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Author's profile photo Luke Marson

Time Off in SuccessFactors Employee Central: demonstration

I was recently asked to demo the Time Off functionality of SuccessFactors Employee Central for a customer. I noticed that there is little information around how Time Off is used and so after I had demonstrated the Time Off functionality to the customer I decided to record some videos for the community. I recorded three videos to show the functionality for each of the different users: employees, managers, and HR administrators. You can see the videos below.

Employees

In this video I am logged in as Carla Grant where I look at the Time Off module and make some leave requests.

Managers

In this video I am logged in as Alexander Thompson, Carla Grant’s manager. Here I attend my workflows and review Carla’s leave requests.

HR Administrators

In this video I am logged in as a HR Administrator where I review the Time Account details for Darlene Sharp.

Summary

The Time Off functionality is simple and easy to use. It is not a full time management solution, but for managing vacation and leave of absences it provides enough basic functionality to support the process sufficiently. Since it is built on the Metadata Framework it means that  configuration and maintenance of the system is straightforward, whether by employees, managers, HR administrators, or system administrators.

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      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Really great demo, Luke!

      For full vacation business process overview the payment in EC Payroll is missed only.

      But I know why )

      Author's profile photo Luke Marson
      Luke Marson
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks Vasiliy. I wanted to give a quick overview and know that there are one or two other things I could've shown, but I wanted to keep it short and simple

      Author's profile photo J. Pazahanick
      J. Pazahanick

      Very well done Luke and look forward to see more SuccessFactors content in this format in the future.

      Author's profile photo Christopher Solomon
      Christopher Solomon

      ditto. =)

      Author's profile photo Luke Marson
      Luke Marson
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks Jarret and Chris. It is something I had wanted to do for a long time but hadn't found the right topic until recently. I will look at doing more and happy to take suggestions.

      Author's profile photo Deepraj Rai
      Deepraj Rai

      Hi Luke,

      Its amazing to see the Time Off functionality at work after configuration has been completed. I'd love to see one involving automatic processing of Time Account details as that seems to be the most challenging part during configuration.

       

      Thanks, Deepraj

      Author's profile photo Luke Marson
      Luke Marson
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks Deepraj. There are many possibilities with recurring time accounts and year-end processing to carry over balances etc. If I can think of a good example I may also do this, but the challenges are around doing it on 31st December/1st January

      Author's profile photo Deepraj Rai
      Deepraj Rai

      Thanks Luke, looking forward to your next blog

      Author's profile photo Deepraj Rai
      Deepraj Rai

      Hi Luke,

       

      If there is an issue with my accrual rules, where can I view or download the log files as shown on the Time Off handbook which would help me identify the type of accrual issue.

       

      Thanks, Deepraj

      Author's profile photo Luke Marson
      Luke Marson
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Deepraj,

       

      Check in Employee Files > Monitor Jobs in OneAdmin.

       

      Best regards,

       

      Luke

      Author's profile photo Deepraj Rai
      Deepraj Rai

      Hi Luke,

       

      I did check Monitor Jobs but it displays a message 'No results to display'. So I deleted, created and ran a new calendar in Manage Time Off Calendars. The status is still 'Finished with errors' but again no log file in Monitor Jobs. To ensure that the Monitor Jobs is infact working properly, I exported a Generic Object using Import & Export Data, still the same message. I assume something needs to be activated in Provisioning....!!

       

      Edit- I can see the exported Generic Objects, guess it was just taking some time. Still no sign of the time accrual log file, I will try re-running again.

       

      Thanks, Deepraj

      Author's profile photo Luke Marson
      Luke Marson
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Deepraj,

       

      Do you have your email address maintained in the system against the administrator (admin) user? You should get the log by email.

       

      Best regards,

       

      Luke

      Author's profile photo Deepraj Rai
      Deepraj Rai

      Hi Luke,

       

      I maintained my e-mail ID and re-ran the Time-Off calendar and I received log file via e-mail . However, the file had the status 'Finished_With_Errors' but not the details as provided in the examples. I am certain that theres something wrong with the rule itself. Let me dig in to the new Rules Engine Handbook and try again.

       

      As always, appreciate your assistance.

       

      Regards, Deepraj

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Good Stuff Luke, this is a great overview of the functionality. We are working with a number of customers who are taking our Absence Compliance (case management, document management and leave determination) module and populating EC Time Off with the regulated leave information once eligibility has been confirmed for things like FMLA, State Leaves & International Leave regulations. Also doing the reverse - taking the EC Time Off data and passing it to WorkForce for a full picture of positive and leave time together.

      Author's profile photo Luke Marson
      Luke Marson
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks Travis, and thanks for your insights. It's good to see that your software integrates with Time Off and these are some interesting use cases I've not yet seen.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Great demo --- I would love to see this turn into a full time and attendance system -- maybe integrate with Kronos and their time clocks to pull the time off hours back into the timekeeper for payroll.

      Author's profile photo Luke Marson
      Luke Marson
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks Jonathon. I agree that it would be great to see some time keeping and attendance system introduced. I know SuccessFactors will add some attendance functionality but will not be introducing full time and attendance, which I think is a pity. That said, time keeping is not true HR so I can understand why they aren't looking to do that.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Luke!

       

      Thanks for great demo, although was surprised to find it here, and not in one of the Jam groups. It is a shame if full Time & Attendance is out of scope, since a lot of clients, especially in retail sector view that as integral part of HCM. Of course, there are arguments why it's not core HR, but sometimes it's difficult to argue your point across to clients' HRs, who deal with time sheets and related compensation management at regular basis.

      Author's profile photo Luke Marson
      Luke Marson
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks Hannele. These particular demos were recorded with Jam (since it's an easy content authoring tool), but I posted them here so that customers can get a deeper understanding of the functionality. I hope to do more of these in the future.

       

      Time and Attendance isn't really part of HR, although generally it is a cross-functional aspect so has historically been managed by HR. It is hard to change an organization's culture because it will often mean someone else taking on this work from HR. But there are many best-of-breed solutions available so customers have plenty of options, albeit outside of Employee Central.

      Author's profile photo Patrice HERICHER
      Patrice HERICHER

      Thank Luke for this demo.

      We are currently licensed fot HCM PA/PT/PY modules.

      We now want to evaluate  deployment of Self  Time recording Services for our employees/managers (attendance and Time off).

      Is successfactor provide :

      1/ Clock in-out functionnalities ?

      2/ Is there an integration possible between time attendance functionnalites in Successfactors and SAP HCM PT ?

       

      Thanks in advance for your help,

      Patrice

      Author's profile photo Rajasekhar Reddy
      Rajasekhar Reddy

      Hi Luke,

       

      I have 3 questions here.Could you please clarify

       

      1. Can employee attach a document while applying for a sick leave (ex:- Doctor certificate)

      2. Do we have multiple level leave approval process?

      3. When employee is applying for Half-day , can he know whether it is for the first half of the day or for second half of the day ,is there any option available ?

       

      Regards,

      Raja Sekhar

      Author's profile photo Luke Marson
      Luke Marson
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Raja Sekhar,

       

      1. Not for Leave of Absence (which is different from Time Off)

      2. Yes

      3. Not specifically, but a comment can be added.

       

      Best regards,

       

      Luke

      Author's profile photo Somdeb Banerjee
      Somdeb Banerjee

      Hi Luke,

       

      Can you please provide some guidance on the following requirement so that I can make a start:

      Employee will accrue annual leave right from day 1 of hire, but will be able to avail these accrued leaves from the next month onwards.

       

      Thank you.

       

      Regards,

      Somdeb.

      Author's profile photo Luke Marson
      Luke Marson
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Somdeb,

       

      Of course Time Off can handle accruals from day 1. Although I cannot be 100% sure without trying it, it *may* be possible to create a rule that sets the balance to 0 if the employee is within the first month of their employment. Another options is just for the accrual to be generated at month end, thus showing a zero balance until they have completed a month's employment.

       

      All the best,

       

      Luke

      Author's profile photo Somdeb Banerjee
      Somdeb Banerjee

      Hi Luke,

       

      Thank you so much for the quick response.

       

      The requirement is however to accrue the leave from day 1 but entitlement will need to occur from next month only and on a daily basis.

       

      I feel this should be achievable via the standard in Time Account type -either through the Account booking offset or the accrual booking offset and the posting date in the accrual rule.

       

      Are you aware of any webinar or tutorial that explains these concepts/jargon better than the Time-off handbook does?

       

      Thank you once again for responding.

       

       

      Regards,

      Somdeb.

      Author's profile photo Luke Marson
      Luke Marson
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Somdeb,

       

      As mentioned, I am sure a rule can handle this.

       

      Unfortunately I don't know of any documentation that explains it better than the handbooks.

       

      All the best,

       

      Luke

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hello Luke,

       

      Great information!  Are you aware if there's a good demonstration of the new "Payroll Timesheet" functionality?

       

      All the best,

       

      Raul

      Author's profile photo Luke Marson
      Luke Marson
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Raul,

       

      There isn't one as far as I know, but I may plan to create one soon.

       

      Best regards,

       

      Luke

      Author's profile photo Luke Marson
      Luke Marson
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Raul (and others),

       

      Here's a demo of the Time Sheet functionality in Employee Central:

       

      Time Sheet in SuccessFactors Employee Central: demonstration

       

      Best regards,

       

      Luke

      Author's profile photo Anipe Abraham
      Anipe Abraham

      hi Luke,

       

      Good information

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Luke,

      Thanks for the video!

      I just start using Time Off in my Company.

      Is there the possibility to create reports for Time Off? I tried to create an ad hoc report but in the report definition Type there's no specific report for time off.

      Thanks,

      Kind Regards

      Elena

      Author's profile photo Luke Marson
      Luke Marson
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Elena,

       

      You need to use Online Report Designer (ORD) to build out Time Off reports. There are also some Time Off reports provided by standard in EC Advanced Reporting.

       

      Best regards,

       

      Luke

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Luke,

       

      Thank you for the explanation about the reports.

      We started using Time off and we are encountering this issue:

       

      We need to find a way to integrate time off and EC when employees are in a temporary leave like maternity so that the manager can see in the team overview all the employees that are on holidays but also the ones that are on a certain kind of leave.

      We know that we can add a leave of absence in "manage time off" for an employee with a start date and end date and this information is automatically updated in EC. That is fine!

      But we have lot of Legal Entities and we are not implementing time off in all of them.

      Our understanding is that if we apply this method to enter data in time off and publish them in EC it's for All Legal Entity, even the ones that are not using Time off. This is not applicable for us. Is there a way to make this change only for the Legal Entity we need? Is there a way to filter on Legal Entity and for the ones not in scope to continue using the data change available in EC?

       

      Thanks,

       

      Kind Regards,

       

      Elena 

      Author's profile photo Luke Marson
      Luke Marson
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Elena,

       

      You can permission Time Off for employees in specific Legal Entities only. You probably need to create a new permission role.

       

      Best regards,

       

      Luke

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Luke

       

      This is a awesome explanation  could you please  find the  issues i am facing now  please help me

       

      1)New Hires: 0.83 days/month from 90 days after hire date to end of year max of 7.5 days. Total granted on hire date.  For the vacation leave


      2) Termination = current year balance + accrued for next year at next year’s entitlement   for the vacation leave




      Period End Processing for Vacation Leave


      5 Days Max

      Available for 3 months

       

      California: No maximum

      Author's profile photo Luke Marson
      Luke Marson
      Blog Post Author

      Please raise a thread as the comments are purely related to the blog content.

      Author's profile photo Dawn Crowley
      Dawn Crowley

      Hi Luke,

      can you tell me if it is possible within Success Factors to set differing approvals for leave?

      We want to be able to set auto approval for a small group of employees, or enable managers to select which of their employees will auto approve. We would not wish to apply this to all employees.

      Thank you
       

      Author's profile photo Luke Marson
      Luke Marson
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Dawn,

      I'm not sure this is possible. Usually the only way to have auto approvals is to use a business rule to raise a workflow for cases where approval is needed and have no workflow for the other (no workflow means it is automatically approved). However, I don't believe business rules can be used for conditional workflow in Time Off.

      Best regards,

      Luke

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Luke and Volker,
      Please let me know if we can create any validation rule for comp off or TOIL, where the no. of hours posted for TOIL remains valid for only 2 months from the date of posting?
      Which means employees can claim the comp off hours within 2 months, after 2 months the hours should expire. 

      Author's profile photo Luke Marson
      Luke Marson
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Poonam,

      Typically the TOIL uses its own time account and so you can set a validity period for the time account (e.g. 2 months).

      Best regards,

      Luke

       

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Luke,

      I am doing a self study on Time Off . And I got the following error when i clicked on Time Off link for the employee. Request your guidance on the below.

       

      Time off error: No employee job information found for user FNAMEHR LNAMEHR on 01/24/2017. The HR position has all the time information maintained. Please let me know what needs to be corrected.

       

      Author's profile photo Luke Marson
      Luke Marson
      Blog Post Author

      This occurs if Time Off isn't configured or if the employee does not have a Time Profile assigned (or other Time Off fields like Work Schedule).

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi,

      Can there be auto approval on leaves if the manager does not approve leaves in a stipulated period of time.

       

      Author's profile photo Luke Marson
      Luke Marson
      Blog Post Author

      Check out the workflow configuration escalation functionality.

      Author's profile photo Ahmed Tohamy
      Ahmed Tohamy

      Hi Luke,

      Is that a way to allow the manager to request time off on behalf of his employees.

      mainly to use "Team Absence Calendar" to request the employees time off, Not from "Time administrator" 

      Thanks

       

      Author's profile photo Luke Marson
      Luke Marson
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Ahmed,

      This demo is over 6 years old, so I would refer to the current documentation on http://help.sap.com for the full functionality. However, the current functionality follows the same kind of processes as are available here.

      Best regards,

      Luke

      Author's profile photo shivakumar sowndararajan
      shivakumar sowndararajan

      HI Luke,

       

      Thanks for your nice video presentation.

      If you could share any workaround configuration for Timeofff, can you please share those. I just started learning time off. I highly appreciated it, if you could share it. Thanks!

       

      My Email id: shivakumar.bgl@gmail.com

      regards ,

      Shiva K

       

      Author's profile photo Luke Marson
      Luke Marson
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks Shiva. Have you taken a look at the configuration documentation on help.sap.com as well as the KBAs on the SAP ONE Support Launchpad? There are some quite good documents there, particularly on the latter site.

      Best regards,

      Luke

      Author's profile photo Shweta R Naragund
      Shweta R Naragund

      Hi Luke,

      Great video...As I am a beginner It helped me a lot...

      But I am unable to find Leave of Absence option in Take Action.

      Author's profile photo Luke Marson
      Luke Marson
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks Shweta! This option was retired. You have to use the Time Off interface to request Leave of Absence.