Release Notes 9.18 - Printable
- Frank Gambino
Overview
Version 9.18 includes the following improvements and new features:
- A new Hours Distribution work rule.
- Attendance point tracking for the Mobile App.
- Scheduled costs now appear in Labor-only licenses.
- Schedules are now published in the Schedule Approvals screen
- Improved and customized warning messages in the Punch Validation work rule.
This release also includes fixed issues. For more information, see Fixed issues in version 9.18.
Updates and hotfixes
See Updates and hotfixes for 9.x releases.
Coming Soon
- Administrative users can now convert existing users to managers in the Security screen. (17715).
- Managers can configure a threshold for shift overlap in the Mobile Setup screen (21073).
Build 9.18.162 (Coming Soon)
- When responding to a shift request, the text Enter a comment with this request now correctly appears on the screen (21039).
- The Average Hours with Worked Before and After Check work rule pays out at the configured minimum wage (21020).
Build 9.18.156
Leave of Absence updates Part 2:
- Employees and managers on leave of absence can access certain parts of the UniFocus Mobile App, including Time Off Requests, Messages, and Preferences (21696).
- In this release of the UniFocus Mobile App, employees may now be granted access to schedules and shift requests while on leave of absence (21714).
- Managers cannot sign in to RMS while on a leave of absence (21897).
Build 9.18.155
Leave of Absence updates Part 1:
- The Import Earnings feature imports earnings to the Time Card for all employees, including those with a status of Leave of Absence (21774).
- Managers can view accrual balances for employees who are on leave of absence on the Benefits screen, on the Time Card screen, and in the Benefit Balances report (21734).
- The Time Off Requests screen displays all employees, including those on leave of absence (21744).
Mobile update:
- Mobile broadcasts—Partner Administrators can now submit requests for UniFocus to send broadcast messages to all employees who are registered for the UniFocus Mobile App (21660). For more information, see Update: Mobile broadcasts.
Build 9.18.120
- The Hours Distribution Accrual Benefit Accrual work rule has been updated with a Max Running Accrued parameter for specifying a limit to the number of hours that an employee can accrue within a year (19924).
- The Anniversary Year Benefits Expiration work rule has been updated with new parameters that enable both the expiration and rollover of accrued hours (21096).
- Scheduling now features validation checks for earnings associated with multiple accrual balances (21099).
- When a manager reviews time off requests in the Mobile App, if an earning is included in multiple accruals, a validation check is made against all accruals to which that earning is associated (21097).
- Time & Attendance software now features validation checks for earnings associated with multiple accrual balances (21098, 21101, 21102).
- Partners using the generic Reconcile Employees interface now receive notification emails that list all reconcile errors (19853).
- The Break Period Penalty work rule now includes a Pay FLSA Regular Rate option for automatically factoring in all additional earnings that are included in the FLSA regular rate (21032).
- In the Mobile App, the Paid Hours row of the Time Off Requests details screen now displays the number of hours requested by the employee (18857).
- In the UniFocus Mobile App, the Approve Time Off Requests screen now displays the correct number of days for multiple-day requests (20431).
- Improved and customized warning messages in the Punch Validation work rule (20670).
- The Employee Master report correctly abides by Security permission settings that determine whether users can view pay rates (20437).
- The Timeline Scheduling screen now correctly displays the business event order (BEO) detail note (20671).
- Users no longer receive error messages when editing or assigning a valid shift in the Schedule section of the Timeline Scheduling screen (20672).
- When performing the Generate Projected Hours task on the Labor Planning screen, hours are now being successfully generated for 02/29 of a leap year (20353).
- Users can now import an Import Hours and Rates Adjustment CSV file that does not have information in the Notes column (19852).
- Task Scheduler now correctly adheres to permissions that users configured in the Security screen (19921).
- Scheduled costs now appear in Labor-only licenses (19789).
Build 9.18.86
- Emails containing employee schedules are now correctly formatted (20239).
- Improved and customized warning messages in the Punch Validation work rule (20347).
Improvements and new features
See the pages below for improvements and new features in version 9.18:
Configuration
Work rules
Daily, Weekly, Consec Days OT With Min Break Spanning Midnight work rule (19198)
The Hours Distribution work rule category now includes a Daily, Weekly, Consec Days OT With Min Break Spanning Midnight work rule that allows you to specify the following:
- Daily OT and DT.
- Weekly OT.
- Daily split shift limit.
- Minimum break of a specified number of hours only if the break spans midnight of two calendar days. The break is not paid if the Out punch and In punch are within the same calendar day.
- 6th/7th day should only be paid if the employee has 40 hours cumulative within the consecutive period. These hours can span workweeks and pay periods.
Based on the Daily, Weekly, Day Off, Consec Days OT With Min Break rule, the new Daily, Weekly, Consec Days OT With Min Break Spanning Midnight work rule includes new and modified parameters:
- Consecutive Days Hours Limit—Use this new parameter to configure the number of hours in the consecutive day period before OT starts.
- Minimum Time Between Shifts Spanning Midnight—Use this new parameter to configure the minimum time (in hours) between shifts spanning midnight in which OT is paid.
Improved and customized warning messages in the Punch Validation work rule (20347)
In previous releases, when an employee's punch triggered a Punch Validation warning or lockout, a generic message appeared on the Time Clock screen. This message did not provide a reason for the warning, and managers were unable to customize this message.
In this release, the Punch Validation work rule includes the following improvements:
- Custom schedule warning and lockout messages—Administrative users responsible for work rule configuration can now write custom warning messages that appear on the Time Clock screen.
- Improved default messages—If no custom warning message has been written, improved default messages provide more information to the employee about the reason for the rejected punch. See the table below for improved default messages.
Improved default messages
| Rejected Punch Type | Default Message |
|---|---|
| Schedule Lock Out | You are attempting to punch outside of the specified lock out range. Your punch will be recorded for Manager approval. |
| Schedule Warning | This punch may require manager authorization. Press Yes to perform action now. Press No to perform action later at your scheduled shift time. |
| Invalid Job Warning | You are trying to punch to a job you are not scheduled to work. This punch may require manager authorization. Press Yes to perform action now. Press No to perform action later at your scheduled shift time. |
| Invalid Job Lock Out | You are attempting to punch to a job you are not scheduled to work. Your punch will be recorded for Manager approval. |
| Unscheduled Lock Out | You are not scheduled at this time. Your punch will be recorded for Manager approval. |
Labor
Schedules are now published in the Schedule Approvals screen (19564)
Version 9.10 introduced the Schedule Approvals screen, which is accessed from the Manage Schedules task button in the Planning menu. In previous releases (9.10 through 9.17), if your company was using schedule approvals, you would both approve and publish from the Schedule Approvals screen. If your company was not using schedule approvals, this task button appeared as Publish Schedules in the planning menu. You would then go to the Publish Schedules screen to publish your schedules.
In this release, there is no longer a Publish Schedules task button or screen. All publication and approval of schedules are done in the Schedule Approvals screen, which is accessed from Manage Schedules task button in the Planning menu. If your company is using schedule approvals, both publication and approval functionality is available in the Schedule Approvals screen. If your company is not using schedule approvals, only publication functionality is available in the Schedule Approvals screen.
For more information, see Schedule Approvals.
Scheduled costs now appear in Labor-only licenses (19789)
Scheduled cost is the cost of scheduled hours, that is, scheduled hours multiplied by the rate of pay. In previous releases of UniFocus software, scheduled costs appeared in Scheduling and Schedule Approvals screens only if both Time & Attendance and Labor licenses were enabled for an organization. In this release, organizations with only a Labor license can now view scheduled costs in Scheduling and Schedule Approval screens.
Mobile
Attendance point tracking for the Mobile App (19079)
The Mobile App now features the ability to track and display employees' attendance points. If attendance point tracking is configured for your organization, the Mobile App Call-ins screen displays a balance for the employee's attendance points (based on the configured time frame) and the ability to access details about the attendance points.
More more information, see Attendance Points for the UniFocus Mobile App.
Improved notification of changes to employee time off requests (18782)
In previous releases, employees received a push notification when a manager responded to an employee request only through the UniFocus Mobile App.
In this release, the Mobile App has been updated so that, when a manager responds to an employee request through either
RMS
or through the Mobile App, a push notification notifies the employee of the change.Summary of issues fixed in this release
| Issue | Description |
|---|---|
| Mobile | |
| 19862 | The message in the UniFocus Mobile App invitation email no longer references managers' UniFocus user names. |
| 20239 | Emails containing employee schedules are now correctly formatted. |
| Time & Attendance | |
| 18484 | The Earnings Approval Wizard now correctly approves all earnings. |
Mobile
19862
| Summary | The message in the UniFocus Mobile App invitation email no longer references managers' UniFocus user names. |
|---|---|
| Description | In previous releases, when managers invited employees to join the UniFocus Mobile App, the invitation email contained a message that referenced the managers' user names: This message could be confusing because employees might not know the system user name of their managers. |
| Solution | The software has been updated so that when managers invite employees to join the UniFocus Mobile App, the invitation email contains a message that does not reference managers' user names:
|
| Updated versions | Version 9.10 and later. |
20239
| Summary | Emails containing employee schedules are now correctly formatted. |
|---|---|
| Description | When employees enable email notifications for Scheduling, they receive an email when managers publish their schedules. In some instances of previous releases, the emails containing the employees’ schedules appeared as a line of text rather than a table. The line of text was very difficult to read. |
| Solution | Emailed schedules now display in an easily readable table. |
| Updated versions | Version 9.16 and later. |
Time & Attendance
18484
| Summary | The Earnings Approval Wizard now correctly approves all earnings. |
|---|---|
| Description | In some instances of previous releases, the Earnings Approval Wizard (Review Pay Period > Pay Period Management > Earnings Approval Wizard) timed out when managers tried to approve all earnings for a large number of employees. |
| Solution | The software has been updated so that the Earnings Approval Wizard now correctly approves all earnings. |
| Updated versions | Version 9.17 and later. |