How to keep a puantaj: from the monthly attendance ledger to payroll

How do you keep a puantaj?

A puantaj is kept with a single code for every day of the month, plus hours where needed. The code comes from clock-in records, approved leave, sick notes and the company calendar. As these sources are processed through the month the sheet fills up, so at month end you only check the exceptions and close the period.

1. Set up the calendar. Enter the weekly rest day, official holidays and the company's own closure days before the month begins.
2. Link working hours. Define each employee's expected hours, and state separately which staff are not expected to clock in.
3. Let the sources flow in. PDKS records and approved leave should land on the right day automatically.
4. Enter the exceptions. Mark sick days, compassionate leave and absences with a date range.
5. Keep overtime separate. Record overtime and extended hours in hours, apart from the day code.
6. Check at month end. Clear the warnings and get each manager to confirm their team's sheet.
7. Close the period. Export the checked sheet and give that version to payroll; any later change should be made with a reason.

What information and codes appear on a puantaj?

On a puantaj each row is an employee and each column a day of the month; the cell holds that day's code. At the end of the row come totals by day type and overtime in hours. A short, fixed code set that everyone reads the same way matters as much as the record itself.

The sheet header should show the employee number, full name, department and period. For a sick day, never write the diagnosis or illness; keep only the code.

What does Turkish labour law say about the puantaj?

Labour Law No. 4857 (İş Kanunu) sets the limits for most of the time tracked in a puantaj: weekly working hours, the weekly rest day, public holidays and overtime. The warnings on the sheet rest on these articles. For pay rates and amounts, refer to the current official text and your accountant.

• Working time (Art. 63): generally no more than 45 hours a week. By agreement it can be spread unevenly across the days, but no day may exceed 11 hours and, over a two-month balancing period, the weekly average may not exceed normal hours.
• Overtime (Art. 41): work beyond 45 hours a week. Where the contract sets shorter weekly hours, the part up to 45 hours counts as extended hours instead. Overtime needs the employee's consent and may not exceed 270 hours in a year.
• Weekly rest (Art. 46): after the working days, at least 24 uninterrupted hours of rest within each seven-day period. Some types of leave and days covered by a doctor's report count as worked when calculating this right.
• Public holidays (Art. 47): if no work is done on a national or public holiday, that day's pay is still due; if work is done, an extra day's pay is due for each day worked. So a public holiday worked should be tracked separately on the sheet.

Full text of the articles: Labour Law No. 4857. Where a balancing arrangement applies, the weekly limit is judged by the average over the balancing period, not by a single week (Art. 41 and 63).

Where does a puantaj in Excel or on paper break down?

A puantaj in Excel stalls at month end because the clock-in export, the leave list and the sick notes are merged by hand from separate places. A wrong day often comes to light only after wages are paid and an employee objects. The four error types below are the most common.

• Conflicting days: an employee on leave in the leave list also shows a clock-in that day, and nobody knows which is right.
• Version confusion: a correction after closing creates two files, and it becomes unclear which one went to payroll.
• Untraceable edits: nobody can tell who edited a cell or why.
• Overtime tracking: the 270-hour annual cap is breached unnoticed because it is not added up month by month.

How does the puantaj work in Sora İK?

In Sora İK the monthly attendance ledger is calculated automatically from PDKS records, approved leave and the company calendar, and is downloaded as a CSV file. HR enters only the exceptions, as day marks. The code set in Sora İK is fixed; a company-specific code set is on the roadmap.

The sheet warns when a clock-in or clock-out is missing, when records for the same day contradict each other, and on breaches of the daily, weekly, night and annual working limits; each warning names the relevant article of the law but does not block the entry. Overtime is not calculated from clock-in data: HR enters it as an item with the date and minutes, and the screen shows the year's total against the 270-hour limit.

A sick-day mark has no diagnosis field. Team managers see sick days and paid compassionate leave under the same “on leave” code; the separate sick-day code is visible only to HR, the system administrator, the company owner and the employee concerned. The ledger also works in workplaces that keep no clock-in records, using working hours with no clock-in expected.

On the roadmap: period approval and locking, the locked period becoming the input to payroll, unpaid leave and sick days counting as missing days in payroll, overtime calculation and balancing, and shift planning. Today Sora İK finds the number of payroll days from start and leaving dates, not from the puantaj; all Sora İK facts are on the Sora İK page. For details: Attendance Ledger (Puantaj) — full feature list.

What should IT and management watch for?

A puantaj is a data set that directly affects pay and holds entries close to health information. So who can change it, how changes are logged and who receives the file should all be set as written rules. In a multi-branch organisation, also define the closing order and the route the exported file takes.

• Edit rights: restrict day marks and manual entries to HR. In Sora İK, these actions and the CSV download sit with the HR, company owner and system administrator roles.
• Change log: every manual entry and mark should be logged in the audit trail with its author and timestamp; fix errors at the source, not on the sheet.
• Closing by branch: let each branch manager check their own team, and have HR run the close on a single timetable.
• CSV export: the downloaded file contains personal data; keep it in a folder with restricted access rather than as an email attachment, and delete it under your retention rule once payroll is done. Security measures are in the Sora İK security section.

Modules that work with the puantaj

The puantaj is the middle link: it gathers clock-in and leave records and feeds payroll and reports. The guides below cover both sides of that link.

• PDKS guide: PDKS methods, biometric data under KVKK and handling missing records.
• Annual leave tracking guide: Tracking annual leave through entitlement, balance and approval steps.
• Payroll preparation guide: The four-step payroll cycle in Türkiye, from the attendance ledger to the payslip, with a month-end checklist.
• HR metrics guide: Formulas and worked examples for employee turnover and absenteeism, plus a set of HR metrics to track regularly.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between puantaj and payroll?

The puantaj records time: which days were worked, which had leave or a sick note, how many hours of overtime were done. Payroll turns those days and hours into wages, deductions and contributions. A single wrong code on the puantaj comes back in payroll as a missing day or a wrong payment, which is why the puantaj is closed before payroll.

Which codes are used on a puantaj?

A typical set has codes for days worked, the weekly rest day and public holidays, plus annual leave, paid compassionate leave, unpaid leave, sick days and absence. Some workplaces also use a separate code for days before the employee's start date. What matters most is not the code itself but everyone reading the same code the same way.

Who approves the puantaj?

In practice, team managers check their own team's days, HR gives final approval and hands the period over to payroll. Any change after approval should be recorded with a reason. In Sora İK, manager review of the period and HR approving and locking it are on the roadmap; today you download the reviewed month as CSV.

How is overtime recorded on a puantaj?

Overtime goes in a separate hours column, not in the day code, and overtime is kept apart from extended hours because the law defines them differently. Track the annual total too: overtime may not exceed 270 hours a year. Where balancing applies, weeks over 45 hours do not count as overtime if the period average stays within normal weekly hours (Art. 41).

Can a puantaj be kept in Excel?

It can; small, single-site teams run their puantaj in Excel for years. The trouble starts as the number of employees and sources grows: the leave list, the clock-in export and sick-note details are merged by hand, changes leave no trace and it becomes unclear which version went to payroll. With clear rules and an owner, Excel is enough for a while.