WFM UK: Scheduling: Age-Based Restrictions

Overview

This functionality will be available from 10th July 2026.

Age-based Scheduling Restrictions allow administrators to create and manage age-based scheduling restrictions that automatically prevent non-compliant schedules from being saved. These restrictions are applied based on employee age groups and are enforced automatically during schedule creation.

Administrators can configure the following restriction types within restriction profiles:

• Maximum Weekly Working Hours
  Limits the total number of hours an employee can be scheduled within a scheduling week
• Gap Between Shifts
  Ensures a minimum rest period between shifts across consecutive working days
• Minimum Weekly Consecutive Rest
  Requires a minimum number of days off per week, with an option to enforce consecutive days off
• Latest Permitted Working Time
  Prevents employees from being scheduled beyond a defined time of day

Restriction profiles can be configured by age group, such as 'Under 18' and 'Over 18', allowing organisations to apply different scheduling rules to different employee groups.

How Restrictions Are Applied

During Schedule Planning

• Restrictions act as hard validations
• Managers cannot save schedules that breach configured rules
• Applies to:
  • Creating shifts
  • Editing shifts
  • Loading schedule templates for future dates

During Time & Attendance Processing

• Restrictions act as warnings only (soft validation)
• If actual worked hours breach a restriction:
  • A warning message is displayed
  • Managers can still save the record

This ensures that compliance is enforced during planning and that actual hours worked can always be recorded correctly for payroll.

Process

Those with the Manage Customer Organisation Settings user-level permission can configure restrictions.

• Go to Settings > Admin Configuration > Scheduling Restrictions

Latest Permitted Working Time

• Select Latest Permitted Working Time Restriction
• Select Create New
  • Enter the time for Prevent employees from working past
  • Apply to employees?
    • Under 16
    • Under 18
    • Over 18
• Then Save

Gap Between Shifts

• Back in Admin Configuration > Scheduling Restrictions, select Gap Between Shifts
• Select Create New
  • Enter number of hours the employee type must have as a gap between shifts from one business day to the next
  • Leave Restric Employment type? set to All
  • For Apply to employees?, select:
    • Under 16s / Under 18s / Over 18s / All
  • Apply to all locations - tick this box to apply the restriction for the selected employee groups to all current and any new locations created
• Then Save

Maximum Weekly Working Hours

• Back in Admin Configuration > Scheduling Restrictions, select Maximum Weekly Hours Restriction
• Select Create New
  • Enter number of hours the employee can work in a schedule week
  • Leave Restric Employment type? set to All
  • For Apply to employees?, select:
    • Under 16s / Under 18s / Over 18s / All
  • Apply to all locations - tick this box to apply the restriction for the selected employee groups to all current and any new locations created
• Then Save

Minimum Days Off Per Week

• Back in Admin Configuration > Scheduling Restrictions, select Minimum Days Off Per Week
• Select Create New
  • Enter minimum number of days off per week an employee should have
  • Consecutive Days Off - optional. If selected, the days off must be consecutive
  • For Apply to employees?, select:
    • Under 16s / Under 18s / Over 18s / All
  • Apply to all locations - tick this box to apply the restriction for the selected employee groups to all current and any new locations created
• Then Save

Summary

Age-based Scheduling Restrictions help ensure compliant, safe, and consistent scheduling by:

• Preventing invalid schedules during planning
• Highlighting (but not blocking) issues in actual worked hours
• Supporting different rules for different age groups

This approach balances compliance enforcement with operational flexibility, ensuring both accurate scheduling and correct payroll processing.