Topics Map > Human Resource System (HRS) > Absence Management
Entering and Reviewing Banked Leave (ALRA) Conversion (Payroll Coordinator) in HRS
Overview
Faculty, Academic Staff and Limited Appointees (FA/AS/LI) with a 12-month appointment are eligible to bank vacation into a Banked Leave Account after they have completed 10 fiscal years of employment. The option to bank is offered immediately following the fiscal year in which an employee is eligible. The Banked Leave Account may also be referred to as ALRA or Paid Leave Bank.Employees can bank up to 40 hours with 10 or more years of service and up to 80 hours with 25 or more years of service. Employees can bank any unused current year vacation or vacation carryover as of June 30th. These options are prorated for part time employees. Hours placed in the Banked Leave account (ALRA) can be utilized at any time or paid out upon termination or retirement.
Process Considerations:
Employees using Employee Self Service (ESS) are able to enter their Banked Leave conversion election through Employee Self Service similar to entering leave time taken. Payroll coordinators can view the conversion entry in the ALRA Eligibility/Election Report, the Absence Event Report or UWS Absence Event. Payroll coordinators can enter Banked Leave conversions for employee's not using ESS.
The employee’s absence balance screen in the portal will display the employee’s eligibility. In Cypress, a report will be available that contains all employees who are eligible to bank vacation this year.
-
Example Eligibility:
- Employee completes 10 fiscal years in May, 2020
- July 1, 2020 (beginning of 11th fiscal year) employee is eligible to accrue vacation to be banked
- Any hours placed in the Banked Leave account do not expire and can be used or paid out upon termination/retirement.
- Effective July 1- September 30 employees will be able to view their eligibility in their portal's absence balances screen.
Click on the links below to skip directly to a section:
Employees with Possible Prorated Eligibility that Needs Correction
- Employee transfer from another agency.
- Employee who moves between Bi-weekly and Monthly payrolls. UWSC attempted to have the eligibility manually corrected so the impact should be minimal
- ALRA Counter may be incorrect due to movement from Bi-weekly to Monthly staff, C basis to A basis, or any time in an approved LOA 1 month or more.
Note: Policy allows for a full allocation but may be prorated by HRS. Please contact your Affinity Group if someone needs their eligible hours increased manually due to this situation.
Employees with Prorated Eligibility that Does not Need Correction
- If an employee has any leave without pay in the year, this will negatively impact their banked leave eligibility.
- You can verify if the employee has unpaid time by reviewing their paid hours in UW Paid Hours Inquiry.
- Global Payroll & Absence Management > Absence and Payroll Processing > UW Paid Hours Inquiry
Note: A fully paid 100% FTE employee will have 174 paid hours each pay period. Anything less will reduce their banked leave eligibility.
Caution - Leave without pay for 1 month or more may need the ALRA counter adjusted because HRS does not count months that were not paid.
Employees with More Than One Record
- The amount of Banked Leave that the person is eligible to bank is not prorated between the records
- For example: A banked leave eligible employee has Empl Record 0 and Empl Record 1. The column 'Max Avail Elig for Employee' will show 40 hours for each record. In this case the employee is eligible to bank a total of 40 hours; the hours can be distributed between the two records as the employee elects.
Sample of the Absence Balances View and Leave Report
This can be viewed in the employee's Absence Balances page in their portal. It will be displayed only from July 1 - September 30.
- For employees that normally use Employee Self Service (ESS), these employees are able to enter their Banked Leave conversion through ESS similar to entering leave. When the conversion is submitted it will auto-approve and process as long as they qualify and have the hours available to convert. The employee will have access to enter the conversion in ESS from July 1st through September 30th (UW-Madison employees will see the information through 9/30, however their policy states that requests must be entered by 8/30). Any date within this range can be used for the conversion, but it is recommended using July 1st since any vacation usage will process first and could impact the hours available to convert.
- Employees not using ESS should submit their elections and their July leave to payroll coordinators by their August due date in order for coordinators to have time for entry by the August payroll confirm so the information shows on the September 1st checks.
- Payroll coordinators are allowed to enter or adjust a Banked Leave conversion through defined deadline, according to policy. However, to avoid retro processing, please try to enter as soon as possible. Just as with Banked Leave conversion entered through ESS, any date will work but it is recommended using a date early in July since vacation usage will process first and could impact the hours available.
NOTE: Screenshots are from a specific moment in time, so the dates in the screenshot do not necessarily reflect the dates that should be entered.
Instructions
Entering BANKED LEAVE conversion for an employee not using ESS, please follow these steps:
- Navigate to: Global Payroll & Absence Mgmt > Payee Data > Maintain Absences > UWS Absences
- Search your employee(s) either by Empl ID or Group ID.
- Select the check-box next to the employee's name and click Request Absence.
- If necessary add a row. Enter the Event From Date. You may use a weekend date in the current month to avoid days where the employees may have true absences to record. The Event To Date will default to the same date. Do not enter a date range.
- Note: The convert to ALRA absence, take MUST be dated between 7/1-9/30.
- Select the Absence Take: Convert Vac to ALRA
- Enter the number of vacation hours the employee would like to bank in the Conversion Hours box.
- Click OK.
HRS will process the Conversion of vacation to banked leave in that night's monthly absence calculation. The system will first take hours from Vacation Carryover as of June 30th, if none, then current year Vacation as of June 30th converting the total amount elected to the banked leave balance.
Viewing Employee Banked Leave Conversions
- Locate Absence Event through Global Payroll & Absence Mgmt > Payee Data > Maintain Absences > Absence Event
- Enter employee ID
- In Absence Event Entry click the details link for the Conversion Vac to ALRA (UNC)
4. In details link, Decimal 1: hours requested to be converted to Banked Leave
5. To see what has actually processed go to Results by Calendar and Absence Data:
Global Payroll & Absence Mgmt > Absence and Payroll > Review Absence/Payroll Info > Results by Calendar > Absence Data
6. In the Absence Data tab:
NOTE: If there are changes that need to be made or if there are errors with the conversion to Banked Leave (ALRA), the payroll coordinator will need to make the necessary changes. Because the conversion is auto approved it cannot be pushed back to the employee. The ALRA Eligibility/Election Report can also be created as needed to review which employees have a conversion entered and processed. See KB Running the ALRA Eligibility/Election Summary Report in HRS for instructions on how to run the report. It is recommended that you run the report to validate eligibility vs. elected.
Additional Resources
Related KBs:
- Running the ALRA Eligibility/Election Summary Report in HRS
- Entering and Reviewing Banked Leave (ALRA) Conversion (Payroll Coordinator) in HRS