elementTIME release 8.04 – excess time, scheduling and little things

Version 8.04 is a minor release providing bug fixes and improvements as well as new controls over the management of excess time. Released on 29/05/2018.

Highlights of this release include:

New setting allowing the decision on whether excess time is approved by default or requires individual approval by instance. There are increased validations and settings to help the management of shift types.

Historical timesheets view change

Managers and Payroll officers can now view historical timesheets direct from the my teams timesheets page.

Scroll arrows on the timesheet view also now allow switching between payrun periods from the timesheet page.

On demand Public re-numeration register report

Tenants can now download public salary register reports when needed based on last confirmed and processed pay run data.

Report provides role, band, salary and FTE counts.

Audit Officer user access changes

Audit officers can now view all users timesheets including work notes, start and end times and workflow. Note this is a view only access and edits and changes are not included.

New controls over excess time

New controls have been added to force managers to approve each instance of excess time individually rather than by payrun even if excess time is allocated to default rules.

This is a global setting and will impact all users. It can be controlled by payroll officers and is available on the Settings > Payrun page.

If the setting is active then any instance of excess time recorded on a timesheet will be unapproved even if added to employees default excess time rules.

Excess time instances will need to be approved individually as part of the payrun / timesheet approval process.

If toggle is inactive then existing process remains (excess time to default rules is approved unless changed).

NOTE: all unapproved instances of excess time show on the timesheet issues list and require approval prior to ability to approve a timesheet.

Timesheets can be submitted with unapproved excess time but timesheets cannot be approved by Managers until resolved. Payroll Officers can approve excess time on behalf of managers.

All Excess time is approved by default at payroll officer level (when timesheets have been approved by manager all excess time related to timesheet is approved).

New process of entering time into timesheets when recording excess time

If the time entered into the timesheet is excess time then the daily summary popup now displays automatically to ensure the person completing the timesheet is aware they have triggered excess time. At this point they have the option to select alternative rules they have available or leave the excess time assigned to their default rule.

Search user profiles from within User Details page

To select user profiles you used to have to flick between the search options on Manage Users page, select your user and then make the changed on the User detail page. This option now gives you the ability to select other user profiles direct from the user details page, Simply select the user from the smart drop down option.

New shift validations

Preempting the release of the employee wizard – 8.04 includes a number of shift validations that will be run when a user is assigned to a new shift type:

The end day of the current shift must not be less than the end date of the last pay run.
A user cannot be added to a new shift if there is a clash with an existing shift.
A shift can only be ended within the current payrun if there is no existing time recorded into the existing pay run.
When a shift is ended all approved leave where the end date of the leave is past the end date of the shift should be changed to the status of on hold and will need to be reapplied for the new shift once it is assigned or withdrawn.
Any unapproved leave past the end date of the shift will be cancelled.
A shift cannot have its shift type changed once created.
A shift with a fixed shift type cannot have its default hours altered once created.

Minor changes and bug fixes

Label fix on schedule – Schedules now show multiple leave periods on the same day if approved. Also yes we did change the section label from Leaves approved to Leave approved for this day.
Altered menu order and names under the User Management section – Changed the menu item Link pay types and shifts to Link pay types, shifts and roles – still does the same thing but makes it a little clearer now that this is the page to link roles to users. User Summary has been moved to the bottom of the menu item order.
Delete no more – Added validation to role management so roles that are or have been linked to a user cannot be deleted.
Fixed issue where old timesheets could not be downloaded via PDF due to changes in system validations – for relevant staff timesheets can not be downloaded willynilly again.
Fixed issue where inactive shifts continued to be displayed in the schedule and drop down options. Changing a shift to inactive will now hide the shift name from these options.
Fixed an issue where relevant users had to download copies of timesheets to view start and end times recorded on historic timesheets. Relevant users can not view this information direct from timesheets onscreen by selecting the relevant day field.
Fixed a number of error messages so if triggered the message content is more meaningful to the user.
Fixed an error where managers could edit schedules for all staff rather than just those who are their direct reports.
Fixed an issue where old timesheets did not display start and end time when selecting day fields.