Replacement Employee Costing Module

The Replacement Employee Costing Module loads employee dispatch records with the pay and costing information necessary to interface dispatches into the payroll system. This information includes pay period, function line number, pay code, shift code, occupation code, replacement pay rate, cost centre and general ledger account. This module loads these fields by following costing and pay rules which are defined below.

Because the costing methods employed by different users are many and varied, this program makes use of the Search Parameter Profile to determine how to calculate each piece of information. The Search Parameter Profile can be unique for each different employee group (a group is usually made of employees of the same category (see Substitute/Casual Dispatch Parameter Profile Field: Absence/Replacement Dis[atch Group Key for mor information on dispatch groups). So the very first thing this program does is determine which profile to use by calculating an employee's dispatch group. This is done by referring to the dispatch position. Depending on how field 01 in the Sub/Cas Dispatch Parameters Profile is set up, the dispatch group will be the position code, bargaining unit, department or category code (From this point forward, all references to fields in the Search Parameter Profile will be Underlined).

Once the proper search parameter profile has been determined for the employee's group, the system calculates the number of consecutive days. This calculation is necessary because the payment calculation of replacement employees often differs depending on the number of consecutive days an employee is replacing the same absent employee. This calculation can be over-ridden by using a Dispatch Source Code with a on non-zero No Of Cons. Days amount.

The pay rate is the next thing to be calculated. For this calculation the Day Pay Def field is referenced. If this field is blank, then the position code rate is used. If this profile is not blank, then the rules contained in the Day Pay Def profile are used. Please refer to the Dispatch Parameters Profile field 08 for more information on this. Essentially, this profile controls whether the rate comes from the position code or replacement employee function lines. A rate keyed onto the dispatch will over-ride the calculated rate unless the Day Pay Def field has the keyword Grid=.

The function line number used by this program is always '1'.

The pay code is generally taken from the Day Pay Def profile as well. The exceptions are:

If Day Pay Def keyword is 'MFR' then master function line pay code is used.

If Day Pay Def keyword is 'PFR' and Use PFR Paycode If No Match On Function Line (field 09, page 2) is set to 'N', then the function line pay code is used.

If the dispatch is marked as an absence, then the pay code entered on the dispatch is used.

If the Use Pay Code From Position prompt (field 15 page 2) is set to 'Y', then the position pay code is used.

If the Shift Def profile (field 21 on page 1) is filled in then the pay code comes from there.

If Job Share Paycode, Retroactive Days/Paycode or Min Daily Top Up Payid/Amnt/Paycode logic is in use, then the applicable profiled pay codes are used.

If the costing information is not being pro-rated on more than one function line, and the Don't Refer To Absence Code Costing (field 16 page 2) is set to 'N', and there is a pay code filled in on the Rep Pay Code field of the absence code, then this pay code will over-ride all others.

The shift code will be left blank unless the Shift Def profile is filled in.

The occupation code will be left blank unless the Use Function Line Occupation Code profile (field 12 page 2) is set to 'Y', in which case the function line occupation code will be used. If the Use Costing From Location Database field (field 13 page 2) is set to 'Y', then the position occupation code (if there is one) will be used.

The cost centre and GL that are used can come from a variety of sources. The first consideration is what function line(s) are being used. The system can use a single function line from the replacement employee, or one or more function lines from the absent employee.

If the Cost To Absent Emps Function Lines profile (field 5 page2) is set to 'Y', then the absent employee's function line(s) will be used. Otherwise, one of the replacement employee's function line will be. If the If Costing To Abs Function Lines Use Master Only profile (field 10 page 2) is set to 'Y', then only the absent employee's master function line will be used. If this field is set to 'N', the all non-lump sum function lines of the absent employee will be used.

With the function lines determined, we can describe how the costing information is calculated.

If the system is set to pro-rate to all non-lump sum absent employee's function lines, the cost centre and GL simply come from the absent employee's function lines.

If the system is set to use only a single function line (either the absent or replacement employee's) the following rules are applied:

If the Use Costing From Location Database profile (field 13 page 2) is set to 'Y' then the cost centre and GL from the location database are used.

Then, unless the Don't Refer To Absence Code Costing profile (field 16 page 2) is set to 'Y', the system references the absence code. If the absent employee's function lines are in use, the costing information comes from the function lines. If the replacement employee's function lines are in use, the costing information from the absence code will be used. If the Wild Card Abs Code GL With Loc Code GL profile (field 17 page 2) is set to 'Y' the absence code GL is wild carded with the location GL. If there are still unresolved wild cards remaining and the If Wild After Abs/Loc, Wild Card Abs Emp Cost GL profile (field 11 page 2) is set to 'Y', the resulting GL will be wild carded with the absent employee's cost centre GL.

The above calculated cost centre and GL can be superseded by the costing information found on a matching leave if the Refer To Leave For Costing prompt (field 18 page 2) is set to 'Y'. Both will be over-ridden by cost centre and GL entered on the dispatch.

The Replacement Employee Costing Module now does not need the absent employee's Leave record to be approved before the Replacement GL defined in the Leave Code will be utilized. This will ensure the correct GL code is being used for replacement costing in all areas of the system.

If the Costing Comes Directly From The Function Line(s) profile (field 14 page 2) is set to 'Y' then it over-rides all above calculations and uses the cost centre and GL from the function line(s).

In addition there are other rules that come into affect based on customer number. Rules hard coded for specific customers are too unique to control by profile options.

If a valid GL account and or cost centre has not been assigned to a record by this step then the missing code will be applied from the Error Cost Centre and Error GL Account fields. Errors will be noted on a report produced by the costing program. They are intended to be used to correct the errors using the replacement employee maintenance module that allows you to apply the desired GL account and/or cost centre.

GL Account Wild Card Rules

In all of the above steps except the search parameter profile step wild cards can be used in the GL account number. When present the program must replace the wild card character (?) with a character from a previously applied GL account. Use of wild card characters in GL's in the databases provides a mechanism to modify regularly used GL's to reflect changes required for expenditure codes, program or function codes. An example follows to help understand the process. For additional information on wild carding obtain the TSC payroll documentation on this subject.

Important: This process creates a temporary work file with all of the loaded pay information. The file assigned this temporary file is HRABI1.PERIOD_USER where Period is the pay period, and User is the username of the person running the program. Because the costing maintenance module, costing report, and interface all read this temporary file the same person must cost, maintain, report on, and interface the absence information. If one person runs the costing module, another will not be able to use any of the other options on the same absence information.

Your Previous Preliminar Selections

• This stores the selection criteria used for previous times this user has run the module in preliminary, so the same selections can be populated to re-run the report in final. Once any user runs a payroll / pay period combination in final, all corresponding previous preliminary selections for that payroll/ pay period for all users are cleared out. 

Pay Id

• Enter the 4 character code identifying the payroll you wish to interface the dispatches into. Search display all valid payroll ID's.

Pay Period

• Enter the 6 character pay period you wish to interface the dispatches into. Search to display all valid periods.

Pay Cycle Codes

• Enter a valid cycle code. Search to display valid pay cycles for the specified payroll. The cycle code is used to pick up default start and end dates.

Week Ending Date

• Enter the end date as YYYYMMDD or YYMMDD. This process will load the costing information onto all dispatches that occurred prior to and including the end date.

• The  system  determines  this  defaulted date  by  searching  through  the  Location Codes  in  descending  order  and  choosing  the  last  location  (which  would  be  the  first  location  in  ascending  order) that contains authorization records.   The  system  will  then  determine  and  use  the  last  'authorized'  week  ending  date  for  this  location  in  the  replacement  costing.

Clerk

• Enter the clerks name. This name is used to select those dispatches which the clerk is responsible for. A clerk can be responsible for any number of schools. The clerk takes responsibility for school(s) by putting his/her name on the location code(s). Only those dispatches from the school(s) assigned to the clerk will be processed. This is field is optional. If left blank absences from all locations will be selected.

Units/Hours/FTE

• This prompt refers to how you want the dispatch time amounts displayed on the report produced by this process.

• Enter 'U' to display the time units that were entered into the system.

• Enter 'H' to indicate to the system to convert all time units to hour units.

• Enter 'F' to indicate to the system to convert all time units to day (FTE) units.

Employee Category

• Select the categories to be run. Leave blank to include all Categories.

Dispatch Positions

• Select the Position Codes to be run. Leave blank to include all Dispatch Positions

Dispatch Position Bargaining Units

• Select the Burgaining Units from the Dispatch Position Code to be run. Leave blank to include all BUs

Preliminary/Final Run

• Enter 'P' to run this process in preliminary mode or 'F' to run it in final mode.

• A preliminary run will only produce a report listing the tentative changes this process will make without actually updating the dispatch file. A final run loads the absence records with the costing data displayed. This process Can be run in final mode over and over again until the records are interfaced. The only way interfaced records can be re-interfaced is by over riding the default to the below prompt.

Cost Interfaced Records

• Enter 'N' to interface only those dispatches which have not already been interfaced.

• Enter 'Y' to interface those records which have already been interfaced. Under most (if not all) circumstances, you should enter 'N' here.

Report/Merge

• Enter 'R' to prepare the report of absences.

• Enter 'M' to prepare a data file with selected data to be used by other applications.

Merge Profile

• Enter a Merge Profile to be used to prepare a data file of selected data.

Employee Selection

• Enter "A" to consider all employees for selection.

• Enter "S" to enter selected employees individually.

Employees

• If selecting employees, enter the employee numbers to include

Notes about Costing Reports:

The Replacement Costing reports can be reviewed from Report Viewer. Final Costing reports are also archived in the appropriate payroll and can be reviewed through Payroll Output Review. 

Running the Replacement Costing for only one employee will product a second report in Report Viewer called the Costing Debug Report. This report goes through each line of the employee's costing report with a detailed analysis of how each portion of the costing was calculated based on the pertinent system profiles. 

The combined Replacement Costing Report file contains 4 reports:

Page 1+         Replacement Employee Costing Report
Page 5001+   Replacement Employee Costing Error Report  (if applicable)
Page 6001+   Replacement Employee Costing Exception Report  (If applicable)
Page 7001+   Replacement Employee Costing Summary Report

Using the Merge to Excel or selecting the Excel button will produce both an Excel output of the Replacement Employee Costing Details (the first of the four reports consisting of those amounts to interface to payroll), as well as generate a copy of the full report in Report Viewer.