Budget rules

Budget rules can be used to adjust the schedule based on the budget of the location being scheduled. Auto-Assignment supports the same sources of budget information that are supported in LFSO. This includes defining budget at the store or department level, deriving budgets from external sources, or using the labor budgeting module.

See these topics for more details on configuring location budgets:
  • For details on budget types, see "Stores" in the Infor Workforce Management LFSO Configuration Editor Guide.
  • For details on the labor budgeting module, see the Infor Workforce Management Budget Creation and Management Guide.

How is schedule cost determined?

When budget rules are used, the optimization engine calculates the cost of hypothetical schedule options during the schedule generation process. Auto-Assignment evaluates schedule cost to determine if schedule options satisfy or violate budget rules, which becomes part of the criteria used to select the optimal schedule.

When the location budget is in hours, the hours calculation includes any activities in the schedule that contribute to cost. The cost of the schedule, at the time of schedule generation, is displayed in the Original Hours field in the LFSO Schedule screen.

For location budgets that are in dollars, or some other currency, the optimization engine estimates the dollar cost of the assigned shifts in the schedule based on the hourly rates of the assigned employees. This criteria is used to determine the rates for employees:
  • The employee's hourly rate is determined by the Average Hourly Rate (AHR) for their preferred job.
  • If the AHR of the employee's preferred job is zero or null, the employee's base rate is used.
  • Overtime is determined by the daily and weekly overtime threshold and the overtime multiplier of the employee's preferred job.

For shifts assigned to hourly employees, the cost is estimated by taking the number of hours in the shift and multiplying by the employee's rate. For salaried employees, the cost is equal to the employee's rate multiplied by their minimum number of hours per schedule period. Overtime can be included for salaried employees that are not overtime exempt, with Exempt Status configured as Hourly.

It is important to note that the cost estimation algorithm used by Auto-Assignment is different from the algorithms used to calculate the cost displayed in the Original Cost and Current Cost fields in the LFSO Schedule screen. When the LFSO costing algorithm is used for the displayed costs, cost differentials may occur when employees are assigned to jobs other than their preferred job. When the Time and Attendance algorithm is used for the displayed costs, cost differentials may occur because the Auto-Assignment cost estimate does not include compensation adjustments for pay rules. Manual schedule edits that are performed after the schedule is generated also cause differences between the cost estimate and the actual cost.

For details on the costs displayed in the LFSO Schedule screen, see "Schedule costing in LFSO" in the Infor Workforce Management LFSO Implementation and Administration Guide.