The Attendance Tracking module helps track employee time off. Although designed for monthly accrual of vacation, personal, and sick days, it can be used to manually track time off regardless of how often time is accrued. The Attendance module can be cross referenced with the Payroll module so that processing payroll can automatically make entries in the Attendance module when one or more attendance categories are used on the paycheck. This optional function may be linked to the payroll categories and therefore updated automatically as paychecks are processed.
A report is available to show the attendance information for employees. The Attendance Summary report is found at Reports / Payroll / Employee.
Activity
This lists the employees and allows changes to be made to each Attendance Category by selecting the employee and the category. Manual entries may be made at this screen. Positive or negative numbers are acceptable.
Select the employee, and choose a Category from the dropdown. On the next available line in the grid, enter a date in the Date column and the amount of time to be added in the Days column. The Description column is optional.
If any changes are made, click the Save Activity button.
If the activity was automatically updated from the processing of an employee paycheck, the paycheck number appears in the Description column.
Example: Adding time to an employee’s vacation amount due because of comp time. To do this, select the employee, verify that the Vacation category is shown, then, on the next available line in the grid, enter a date in the Date column and the amount of comp time to be added in the Units column.
The Description column is optional. If any changes are made to this screen, choose Save Activity.
If the activity was automatically updated from the processing of an employee paycheck, the paycheck number appears in the Description column.
Setup
The amount of time that an employee accrues for each category is set up on the Setup tab. The Months column is a calculated number based on the Hire Date on the employee file. This represents the months of service. The Vacation, Sick, Personal, and Other columns may be set with the amount of time that is to be accrued per accrual period. This time may be entered in days or hours (however it has previously been tracked).
The Pay Category Cross Reference is the area that cross references the Pay Category with the Attendance Category. When one of these cross-referenced categories is used on the paycheck, an entry is written in the Attendance module.
How many payroll hours equal 1 attendance unit is the conversion factor that allows the attendance units to be entered in a unit other than hours. If the amounts on the Setup tab were entered in hours and the payroll is entered in hours, then this factor would be set as 1. If the attendance is tracked in days but the employees are paid in hours, then this factor would be the number of hours that constitutes one day of vacation.
If any changes are made to the Setup tab, Save Setup must be selected to keep those changes.
Post Accruals
This tab is used to add time to the Activity tab for any employee that has numbers on the Setup tab. Depending on how the company accrues time, this process may only be done once a year or may be done as often as necessary. Some accrue time annually, some monthly, and some even accrue every payroll. Agvance has the flexibility to accrue time as often as necessary.
To accrue time, enter the date, and select Post Accruals.
- Select Employees – This allows the selection of employees who will have time accrued if necessary.
- Classifications – An Employee Classification may be used to easily select employees for the accrual. An Employee Classification might be set for Eligible for Benefits which would include only the full-time employees and would not include part-time or seasonal help. By selecting this classification, only the full-time employees would have time added to their attendance information.
- Date of Accrual Entries – Select the date for the accrual entries. This date will appear in the Date column on the Activity tab.
- Post Accruals – Add time to the employee Attendance Activity tab for the selected employees based on the amounts entered at the Setup tab.
Reset Balances
Note: Before ending the attendance year, it is recommended to run the Attendance Summary report found at Reports / Payroll / Employee.
This is typically used at the beginning of a new year to clear out the prior year’s activity from the Activity tab and set the beginning balances for the new attendance year.
A Carry Forward Balance option is available that uses the ending balance, deletes all the activity, and makes a Beginning Balance entry line.
The Set all to specified days shown below option allows a set amount to be set for all active employees.
Example: If four days of sick time are given per year to all employees and time off is tracked in days, then this option would be used with a 4 entered in the # Units field. Since ending the year would bring in the sick time for the start of the new year, there would be no need to have time entered in the Sick column on the Setup tab.
- Select Employees – This allows the selection of employees who will have balances reset.
- Classifications – An Employee Classification may be selected to easily select employees for the balance reset. An Employee Classification might be set for Eligible for Benefits which would include only the full-time employees and would not include part-time or seasonal help. By selecting this classification, only the full-time employees would have balances reset, therefore reducing the length of the report by not making entries on employees who are not eligible for benefits.
- Balance Reset Date – Enter the date for the reset. This typically would be the end or beginning of the year - either calendar or fiscal year depending on company policy. The Reset function creates an entry using this date with Beginning Balance in the comment.
