Time Management Setting
One record per company. It holds the choices that are true of the whole module rather than of one leave type or one shift, chiefly how overtime is to be worked out, and it is where a field can be made mandatory or hidden on a Time Management screen for this company only.
What it is for
Most of Time Management is configured per leave type, per shift or per person. A few things are not. How the client wants overtime arrived at is one decision for the whole company, not one per employee, and this is where it is made.
There is one record per legal entity and the screen refuses a second. A group running two companies on one installation gets two records and each can answer the overtime question differently.
The screen also carries two lists that have nothing to do with overtime. They let you change how a field behaves on a Time Management screen for this company alone: make something mandatory that normally is not, hide a field nobody uses, or give a field a default. This is the right place for that, because it is per company. Do not expect it to add a field that does not exist, and do not use it to hide a field the business layer still insists on, or the screen becomes unsaveable with nothing on it to fix.
The three overtime switches interact, and getting them wrong is the single most common cause of an overtime figure the client disputes. Read them together before you tick anything.
Every field, in plain words
Header
| Field | What it means | What to put in it | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal Entity | Which company these settings are for. | The company code | Required. Only one record per company is allowed. |
Controlling
| Field | What it means | What to put in it | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Take Overtime From Approved Requests | Where payroll is to get its overtime hours from. | Ticked where the client runs an approval for every overtime | Unticked, payroll takes overtime from the hours on the Employee Attandance line. Ticked, it takes approved and unposted Overtime Requests instead. Never both, so the figure can never be counted twice. |
| Pay Overtime Hours As Entered | Whether a typed overtime figure is paid as it stands or run through the overtime policy. | Unticked for most clients | Unticked, the overtime paid is worked out from the overtime policy bands for the additional hours worked, and the hours on the line are only a preview. Ticked, the Overtime Hours typed on the Employee Attendance line are paid exactly as entered, so two hours cut to one pays one, and no overtime policy is needed. |
| Apply Overtime To All Employees | Whether every extra hour earns overtime by itself, or only days somebody ticks. | Unticked where overtime is authorised, ticked in a plant that pays every extra hour | Unticked, a day earns overtime only when Apply Overtime is ticked on its Employee Attendance line. Ticked, Process Overtime works the overtime out itself from each day's time in and time out, through the overtime policy bands, and nobody has to tick anything. An employee with no overtime policy still earns none. Ignored when Take Overtime From Approved Requests is ticked. |
Default Parameters
One line per field whose behaviour is to change on a Time Management screen in this company. Add nothing here until the client asks for it.
| Field | What it means | What to put in it | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Line # | The line number. | Fills itself. Leave it. | |
| Process Code | Which screen the rule applies to. | The Employee Request Leave screen | Pick it from the list. One screen may have several lines. |
| Object No | Which field on that screen the rule applies to. | The Notes field | Pick it from the list of that screen's fields. |
| Value | A default to put in the field when a new document is created. | Leave it empty when you only want to change the three switches beside it. | |
| Mandatory | Tick to refuse a save while the field is empty. | Ticked on the Notes field of a leave application | This is the usual reason to add a line at all. |
| Disable | Tick to show the field but not let anybody type in it. | Use it with Value to show a fixed figure. | |
| Hidden | Tick to take the field off the screen for this company. | Never hide a field the screen itself requires. |
Validation
| Field | What it means | What to put in it | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Line # | The line number. | Fills itself. Leave it. | |
| Process Code | Which screen the extra check applies to. | The Employee Request Leave screen | Pick it from the list. |
| Special Validation | Which of the extra checks the installation offers is to be switched on for that screen. | Pick from the list | The list is built for the installation. Where a client asks for a check that is not in the list, it does not exist yet and no line here will create it. |
How to configure it
- Open the screen and pick the Legal Entity. If a record already exists for that company, open it instead of adding another.
- Settle the overtime question with the client in one sentence before you touch the switches. Either "every extra hour is paid" or "overtime is paid when it was approved beforehand".
- For "every extra hour is paid", leave Take Overtime From Approved Requests unticked, leave Pay Overtime Hours As Entered unticked, and tick Apply Overtime To All Employees. Then build the overtime policy, because nothing is paid without one.
- For "overtime must be approved", tick Take Overtime From Approved Requests and leave the other two alone. The Overtime Request screen then becomes the only source.
- For a client who wants HR to type a figure and have it paid with no arithmetic behind it, tick Pay Overtime Hours As Entered. Say out loud that the overtime policy is then ignored.
- Leave both grids empty unless the client has asked for a specific field to be mandatory, defaulted or hidden.
- Save. Then confirm the figure on one employee for one period on Payroll Attendance before anybody runs payroll.
Scenarios
"Nobody should be paid overtime unless a manager asked for it"
Tick Take Overtime From Approved Requests. Overtime now comes only from approved Overtime Requests, and whatever hours happen to sit on an attendance line are ignored for pay. Apply Overtime To All Employees no longer matters.
"The plant pays every hour past the shift, we are not going to approve each one"
Leave Take Overtime From Approved Requests unticked and tick Apply Overtime To All Employees. Build the overtime policy properly, because the bands in it are what decide the rate for an ordinary day, a rest day and a holiday.
"Our supervisor writes two hours and that is what we pay"
Tick Pay Overtime Hours As Entered. Say plainly that this throws away the policy rate, so a rest day hour and an ordinary hour are then worth the same unless the supervisor allows for it himself.
"The overtime figure on the payslip is double what we expected"
It is not possible for both sources to be counted, so look instead at the policy multiplier and at whether the hours on the line were already a multiplied figure. A supervisor typing 4 for two hours at double rate, against a policy that also doubles, is the usual cause.
"A leave application should not be allowed without a reason typed"
Add one Default Parameters line: the Employee Request Leave screen, the Notes field, Mandatory ticked. It applies to this company only.
What it is connected to
- Employee Attandance is the source of overtime hours when requests are not being used.
- Overtime Request is the source when Take Overtime From Approved Requests is ticked.
- Payroll Attendance is where the resulting overtime hours are gathered for the period, and it is the figure Payroll pays.
- The overtime policy named on each employee's Employee Policy Profile supplies the bands and the rates. Nobody without one earns overtime, whatever is set here.
- The grids on this screen change Time Management screens for this company only. They do not reach any other module.
If something looks wrong
- "It will not let me save, it says the record already exists" - there is already a record for that company. Open it and change it.
- "Nobody earns any overtime" - either no day has Apply Overtime ticked and Apply Overtime To All Employees is unticked, or the employees have no overtime policy on their policy profile.
- "The approved overtime requests are being ignored" - Take Overtime From Approved Requests is unticked, so payroll is reading the attendance lines instead.
- "The hours we typed are being changed" - Pay Overtime Hours As Entered is unticked, so the typed hours are only a preview and the policy bands decide the paid figure.
- "A field I hid is now stopping the save" - the screen itself requires that field. Untick Hidden on its line.
- "The check the client asked for is not in the Special Validation list" - it has not been built for this installation. A line cannot create it.