Date printed: 05-06-2024 Last updated: 11-15-2007 To view our complete support knowledge base and most current version of this article visit support.timeips.com. |
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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:
By clicking on an employee's name in the "View/Use Benefits" report, or by requesting this report for only one employee, a detailed view will appear. This view has one row for each benefit type available. Each row contains the current hours available highlighted in yellow and the total hours earned, used, and lost since the last reset (see below) in the columns on the right. The "Total Earned" column indicates how many hours the employee has earned from accruals and bonuses. The "Total Used" column indicates how many benefit hours the employee has used. The "Total Lost" column indicates how many accrued hours the employee lost due to the "Maximum Accrued Hours" or "Maximum Net Hours Available" settings.
To use benefits, enter the number of hours in the "Use Hours" column for the desired benefit type, an effective date in the "Date of Use" column, and a comment in the "Reason for use" field, then click the "Use Benefit Hours" button at the bottom of the report. The employee's available benefits will be reduced by the specified amount at the specified date, and, if the benefit is of a paid benefit type, the employee will receive the specified number of hours at that date when payroll is calculated.
A benefit reset is a fixed point in an employee's benefit history. It is an assertion that the employee definitively has a certain number of hours at a certain time. If your company's policy requires benefit totals to be reset to a fixed value at a scheduled time, such as resetting unused benefits to 0 at the beginning of each year, this adjustment can be made using a benefit reset. Benefit resets can also be used to set an initial value for employees, such as benefit hours earned before using TimeIPS, or to correct errors. Benefits can be reset in three ways:
Benefit resets may be scheduled at any time in the future or in the past. If scheduled in the past, accruals after the reset will be recalculated starting at the time of the reset. If scheduled in the future, accruals will continue as normal until the time of the reset, at which time accruals will start over at the specified value.
Note that accruals will be given in full after a benefit reset; the reset does not imply any sort of prorated or truncated behavior, even if "Prorate Partial Periods" is selected. For example, if employees earn 2 hours per year on January 1st, a reset to 3 hours at any time during the year (even on December 31st) will result in a total of 5 hours available after the next accrual on January 1st.
Note: For best results, use an effective date for resets that makes the intent clear. If benefits are scheduled to reset at the same time (during the same second) that accruals are scheduled to be calculated, the reset will apply after the accrual, that is, the accrual will have no effect on the total available benefit hours.
To grant a one-time bonus of available benefit hours to an employee, click the "Add Hours" link for the desired benefit type from the employee's benefit detail view. This will open a window allowing you to specify the number of hours to add, the date the bonus becomes effective, and a comment explaining the reason for the bonus.
Benefit bonuses may be given at any time in the future or in the past. If given in the past, accruals will be recalculated starting at the time of the bonus. If given in the future, the employee will not receive the increased available hours until the specified time. Benefit bonuses may cause the hours available to exceed the accrual limit specified by the "Maximum Accrued Hours" or "Maximum Net Hours Available" settings, but accruals that take place after the bonus cannot increase available hours beyond this limit.
There is no provision in TimeIPS for granting "temporary" hours that are subsumed into a later accrual. That is, if employees earn two hours per year on January 1st, there is no way to grant one hour during the year to an employee and automatically reduce the next accrual by an equivalent amount, such that on the next January 1st the employee only receives a total of 2 hours for the year. Such a provision is not necessary as, with manager approval, TimeIPS will allow employees to use more benefit hours than are reported as available.