# Attendance Policies

Attendance policies control how SmartAcademy interprets attendance timing and related services.

## Step-by-step guide

1. Go to **Branch Management > Attendance Policies**.
2. Confirm the selected branch.
3. Review attendance timing rules.
4. Enter minute-based limits where required.
5. Select **Save Policy**.
6. In overtime settings, review the multiplier and save the overtime policy if used.
7. In daycare settings, enable daycare, set hourly rate, grace period, minimum hours, and choose whether fee assignments should be created automatically.
8. Select **Save Daycare Settings**.

## What SmartAcademy does in the background

The backend stores attendance policy settings on the branch, stores overtime policy settings separately where applicable, and stores daycare settings inside the branch record. Daycare must be enabled before daycare plans or usage can be saved.

## Tips

- Configure this before marking regular staff attendance.
- Enable daycare here before opening the Daycare module.
- The daycare auto-create fee option controls whether daycare billing creates linked fee assignments.

## Related pages

- [Daycare settings](/smartacademy-v2-platform/daycare/settings)
- [Staff attendance](/smartacademy-v2-platform/staff/staff-attendance)
- [Overtime](/smartacademy-v2-platform/staff/overtime)