Release Notes 9.06.03

Owned by Frank Gambino
Last updated: May 03, 2017
12 min read

Overview

RMS

version 9.06.03 includes the following improvements and new features: 

  • Functionality and user interface changes that allow users to copy up to 12 datasets into one dataset.
  • Separate payroll files for closing and exporting pay periods
  • A set of new features and improvements address premium pay that is paid to employees if they work on on their required days off or on their designated days off, that is, days for which employees were not scheduled to work but were available to work.
  • New and modified work rules that automatically pay specified premiums when employees work on their required days off or on their designated days off, that is, days for which employees were not scheduled to work but were available to work.
  • Improvements to the Earnings Details and Hours and Earnings Recap reports.
  • User-configured labels that appear on the Scheduling and Timeline Scheduling screens. These customizable labels are important to managers and administrative users because they indicate the required and designated days off for employees—days on which, if worked, employees will receive premium pay.
  • User interface changes that address earning approvals and approval authorization levels for both users and earnings types:

    • Approval levels for groups and users—The Security screen now features an Authorization Levels tab, from which users can define earning approval levels for user groups and individual users.

    • Earning approvals—Time Card Editors can now grant the primary approval for overtime (OT) and double-time (DT) earnings for individual employees in time card screens. Division Heads and Payroll Admins can grant the secondary approval for employees in the Earnings Approval Wizard.

  • A new search field in the Security screen that allows administration users to search for individual

    RMS

    users rather than scroll through the entire list.

Administration

Searching for users on the Security screen  (13464)

In previous releases, administrative users had to scroll through the entire list of users on the Security screen. In this release, the Security screen (Main Menu > Administration > Security) now features a search field at the top of the users list pane. Administrative users can now quickly find a user by typing the user name in the search field.

Budgeting

Improvements to Copy Dataset functionality  (13477, 13525, 13971)

This release includes the following improvements to the copy dataset functionality in Budgeting:

  • Increased number of datasets from which a user can copy – In previous releases, users could only copy a maximum of two datasets into another dataset. In this release, users can select up to 12 user- or system-defined datasets (including the EPEP and 30/60/90 datasets) to copy into one dataset. This more finely tuned copy functionality enables users to edit the specific data they know will be changing, which leads to more accurate forecasting. For more information, see Copying a Dataset - Budget.
  • Redesign of the Copy Dataset dialog box – On the Budgeting screen, the Copy Dataset dialog box (accessed from the gear menu) has been redesigned to accommodate copying from multiple datasets. In previous releases, the Copy Datasets dialog box contained side-by-side From Dataset and To Dataset sections. In this release, the From Dataset section appears at the top of the dialog box, and the To Dataset section appears at the bottom.

Interfaces, Budgeting

Budget exports can now be sent to both SFTP and to a directory on a local computer  (13819)

In previous releases, budget exports could be sent to either an SFTP (via Connect) or to location on a local computer—not both SFTP and a local computer. In this release, budget exports can be sent to both SFTP (via Connect) and to a local computer.

Note: If you want to send budget exports to both SFTP and to a local computer, contact your UniFocus Configuration Specialist.

Labor

Schedule Labels  (13430, 13410, 13460, 13461)

If the appropriate work rules are configured, labels appear on the Scheduling and Timeline Scheduling screens to indicate whether employees have designated days off and recurring, required days off. These labels automatically update if there are changes to the employee schedule by either. When a label is changed either manually by a user or automatically by a work rule, schedules are automatically recalculated and updated to reflect the changes.

Note: On both the Scheduling and Timeline Scheduling screens:

  • Users cannot edit or delete labels that are automatically generated by work rules.
  • Icons indicate which labels were manually created and which labels were automatically generated by work rules. (The icon for a rule-generated label is a scroll in the Scheduling screen and a book in the Timeline Scheduling screen.)

Change to job order in the Master Job drop-down menus on the Labor Structure screen  (14159)

In previous releases of 

RMS

, the order of jobs that appeared in the Master Job drop-down menus on the Labor Structure screen matched the chronological order of when the jobs were created (based on their ID order). In this release, the order of jobs that appear in the Master Job drop-down menus on the Labor Structure screen (System Setup > Labor Structure) matches the order of how they appear in the Master Labor Structure screen (System Setup > Corporate > Master Labor Structure).

Reports

Font size improvement to the Weekly Schedule Report  (12432)

In 8.x versions of 

RMS

, when users selected Show Breaks in the Weekly Schedule report, the font size decreased and became more difficult to read. In this release, when users select Show Breaks in the Weekly Schedule report, the font size remains at a larger and more readable font size.

 Improvements to the Earnings Details and Hours and Earnings Recap reports  (13898) 

This release of 

RMS

 includes the following improvements to the Earnings Details and Hours and Earnings Recap reports:

Earnings Details report 

  • On the Earnings Details report screen (Reports > Time & Attendance > Earnings > Earnings Details), a new Group Report Output drop-down menu allows users to group output by the following options:
    • Employee
    • Employee By Department—With this option, users can group employees by department without grouping by job.
  • On the generated Earnings Details report, there is a new Shift column that displays the shift category for each shift on the report.

Hours and Earnings Recap report 

  • On the Hours and Earnings Recap report screen (Reports > Time & Attendance > Earnings > Hours and Earnings Recap), the Group Report Output drop-down menu now includes a new Group By Department option. With this option, users can group employees by department without grouping by job.
  • On the generated Hours and Earning Recap report, if the report is filtered by shift category, the Shift Category filter is displayed at the top of the report.

Time & Attendance

Improved performance in the Review Pay Period screen  (13705)

This release delivers improved performance in the load time of the Review Pay Period screen (Main Menu > Time & Attendance > Review Pay Period).

Close Pay Period process warns user of unapproved earnings  (13584)

When closing a pay period, users see a warning message if there are earnings that do not have the required approval level to be exported in the payroll export. In the Closing Checklist section of the dialog box, the following message appears only if at least one earning type in the property has a required approval level that is greater than 0: "Earnings requiring approval are not approved." A yellow dot precedes earnings that are not at the required approval level.

Separate payroll files for closing and exporting pay periods  (13721) 

In previous releases of Time & Attendance, exporting a pay period and closing a pay period generated one payroll file that was exported to the same directory. In this release, users can specify separate payroll files, each with a different file name and directory, to be generated when exporting and closing a pay period.  

Note: If you want to create separate payroll files for closing and exporting pay periods, contact your UniFocus Configuration Specialist.

Time & Attendance, Security

Earning approvals and approval levels

Defining approval levels for earning types  (13412)

Payroll administrators can now configure a minimum approval level for earning types so that they can require a minimal level of approval before exporting. The Earning Types screen (System Setup > Earning Types) now includes a Minimum Approval Level field. When editing an Earning Type, users can specify an approval level.

Note: Minimum approval levels can only be configured for Earning and Memo earning types.

Defining approval levels for a groups and individual users  (13375)

The Security screen now features an Authorization Levels tab (Main Menu > Administration > Security > Authorization Levels), from which users can assign Time & Attendance users a specific approval authorization level for approving earnings. Approval levels can be defined at both the group and user levels. Higher numeric values indicate a higher level of authorization.

If approval authorization levels are assigned at the group level, all users in that group have the same approval level.

Note: Defining an approval level for an individual user overrides the user’s group approval level. For example, if a manager assigns an approval level of 7 to a user who is part of a group with an approval level of 5, the user’s new approval level is 7.

Approving earnings for individual employees  (13368)

Users can now approve earnings at a specific level so that they can be correctly exported to payroll.

  • View earning approval level (13482) – On an employee's time card, users can now see their earning approval level
  • Approve earning in time cards (13451, 13452) – Users can approve or unapprove either single or all earnings in employees' time cards.
  • View unapproved earnings (13454) –  A bubble at the bottom right corner of the Review Pay Periods screen displays the count of unapproved earnings that the user still has the ability to approve.

Approving earnings using the Earnings Approval Wizard  (13457, 13507, 13617)

This release features a new Earnings Approval Wizard, which can be accessed from the Pay Period Management menu (  ) on the Review Pay Period screen. In the Earnings Approval Wizard, users can now see a summary of earnings that require approval and the lowest approval level so that they can easily determine if an employee requires approval actions. This screen displays employee information and information about approved OT and DT shifts 

Note: Users must have security permission to launch the screen.

The new screen displays the following information:

  • Employees with approved earnings.
  • Approval level of employees.
  • Employee number for each employee.
  • The first available home job during the displayed pay period.
  • OT hours from shifts.
  • DT hours from shifts.

Note: Users can only approve manually entered earnings; they cannot approve rule-generated earnings. However, hours from rule-generated earnings appear in the earnings columns so that users can see a complete overview of which earnings have been generated for employees.

Time Clocks

IP address on the Manage Time Clocks screen  (13327)

The Manage Time Clocks screen (Main Menu > Time & Attendance > Manage Time Clocks) now contains an IP Address column, which displays the IP addresses for Time Clocks on the property.

Note: If a Time Clock does not have an IP address, the corresponding table cell will be empty.

Work Rules

New work rules

OT Daily, Weekly, 6th Day, 7th Day DT All Day, Non-Consecutive Days work rule  (13489) 

The Hours Distribution work rule category (System Setup > Work Rules > Hours Distribution Work Rules) now includes a OT Daily, Weekly, 6th Day, 7th Day DT All Day, Non-Consecutive Days work rule. Users can configure this rule to pay overtime (OT) on the 6th day worked in a workweek, even if that day is not consecutive. This work rule can also be configured to pay for 7th day double-time (DT). 

Regular time is defined as the daily OT limit or less on any given day and the weekly OT limit or less for the week. Time-and-a-half occurs when more than the daily OT limit hours are worked on any given day, when more than the weekly OT limit are worked in one week, or when employees work 6 days within a workweek. DT occurs when employees work any hours on the 7th day in a workweek. 

Minimum Daily Hours Earning work rule  (13334) 

The Daily Differential work rule category (System Setup > Work Rules > Daily Differential) now includes a Minimum Daily Hours Earning work rule. With this work rule, users can grant a fixed value earning or lieu date to salaried employees who work a specified minimum number of hours or more on their designated days off, that is, days for which employees were not scheduled to work but were available to work.

While creating or editing this work rule, users can also select a Validate Schedule Label check box, which allows them to create a custom label that will appear on the Scheduling and Timeline Scheduling screens. This label, which can contain up to 10 characters, indicates designed days off on the employees' schedules.

Note: For the earning to apply, the day must have a matching label.

Minimum Daily Worked Hours Earning work rule  (13380)

The Daily Differential work rule category (System Setup > Work Rules > Daily Differential) now includes a Minimum Daily Worked Hours Earning work rule. With this work rule, users can grant an earning based on hours worked to employees who work a specified minimum number of hours or more on their designated days off, that is, days for which employees were not scheduled to work but were available to work.

While creating or editing this work rule, users can also select a Validate Schedule Label check box, which allows them to create a custom label that will appear on the Scheduling and Timeline Scheduling screens. This label, which can contain up to 10 characters, indicates designed days off on the employees' schedules.

Note: For the earning to apply, the day must have a matching label.

Earning Fixed Rate Work Rule  (13521) 

The Earning Rate work rule category (System Setup > Work Rules > Earning Rate) now includes an Earning Fixed Rate work rule. With this work rule, users can designate an earning that is paid at a fixed rate of pay per hours worked. This work rule can be used in situation where employees might need to be paid at a fixed hourly rate that is different than their usual rate. For example, employees might earn an additional $1.00 per hour while training other employees. Users can apply the Earning Fixed Rate Work Rule to add the appropriate earning so that employees are correctly paid.

Daily Salaried Allowance work rule  (13522)

The Daily Differential work rule category (System Setup > Work Rules > Daily Differential) now included a Daily Salaried Allowance work rule. This work rule creates a daily earning to pay a fixed amount for specified days worked at a salaried job. Users can designate days of the week that will populate an allowance so that salaried employees (who do not punch in to Time Clocks) are correctly paid. This work rule applies only to employee jobs that are salary exempt.

Daily, Weekly, Day Off, Consecutive day OT with Minimum Break work rule  (13523)

The Hours Distribution work rule category (System Setup > Work Rules > Hours Distribution) now includes a Daily, Weekly, Day Off, Consecutive day OT with Minimum Break work rule. This work rule enables overtime calculations to include multiple criteria to correctly pay employees. Features of this work rule include:

  • Overtime and double time calculated based off of hours in a work day.
  • Minimum time off between shifts and any hours worked within the minimum hours setting to be set as overtime.
  • A check box for selecting whether employees are paid OT if they work on days for which they are not scheduled.
  • Any day that a shift has not been scheduled. (If there is no shift scheduled to start on a given day, all hours will be considered OT.) 
  • Any hours in excess of a specified number in a work week to be set as overtime.
  • Any hours in excess of a specified number of consecutive days to be set as overtime.
  • Ability to reset consecutive day count after a specified number of days.

No Daily Hours With Label Earning work rule  (13425)

This work rule automatically creates a fixed amount earning for a day on which the configured label matches and no hours are worked. For example, if Monday, August 15 has a label for a required day off but there are no hours worked on that day, the system automatically creates an earning for that required day off.

New rules for setting up schedule labels  (13367) 

Users can now apply Schedule Label work rules (System Setup > Work Rules > Schedule Label) to employees so that labels appear on the Scheduling and Timeline Scheduling screens to indicate whether employees have designated days off and recurring, required days off. These new rules include: 

Available But Not Scheduled Label work rule  (13369) 

The Schedule Label work rule category includes an Available But Not Scheduled Label work rule. Users can apply this work rule to ensure that labels appear on the Scheduling and Timeline Scheduling screens to identify hourly or salaried employees' designated days off on the schedule.

Note: Employees must be active and have an active home job for a label to be created.

Unavailable All Day Label work rule  (13370) 

The Schedule Label work rule category includes an Unavailable All Day Label work rule. Users can apply this work rule to ensure that labels appear on the Scheduling and Timeline Scheduling screens to identify hourly employees' required, recurring days off on the schedule.

Note: Employees must be active and have an active home job for a label to be created.

Modified work rules

Minimum Hours Worked Differential rule  (13322)

The Minimum Hours Worked Differential work rule (System Setup > Work Rules > Daily Differential > Minimum Hours Worked Differential Rule) has been modified to ensure that employees can be paid for a full shift if they work a minimum number of qualifying hours. An earning is applied to the time interval between the established number of hours in a standard workday and the actual hours worked by employees if the employees work a minimum number of qualifying hours. For example, employees agree to work 8 hour workdays. They also agree to work a minimum of 7.5 qualifying hours to receive pay for their full 8-hour shift. If they work 7.5 hours, they will receive pay for 8 hours because the 0.5-hour difference between the 8 hours and the 7.5 hours that they worked is filled with an earning. 

Multiple rule items in the Earnings Rate work rule  (11106)

In previous release, the Earning Rate work rule could only have one rule item configured. To address the need of clients with hours-based earnings that must be paid at different rates/factors, the Earning Rate work rule (System Setup > Work Rules > Earning Rate) has been modified so that multiple rule items can be configured.

Note: The same earning cannot be applied to multiple earning rates in a rule set.

Holiday Types rule item was added to Holiday Eligibility work rules  (12849)

The Holiday Eligibility work rules (System Setup > Work Rules > Holiday Eligibility) have been modified to include a new Holiday Types rule item, which enables users to include specific, rather than all, holidays in the applied rule. This modification addresses payroll issues that might arise in organizations where employees are eligible for different company holidays.