Handling Time Balances in Time and Attendance

Outcome

You know the purpose of time balances. You also know how to handle time balances when working in Time and Attendance. This include, for example, knowledge about different types of time balances and factors that affect the way balances are updated. Finally you know what programs you can use for checking balances and when and how to adjust balances.

You use the knowledge you gain from this concept document in your daily work with time balances.

The identity of a time balance is stored in the MTMSFD file. Information about total balances is stored in the MTMSEM file and information about period balances is stored in the MTMPBL file.

Before you start

If calculated time is to be stored in an employees time balance then the:

• Identity of the balance must have been defined in 'Time Balance. Open' (TMS115)
• Balance should have been connected to a time type in 'Time Type. Open' (TMS100)
• Times should have been calculated for the employee from the time type(s) that were connected to the balance.

Purpose

Time balances are used to keep track of how much time has been calculated for a certain time type. Often you connect balances to time types that generate flex time, overtime, and compensation time. In this way you get flex balances, overtime balances and compensation time balances.

Time balances are mostly used by employees to see directly, for example, how much flextime they have at a given moment. Balances are also used as a way for you to check that company policy is being followed, for example, that not too much negative flextime is created.

You can also use balances as a way of keeping yourself updated about the working situation in your company. You do this, for example, by checking the overtime balances for all employees at your company.

When

Employees can check their balances whenever they want.

How often the Time and Attendance administrator checks balances depends entirely on current company policy. Most often, balances are checked at month-end or year-end in order to ensure that they neither fall short of the minimum balance limits nor exceed the maximum balance limits.

How

Employees can check their own total balances, but not the balances of anyone else, unless of course an employee knows another employee's card number. Balances are checked in 'Clock In/Out Transaction. Report' (TMS001). Employees cannot check their period balances.

In your role as Time and Attendance administrator, you can check all balances for all employees, including:

• Total balances in 'Time Balance. Update Time YTD' (TMS251)
• Period balances in 'Time Balance. Update per Period' (TMS256), where the present time for a balance can also be adjusted, which automatically updated the balance total.

If the balance check makes it necessary to change one or several balances, you can do this in 'Time Balance. Transfer' (TMS850). A common reason for changing a balance is that it exceeds or falls short of a specific limit that the company has decided. If you want to adjust a balance that is:

• Too large, specify how much time you want to erase. If necessary, you can also specify to what balance you want to transfer the exceeding time.
• Too small, specify the amount of time the balance should have instead. You also decide if you want to transfer the time from another balance or if you want the time that makes up for the difference to be deducted from the employee’s salary. If you choose the latter, you specify a time type and a schedule date. This means that a time will be calculated from the specified time type when a calculation is being done for the specified schedule date. The calculated time will then be transferred to payroll where it will be used as a base in the salary.

Example: The employee has a flex balance of minus 30 hours. If you choose minus 25 as the minimum limit and A as the time type, a time in the length of 5 hours will be generated from time type A, when times are calculated. This time will later be transferred to payroll and 5 hours salary will be deducted from the employee’s total salary.

If necessary, you can also print a balance report in 'Time Type. Print Balances' (TMS585).

Different types of time balances – total balance and period balance

There are two different types of time balances, total balance and period balance. You do not have to define those two types manually for each balance since they are created automatically when a balance is defined.

Total balance refers to the total balance for an employee. Period balance, in contrast, refers to the balance during a specific period, usually per calendar month. The following is an example of a person who begun started working January 1, 2002:

Period	200201	200202	200203	200204
Period balance	Overtime balance: 5h Flex balance: 2h	Overtime balance: 2h Flex balance: -4h	Overtime balance: -1h Flex balance: 7h	Overtime balance: -3h Flex balance: 2h
Total balance	Overtime balance: 5h Flex balance: 2h	Overtime balance: 7h Flex balance: -2h	Overtime balance 6h Flex balance: 5h	Overtime balance: 3h Flex balance: 7h

Different factors that affect time balances – time factor and time unit

A balance is updated by times calculated from the time type to which the balance is connected. For every time type that is connected to a balance, a time factor and a time unit has been selected.

The time factor controls the way in which times calculated from the time type affect the balance. Selecting time factor 1.5, for example, means that when a time is being calculated it updates the balance with 1.5 times its own length.

• For example: If a time of 2 hours is calculated from time type A, with time factor 1.5 and balance X, the balance X is updated by 3 hours (2 x 1.5).

Time factor 1 is the most common, but other time factors are sometimes specified. For example, a time type that is connected to a compensation time balance and which will give you overtime for time off, often has time factor 2. The reason for this is that every hour of overtime should give two hours time off, and thus update the compensation time balance by a factor of 2.

The time unit controls how the times calculated from the time type will be stored in the balance. The calculated times can be stored either as hours or as days. Note that only times generated from time types for absence time can be stored as days. Most common is that calculated times are stored in balances as hours, but they can be stored as days too, for example, in balances for vacation.