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EC Time Off for On Time HR Management

We all know Time Management is one of the powerful module of SAP HCM, on the similar lines SAP Success Factors has come up with a very effective, easy to configure and maintain cloud solution i.e EC Time Off.  My intent of writing is to present Time Off in a very simple form and not confuse you with technical jargon.


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TIME OFF as the name suggests, is related to booking “time off” for an employee. The entire procedure – from booking the time, to getting it approved and reporting the time absence – is well catered through the single Time Off solution.

So guys, just pull on your socks as now we are heading to make you familiar with the terminologies used in time off and their easy interpretations.


EC Time off.png

  • TIME TYPEThese are nothing but the different leave types in your organization eg. Annual Leave, Study Leave etc.
  • TIME ACCOUNT TYPE – Some of the leaves need to accrue a certain amount of balance regularly. Hence we need to attach the Time Account Type which acts as a Leave Bucket for that particular Time Type. For E.g. Annual leave is entitled to accrue 20 days every year.
  • TIME PROFILE – Simply put, it’s a bundle of leave types which will be assigned to an employee.
  • TIME ACCOUNT – Once we assign the leave types to an employee, we have time account for each leave type, depending upon the type of account. It acts as a holder of balances for each employee.
  • PERIOD END PROCESSING – When an employee needs to close the current time account and move on to the next years’ time account , the Period End Processing comes into picture. You can now decide what the process of carry forwarding for a particular leave type can be.
  • MANUAL ADJUSTMENTS – In case the balance of an employee needs to be corrected, this feature can be used by an Admin to manually add or deduct the balance of that particular employee’s Time Account.

I hope the momentum has started to build by now and you are keen to know further details…. So let’s keep the ball rolling with some hands on work.

HERE YOU GO!!                      /wp-content/uploads/2015/10/motorbike_stunt_56304958_812052.jpg                    

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Log on to provisioning to enable the Time Off –


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Select the first option. The second option allows you to configure the Time off for leave of absence only, and does not utilize the full power of Time Off.

For an employee to successfully request Time Off, the following three fields are mandatory and need to be set up in JOB INFORMATION.

  • Holiday Calendar
  • Work Schedule
  • Time Profile

Provide the necessary permissions in Manage Role Permissions -> Permissions -> Employee Central Effective Dated Entities. Set the view, edit properties as required.

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You need to configure Holiday Calendars, Work Schedules and Time Profiles for each country.

For this, you need to set up the required PERMISSIONS –


Go to Set User Permission -> Manage Permission Roles


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Assign the below Permission Settings in Manage Time Off


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CREATING HOLIDAY CALENDAR

1.Once permissions are set , Go to Company Settings ->Manage Time Off Structures


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2. Create different Holidays and assign it to the Holiday Calendar


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3. Fill in the required details like below  –


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CREATING WORK SCHEDULE

1. Go to Company Settings -> Manage Time Off Structures

2. Create Work Schedule

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3. Fill in the Required Details like below –

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CREATING TIME PROFILE


A Time Profile is a bundle of leave types. However, before creating the time profile, we need to create the required leave types.


I have categorized leaves into 3 types of absences for your easier understanding. We will configure them in very clear and crisp steps –

1. Leave Types associated with the Leave Bucket (Time Types with Time Account Types)


    Time Account Types can be set in two following ways –

  • PERMANENT ACCOUNT – This account will be created once per lifetime but the frequency of accruals can vary from daily, weekly, monthly, annually etc.
  • RECURRING ACCOUNT – This account has a window of one year eligibility which can be extended to certain months though extendable booking feature (Exception). Each year a new account is created. The frequency of accruals can be set to daily, weekly, monthly, annually etc.

The q/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/question_812096.jpguestion here is: Should we create a PERMANENT Account or a RECURRING Account?

Answer: If your leave type always demands full carry forwarding and there is no forfeited balance, my advice is to use a Permanent Account, as the task of running and monitoring Period End Processing each year will be reduced.

If your leave type demands a certain carry forwarding policy which restricts the carry forwarding each year, use a Recurring Account.

Let’s configure one leave with PERMANENT Account.


HYPOTHETICAL REQUIREMENT: The leave is ANNUAL LEAVE and it accrues 20 days a year with no limitations on carry forward. We set up like below –

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  1. Open Company Settings-> Manage Time Off Structures
  2. Create Time Account Type – Annual whose accrual runs every year and accrues 20 days each year.

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    c. Now create Time Type from Manage Time Off Structures and assign the Time Account Type ANNUAL to it.

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2. Leave Types with no Leave Bucket (Time Types without Time Account Types)


HYPOTHETICAL REQUIREMENT: Study leave – This kind of leave is entitled for an employee who needs to prepare for an exam, with no fixed bucket. The leave can be requested on an adhoc basis whose final approval may depend on the Manager.

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  1. Go to Company Settings-> Manage Time Off Structure
  2. Configure Time Type like below with no time account type associated

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3. Leave Types of type Long Absence Leave

    SF gives us the following flexibilities once an employee goes on Long Absence Leaves:

  • We can assign the employee status to PAID/UNPAID depending on the nature of the leave
  • We can stop the accrual of other leave types during the duration of the long absence leave depending on the employee status.


Points for Consideration for LOA leave types (as of  b1508 release) –

  • The absence day calculation for LOA leave types can be based on CALENDER DAYS only and not WORKSCHEDULE.
  • The absence day for LOA leave types can be allowed to be requested in full days only.
  • NO LEAVE BUCKET can be associated to LOA leave types

HYPOTHETICAL REQUIREMENT: Maternity Leave Without Pay – It is entitled for an employee who goes for long absence leave.


  1. Go to Company Settings-> Manage Time Off Structure
  2. Create Time Type. Configure like below – Remember to attach event reasons for LOA types

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Once your Time Types and the associated Time Account Types are set, you need to assign the required TIME TYPES to TIME PROFILE.

  1. Go to Company Settings-> Manage Time Off Structures
  2. Create Time Profile. Configure like below

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ZOOOOOOOOOMMMMM…..Now your employees are set to request time off, all you need to do is to assign these 3 mandatory fields to their Job Information and you are done.

/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/phew_812114.jpgPHEW!!!!

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Having said that, we have a lot more to discuss- Beat Accrual Rules, Period End Processing Rules, ESS, MSS Roles in Time Off or Time Off Mobile Features or Payroll Timesheet or Integration Strategy between Time and Payroll- more learnings on the way.


Don’t Rack Your Brains over EC Time Off Issues, Just Bug Me and also share your lovely thoughts down there!!!!!

Consider it as the trailer of TIME OFF, we will be back with the full movie soon…

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      48 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Excellent article ! Well explained

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Thank you so much!!

      Author's profile photo Rama Rani Rana
      Rama Rani Rana

      Well explained... Thanks for giving the insight of time offs in SF ... functionality wise it seems similar to ERP time management...

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Yes SAP is trying its best to align most of the on premise functionalities with the cloud solutions, every quarter release is bringing new functionalities especially in EC Time Off.

      Author's profile photo Masroor Ahmed Siddique
      Masroor Ahmed Siddique

      Hi,

      Thank you for the information, it was a thoroughly researched and well written article.

      I have a question though, how to accumulate the quota on daily basis through EC? Is it even possible?

      Regards

      Author's profile photo Ram Dodda
      Ram Dodda

      It is possible Masroor.  You need to choose accrual frequency as Daily.  Below are the possible options.

      Capture.PNG

      Author's profile photo Masroor Ahmed Siddique
      Masroor Ahmed Siddique

      Thank you for the reply, when this will accumulate regardless of how many days employee actually work, right? or would that take the employee attendance as the accumulation criteria as well; I know that can be done through a PCR but what I am interested in knowing is that how can we achieve that through EC Time Off

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Yes Masroor. It can very well accumulate on the basis of employee's actual work or you can take the predefined work schedule into consideration. It depends on customer's requirement, you can base your accumulation on the basis of recorded times or the planned work or on the basis of part time/full time work.

      Author's profile photo Ram Dodda
      Ram Dodda

      Well explained.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks you Ramajaneyulu!!

      Author's profile photo Rajasekhar Reddy
      Rajasekhar Reddy

      Perfectly articulated  !!!!! 🙂

      How are we handling overtime & generation of Comp-off quotas functionality ??

      Regards,

      Raja Sekhar

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Overtime is going to be handled by another functionality which comes with Payroll Timesheet which is another vast ocean with much more flexibility for Time Valuations where you define different criteria.You group recorded working times, overtimes into different Time Type Groups and use as Input Parameters for Time Valuations

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Simple and clear explanation! 🙂

      Looking forward for the movie ℹ 😎

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks Raman.. It will be released soon 😉

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Thanks Pawandeep. That was a good read. We're doing some work on EC Time Off as well. There's not much stuff out there in terms of help/configuration documents. Looking forward to the next release.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks Sanchit. Yea I know, lot more to discuss and share.

      Author's profile photo Bhargav Gogineni
      Bhargav Gogineni

      Thanks Pawandeep. Any info on API support ?

      Author's profile photo Volker Ruof
      Volker Ruof

      There are APIs to extract the absences.

      And there is a service that gives you time account balances.

      This is documentated in the API documentation.

      Author's profile photo Volker Ruof
      Volker Ruof

      Hi Pawandeep,

      good article. You can check some of the new time off / time sheet features that come in 1511 here.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks Volker!!

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Thanks for sharing the excellent article.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks you so much Ramesh!!

      Author's profile photo Ashish Bhati
      Ashish Bhati

      Very well Documented. I am sure this document will help most of the community users.

      Keep it up.

      Author's profile photo Manikya Raju .Potnuru
      Manikya Raju .Potnuru

      great job....

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      thanks Potnuru!

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Excellent ....The trailer of TIME OFF 🙂   you have shown is very nice ...waiting for the main picture soon from you

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi everyone,

      I would like to ask if there's an option to change the time format of time off, from minutes into decimal? Is it possible? instead of x:xx format, we will change it into x.xx format?

      Kindly refer to the attached picture as reference.

      Thank you very much!timeoff.PNG

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Chel

      As far as I know, till now it is not possible to change the format from hours:minutes to decimal. Thanks!!

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Pawandeep,

      I have configured the period end processing rule(carry forward with limit) as per the instructions given in the implementation guide.I have set the "No automation" option in the Time Account Type so I have created the accrual, account creation and period end processing calendars manually but when I go to "Manage time Off from Employee Files, I am not seeing the leaves carried forward to the next year.

      I have done the following -

      1). I have created an accrual rule to generate 2 days leave per month for an employee, it is working as expected and when I set the date as 12/31/2016 in "Manage time Off" I am able to see 24 leaves.

      2). I have created the PEP rule with carry forward limit set to 10 days and I have written the rule as per the implementation guide and I have assigned this rule to the Time Account Type.

      3). I have generated calendars for accrual, account accrual and period end processing.

      4). For the testing part, my expectation is if i set the date as "01/01/2017" for that employee, I should see the accrued quota of 2 days + the carried forward balance of 10 days for 2016 year so in total 12 leaves should be reflected but this is not happening and balance of 2 days is only reflected.

      I have few queries on this -

      1) Where and how should I test the PEP scenario? Should the carried forward leaves appear on the Manage Time Off section of Employee Profile or some where else?

      2). The Steps to test are not mentioned in any of the implementation guides nor user guides. How to test this scenario? Is my understanding correct on the testing part?

      Could you please help me with this?

      Thanks in advance,

      Shreshta.

      Author's profile photo Vinitha Singh
      Vinitha Singh

      Hi Shresta

      Did you manage to resolve your issue and test the PEP rule - I am facing the similar issue and unable to test the PEP rule. Any advice would be most helpful

      Thanks a lot

      Vinitha

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Pawandeep,

      I'm setting up a use case in a demo environment for Period End Processing where I'm also using custom fields in Time Account. In the business rule for Period End Processing I try to assign values to those fields, but without any success.

      According to the trace log the updates are successful but I don't find the values in the Time Account that was updated.

      The Business Rule looks like this:

      After processing the Time Account.Closed is changed from No into Yes

      but the custom fields are not updated although the trace says they are:

      Is there anyone that tried something like this?

      (or is it just not possible to update custom fields within the Time Account)

      Kind regards,

      J.W. Ottenhoff

      Author's profile photo Wilko Dann
      Wilko Dann

      Hi,

      there is no technical limitation to set custom fields on time account level during period end processing. If the rules are configured correctly the values defined in the rule will be set on time account level.

      Be sure that you choose the right time account to set the values (old time account vs. new time account).

      Best regards,

      Wilko

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Wilko,

      Thanks for your reaction, that is exactly what I also thought.

      For testing purpose tried to set values both on the old and the new time account which according to the Trace file had been successfully modified on the these records.

      But when checking in Managed Data on those time accounts the fields are empty.

      Only TimeAccount.accountClosed' = 'true' successfully to modified object '784b2c235e374fd0b2f2bfe03d1be233' was actually saved

      but e.g.

      Set value 'TimeAccount.cust_rest_prev3' = '30' successfully to modified object '784b2c235e374fd0b2f2bfe03d1be233',

      not!

      (The custom fields that have values std_qty and additional where filled mannually in Manage Data)

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi

      I have a situation in time off.

      My client wants this scenario to be made possible in successfactors.

      1. Sick Leave - if an employee goes for a sick leave for 90 days for example, the first 30 days is paid and the next 30 days is 50% paid and the anything above 60 days is unpaid. Can we have a rule defined like this.
      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Extraordinary

      Author's profile photo Vinitha Singh
      Vinitha Singh

      Very well written article Pawandeep !

      Author's profile photo Rajesh Kumar Burra
      Rajesh Kumar Burra

      Hi ottenhoff,

      Iam testing carry farward scenario for my clients requirement Dated 2016 till 2017  As per email stated above we have to give back date data to test scenario that is 2015

      Iam tring to create an account  as stated above

      The external code is empty and it is mandatory when i give text in external field it is not saving my record.

      could you please let me know

      Author's profile photo Rajesh Kumar Burra
      Rajesh Kumar Burra

      Despite of creating account from 2015  from time account still it is showing 2016

      Author's profile photo Rajesh Kumar Burra
      Rajesh Kumar Burra

      despite of creating an account from 2015 still it is showing 2016

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Pawandeep,

      Thanks a lot for the article, it helps us a lot!

      Please help me with a requirement from a customer, please let me know if it is possible to expire comp off or TOIl hours after certain period.

      For an example, once TOIL posted, employee should claim it within 2 months else it will expire.

      Please help me with a sample rule.
       

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

       

      Hi Experts,

      I have a situation in time off.

      My client wants this scenario to be made possible in successfactors.

      1. Sick Leave – if an employee goes for a sick leave for 90 days for example, the first 30 days is paid and the next 30 days is 50% paid and the anything above 60 days is unpaid. Can we have a rule defined like this.
      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      HI , Can you please share latest document on Time Off?

      chandra_sy@hotmail.com

      Thank you

       

      Author's profile photo Joanna Leszczynska
      Joanna Leszczynska

      Hi Pawandeep, Thank you for the article.

      I have a question re time off on mobile.

      Do you know if the manager is abl to see time off of his subordinates on a mobile app?

      I am searching for this info but I am unable to find it.

      Thank you,

      Joanna

      Author's profile photo Manon Holman
      Manon Holman

      Hi there,

       

      I want to confirm if there are any new enhancements regarding NO LEAVE BUCKET can be associated to LOA leave types?

      Author's profile photo SC Support
      SC Support

      Hi,

       

      Very good for beginners ?. Please share the full explanation link ? if possible.

      Thank you.

       

      Author's profile photo shivakumar sowndararajan
      shivakumar sowndararajan

      Hi Sir ,

       

      Very good explanation cheers it!..

       

      If you could share the full video or explanation link will be help me to start up learning the EC timeoff.

      Shivakumar.bgl@gmail.com

       

      Author's profile photo Shweta Thakkar
      Shweta Thakkar

      Hi, had a question regarding change in time profile in the middle of the year. how does it work?

      Author's profile photo Santhosh B
      Santhosh B

      When I am creating a Time Profile, my time account types and time types are not fetching here. Can anyone suggest what can be done