PeopleMuster

On-duty / official business form

On-duty days are worked days spent somewhere else. A client visit, a supplier audit, a court appearance, a training course. The form exists so those days stop looking like absences to whoever reads the record.

For travel on company business, whether it is two hours or two days. Not for home working, which has its own request and usually a different recording rule.

On-duty record — official business away from the workplace

Employee name, code and department: 
Date or dates: DD / MM / YYYY
Destination: Organisation and city
Purpose: Client visit, supplier audit, training, conference, official summons, other
Person or body being visited: Name and role, where it is appropriate to record
Departure time from home or workplace: HH:MM
Return time: HH:MM, or state that you did not return the same day
Whether you attended the workplace at all that day: Yes, partly, or no
Approved before travel by: Name and date. If not, say why

Outcome or deliverable from the visit: ________________________________
Employee signature ____________  Date ______
Manager confirms the day was spent on company business ____________  Date ______
Attendance record updated on __ / __ / ____ by ____________

How to fill it in

  1. Get approval before you travel. An on-duty form signed afterwards is really an explanation. Approved beforehand, it is a plan.
  2. Give both times. Departure and return are what make the day a working day rather than a gap in the record.
  3. Say if you came in as well. Half a day at the desk and half at a client is common, and it is recorded differently from a full day away.
  4. Write one line of outcome. It takes ten seconds and turns a travel form into something worth filing.
  5. Make sure the record gets updated. The whole point is that the day does not show up as unexplained. An approved form in a drawer achieves nothing.

PeopleMuster takes check-in from a fingerprint terminal or, where an admin has switched it on, from the browser inside the person's shift window. A day at a client site outside that window becomes a manual punch request, and this form is the evidence HR reviews with it. How check-in data reaches the record.

Questions people ask about this letter

Does an on-duty day count as a present day?

In most policies yes, because the day was worked. Say so explicitly in the policy, or somebody will eventually count it as leave.

What about travel time outside the shift window?

Whether travel counts as working time depends on local rules and your contract, and the answer genuinely differs between countries. Check yours before setting a rule.

Is a separate form needed for a half day off site?

Use the same form and tick that you attended partly. A separate half-day form is one more thing to lose.

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