A punch is never deleted. Understand the three ways to treat a record, what Brazil’s Ordinance 671 requires you to keep, and why the original punch must stay visible.
The rule everything rests on: nothing is deleted
A time record is evidence. A punch made by the employee cannot be deleted or overwritten, and the statutory file has to show both what was recorded and what was treated afterwards, with the author and the reason.
That is why having a delete-punch button is itself a compliance problem. What exists is treatment: three different operations, each for a different case, all of them preserving the original record.
Adjust: the time is wrong
Use an adjustment when the punch happened but at the wrong time: a clock out of sync, a punch made at the gate instead of the workstation, a double punch in the same minute.
The adjustment keeps the original and the corrected time side by side. Anyone looking later sees that there was a correction, who made it and why, and the calculation uses the corrected time.
Justify: the punch does not exist
Use a justification when a punch is missing: forgetfulness, equipment failure, field work with no terminal, a medical certificate, granted time off. The justification explains the missing record and classifies the day.
That classification matters more than it looks: the same day without a punch can become an unjustified absence, an excused absence, sick leave or hours-bank compensation, and each of those paths changes weekly rest, deductions and the hours-bank balance.
Disregard: the punch exists and should not count
Use disregard when the record is real but should not count: a test punch, a duplicate by mistake, a record outside the shift that does not represent work.
Disregarding is not deleting. The punch stays on the timesheet, flagged as disregarded, with the reason. The calculation ignores it, and an inspection sees the decision instead of a hole in the record.
The trail Ordinance 671 requires
The rule organises the types of time clock (REP-P, REP-A and REP-C) and defines the files a company must be able to produce, among them the AFD, with the punches, and the AEJ, with the working day and the treatments applied.
In practice, the time system has to record every treatment with date, time, author and reason, and be able to reproduce a closed month’s timesheet months later, identically. A timesheet that changes on its own when someone edits the past is not evidence.
Time treated, payroll closed
In Avos treatment is always one of those three operations, with a mandatory reason and an audit trail, and the payroll close only unlocks when no punch is pending. The employee’s timesheet shows the original record and the treatment applied, which removes half the questions before they reach HR.