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Applies to versions: 1.5
Accruals
The TimeIPS Accruals feature automatically accrues sick and vacation hours with customizable tenure levels based on employee's start/hire date.
Security Level Required: Manager, Employee Administrator, or Payroll Administrator
Using the left pane Main Menu, click on: Administration » Benefits and Accruals » Accruals
Benefits Overview
The TimeIPS Benefit and Accrual system is available with the IPSQBI module. With this module alone, you receive the following features:
- One accrual group
- Two tenure levels
- Vacation and Sick accrual types
- Automatic weekly accruals
With the Advanced Benefits Tracking module (IPSBEN), the following features are added:
- Unlimited accrual groups
- Unlimited tenure levels
- Unlimited custom plus Vacation and Sick accrual types
- Flexible accrual periods
- Enhanced configuration options including caps and prorating
Configuring Accruals
Administration -> Benefits and Accruals -> Accruals
"Accrual Groups" are used to track a set of employees with related accrual rules. Most companies will only need one accrual group.
Separate groups are useful when you have multiple classes of employees with different rules; for example, a company may have
different benefit rules for full-time and part-time employees.
If you do not have any accrual groups configured, or if you have the IPSBEN module and would like to create an additional group,
click the "Add New Group" icon. Provide a name and click "Create Group," and the page will refresh to allow you to configure accruals
for the new group.
To make changes to a group, expand the settings by clicking the "+" next to the group's name.
General tab
The "General" tab configures the employees who belong the the group, and allows changing the group name. Employees who do
not currently belong to the accrual group appear in the list on the left. If the employee belongs to another group, that group's name
will be displayed beside the employee's name. Employees who currently belong to the accrual group appear in the list on the right.
Each employee will have an icon: an empty box, a box containing a check mark, a green arrow, or a red arrow. The empty box
indicates that the employee is not a member of the group and is not scheduled to join the group in the future. The check mark
indicates that the employee is a member of the group and is not scheduled to leave the group. The green arrow indicates that the
employee is not a member of the group, but is scheduled to join the group at some time in the future; hovering the mouse cursor
over the arrow will display the time that the employee will join the group. The red arrow indicates that the employee is currently a
member of the group, but is scheduled to leave the group at some time in the future; hovering the mouse cursor over the arrow
will display the time that the employee will leave the group. Clicking any of these icons will open a dialog displaying the employee's
entire history.
Note: If an employee is scheduled to leave an accrual group at the same time (during the same second) that accruals for that group are scheduled to be calculated, the employee will receive the final accrual for that group before leaving.
The remaining tabs are for specific accrual types, such as Sick or Vacation. The top part of these tabs contain the tenure levels for
the accrual type while the bottom area contains general settings that apply regardless of tenure.
General Settings
Waiting Period: Benefits will not begin accruing until an employee has been employed for this number of days. The waiting
period is calendar days, not work days or days worked. Once the waiting period has elapsed, the employee will begin receiving
benefit hours. The waiting period only applies to new hires. Changing accrual groups does not require an additional waiting period.
Note that accruals missed during the waiting period will never be earned. The employee will receive the complete value of the
next accrual after the waiting period elapses. If you need a waiting period specified in a level other than calendar days, set the
first tenure level for the group (see below) to begin after the desired amount of time.
Maximum Accrued Hours: If set, this will limit accruals for employees so they will not have more the specified number of
unused hours. Accruals beyond this cap will be lost and will appear in the "Hours Lost" column of the Benefits page.
The lower of this setting or the per-tenure-level setting "Maximum Net Hours Available" for the tenure level that the
employee qualifies for will be used.
Prorate Partial Periods - If this is checked, the accrual for an employee who is hired or changes accrual groups during an
Accrual Interval will be prorated according to the time spent in the group. As an example, if vacation accrues yearly on January
1st and an employee is hired on December 1st, the employee would get approximately 1/12 of that year's accrual on January
1st. If this option is disabled, the employee would receive the entire year's accrual. Note that this option prorates on top of any
prorating based on hours worked (see below); most companies will not use Prorate Partial Periods in conjunction with one of
these accruals. Note: This option only applies when an employee is hired or changes accrual groups. See "Tenure Levels," below, for a description of how tenure affects prorating.
Benefit time used contributes to time worked for accruals: If this is checked, hours of this benefit are considered time
worked for accruals. This affects accruals earned based on hours worked, accruals requiring a minimum number of hours worked,
and tenure levels based on total hours worked. For example, if this option is enabled for Sick benefits, and Vacation benefits
accrue at a rate of 1 hour per 40 hours worked, an employee who uses 40 hours of Sick time would accrue 1 hour of Vacation,
just as if that employee had worked the full time. If this option is disabled, the employee would not receive any Vacation time.
This setting has no effect on overtime calculations.
Accrual Interval: This determines how often accruals are calculated and given to employees. Only "Weekly" and "Never"
are available without the IPSBEN module. Additionally, the interval cannot be set to multiple weeks (for example, every 2 weeks)
without IPSBEN. With IPSBEN, "Weekly," "Monthly," and "Yearly" are available in any multiple, as well as "Semimonthly" and
"Quarterly" with specified accrual dates. Use these options and a specified starting date to fit your company policy. Accruals
are not calculated before the starting date and recur at the specified interval after it. For example, if employees receive all of
their benefits at the end of each year worked for the company, specify "Yearly," every "1" year(s), starting at employee's hire
date.
Note: Accruals use the date when the employee first joined an accrual group to determine the employee's accrual start date. This date is usually the same as the date in the "Start Date" field in Employee Administration, but these dates can be different if
necessary for your company's accrual policy.
Tenure Levels
Tenure levels allow employees to earn different amount of benefits based on how long they have been employed.
Tenure Starts After: TimeIPS supports two types of tenure levels: time-based and work-based. Time-based tenure means
that employees enter the tenure level after a minimum amount of calendar time has elapsed. Time-based tenure is specified by
selecting "day(s)," "week(s)", "month(s)" or "year(s)" in this field. Work-based tenure means that employees enter the tenure
level after a minimum amount of hours have been worked. Work-based tenure is specified by selecting "hour(s) worked" in this
field. Employees will receive accruals based on the longest tenure for which they qualify. If both time-based and work-based tenure
levels are used, the level which provides the greater number of hours is used.
Accrual Rate: TimeIPS also supports time-based and work-based accrual rates. Time-based rates earn benefit hours based
on calendar time elapsed; they are specified by selecting "Accrual Interval" or "Calendar Year" in this field. Work-based rates earn
benefit hours based on hours worked by the employee; they are specified by selecting "hour worked," "40 hours worked," or "2080
hours worked" in this field.
- Time-based rates: When the rate is specified as "accrual interval," the specified number of hours are given as a
lump sum at the end of each accrual interval. When the rate is specified as "calendar year," the specified number of hours is divided
among accrual intervals such that the employee will earn exactly the specified number of hours over the course of one calendar year. Note: When using time-based rates, an employee will earn benefits based on his/her tenure at the end of the accrual interval.
- Work-based rates: The three work-based rate options are all equivalent in terms of calculation, so choose the option that
is most convenient to express your company's accrual policy. If your policy determines accruals based on a different base number of
hours, divide the desired accrual by the number of hours worked to determine the accrual rate, and select "hour worked." Note: When using work-based rates, an employee earns benefits at the rate effective at the time the hours are worked. If an employee changes tenure levels during an accrual interval, the new rate applies only for hours worked beyond the tenure requirement.
Minimum Time Worked: (This option requires the IPSBEN module.) To require employees to work a minimum number of hours
during the accrual interval to qualify to earn any benefit hours, specify that time here.
Maximum Single Accrual: (This option requires the IPSBEN module.) To limit the maximum number of hours that can be earned
in a single accrual interval, specify a number here. This option is only useful with work-based rates. For example, if the Maximum
Single Accrual is set to 1 hour and vacation hours accrue at a rate of 1 hour per 40 hours worked, an employee who worked 60 hours
during the accrual interval would only earn 1 hours. If this option is not set, the employee would have earned 1.5 hours.
Maximum Net Hours Available: (This option requires the IPSBEN module.) This option is related to the "Maximum Accrued
Hours" option above, but can be set according to an employee's tenure. If set, employees earning benefit hours based on the tenure
level will not be able to exceed the specified number of hours available. For example, if employees are limited to having 48 hours of
vacation stored up at a time until they have worked at least one year, set this option to 48 for all tenure levels that apply at less than
one year of employment. If your company policy has a fixed limit regardless of tenure, leave this option blank and use the "Maximum
Accrued Hours" option in General Settings.
Recalculating
After changing accrual rules, all subsequent accruals will use the updated settings. To apply modified rules to time past, the accruals
must be recalculated.
To request recalculation of accruals for all employees or for a selected list of employees, open the "Search and Adjust" section in
the Accrual Groups page, or access the Benefit Totals page. In this area, select the desired employees or groups and click "Recalculate
Accruals." Enter a date to begin the updated calculation; all accruals received after the selected time will be removed and updated
accruals will be calculated.
Other changes in TimeIPS can cause accruals to recalculate automatically:
- When using work-based accruals or work-based tenure, editing worked time will cause accruals after the edited time to be recalculated.
- Using benefits or editing benefit usage will cause accruals after the benefit's effective date to be recalculated.
- Resetting benefits (see below) will cause accruals after the reset date to be recalculated.
- Changing an employee's accrual group membership will cause accruals after the effective date of the change to be recalculated.
Other changes do NOT cause accruals to be automatically recalculated. Some noteworthy examples include:
- Editing an employee's start date will not cause accruals to be recalculated. (See the note at the end of the "General tab" section above.)
- Editing accrual settings will not cause accruals to be recalculated. These changes only affect future accruals unless a recalculation is requested.
Viewing Current Associations
As a convenience, you may request a report listing the current accrual group membership for any list of employees. Open the "Search and
Adjust" section in the Accrual Groups page, or access the Benefit Totals page, select the desired employees or groups, and click "View
Associations" to see this report.
This report will show the date each employee joined his/her current accrual group, which accrual group he/she currently belongs to, and
when (if ever) the employee is scheduled to leave that accrual group. An employee's complete accrual group membership history can be
viewed by clicking that employee's name. Clicking on the name of the accrual group will open the Accrual Groups page to display the accrual
settings for that group.
See Also: Benefits (1.5, 1.6) Importing/Exporting Benefits (1.5, 1.6)
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