches how you work.

Will changing our policy affect points that were already assigned?

No. Each change creates a new dated version, and past occurrences stay scored under the policy that applied when they happened.

Can employees dispute a point in the app?

Not today — disputes are handled through your existing process. If you uphold a dispute, HR can override the point value with a note explaining why.

An employee says they can't see their balance.

Most likely there's no active policy applied to them yet, so their view is still showing the imported value. Balance questions before your policy goes live should go to HR rather than TeamSense Support.

Does this connect to our HRIS?

TeamSense receives attendance occurrences from HRIS integrations alongside manual logs, supervisor confirmations, and employee self-reports. It does not write anything back to your HRIS.

 

Still stuck? Contact TeamSense Support with the employee, the specific attendance occurrences, and what you expected the balance to be — that's everything we need to trace it.