Product Update Sep 2024: Changes to Time off settings with impact on Attendance and Payroll

Modified on Mon, 23 Sep at 2:39 PM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Summary of changes

Based on your feedback regarding the inconsistent behavior of hour-based and day-based time off activity types and their impact on attendance and payroll, we have implemented significant improvements that will go live on 2024, October 3rd.

Feedback on current functionality	How we have solved it
Paid hourly time off requests automatically created attendance entries but did not reduce the expected working hours, while paid day time off reduced hours without creating attendance.	We’ve aligned the behavior of day-based and hourly time off policies. Paid hourly time off requests now no longer create attendance entries and will reduce the expected working hours by the length of the request.
Paid hourly time off created attendance entries, increasing employees' overall tracked time, which in turn increased their salary in preliminary payroll without distinguishing between paid time off and tracked time	Tracked time no longer increases with time off requests. We have also added two new fields to preliminary payroll: Paid Time Off and Total Paid Hours to clearly differentiate between paid time off and tracked time. This ensures that the salary will still reflect the correct paid hours. Hourly employees can now review their "Paid Time Off" summary in the Attendance tab, which displays their total compensated hours.
Inconsistent behaviour between day and hour time off policies for Unpaid activity types.	We’ve aligned the behaviour of day based and hour based time off policies. Unpaid time off requests will no longer create attendance entries. Admins can decide if the request should reduce the expected working hours or not.
Confusion over the time off activity type Working, paid. By definition, time off means that the employee is not working, so this shouldn't create attendance entries.	We've replaced Working, Paid with a new pay type called Other Time Off for activities like remote work or training. This type won’t impact attendance or payroll but will be visible in the calendar.
Employees couldn’t make full day, multiple day, or repeated requests with hourly time off policies.	Employees using hourly time off policies can now create full day requests, multiple day requests, and repeated requests.
There were inconsistencies in managing conflicts between hourly and daily time-off requests and attendance entries. The system blocked attendance entries when there was an hour-based time-off request but allowed entries for day-based time-offs.	By default, overlapping entries between time-off requests (both hourly and daily) and attendance will be allowed. However, a new option in the attendance policy allows you to block attendance entries during any time-off period.

Important - Please read the migration plan for the step-to-step instructions of how to migrate to new Time off types.

Changes to Time off Settings

We have made the following updates to the time off type settings to enhance clarity and usability:

Previous behaviour

New behaviour

The Time Off Type list was divided by activity type, making it difficult to distinguish between paid and unpaid time off.

The Time Off Type list is now grouped by Pay types, making it easier to differentiate between paid and unpaid time off.

The layout is cleaner and more intuitive
It’s now easier to create new time off types

The Activity type Settings (Not working paid, Not working unpaid, Working paid) were unclear and caused different behaviors in attendance and payroll, depending on whether the time off policy was day-based or hourly-based.

Activity types have been replaced with Pay types, and the behavior for day-based and hourly-based time off policies has been aligned for consistency.

Changes to Hourly Time off Requests

We have made the following updates to hourly time off requests:

Previous behaviour

New behaviour

Employees could only submit time off requests for 24 hours or less.

No option to set up repeat requests.

Employees can now make the following types of requests:

1-Day Requests: Deducts the total expected working hours for the selected day from the time off balance.

Multi-Day Requests: Deducts the total expected working hours for the selected range of days from the time off balance.

Repeat Requests: Allows employees to schedule recurring time off requests every X days, weeks, or months.

Impact of the new Time off Pay settings

It is important to note how the change in the Activity type to Paid types will impact how a time off request is managed to the attendance and payroll module.

Paid Time Off
When to use it: When the employee is paid while away from work, typically for vacation, illness, or personal reasons.
Previous behaviour	New behaviour
Activity type > Not working, paid	Pay setting > Paid time off
Impact on Attendance
For hourly paid time off policies: No reduction in expected working hours on the day of the request Attendance entry (tracked time) was created based on the request length (therefore employees didn't need to clock in/out) For day paid time off policies: Expected working hours were reduced based on the request length No attendance entry was created for the time off request	The new behaviour for paid hourly time off policies is now aligned with the day-based time off policies. Expected working hours are reduced by the length of the request No attendance entry is created for the time off request
Impact on Payroll
For hourly paid employees For hourly paid time off: Attendance entry (tracked time) was created based on the request length, which in turn increased the salary (tracked hours * hourly rate = salary). There was no way to differentiate between paid time off hours and tracked time. For day paid time offs: Tracked time did not increase by the length of the request, so it did not affect the salary. For salaried employees The number of hours worked or time off (such as holidays) does not impact the salary calculation. Salary is fixed based on the amount specified in the compensation tab.	For hourly paid employees For both hourly and day based paid time offs: Tracked time no longer increases by the length of the request. A new column, Paid time off, will increase by the length of the request (day-based requests are converted into hours). A new column, Total paid hours, will increase by the length of the request (again, day-based requests are converted into hours). New salary calculation for hourly employees Salary = Total Paid Hours * Hourly Rate, where Total Paid Hours = Tracked Time + Paid Time Off. For salaried employees No change. However, it is recommended not to enable the Paid time off, Total paid hours, and Hourly rate fields in the Payroll settings.

Unpaid Time Off
When to use it: When the employee isn't paid while away from work, typically for unpaid leave, sabbatical or unjustified absence
Previous behaviour	New behaviour
Activity type > Not working, unpaid	Pay setting > Unpaid time off
Impact on Attendance
For hourly unpaid time off policies: No reduction in expected working hours on the day of the request Created an attendance entry based on the request length, but tracked time did not increase by the length of the request For day unpaid time off policies: Reduced the expected working hours on the day of the request Did not create an attendance entry for the day	Admins can now configure the Time off type settings to either: Reduce the expected working hours on the day of the request Don't reduce the expected working hours on the day of the request In both cases, no attendance entry is created for the time off request.
Impact on Payroll
For hourly paid employees For both hourly and day time off: Salary didnt increase as no tracked time was created for the time off request. For salaried employees Unpaid time off did not impact the salary calculation. The salary remained fixed based on the amount specified in the compensation tab. For both hourly paid and salaried employee It was unclear in the Payroll time off request table whether the time off was paid or unpaid.	For both hourly paid and salaried employees For both hour-based and day-based time off policies: There is no impact on salary. Admins can now view in the payroll tab whether the time off was paid or unpaid, making it easier to process payroll accurately.

Other Time off type
When to use it: For tracking specific working conditions such as working from home, business trips and overtime reduction. Employees must record their attendance during these periods.
Previous behaviour	New behaviour
Activity type > Working, Paid Previously used for: Working from home, training etc	Pay setting > Other
Impact on Attendance
For hourly paid time offs: No reduction in expected working hours on the day of the request Attendance entry (tracked time) was created based on the request length (therefore employees didn't need to clock in/out)) For day paid time offs: No reduction the expected working hours on the day of the request Did not create an attendance entry for the day off request, (employees were expected to clock in/out)	The new behaviour for “other” hour policies is now aligned with the day-based time off policies. No reduction in expected working hours on theday of the request No attendance entry is created for the time off request. Note that employees must clock in/out during this time off.
Impact on Payroll
For hourly paid employees For hourly paid time off: Attendance entry (tracked time) was created based on the request length, which in turn increased the salary (tracked hours * hourly rate = salary). There was no way to differentiate between paid time off hours and tracked time. For day paid time offs: Tracked time did not increase by the length of the request, so it did not affect the salary. For salaried employees The number of hours worked or time off (such as holidays) does not impact the salary calculation. Salary is fixed based on the amount specified in the compensation tab.	For both hourly paid and salaried employees For both hour-based and day-based time off policies: No impact to payroll as no attendance entries are created for the time off requests. Hourly employees using "Other" hour-based time off policies must check in and out to receive payment for those hours.

Product Update Sep 2024: Changes to Time off settings with impact on Attendance and Payroll

Summary of changes

Feedback on current functionality

How we have solved it

Changes to Time off Settings

Previous behaviour

New behaviour

Changes to Hourly Time off Requests

Previous behaviour

New behaviour

Impact of the new Time off Pay settings

Paid Time Off

Previous behaviour

New behaviour

Impact on Attendance

Impact on Payroll

For hourly paid employees

For salaried employees

For hourly paid employees

For salaried employees

Unpaid Time Off

Previous behaviour

New behaviour

Impact on Attendance

Impact on Payroll

For hourly paid employees

For salaried employees

For both hourly paid and salaried employee

For both hourly paid and salaried employees

Other Time off type

Previous behaviour

New behaviour

Impact on Attendance

Impact on Payroll

For hourly paid employees

For salaried employees

For both hourly paid and salaried employees