Date printed: 03-28-2024 Last updated: 12-15-2010 To view our complete support knowledge base and most current version of this article visit support.timeips.com. |
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The TimeIPS Accruals feature automatically accrues sick and vacation hours with customizable tenure levels based on employee's start/hire date.
The TimeIPS Benefit and Accrual system is available with the IPSQBI module. With this module alone, you receive the following features:
With the Advanced Benefits Tracking module (IPSBEN), the following features are added:
Benefits -> Accruals
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.
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. If set, the "Maximum Net Hours Available" for the tenure level that the employee qualifies for will be used instead of this value.
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.
This Benefit type is visible to employees without edit permission: If this is checked, employees will be able to see this benefit type, request the use of this benefit and see accrued benefit levels, even if they do not have permission to edit benefit types. If this is NOT checked, only managers (or other employees with benefit edit permission) will be able to see and use this benefit type. Note: If this benefit type is used, the employee will always see the benefit use on reports, including My Timesheet and My Work History. Unchecking this option is intetended to reduce employee perception of "if I have it, why can't I use it" on special benefit types where only a manger would decide to use it for an employee.
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.
Enforce Minimum Hours: The option to enforce minimum hours can be used to prevent managers from using or approving benefits that would result in the employee having fewer available hours than configured. For example, if employee should never go negative, set this option to "Enabled" and set the Do not use beyond minimum to 0.
Do not use beyond minimum: The minimum hours that can be available when using "Enforce Minimum Hours" option. This number can be positive, 0 or negative. Providing a negative number allows employees to use some benefit "ahead" of their earning.
What to do when a request exceeds available hours: If a benefit use or request approval exceeds the amount being enforced, there are several options on how it should be handled.
Use benefit time in increments: In some cases it may be desirable to only allow employees to use benefit time in blocks, such as 1/2 day or full days. If enabled, all benefit use will be rounded to the nearest increment.
Increments of: When "Use benefit time in increments" is turned on, all benefit use will be rounded to to an increment as set here. For example, to have employees use benefit in half-day increments, enter 4:00:00. When an employee asks for less than 2 hours, it will be rounded to 0. When an employee asks for 2-6 hours, it will be rounded to 4. When an employee asks for 6-10 hours, it will be rounded to 8, etc.
Tenure levels allow employees to earn different amount of benefits based on how long they have been employed.
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. If set, this option always overrides the General Settings "Maximum Accrued Hours."
Other changes in TimeIPS can cause accruals to recalculate automatically:
Other changes do NOT cause accruals to be automatically recalculated. Some noteworthy examples include:
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.