An attendance write up template is a form with the right fields in the right order, so that the write-up issued in March and the one issued in September say the same things in the same places whichever lead wrote them. This page is that form, field by field, with what goes in each and where the number comes from. It is written for a small employer running shifts under a points policy, and it assumes the policy states its five numbers: on this site's worked example, 1 point per unexcused absence, 0.5 per tardy, 2 per no-call, a threshold of 8 and a 12-month window. The attendance points calculator supplies the table and the total; the policy template supplies the paragraph the write-up cites.
Fields one to five: the heading
Employee name and role. Date of the meeting. Issued by, with role. Step: verbal warning, written warning, final warning or separation, chosen from the policy's steps and not improvised. Policy and version date. Five fields, each one a line, none of them prose. The step field is the one most often wrong in practice: a write-up headed warning when it is the third warning is a write-up that has lost its place in the sequence, and the template forces the choice. The policy version matters because weights change; a write-up issued under last year's policy and read under this year's has to say which it applied.
Fields six and seven: the event table and the total line
The event table has five columns: date, scheduled shift, event, excused or not with the reason, and points. One row per event inside the rolling window, including excused events at zero. The template does not ask the lead to add anything up; the points column comes from the calculator, which applies the weights in force on each date and drops events that have aged out. Below the table the total line reads: total in the window, threshold, points remaining. On the worked example a table showing two tardies, a third tardy, an absence and a no-call reads 4.5 of 8, with 3.5 remaining, and that single line is the reason the meeting is happening.
Fields eight and nine: the paragraph applied and the warning before
The template then has a field for the policy paragraph, quoted by number and in full, and a field for the prior warning: its date, its step, who gave it and the total on that day. If this is the first step the prior-warning field says none, and the write-up is a verbal warning recorded in writing. These two fields turn a complaint into a record. A reviewer, an unemployment hearing or an attorney reading the file wants to know what rule applied and whether the employee had been told, and the template answers both before the question is asked. The EEOC's guidance on performance and conduct standards, linked below, is a useful check that the standard being applied is the same one applied to everyone.
Fields ten to twelve: the next step, the response and the signatures
Next step: the total at which the next step happens and what it is, plus the date the oldest event will age out and the total will fall. Employee response: a box the employee may fill or leave, kept with the write-up. Signatures: the employee's, marked as acknowledging receipt, and the issuer's, with a line for noting a refusal to sign. The template ends there. It does not carry a paragraph about the company's values, a threat, or a reminder to do better; the next-step field already says what happens, in numbers, and the employee can check the arithmetic on the calculator themselves. A template that fits on one page is a template that gets used.
Questions people ask about attendance write up template
What fields does an attendance write up template need?
Employee, date, issuer, step, policy version; an event table with points; the total line against the threshold; the policy paragraph applied; the prior warning; the next step and the age-out date; an employee response box; two signatures with a note line for refusal.
Where do the points on the template come from?
From the policy's weights applied to each event inside the window, which the attendance points calculator on this site does from the events and the five numbers. The lead copies the table; the lead does not do the arithmetic on the page.
Should the template include a place for the employee's side?
Yes. A response box costs nothing, is kept with the write-up whether or not the employer agrees, and shows a reviewer the employee was heard. Protected leave the employee raises there is checked against the table before the write-up stands.