Topics Map > Human Resource System (HRS) > Absence Management

Absence Processing Overview for University Staff and FAASLI Employees in HRS

Overview:

Absence processing consists of: the Paid Hours Extract, Absence Calc, and the AM Conversion. The Paid Hours Extract, Absence Calc and the AM to TL Conversion will run mid-morning, twice mid-afternoon and once nightly immediately followed by Time Administration (Time Admin). During the processing week we will be loading the external billing system file.

During the payroll processing week the Time and Labor Load process (TL Load) runs to a process approved payable time to payroll. The TL Load process runs on Thursday, Friday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. The final calc process will be running all day Thursday.

Note: Employees have until Monday at midnight after their prior pay period to enter time or they will be locked out from their Timesheet. Also, when an employee is terminated in Job Data the system will automatically remove the employee from the Static Groups (B – E) after 21 days. The terminated employee will remain in the Payroll Coordinator’s Static Group (A) for 90 days after termination. This procedure is intended to provide a high level overview of the Absence Processing (AM) and Time and Labor (TL) entry for University Staff and FAASLI Non-Exempt employees.

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Brief Descriptions of Key Jobs that are processed

Every day the Absence processes will run (8a, 10a, 12p, 2p & 6-8 pm) These jobs will precede the Time Admin process.

  1. UW AM Paid Hours Extract (Paid Hours):  6p only

    Absence allocations (Allocated) for Vacation, Legal Holiday are based on a projection of paid hours for the year. Absence accruals (Earned) for Vacation, Legal Holiday, and Sick Leave are based on actual paid hours for each pay period. The UW Paid Hours Extract serves to determine both the projected paid hour and the actual paid hours following a payroll confirmation. This process also retrieves Comp Time earned, Comp Time used, Legal Holiday used each pay period, for the purpose of updating these absence balances which are recorded in Time & Labor. The actual paid hours will be identified through Special Accumulators assigned to them in Payroll Configuration.

  2. Calculate Absence and Payroll (AM Calc)

    Following the Paid Hours process, the AM Calc process will run to grant entitlements based on these Paid Hours, as well as process any Absence Takes or Adjustments that were entered for the current period or prior periods. This process will update the interim balances throughout the pay period, but will not be "finalized" until after the Payroll confirmation has run.

  3. UW AM to TL/Payroll (AM Conversion)

    Following the AM Calc, the AM Conversion will run to process Absence Takes that have been calculated and will convert them to Payable Time in Time & Labor. This process will include takes for the current period as well as any retroactive takes entered for a prior period.

    Each day/week/biweekly the supervisor or payroll coordinator can enter Absences and Time on the employee's timesheet.  It is recommended that absence requests and time entry be done on a weekly basis in order to alleviate the heavy volume of time entry that occurs during the payroll processing week. As a best practice, absence requests in the current pay period for an employee should be submitted prior to the payable time being approved. 

    Every day the time admin process will run (4a, 6:15a, 9a, 11a, 1p, 3p & 8p) creating payable time and TL exceptions. It is recommended that a review of TL exception data occur frequently during the biweekly period.  Resolving TL Exceptions in a timely fashion helps assure that all payable time for an employee is processed for approval.  User procedure TL - Review and Approve Exceptions Reviewing and Approving Time and Absence Exceptions in HRS provides additional information on resolving TL Exceptions. Once payable time has been created, the approval process can also occur. As stated above, it is recommended that you perform the time entry/approval process on a weekly basis to help alleviate the bulk of time entry and payable time approval occurring during processing week.

    If a user chooses not to enter their absence and time entry data on a weekly basis, these steps should occur then during the payroll processing week in order for employees to be paid correctly.

Reports/Info Pushed to Campuses in Support of Absence Processing

  1. Each day UWSS Service Operations will review the Absence calc for errors and report any issues to the campus. This could include missing Continuous Adjusted Service Dates, overlapping absences, or eligibility issues.
  2. AM Audit report (run weekly) –HRS AM - Reviewing the Absence Management Audit Report (Payroll Coordinators) Running the Audit Report in HRS this report will alert campuses to job movements that may require an absence entry. These job movements can include transfers between eligibility groups that may require balance transfers or payouts; employees with concurrent jobs in different eligibility groups; and employees that were absence eligible and are rehired. On a rehire you may choose to review an employee's absence balances and ensure that they have the correct starting balances upon rehire.

Absence Processing during Payroll Calc Week

Thursday to Sunday

  • First TL Load to Payroll runs Thursday evening.
  • Paysheets created Thursday evening.
  • Employees using Employee Self-Service (University Staff, FAASLI Non-Exempt) should complete their absence and time entry by the last day of pay period (Saturday).
  • For supervisors and payroll coordinators, review and approval of time can begin and exceptions can be cleaned up.

Monday

  • Supervisor/Payroll Coordinators complete all absence and time entry as applicable.
  • Supervisor/Payroll Coordinators clean up any TL exceptions.
  • Supervisor/Payroll Coordinators approve payable time.
  • External Billing System load will occur this evening.
  • TL Load to Payroll process runs in the evening.

Note: Bullets #1, #2, and #3 can continue to occur throughout the day as the Time Admin process runs (4a, 9a, 11a, 1p, 3p & 8p). New payable time will be ready for approval as well as new TL exceptions that may need to be resolved.

/images/group61/shared/9.2_Warning_Sign.png  NOTE: The Absence and Time Administration processes takes approximately 2-3 hours to run through all of the workgroup segments. While the earlier groups may complete in an hour and time will be ready to approve, the last group may take the entire time. Plan accordingly to complete the Time Approval Process.

Tuesday

  • Last day for Supervisor to update absence and time entry for the current pay period.
  • Supervisor/Payroll Coordinators complete all absence and time entry as applicable (supervisors may not be applicable here depending on your campus/institutions policies).
  • Supervisor/Payroll Coordinators clean up any exception data that is outstanding (supervisors may not be applicable here depending on your campus/institutions policies).
  • Supervisor/Payroll Coordinators approve time (supervisors may not be applicable here depending on your campus/institutions policies).
  • TL Load to Payroll process runs in the evening.

Note: Bullet #2, #3, and #4 can continue to occur throughout the day as the Time Admin process runs. New payable time will be ready for approval as well as new TL exceptions that may need to be resolved.

/images/group61/shared/9.2_Warning_Sign.png  NOTE: The Absence and Time Administration processes takes approximately 2-3 hours to run through all of the workgroup segments. While the earlier groups may complete in an hour and time will be ready to approve, the last group may take the entire time. Plan accordingly to complete the Time Approval Process.

Wednesday  

  • All Absence and Time corrections  must be completed by end-of-day.    
  • Supervisor/Payroll Coordinators clean up any TL exception data that is outstanding (supervisors may not be applicable here depending on your campus/institutions policies).
  • Supervisor/Payroll Coordinators approve payable time (supervisors may not be applicable here depending on your campus/institutions policies).
  • Final absence and time entry updates for the 3pm Time Admin run are completed.
  • Final payable time approval must be completed by 6pm.
  • All Leave Payouts need to be entered by 6pm Wednesday before Final Payroll Calc in order to be picked up for that payroll calculation.
  • Any absences entered in Absence Events or UWS Absences must be entered no later than 6pm on Wednesday after the pay period is over in order to be picked up for that week's payroll processing.
  • The last TL Load to Payroll process run in the evening.

Note: Any high severity TL exceptions resulting from the 3p Time Admin run may not be corrected in time for the final TL load to payroll on Wednesday night.  Once the TL Exception is resolved and the payable time is approved, the payable time may end up being processed on the next biweekly payroll period.

/images/group61/shared/9.2_Warning_Sign.pngNOTE: The Absence and Time Administration processes takes approximately 2-3 hours to run through all of the workgroup segments. While the earlier groups may complete in an hour and time will be ready to approve, the last group may take the entire time. Plan accordingly to complete the Time Approval Process.

Thursday

Final payroll calc processes start. Any time entry or corrections from the pay period being processed will end up being processed on the next biweekly period.

Reports Sent After Payroll Confirmation and Absence Finalization:

  1. Earnings Statement including Leave Balances (distributed to employees via Cypress on the My UW Portal)
  2. Leave Activity Summary Report (distributed to Payroll Coordinators via Cypress
  3. Negative Allocated Balances Report (distributed to Payroll Coordinators via Cypress)

Additional Resources

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