Successfactors EC Time Sheet and Time Off – new features
New Features in 1511 Release
Next EC release will soon be shipped to customers and I want to give a sneak preview on the new features in the EC Time and Attendance application.
One of the most significant time enhancement in 1511 is the introduction of start / end times in the EC Time and Attendance application. As you know, up to now it was only possible in EC to do time management duration based, like 6 hours absence time, 8 hours working time and so on. With the introduction of start / end times employees can perform a much more accurate recording of working time and absence times, planned times can be defined much more sophisticated and of course a pay type generation based on the recorded clocktimes is now possible. This allows much more customers to use the EC Time and Attendance application, cause for many customers time recording with start / end times is mandatory.
Hence employees record their absences, attendances or on call times with start and end times and the system calculates the duration. Sounds easy, but those who are familiar with time management know that this new dimension of time management opens up a bottle of quite complex issues that needs to be covered. This is why the introduction of start / end times is the major feature in EC Time in the 1511 release.
So, all in all start / end times where introduced in:
– work schedules
– absence recording in time off
– attendance recording in time sheet
– time valuation
– collision checks
So, what are the concrete new features?
1. Work Schedules with start / end time definition
When time recording is supposed to be done with clock times, than the work schedule needs of course to be defined with clock times, too. Cause the work schedule is the basis for the time account deduction in case of absence recording, overtime calculation and for negative time recorders the basis of time recording at all.
Work schedules can be pattern based (with period models and day models) or individual based, created only for 1 employee in the hire process when there is no pattern available that fits the contractually agreed working times. This is very helpful for part time employees, for example. In 1511 release it is now possible to define daily models (or the individual schedules that do not necessarily need a day model) with start / end times. Additionally you can define breaks in the day model with start end times. The system automatically calculates the net planned time by deducting the break intervall from the planned times interval. Sounds more complicated than it is. Example:
Day Model “Early Shift”
Scheduled Time: 08:00 – 17:00, Duration: 09:00 hours
Break: 10:00 – 10:15, Duration: 00:15
Break: 12:30 – 13:15, Duraton: 00:45
So, the employee needs to work 8 hours with this day model cause the break time is deducted from the time span of the scheduled time.
How does this definition look like in the day model?:
The start / end times in workschedules are available of course everywhere where work schedules are displayed and used. Work schedule finder, work schedule details in the job information and even in the Temporary change of work schedule feature where for a given time a different planned working time shall be applicable to an employee without changing the employees master data in the job informarion (a bit similar like the IT2003 substitutions in SAP ERP)
What else does the break definition do?
It of course does an break deduction for recorded attendance / absence times.
When an employee records attendance times or absence times that overlaps with defined breaks, than the break times get cut into the recorded time.
A positive time recorder records for example working time from 05:00 – 14:30 and has got the Early Shift day model as daily planned time as described above. The system cuts the break time from 10:00 – 11:00 into the recorded working time, reducing thus the overall duration of this record. This break time does not count as productive time and no pay types are generated for it, neither the break time is used in the overtime calculation. It is non-working time.
Here you see a screenshot of a time sheet record and the automated break deduction. Employee has recorded working time from 08:00 – 18:00 and two breaks get deducted cause they are defined in the underlying work schedule.
2. Time Off with start / end times.
When an employee needs to do his time recording with clock times he needs to record partial day absences with start / end times, too.
And here it is the same like for the time sheet data: when an absence overlaps with break times, the breaks get cut into the absence time and reduces its duration:
3. Time Sheet with start / end time recording
Up to the release 1511 EC Time Sheet was only capable of doing duration based time recording. Now employees can record their start / end clock times to better specify their actual working time. Additionally the work schedule information displayes the start / end times as well, so the employee can quite easily see at what time he is planned to work in the next week for example.
As already mentioned, upon time recording there is an immediate break deduction possible. So, no need to wait till next day till the time valuation has done all the break deductions in a nightly job like old RPTIME over night, in EC Time Sheet this happens immediately in real time.
The customer can choose to allow employees to change and adapt the automated deducted breaks and even to record manual break times.
4. Time Valuation considers start / end times
All the time recording with start / end times is nearly in vain, when the time valuation does not consider the start / end times in its calculations. But this is also included in 1511 release. Flexible rules can be specified that allow a specific pay type generation for working time on Sunday 14:00 – 22:00 for example. Or weekdays from 18:00 – 22:00.
Here you can see that the employee has recorded working time on saturday from 17:00 – 20:00. A rule generates a kind of night work premium starting in the range of 18:00 – 24:00. Hence 2 hours of this pay type are generated:
5. Collision checks based on start / end times
With collision checks it is meant how a system shall react when two overlapping records exist. For duration based only it is quite simple: Apart from full day records that overlap with another full day record or partial day record there is only little need for collision checks. There could be multiple partial day records on one day that don´t overlap – cause you cannot detect the overlap. But with start / end times enabled this is different. Now each record needs to be checked if it overlaps with it clock times with already existing time records. See this example for overlapping time records:
These are the new 1511 EC Time and Attendance features in a nutshell. Hope you like it.
Volker
New features in 1508 release
Hi,
the EC Time Sheet provides in 1508 new features. Amongst others it is:
Pay type generation for work on specific weekdays like for example Sunday, public holidays, off days and shift premiums
Up to 1505 it was only possible to generate overtime premiums based on a daily or weekly basis. Now it is possible to generate specific pay types for work on a specific weekday like for example Sunday. The rules are so flexible that you even can set up that for Overtime on Sunday the Sunday premium gets generated instead of the Overtime premium, cause the Sunday Premium is higher (for example 60%) than the Overtime Premium (50%).
Moreover you can assign a “shift classification” to the daily time models and period models (elements of the workschedule). With this shift classification you can generate shift premiums for early / late shifts. For each hour an employee records on a day with that shift classification the shift premium gets calculated.
All paytypes that the time sheet generates can be sent to EC Cloud Payroll or SAP onprem Payroll. The Paytypes get mapped to IT2010 wage types and Payroll can process the IT2010.
On Call time recording
In the time sheet employees can record their on call time. On call times are not regarded as productive working time, so they don´t count for overtime calculation for example. During on call times an employee declares himself available to come to work within a short time frame for some emergencies. Of course the time sheet can generate specific pay types for the on call times.
Manual recording of allowances
You can set up in the time type profil if an employee is allowed to record allowances in the time sheet. Allowances are not regarded as productive working time – similar as on call times – , so they are not regarded for the overtime calculation. Manual allowance can be each premium pay that the system cannot generate, for example dirty work allowance when an employee has worked 3 hours under specific dirty conditions or any other allowance that cannot be derived from the recorded working time. You can of course set up which allowances an employee can record and if at all – or if only a time admin can do these on behalf of the employee
Negative time recording
Time Sheet supports besides pure Overtime recording and Positive time recording now also Negative time recording. Negative time recording is when employees are payed based on their planned time and they need only record the deviations from the planned time like overtime, absences or a training within the normal working time. The Time Sheet generates working time based on the work schedule when the employee has not recorded any deviations. If he has done so, the system mixes the recorded times with the generated times. Shift premiums or Premiums based on weekdays like Sunday work gets automatically generated when the planned time is transferred into worked time which is done daily.
The Negative time recording scenario is in November release only as a show case available as the autosubmit and autoapprove function for negative time recorders is not yet available, but this comes in the next release. Time Sheet needs then not to be touched by an employee when no deviations need to be recorded and the time sheet calculates base pay, shift premiums or sunday premiums based on the planned working time automatically and sends it to payroll.
More thrilling features will come for sure in the november release.
Volker Ruof
Very good and informative article
Exciting time sheet features in 1508 and November release !
Hi,
1. Can we do the calculation based on employee types?
Regards
Koyel De
You do the configuration of time evaluation for "time recording profiles". These profiles are assigned to employees in the Job info portlet.
When there are several kind of employee types (I assume employee groups) with different regulations you need to create different time recording profiles and assign those to the respective employees.
Hi Volker,
Thank you for the quick reply. I have another question
1. One employee works from 9-10PM. 9-6Pm is general work schedule. 6-8 is overtime (50%) and 8-10 is at (80%).
How do we calculate that?
This is not yet possible in the 1508 release, but wait till the november release ;-).
In 1508 it is only possible to record times in duration, like 8 hours or 7 hours and overtime calculation is done based on the duration entered like OT 25% when more than 8 hours per day and OT50% when more than 2 hours Overtime OT25% exist per day.
Or weekly overtime calculation: OT 25% when more than sum of planned working time per week and for example 50%OT when more than 6 hours overtime exist in the week.
Hi Volker,
I read your blog with interest. May I ask what is the best practice to record AM/PM leave in Time-Off with the Start time and End Time (as in your Section 2 Time Off with Start / End Time) ? As the work schedule is different for different employees, asking employees to enter the exact start and end time for AM and PM leave can be confusing and not a good user experience. Appreciate if you can share your views. Thank you.
Best regards,
Marcus Bonrat
You mean half day leave or full day leaves?
Or do you mean partial day leaves?
When a customer decides that his employees need to record their working time with start /end time than partial day leaves need to be recorded with start /end times as well.
Imagine customers who pay a night shift differential starting from 6pm. And absences are paid as if the employee has worked. For those cases time evaluation need to know the exact start / end time of the absence, otherwise the shift differential cannot be generated when an employee simply enters 4hours leave pm.
Hi Volker,
Thanks for your prompt reply.
I mean to record half day leave along with full day (no issue for full day). Half day can be AM or PM, and depending on the work schedule of the employee, the specific start/end time for AM and PM is fixed but not necessarily easy to remember as one do not apply AM/PM leave often. Making them enter the exact start/end time to derive the duration of 0.5 days is not user friendly, can we have an additional (custom) drop down box to indicate whether it is AM or PM, then default the time automatically via a business rule ?
Thank you and regards,
Marcus Bonrat
Hi Marcus,
we are currently exploring options to provide a solution for this.
Can you send me a mail with the customer name who is asking for this? The topic can get tricky: assume a planned time from 08:00 - 17:00 with a break in the workschedule from 11:30 - 12:30. The break get cut into the absence time (this is relevant for full-day absences that are hourly paid for example).
What would the start / end time for a half day record be? 08:00 - 12:00? But this would be 3.5 net hours and not 4 which are needed for a half day vacation deduction.
Regards
Volker
Hi Volker,
Would you know if there is a solution for this?
As Marcus mentioned above, when recording variant is set to clock time, leave requests “< 1 day” must be define with start/end clock time.
Then, when the end user requests for half day leave (taking into consideration break time) it becomes tricky for him to input the right start time and end time.
Moving to a duration recording variant could a solution, but then it would impact Time Sheet especially the night hours valuation (without clock time, difficult to output night hours other than manually)
I would be interested if you have info about this.
Thanks,
Louis
Hi Volker,
Thank you for this helpful article. I have a question regarding the flexibility of Sunday premiums and Time Recording Filters. I am faced with a rule that states on the 7th consecutive workday, any hours that an employee works on that 7th consecutive day should be paid double their regular rate. For example if the employee works any amount of time greater than 0 hours Mon-Sat, then all the Sunday hours should be double the regular pay. I know that the Time Recording Filters can indicate what to do on specific days of the week, however, can the Time Recording Filter or Time valuation identify consecutive days?
Thank you,
Natalie
Hi Natalie,
this is the Californian Overtime law I suppose.
We are in the current release not able to detect the 7th consecutive workday. The filters are currently actually only on the Weekday. But we got this requirement already on our backlog items list.
But one question I don´t know on the Californian law:
the definition of the 7th consecutive day. Does the counting always start on a fix day, like the begin day of the work week? Or is it a rotating consecutive day? For example:
Employee works on Mon 8 hours. If he would work on each consecutive day he gets OT 2.0 on Sunday.
But he was ill on Wednesday. Does now the counter for the 7th consecutive day start again on Wednesday? So if he works from Wednesday onwards each day he gets OT 2.0 on next Tuesday? Is the counter of the 7th consecutive day rotating or always starting at a fix weekday?
Or take this example:
Employee got a work schedule Mon, Tue, Wed=off, Thu=off, Fri, Sat, Sun. This is his regular work pattern.
On which day does the employee get the Overtime 2.0 when he works next week on each day of the week (due to some specific circumstances)?
We plan to provide soon something called Time Buckets, this is a kind of counter mechanism for each and anything. With this we would be able to count if the employee has recorded working time for 7th consecutive days. An additional mechanism is then needed to generate the appropriate pay types for the recorded hours worked on this day.
But to cover the full requirement will take a bit time. Don´t expect this to be build in the next release :-).
Regards
Volker
Hi Volker,
Thank you for your response. I look forward to exploring this new functionality in a coming release.
My understanding of the California law is that it is per pay period. I am not sure if this is specifically outlined in the law or if it is up to the business to decide. The way I have seen it handled before though is only within the work week, so not spanning multiple pay periods like in the case of the of the employee who was sick on Wednesday. If Monday is the start of the work week, then Sunday will always be the 7th consecutive day and the "counter" will restart on the next Monday. If the employee is scheduled to be off on Wed and Thu, but ends up working those days then any hours on Sun will be paid at OT 2.0. I hope that helps.
I had one other question regarding the Time Filters. Is there any way to designate in the Time Filters or Time valuation between Planned and Unplanned Time Off? I have created a custom field in the Time Off section where the employee must select if their Vacation request is planned or unplanned as per business policy. However, when the request is in the Timesheet, it just shows as Vacation and the Planned/Unplanned is not there. The reason why there is a designation between Planned/Unplanned Vacation time is because Unplanned Vacation should not count towards the overall overtime for the week whereas Planned Vacation does count towards overtime. Both are paid, it is just a matter of if it counts towards overtime or not. Vacation is one time type with the custom field, so is there any way in the Time Filters or Time Valuation to have it look at that custom field when valuating overtime?
Hi Natalie,
thanks. The non-rotating consecutive days makes it easier.
Regarding time off custom fields and time evaluation: It is unfortunately not possible to have a filter based on the custom field.
You need to create two different vacation time types to cover your requirement:
Planned vacation
Unplanned vacation.
These two different timetyps can then be treated differently in the overtime calculation. Don´t put the Unplanned Vacation into the time typ group where you collect your overtime relevant time types.
Regards
Volker
Natalie,
how many employees actually work 7 consecutive days at your customer per month? 10, 100, 1000 ? I bet it can´t be that many.
For those who do, use this workaround:
Employees who work the 7th consecutive day (1. this can´t be so many; 2. employees know when they work the 7th day) need to record a specific time type. Like "7th Day Work" or whatever. In time evaluation you can put this times in a specific time type group that is not considered in the "normal" overtime calculation, but directly generates OT 2.0.
You can even set the workflow approval in a way that when this time type is recorded an additional information is send to someone, or even another approval - so that he can verify that the employee has worked his 7th day consecutive.
Another workaround could be:
Employees who work the 7th consecutive day contact their time admin. Time Admin can then create additional allowances in the employees Time Sheet so that the employee gets paid correctly. You can set the allowances that employee is not able to edit those.
So, there are many ways how this can be done without having it fully automated.
Regards
Volker
Hi Volker,
There are thousands of employees that are eligible for the 7th Consecutive Work Day rule, as for how many actually use this I am not sure of. I have decided to use your recommendation of creating an additional attendance time type that generates the OT2.0 and it seems to be working just fine. Thank you for your help on that.
Thanks,
Natalie
Hi Natalie,
next time you might better post queries related to Successfactors Employee Central in the "EC Enablement Jam Group" or in the Employee Central Community.
Do you know this forums? They are related solemly to the Successfactors Solution.
I watch the EC Enablement as well as the EC Community as well and there are lots of Employee Central Experts there that can help.
I´ll take SCN only to spread the news on our new solution into the ERP HR world.
Regards
Volker
I have heard workers as in oil rig working say 2wks on and 2wks off. Also this type of work may be possible with shift workers.
I have seen a post in SCN where an employee worked from midnight (before/after 12am or 0:00 hrs) and continued till say 10 am next day. Next day may be a working or non-working day. Requirement was that for next day as non-working, the hrs after midnight is to be paid as overtime. But I am not sure how/if this may be solved in Successfactors Time Sheet. See link
Hi Jagan,
the post you are referring to rather deals with how to bring a clock in and a clock out that spans 2 calendar days to the correct logical working day. Someting different. When the employee would not perform clock in / out this could be handeled by attendance time types and the manual set of previous / following day assignment in IT2002 in SAP ERP Time. But anyway, since EC Time does not yet have a Clock in / out terminal integration this discussion has no benefit.
And yes, there are of course employees who need to work 2 weeks consecutive - according do their work schedule. But I doubt that these employees fall then under the standard Californian overtime rule where from the 7th day onwards OT 2.0 is paid. They would get for "normal" planned time OT 2.0. Doubtful if this is real life.
The Californain overtime law refers to the "work week" and the work week according to the Californian rule is defined by 7 days.
But anyway, as mentioned, the problem can be solved by employees recording of an alternative time type that triggers an OT 2.0 payment directly, and the "normal" working time is checked daily against 8 hours / weekly against 40 hours.
Regards
Volker
Hi Volker
Thanks for reply. What I meant was that if/when EC time can cater.
And EC Time sheet is not just for California, is it?!
Jagan
No, our time evaluation is not state - or country dependent.