Glossary

This topic explains Time & Attendance terms used in Exolvo.

Actuals

You must open an actual pay before you can import data into T&A, and subsequently edit and report on that data. The actual pay references the same Pay Period Calendar table as standard and manual pays in Payroll. In Daily View, "Actuals" displays a daily breakdown of actual employee attendance (as opposed to their roster).

Advanced Roundings

Employees record their times when they clock in or out. You can use the Advanced Roundings entity to create rounding rules for clock times. Rounding rules round clock times up or down, according to how you set them up.

Anchoring / Anchor Groups

Rostered start, break, transfer and end times differ from actual clock times so anchor groups contain rules for modifying clock times to fit the roster template.

Award Rules

Award rules are used only in T&A. After timeband data is finalised (either in rosters or in actuals), Exolvo applies award interpretation rules to determine actual payments for the day or period. Award rules calculate payments to allowances. Some examples of award rules are:

• "Ordinary Hours Worked Mon-Fri" - Exolvo will pay ordinary time for all 'ordinary' hours that are worked Monday to Friday.
• "Staff Training" - All employees with a "Training" reason code are coded to the "Staff Training" code.
• "Public Holiday Worked at Time and a half" - All employees with an empty Reason code and an empty Clock Result who work on a public holiday will receive time-and-a-half, and they may also be entitled to another paid day off.

Breaks

Breaks specify the default unpaid break that an employee takes during their work day. Lunch breaks are the most common example of unpaid breaks, as opposed to morning or afternoon tea breaks which are paid breaks.

• Absolute breaks occur at specific times, irrespective of the employee's work time. An absolute break requires a fixed start and end time so they are normally used for employees who work set hours each day. For example, a receptionist works 08:00 to 17:00, with a one-hour break for lunch every day between 12:00 and 13:00.
• Relative breaks occur after the employee has worked a specified number of hours so you would use them for employees who work a variety of shifts.
• Clock breaks are rules that are applied to a clock time, such as when an employee clocks their break time. An example of a rule could be:
  "All breaks between 11:00 and 14:00 are 30 minutes long with a 3-minute "grace" period for employees who clock in late".

  If an employee clocks out for only 18 minutes, then 30 minutes is deducted from their worked time. Similarly, if an employee clocks out for 33 minutes, Exolvo would deduct only 30 minutes from their worked time. However, if an employee clocks out for 37 minutes (which exceeds the break and grace time periods), then Exolvo would accept the 37 minutes and adjust the clock time using anchoring or rounding rules.

Clock Result

Clock results are flags that can be displayed in Daily View to help you edit employee actuals. These flags identify timebands that you need to check in more detail.

• AB - Absence

  This flag is produced when an employee is rostered to work, but they do not have any clock times for the day. Even though the employee did not clock in or out for the day, Exolvo places their Rostered time into the day cell.

• EF - Early Finish

  If an employee finishes before their rostered finish time, an additional timeband is created for the time between the rostered finish and the actual finish.

• ES - Early Start

  If an employee starts before their rostered start time, an additional timeband is created for the time between the actual start and the rostered start.

• LS - Late Start

  If an employee starts after their rostered start time, an additional timeband is created for the time between the rostered start and the actual start.

• LF - Late Finish

  If an employee finishes after their rostered finish time, an additional timeband is created for the time between the rostered finish and the actual finish.

• NR - Not Rostered

  This flag is produced when an employee is not rostered to work, but they have clock times for the day.

• OM - Clocking Omission

  If an employee fails to clock in, but clocks out (or vice versa), then Exolvo uses the employee's clock time as their start time.

• UT - Unbroken Time

  This flag is produced when an employee works more than their specified number of hours without a break.

Clocks

Clocks use swipe card technology to record employee start and finish times.

Clocks.ini File

The Clocks.ini file is stored in the \companydata\clock directory. Exolvo reads the Clocks.ini file to interpret the format of the imported clock data.

Clock Keys

Clock keys are codes that employees can enter at the clock when they clock in or out. Entering a clock key provides additional information about the clock event, such as department or location. Clock keys override any default settings in an employee file.

Company Settings

Use the Company Settings entity to define company details for the Time and Attendance module.

Confirm Actuals

Confirming actuals is a visual indication that employee's times have been edited and completed. When you confirm an actual, Exolvo highlights the cells in Daily View to illustrate that the editing of employee timebands is complete. Confirmed actuals will not change if you run Process Clock Data.

Daily View

The Daily View window displays a daily breakdown of actual employee attendance or rosters. It is the main interface for Time & Attendance processing.

Date Anchoring

Exolvo uses date anchoring for shifts that start at midnight (00:00). If an employee starts work at midnight on Monday night, the hours worked actually belong to Tuesday. Exolvo uses offsets to compare an employee's first clock for a day to their roster. Offsets determine which day a clock time should fall into. If no offset values exist, then Exolvo associates the first clock time with the day it occurred on.

Exception

Exolvo generates an exception to show that the employee worked different hours to their roster. It will then generate a clock result to indicate the type of exception.

Export Actuals to Payroll

After you edit, process and check actuals, you can run the Export Actuals to Payroll run command to create a transaction file.

Fixed Resources

Fixed resources are items (such as a company vehicle) that an employee needs to perform the duties of their position. You record details of these items in the Fixed Resources entity, and then assign them to employees in Daily View.

Flags

Daily View uses the following clock flags:

Generate Non-Clocked Data

The Generate Non-Clocked Data command generates actuals for non-clocked employees. The employee records for these employees have Use Clocks = "No". Exolvo generates actuals timebands based on the employee's roster for the day. This command is usually used for public holidays.

Import Clock Data

Various types of clocking devices create raw clock data. You use the Import Clock Data run command to import the raw data to the Clock transactions file. You need to process the raw data before you can use it in Daily View.

'Jump to Employee' Shortcut Key

The Jump to Employee shortcut key allows you to open any employee's record from any grid by pressing F4.

Job Costing

Job costing is an optional sub-module of Time & Attendance. Job costing allows employees to register their time worked in each department or on different jobs, either electronically through a time clocking device or through the Dataline product.

Ordinary Hours

The legal number of hours an employee can or must work in a particular pay period without incurring overtime penalties.

Pay Frequency

The time between employee payments, such as weekly, fortnightly or monthly.

Pay Period Calendar

The pay period calendar contains the pay period date ranges for the financial year. Each record in the calendar contains From and To dates that are determined by the frequency of the period. Each calendar record also contains a set of accumulators that are used to generate reporting and costing information.

Process Actual Pay

The Process Actual Pay run command calculates transactions for employee timebands so you can check the payments before you export them to Payroll. This command applies award rules to the employee's timeband, taking factors such as the day of the week and public holidays into consideration. Process Actual Pay generates transactions such as ordinary hours, overtime, and meal allowances. It may also create warnings in the audit log, depending on your award rule configuration.

Process Clock Data

The Process Clock Data run command processes an employee's clock times to calculate the actual start and end times of a shift. The start and end times are anchored to the employee's roster or rounded, depending on the rules in the employee's anchor group. Clock data remains in a raw state in Exolvo until you process it.

Queries

You can use queries to filter records so Exolvo will display only records that have a specific value in a certain field.

Reasons

These entity records define common reasons for absence from work, such as sick leave or annual leave. You can select reasons in a timeband to record explanations for clocking exceptions.

Reset Actuals

The Reset Actuals run command has two options:

• Reset the actual pay to 'unopened'.
• Clear all timebands and transactions from the actual pay.

Reset Clock Data

The Reset Clock Data run command allows you to re-import a clock file, and the main Reset card swipes by options are:

• Resetting Clock Flags

  If you reset clock flags, then you need to reprocess clock data. You would do this if the original processing was incorrect.

• Deleting Clock Swipes

  If you delete clock swipes, then you need to re-import and reprocess the clock data. You would do this if the original clock data was corrupted.

Rounding

Rounding is applied to all clock times that are outside the anchor conditions. Rounding is used for employees who:

• Do not use rosters
• Do not work within the anchoring range.

Shifts

A shift is an allocation of working time, usually on a daily basis, such as 09:00 - 17:00. Normally, shifts are created for individual employees, and they repeat each week. Shifts override tours associated with individual employees.

Timeband

A timeband is an employee's worked time that has payments generated against. Timebands are displayed in Actuals view in the Daily View window.

Tours

A tour is a roster pattern for a defined cycle length or duration. The cycle length is determined by the number of days before the tour repeats itself. Several shifts combine to make a tour, and a shift code is specified for each working day in a tour cycle. Tours are attached to large groups of employees and they can repeat for as long as required.

Tour Group

A tour group is a group of employees who work the same pattern. For example, a fortnightly tour that repeats over the year.

User Profiles - Daily View

You can grant users specific rights to Daily View information. Daily View will often have several users, each requiring different levels of access to Daily View information.

Topic: 6826