The Ledger : attendance accrual

Payroll Post Notes: Create Attendance Plans

Jennifer Maroney — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:03:00 GMT

A common question we've been getting lately is how to create an attendance plan, so I thought it would be a good topic to cover. I guess there's no need to beat around the bush so let's get started.

In Configuration, Attendance Plans, click New Attendance Plan.
Enter an ID, description, and select Active for the status.
In the Plan year field, select the starting point for the attendance plan year:
- Calendar — Begins January 1
- Fiscal year — Begins on the first day of your organization’s fiscal year.
- Based on each employee’s start date — Begins on the employee’s first day of employment.
- Based on a specific day — Begins on the date you specify in the Start month and day field.
Select the Attendance and Carryover tab:
Note: You cannot add new attendance types to the Attendance Type column; they must be added in Configuration, Attendance Types. Take a look at Knowledgebase solution BB253460 for the steps.
1. In the Max Carryover Hours per Cycle column, enter the total number of hours an employee can carry over from one year or cycle to the next. Only the remaining positive attendance balance up to the max will carry over from one cycle to the next.
2. In the Max Total Carryover Hours column, enter the maximum number of unused hours an employee may accumulate over all cycles for the attendance type. Think of this like a cap on the total number of hours available at any given time during an employee's tenure.
3. In the Hours Accrued per Cycle column, enter the total number of hours an employee can accrue for the attendance type within the accrual cycle. Refer to the Attendance Accrual section for information about calculating accruals.
4. In the Maximum Available Hours column, enter the maximum balance of hours an employee may have for an attendance type. You can leave this field blank if there is no maximum limit.
Select the Accrual Methods tab:

In the Accrual Cycle column, select Annual to use a single cycle or Month(s) to define multiple cycles:
- If you select Annual, you either need to select the number of cycle months or leave it blank. If you select 12 or leave it blank, the attendance will accrue over a twelve month period. If you select a number less than twelve, attendance accrues over the first part of the attendance year up to and including the defined month.
  For example, if your attendance plan year begins January 1 and you select 6 cycle months, all attendance accrues through June and no additional attendance accrues after June.
- If you select Month(s) - The Cycle Months column is required. Select a number to define the number of cycles contained in the attendance plan year.
  For example, if you select 1, there are twelve cycles per year. If you select 3, there are four cycles per year.
In the Attendance is Earned column, select the method by which attendance is earned:

Daily, Weekly, or Monthly — Attendance is earned by the passage of time
By hours worked — Attendance is earned based on the actual number of hours worked. In the Hours per Cycle column, enter the total number of hours available in a cycle.
By pay period — Attendance is earned based on the number of pay periods in the employee’s schedule
Start of cycle — The total number of hours/days allowed for the cycle is awarded at the beginning of the cycle and is recorded as it is used

Save and close the attendance plan.

You can now add the attendance plans to employees either globally or manually.

Take a look at the Attendance Arithmetic series to see how to manually calculate the different attendance methods. You can find the blogs by clicking the Attendance Arithmetic Tag.

Enjoy your vacations . Talk to you soon!

Payroll Post Notes: Attendance Arithmetic (Part 6 of 6)

Jennifer Maroney — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:28:00 GMT

Welcome to the final installment of the Attendance Arithmetic series. Let's talk about start of cycle attendance. Start of cycle attendance accrues all attendance on the effective date of the attendance plan.

For example, David Jones started January 1, 2007 and accrues 40 vacation hours per cycle. This means that as of January 1, David has earned all 40 hours.

I hope you've enjoyed this series. Talk to you soon!

Payroll Post Notes: Attendance Arithmetic (Part 5 of 6)

Jennifer Maroney — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:01:00 GMT

Welcome to part five of the Attendance Arithmetic series, let's talk about by hours worked attendance. To manually calculate the accrual:

Determine the number of hours worked since the start of the attendance year.
Find the number of cycle hours in the schedule.
Divide the number of hours worked by the total cycle hours.
Multiply the results of step three by the number of hours accrued per cycle.

([Number of Hours Worked] / [Total Cycle Hours]) * [Accrued Per Cycle] = [By Hours Worked Accrual]

For example, David Jones started January 1, 2007, accrues 40 vacation hours per cycle, and the hours per cycle value is 2080. Let's calculate the by hours worked attendance accrual through January 30, 2007.

David has worked a total of 173 hours so far this year, so the calculation would be:

(173/2080) * 40 = 3.326 hours

This means that from January 1 through January 30, David has earned 3.33 hours.

Stay on the lookout for the final chapter (Part 6). Talk to you soon!

Payroll Post Notes: Attendance Arithmetic (Part 4 of 6)

Jennifer Maroney — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:42:00 GMT

Welcome to part four of the Attendance Arithmetic series. Let's talk about by pay period attendance. To manually calculate the accrual:

Determine the last completed period before the accrue through date.
Find the total number of pay periods in the schedule.
Divide the accrue through date period by the total number of pay periods in the schedule.
Multiply the results of step three by the number of hours accrued per cycle.

([Last Completed Period] / [Total Number of Pay Periods]) * [Accrued Per Cycle Hours] = [By Pay Period Accrual]

For example, David Jones started January 1, 2007 and accrues 40 vacation hours per cycle. Let's calculate the by pay period attendance accrual as of August 14, 2007. Here is a screen shot of his attendance plan:

The last completed pay period before August 14 is period 14 (07/31/2007) and there is a total of 24 periods in the year. Since David earns 40 hours per cycle, the calculation would be:

(14/24) * 40 = 23.3 hours

This means that David has earned 23.3 hours for any day between July 31st and August 14th.

If you calculate the number of earned hours for August 15th, the calculation would be:

(15/24) * 40 = 25 hours

Stay on the lookout for Part 5 and 6. Talk to you soon!

Payroll Post Notes: Attendance Arithmetic (Part 3 of 6)

Jennifer Maroney — Wed, 28 May 2008 11:15:00 GMT

In part 3 of the Attendance Arithmetic series, let's talk about monthly attendance. To manually calculate the accrual:

Determine the number of months from the plan effective date up to and including the last day of the previous month.
Divide the number of months by 12.
Multiply the results of step two by the number of hours accrued per cycle.

([Accrual Months] / [12]) * [Accrued Per Cycle Hours] = [Monthly Accrual]

For example, David Jones started January 1, 2007, and accrues 40 vacation hours per cycle. Let's calculate the monthly attendance accrual as of August 14, 2007:

There are 7 months from January 1 through July 31 and David earns 40 hours per cycle. The calculation would be:

(7/12) * 40 = 23.3 hours

If the start date of the attendance plan is not the first day of the month, the start and end of each month follows the plan start date. For example, David Jones started January 15, 2007, and accrues 40 vacation hours per cycle. The monthly attendance accrual as of September 9, 2007:

There are 7 months from January 15 through August 15 and David earns 40 hours per cycle. The calculation would be:

(8/12) * 40 = 26.7 hours

Stay on the lookout for Part 4 through 6. Talk to you soon!

Payroll Post Notes: Attendance Arithmetic (Part 2 of 6)

Jennifer Maroney — Thu, 22 May 2008 13:20:00 GMT

Welcome to part 2 of Attendance Arithmetic. This time, let's review calculating weekly attendance. Here are the steps for the manual calculation:

Determine the number of days from the plan effective date through the last Saturday before the attendance date.
Divide the number of days by the number of days in the calendar year.
Multiply the results of step two by the number of hours accrued per cycle.

([Accrual Days] / [Calendar Year Days]) * [Accrued Per Cycle Hours] = [Weekly Accrual]

For example, David Jones started January 1, 2007, and accrues 40 vacation hours per cycle. Let's calculate the weekly attendance accrual as of August 14, 2007:

There are 223 days from January 1 through Saturday, August 11, 365 days in the year 2007, and David earns 40 hours per cycle. The calculation would be:

(230/365) * 40 = 25.21 hours

Stay on the lookout for Part 3 through 6. Talk to you soon!

Payroll Post Notes: Attendance Arithmetic (Part 1 of 6)

Jennifer Maroney — Thu, 22 May 2008 12:49:00 GMT

Do you ever wonder how Payroll calculates employee attendance accrual? If so, make sure you check out each of the six Attendance Arithmetic posts. Each will cover how to manually calculate the following accrual methods:

Daily
Weekly

Monthly
By pay period

By hours worked
Start of cycle

Let's start with daily.

To calculate daily attendance accrual, take the total number of days the employee can accrue and then divide it by 365 to determine the amount of attendance accrued per day. Here is the formula:

[Total Days Possible] / 365 = [Daily Accrual]

Note: If the year is a leap year (such as 2008), the extra day is considered.

For example, David Jones is a new employee who can accrue 40 vacation hours per year. The daily attendance accrual is 40 hours divided by 365 days or 0.109589 hours per day.

If you want to calculate the amount for a given day, multiply the number of days elapsed from the plan effective date by the hours accrued per day. Here is the formula:

[Number of days elapsed] * [Hours accrued per day]

For example, David Jones' attendance plan started on January 1 and you would like to calculate the number of hours accrued as of August 14. The total number of hours accrued is the number of days elapsed, 226, times 0.109589 or 24.767114 which rounds to 24.77 hours.

Stay on the lookout for Part 2 through 6. Talk to you soon!