Module(s) Affected: Payroll

DESCRIPTION

One of the most common provisions that companies offer is the paid leave provision. The paid leave benefit may vary depending on the employee’s length of service and position in the company. Most often, an employee will receive additional paid leave credits by achieving a defined number of years in service with the company.

Monitoring the employee’s anniversary dates maybe a daunting and tedious task especially if the company has a large number of employees. Starting in AccountMate 7 for SQL, Express and LAN, AccountMate implements the Automatic Leave Tier Update feature that automatic updates each employee’s leave tier on his/her anniversary date. This feature provides a more convenient way to update employee leave tiers and facilitates accurate accrual of employee leave benefits.

This TechNote discusses the procedures necessary to set up automatic Paid Leave tier updates and how AccountMate calculates the Paid Leave Next Tier Anniversary Date. This document also enumerates the reports that display Paid Leave Tier information.

SOLUTION

1. Setting up Automatic Leave Tier Update

   To set up automatic leave tier update, perform the procedures below:

   1. Set up Paid Leave Code Maintenance
      1. In the Paid Leave Code Maintenance function, mark the Automatically Update Employee Tier on Anniversary Date checkbox.
      2. Select either of the options below to automatically update the employee’s Paid Leave tier settings.
         1. Update in Current Pay Period
            Select this option if you want to update the employee paid leave tier to the next tier if the Next Tier Anniversary Date falls on or before the apply payroll period’s end date.

            For example, the apply payroll/post-after-the fact payroll period is from June 15 to 30, 2009. If the Next Tier Anniversary Date is on or before June 30, 2009, AccountMate will use the next tier settings to calculate the accrued leave for the pay period.

            If the Next Tier Anniversary Date is after June 30, 2009, AccountMate will use the current tier settings to calculate the accrued leave for the pay period.

         2. Update in Next Pay Period
            Select this option if you want to update the employee paid leave tier to the next tier when the Next Tier Anniversary Date falls before the apply payroll period’s start date.

            For example, the apply payroll/post-after-the fact payroll period is from June 15 to 30, 2009. If the Next Tier Anniversary Date is before June 15, 2009, AccountMate will use the next tier settings to calculate the accrued leave for the pay period.

            If the Next Tier Anniversary Date is on or after June 15, 2009, AccountMate will use the current tier settings to calculate the accrued leave for the pay period.

      3. Set up Paid Leave tier codes in the Tier grid. Enter the number of years and months that must pass from an employee’s hire date before a tier applies to the employee. Enter the tier code’s details including the minimum number of hours an employee is required to work before he/she can accumulate paid leave, maximum leave hours, maximum carry over hours, and accrued hours.

      Note: Refer to the Online Help for more information on how to set up a Paid Leave code record.

   2. Access the Earning Code Maintenance function; then, in the Accumulate Paid tab, mark the Accumulate checkboxes adjacent to the Paid Leave codes.
   3. Set up the Paid Leave code in the Employee Maintenance.
      1. Enter or accept the Earning Codes that accumulate paid leave.
      2. Access the Paid Leave tab in the Employee Maintenance.
      3. Click the Refresh button to reflect all the Paid Leave codes assigned for the Earning Codes used.
      4. Accept or update the default Paid Leave Tier values.

         Note: Once a Paid Leave code is assigned to an employee record, you can no longer change the settings in the Automatically Update Employee Tier on Anniversary Date area.

      5. Specify in the Adj(Days) field the number of days to be added to or to be subtracted from the years and months values in the paid leave code record to calculate the next tier anniversary date.
2. Calculating the Next Tier Anniversary Date

   To calculate the Next Tier Anniversary date, use the formula below:

   Next Tier Anniversary Date = [Hire Date] + [# of years] + [# of months] – [Adj (Days)]

   For example: An employee’s Hire Date is on 01/31/2009 and the following are the assigned Paid Leave code’s settings:

   Leave Code	Tier	Years	Months	Adj(Days)
   VACATION	1	0	1	0
   	2	1	0	90
   	3	3	2	-25

   Scenario 1: The Paid Leave code in the Employee Maintenance is currently in Tier 1.

   AccountMate takes the first lowest tier as the default current tier. Since you are currently in Tier 1, the Next Tier Anniversary Date is the date when the next tier (i.e. Tier 2) will take effect. This will occur either on the current or next pay period depending on the Automatic Update Employee Tier settings. Based on the table, Tier 2 will take effect on 11/02/2009; that is one year less 90 days from the hire date, which is on 01/31/2009. The date is computed as follows:

   Next Tier Anniversary Date (Tier 2)= [01/31/2009 + 1 years + 0 month – 90 days]

   Scenario 2: Paid Leave code in the Employee Maintenance is currently in Tier 2.

   The anniversary date for Tier 3 will take effect either on the current or next pay period depending on the Automatic Update Employee Tier setting. Tier 3 will take effect on 04/25/2012; that is 3 years and 2 months plus 25 days from the hire date, which is on 01/31/2009. The date is computed as follows:

   Next Tier Anniversary Date (Tier 3) = [01/31/2009 + 3 years + 2 months – (-25 days)]

3. Reports

   The Paid Leave Code Listing and the Employee Paid Leave Listing are useful to view all the Paid Leave code tier information. The Paid Leave Code Listing Report displays information about the paid leave code tier update type, paid leave code’s tier level, automatic paid leave years and month values. It also provides information about all the paid leave code records including the Accrual Method, Liability Account, Qualifying Hours, Maximum Leave Hours and Maximum Carry Over hours.

   The Employee Paid Leave Listing report provides information about the paid leave codes set up in AccountMate, including the Tier level, Adj(Days) and Next Tier Date as well as the Carry Over, Accumulated, Used and Balance leave hours.

The information in this TechNote is provided as a guide to help you properly set up the automatic leave tier update options and Paid Leave tier combinations for each employee. Understanding the Automatic Leave Tier Update feature can save you time and effort when you update the employee leave tiers and can help ensure accurate employee leave accrual