Who’s it for: Administrators
Platform: (Web app) Sense HR
Available on: All plans
Before you begin
You will need:
Administrator permissions
To know the suitable Working hours configuration for this person (Global Settings > Calendar & Planner > Working hours)
The contracted weekly hours for this person
Your organisation’s full-time equivalent (FTE) weekly hours
The correct Public holiday group
The applicable Holiday year
The person’s start date (for future/ new starters)
💡 Future starters:
These steps also apply when configuring a new employee ahead of their start date. The system automatically uses their start date as the effective date. And assigning working hours early ensures the employee’s planner, entitlement, status and public holidays are accurate from day one.
Overview
Profile Planner Settings is where you assign or update an employee’s working hours, public holiday rules, holiday year, and holiday entitlement. These settings control how the employee’s planner behaves — including their Working/Non-working days, public holiday bookings, event durations, and pro-rata holiday entitlement.
You can use this process when onboarding a new starter or when updating an existing employee’s working hours or entitlement. Sense applies the changes from the effective date you choose, keeping planners and historical data accurate.
Planner Settings allow you to assign:
• Working hours configurations (with or without a schedule)
• Public holiday rules
• Holiday year
• Holiday or TOIL entitlement
Once assigned, Sense uses:
• The employee’s contracted hours (from the assigned working hours setup)
• Your organisation’s FTE hours
• The start date
• The holiday year
…to calculate accurate entitlement and planner behaviour.
🎯 Mid-week starters work automatically
If the start date falls mid-week, Sense aligns the schedule correctly to the Week start day defined in the working hours configuration.
Navigation path
Sense HR > People > [select profile] > Planner > Settings (upper right)
Step-by-step guide
1. Open the employee's or future starter’s profile
From the Sense HR dashboard, select People from the main navigation.
Click the employee or future starter to open their profile.
💡 Tip: Use column filters, sorting, or the search bar to quickly find the future starter in the People list.
2. Open Planner Settings
Select Planner (left sidebar)
Select Settings (upper right).
3. Assign working hours and confirm contracted hours
In the Working hours section:
1. Select the correct Working hours configuration from the dropdown.
You will also see a dropdown option called No working pattern.
⚠️Caution: Using “No working pattern”
If you select No working pattern, the Contracted hours field remains editable and you can enter contracted hours manually, including 0 hours.
However, this is not recommended.
It is best practice to assign a suitable Working hours configuration wherever possible, as these are easier to manage, maintain and update across multiple employees and ensure planners, entitlement and booking behaviour remain accurate and consistent.
2. Review the Contracted hours shown — these come from the assigned Working hours configuration and cannot be edited here (unless No working pattern is selected).
3. Enter your organisation’s Full time hours (FTE weekly hours), e.g., 37.5 or 40.
This value is used only for calculating pro-rata entitlement, not as the employee’s contracted hours.
🖊️ Full time hours explained
Full time hours = your organisation’s standard full-time weekly hours for the role.
While, employee contracted hours always come from the assigned Working hours configuration (unless No working pattern is used).
4. Set public holiday rules
Select the Public holiday group (e.g., England & Wales).
Choose whether public holidays are included in entitlement.
Choose whether public holidays should be automatically booked when they fall on working days.
💡 Included in entitlement?
• Yes - Public holidays reduce the employee’s annual holiday balance.
• No - Public holidays are extra days off and don’t reduce their balance.
5. Select the holiday year
Choose the Holiday year (e.g., Jan–Dec or Apr–Mar).
🖊️ Note:
The holiday year determines the date range used for calculating pro-rata entitlement.
6. Add or update entitlements
Scroll to Event entitlements.
For each entitlement (e.g., Holiday, TOIL), choose whether it’s measured in Days or Hours.
Enter an Amount, or select Calculate to use the pro-rata calculator.
If using the calculator:
a. Ensure the Contracted hours and Full time hours match the values shown at the top of Planner Settings.
b. Enter the Full-time entitlement (e.g., 25 days).c. Sense calculates the employee’s pro-rata entitlement using:
• Contracted hours (from working hours)
• Full-time hours (FTE)
• Start date
• Holiday year
d. Hover over the info icon to see the breakdown.
e. Select Use new entitlement to apply it.
🖊️ Hours-based entitlement
When entitlement is measured in hours, Sense calculates holiday booking durations automatically based on the employee’s assigned working hours
3. Select Next when finished.
7. Confirm the effective date
A confirmation window appears summarising the updates.
Choose the Effective date (defaults to the employee’s start date for future starters).
(Optional) Add a Reason for change.
Select Save.
✅ Sense applies the working hours, public holiday rules, holiday year and entitlement from the effective date.
🎯 Remember:
Mid-week effective dates are handled automatically — the assigned working hours will align to the correct Week start day.
💡 Tip: You can return to Profile Planner Settings at any time to update working hours, public holiday rules or entitlement. Any changes you make will take effect from the effective date you choose.