Arcoro is excited to announce the 12/2022 beta release for our customers and partners. This release provides enhancements to existing functionality intended to improve the usability of the system. This article will describe the software updates and provide details to help you get started with these enhancements if you are part of our beta release.

Time Off

Administrators and managers need the ability to manage their Paid Time Off workflow within the ExakTime system.

Prerequisite

ExakTime Time Off requires the company to utilize defined pay periods and pay period closing. Pay Period closing can be enabled under Company Settings > Time & Attendance.

Time Off Plans

The Time Off Plans page is where a user can create new Time off Plans and edit existing plan details.

Edit ( ) – Administrators can edit existing time off plans to edit values, assign new employees to the plan, update balance, if applicable, and remove/end date employees from the plan.

Configure Time Off Plan

Administrators need the ability to create new Time Off Plans. By clicking Add New Plan button from the Time Off Plans page, users will be prompted to Configure Time Off Plan page.

Plan Details Tab

• Time Off Plan Name - User entered plan name. Each plan name must be unique.
• Description - User-entered description of Time Off Plan. This field is only shown on the Time Off Plans page for reference
• Plan Type - User selection of predefined plan types.
• Accrual Method - Upon Beta and first release two options will be available
  • Unlimited - No accrued balance. Best fit for unlimited plans and plan types where users do not accrue balances.
    
  • Per Pay Period - Employees will accrue a set amount of time up to three decimal places upon each pay period close. Addition menu options when Per Pay Period accrual method is selected.
    
    
    • Employees can request partial days - If this option is not enabled, employee request forms will default to 8 hours per day. Employees will not have the ability to adjust the number of hours in each daytime off is requested. When enabled, this setting will allow employees to select the number of hours in a calendar day to be time off records. For example, with this setting enabled, the user can request 4 hours of time off on a calendar day.
    • Employees can have negative balances - With option selection, employees can request time off that when completed, will result in their available balance being negative. If not enabled, employees will be unable to submit requests that will result in their balance being negative.
    • From Years - Tier 1 always begins with 0. Additional Tiers require 1+ year value. Employee Tier assignment is system defined based on the employee hire date.
    • Earnable Time Off - User entered value from .001 – 750. Employees will accrue value per pay period upon pay period close.
    • Maximum Balance - Maximum balance employees will accrue through system accruals.

Add Employees Tab

The Add Employees tab allows a user to add employees to newly created time off plans and existing time off plans.

• Grid Filters - Access by three-line icon next to each column header
• Add Employees - Via checkbox, individual selection towards the far left of each employee row or select all by header box
• Hire Date - Employee hire date is required to be assigned to Time Off plans. Even in scenarios where all plans are Unlimited. Hire Date is editable from plan assignment grid by clicking the edit icon ().
• Assign Plan Start Date As - This date determines when an employee will start to Accrue balance. If this date falls within a pay period, employees will accrue the full amount for the pay period. Available options are Today, Hire Date, or custom. This date can be future-dated, employee(s) future-dated will not start accruing hours until the plan start date falls within a pay period that has been closed. Plan start date does not prevent employees from creating requests when assigned to plans.

Users will complete employee assignments by clicking the Complete Assignment button

Manage Employees Tab

On the Manage Employees tab for a plan, Administrators can view employees currently assigned to plans. See their current balance, pending hours, their plan start date, and view and set employees' plan end date.

• Balance - Editable field. Administrators can add an initial starting balance and edit existing balances. An optional comment field is available. This comment will be visible in the upcoming time off activity log at a future time.
• Pending Hours - Hours the employee has in pending request states.
• Hire Date - Employee Hire Date
• Plan Start Date - The date the employee started accruing user-defined value assigned to the plan.
• Plan End Date - The date the employee will no longer accrue toward their balance. If employees have an outstanding balance and are based on plan-specific options, they will still be able to create time off requests with the remaining balance after the plan end date has passed.
• Export to Excel - Will export the grid in XLSX format based on grid and user-applied filters.

Accrual Processing

Accrual balance updates and deductions based on approved requests occur when a pay period is closed. Re-opening a closed pay period will revert accrual and request updates.

Completed Request

Pending Request ➡ Approved ➡ pay period closed ➡ Request completed and hours within requests will be deducted from employee balance

Expired Request

Pending Request ➡ pay period closed prior to approval ➡ Request expired.

If a request was pending and was not approved when the pay period was closed, then that request is expired even if that request was meant to be approved. The pay period will need to be reopened, and the request recreated and approved prior to the re-closing of the pay period.

Please Note

Accruals will not backfill previously closed pay periods prior to Time Off setup. If adding employees and transferring balances from a third party, the starting balance per employee can be added per plan on the Manage Employees page.

Time Off Requests

The Time Off Requests page is where all users of Time Off will create time off requests for themselves and others, approve pending time off requests, and view existing requests in all statuses.

This page, based on user permissions will show one or three tabs:

• Your Time Off - Used to create new time off requests for the user and with permission, create time off requests on behalf of other users.
• Time Off Approvals - List of pending requests for employees within the logged-in user's viewset.
• All Requests - List of all requests by employees within logged-in users viewset.

Your Time Off Tab

The time off plans the logged-in user is assigned appear in the top section in a card view display.

• Plan Cards - Each card will display:
  • Plan Name - The name of the Time Off Plan.
  • Plan Type - Pre-defined plan type assignment.
  • Available Hours - This value is the users total balance minus pending request hours. This value will update if pending requests are denied or canceled. If accrual type is Unlimited, this value will appear as Unltd.
  • Pending Hours - This value is the logged-in users’ requests per plan currently in a pending state.
  • Request Button - Used to create requests for selected plan.
• Make requests for others Card
  • If the logged-in user has permission to approve a time off request, the user will be able to create time off requests on behalf of other users within their viewset. The user must first select an employee from the employee drop-down, the plan drop-down will populate with plans assigned to the selected employee(s).

Creating Time Off Requests

When using the ExakTime website, employees will navigate to Time Off Requests and click the Request button for the plan the request is for.

• Available Hours - Employees balance minus hours requested based on new request form. This value will adjust dynamically based on the current requested hours.
• Request Hours - Hours requested for this request
• Choose Start/End Day - The Start Date selected will auto-populate the end date initially. The requestor can adjust the start/end date dynamically.
• Include Weekends - Used when the start and end date span weekend dates. To include Sat/Sun as dates within the request, this option must be selected.
• Weekly date Grouping
  • If the Time Off Plan allows employees to request partial days is enabled, employees can edit the hours requested per day. If the option to request partial days is disabled, employees will not be able to edit the hours, will be restricted to 8 hours per day, and will default to a start time of 8:00 a.m.
  • Start Time - Defaults to 8:00 a.m. The start time determines the start/end time of Time Off time records.
• Comments - Optional comment field
• Request on Behalf Of - Employees with permission to approve time off requests will have the ability to create time off requests on behalf of employees within their viewset. The request form will have no changes other than the details will be based on the selected employee the request is being created for.

Please Note

Once created, Time Off requests cannot be edited. If the request was entered incorrectly, it must be canceled and reentered.

Viewing Time Off Requests

Within the Your Time Off tab, logged-in users can view a listing of their own time off requests.

• Eye Icon - Click to view request details
• Cancel - If the request is in a pending or approved state, users can cancel their requests. Requests can only be canceled by the employee who created the request, either the employee who made the request or the user who created the request on behalf of another employee.
• Status - Default filters for viewing requests include approved, pending, and completed. Additional request statuses such as canceled, denied, or expired can be viewed by clicking the Status header and adding the statuses to the list filter.

When viewing Time Off requests within ExakTime Connect, an eye icon will be shown. Clicking this icon will open the request details modal.

Request details will include the date range of the request, total hours requested, start/end time of each date within request, and a history of user actions.

Approving/Denying Time Off Requests

Employees with permission to Approve Time Off Requests will see the Approvals Tab within the Time Off Requests page.

1. Time Off Approvals Tab - The circular badge displays the number of pending requests awaiting review. Once each request is approved or denied, it will be removed from the listing on this tab.
2. Approve button - Click to Approve the request
3. Deny button - Click to Deny the request. Optional comment field available.
4. View button - Clicking the eye icon will let you view the pending request details containing additional information:

   

   1. Starting Balance - Employee balance for the time off plan prior to the time off request.
   2. Balance After Request - Employee balance minus requested time off hours.

Once a pending request is approved. Time Records for that request are created on the employee's time card. The balance of approved requests is not deducted until the pay period the starting date of a request is in has been closed.

Viewing All Requests

Employees with permission to approve time off requests will be able to view all requests by employees within their viewset by navigating to the All Request tab

The All Request tab listing has a default filter to include approved, completed, and denied requests. Each column header can be filtered by clicking the three-bar icon next to each header, Multiple filters can be used simultaneously.

Time Off Request Time Records

When a pending time off request is approved. Time records are created.

1. Time Off records will appear with a unique icon.
   • Time Off time records are not able to be edited or deleted within Timecard Details. Approved Time Off requests that are canceled are also deleted from timecards. If a pay period is closed with approved Time Off records, the pay period must be reopened, and the Time Off request canceled to remove the time off related time record.
2. The Location assigned is based on the Plan Type per plan. The default ID is Time Off. IDs can be changed using the Accountlinx program (See Mapping in Accountlinx section)
3. The Cost Code assigned is based on the Plan Name per plan. The default ID is Time Off. IDs can be changed using the Accountlinx program (See Mapping in Accountlinx section)
4. The Start time per time record is based on the Time Off request start time per day. The Stop time is based on the Start time plus the requested hours per day.

Time Off Record and Policies

Time records created by Time Off requests are exempt from policies apart from the midnight split policy. If employee policy groups include the midnight split policy, time off requests that span midnight will be split across the calendar days.

Time Off Notifications

Time Off includes default Notifications. These Notifications are enabled by default. The My Settings page has been updated to enable employees to enable/disable specific notifications.

Employees will be notified by one of three channels. One notification will be sent based on the priority of email first, SMS second, and push last.

1. Email - If employees have an email address on their Exaktime profile.
2. SMS - If an employee does not have an email address on their Exaktime profile but does have a mobile phone number.
3. Push - If an employee does not have an email address or mobile phone number on their Exaktime Profile. To receive push notifications the user must be logged in to the Exaktime app when the notification is sent.

ExakTime Web and/or Mobile users who have permission to approve time off requests will also see the submitted for approval notification option. This notification will alert the manager that a request has been submitted and is pending review. The system defines an approver as one who has approval permission and has users within their viewset. For Time Off, users with all employees as their viewset are still eligible for request submitted for approval notifications. Individual users who are designated as approvers can disable the approver notification under My Settings on web or Notification Settings on the mobile app.

Permissions

Time Off includes new permissions:

1. Time Off Plans - Allows access to create/edit time off plans. Add and manage employee plan assignment. Allows access to Time Off Plans page
2. Approve Time Off Requests - Allows access to the Approvals and All Requests tab under Time Off Requests page
   • Access - Allow employee to approve/deny time off requests and the ability for user to create time off request for users within their viewset
   • Approve Own Requests - Allows employees to approve/deny their own time off requests.
3. Request Time Off - Allows employees to create and submit their own time off requests.

Time Off and Exaktime Reports

Time Off time records will appear in Exaktime Reports. At this time, Time Off locations and cost codes cannot be selected through Report Filters. If location or cost code report filters are used, Time Off time records will be excluded from generated reports.

Mapping in Accountlinx and Exporting

Time Off system created location and cost codes have the default ID of “Time Off”. When exporting to your third-party accounting system. You can use Accountlinx to map Time Off created locations and cost codes to your accounting system IDs. After creating Time Off Plans, within Accountlinx open Map Cost Codes and/or Map Locations and enter the payroll IDs for any relevant time off location and cost code. Please note if using the Accountlinx Integration feature, the updated ID you entered will be shown on users' Time Card Details and Reports.

Beta Program Guidelines

The Exaktime Time Off feature will initially be launched as a Beta. This Beta will be available to pre-selected Exaktime customers. During the Beta there will be a way to provide feedback on the custom alerts feature in the ExakTime interface.

Mobile App and Device Requirements

To utilize Exaktime Time Off on mobile employees must have version 2.85 or above (on both iOS and Android) of the ExakTime mobile app installed on their device. Time Off includes Push notifications for employees without email or mobile phone number provided in Exaktime. Push is supported on both iOS and Android. Employees must be logged into the mobile app to receive push notifications, but they do not need to have the mobile app open. A user is required to give the app permission to show notifications if they would like to receive push notifications.