Step 3: Setting up for Leave Policy and Roster

Data preparation: Leave types and leave policy 

1) Create Leave Types 

Note 1* Leave type code cannot be modified after created, while Leave type name can be modified anytime

Note 2* Leave unit and leave type application policy can be defined  

• Go to Attendance --> Leave Type 
• Add New
• Input leave type information
  • Leave Type Code
  • Leave Type Name
  • Leave Unit
  • Decimal Places for Leave Unit 
  • Is balance maintained: If enabled, leave balance will be accumulated and carried forwarded to next period  
  • If  ''Is balance maintained" is enabled, detailed balances of this leave type will be shown in the placement file. eg. How many leave days were brought forward and entitled to this year?
  • Usually, this is enabled when there are limited entitled days such as annual leave, maternity leave, sick leave under EO and compensation leave etc...
• Is counted as times: enabled if maintain balance is enabled but the leave unit is "times", e.g staff can take 6 times of a specific leave type annually
• Is rest day counted as taken: When counting taken leaves includes rest days 
• Is holiday counted as taken: When counting taken leaves includes holiday
• Is visible in application: For employees to apply leave application at ESS
• Is hidden in ESS calendar: If you don't want this leave type shown on the ESS calendar 
• Is request entitlement allowed: Allow employees to apply entitlement. Usually, this is only enabled for compensation leave (eg: when employees claim leave days for working on the holiday or working over timely)
• Minimum days to applied: Minimum hours or days to apply for this leave application
• Minimum days to apply in advance: Minimum days to apply in advance otherwise leave application won't be processed 
• Attachment/Remark option?: If enabled, employees will mandatorily submit leave application with an attachment or remark. Usually, this is enabled for sick leave that requires a certificate or to state their leave reason.
  • None- Both Attachment and Remark are not needed.
  • Attachment Only- Only Attachment is needed.
  • Remark Only- Only Remark is needed.
  • Attachment Or Remark-Either Attachment or Remark is needed, i.e staff can submit the application with Attachment or Remark.
  • Attachment And Remark- Both Attachment and Remark are needed
• Can attachment be submitted later?: If enabled, employees can upload attachment after they have submitted the leave application

2) Create Leave Entitlements 

Note 1* Leave entitlement code cannot be modified after created, while Leave entitlement name can be modified anytime

• Go to Attendance --> Leave Entitlement 
• Add New 
• Define leave type, entitlement code and entitlement name for this leave entitlement 
• Select the common leave year and input its calendar year start date 
• Anniversary Year: Start counting from join date
  Calendar Year: Start counting from the day and month you selected, e.g. 1 January
  Hybrid Year: Using calendar year basis when maintaining balance, but any increment of the entitlement will be counted on the join date (anniversary year basis).  
• More details of ''What is common leave year? How does it affect leave balance?''
• Is leave entitlement granted in advance?: If enabled, employees can grant all current year leave entitled days at the calendar start date, that they don't have to work over a year/month in order to grant leave entitled days of current year/month
• Round up to integer in first year?: If enabled, leave balance will be rounded up and brought forward to next year 
  • eg: If leave balance is 4.3 days, 5 days will be brought forward to next year
  • More details of Round up formulas 
• No entitlement in first 3 months?: If enabled, no entitled days will be granted in the first 3 months of the common leave year, so current leave balance may appear as zero (if there is no B/F balance) but after 3 months, the accumulated leave entitlement days will be added back to leave balance. This setting is referring to Hong Kong labour law. For example, if employees resign in the first 3 months, no annual leave balance will be granted therefore no annual leave pay of current year leave balance is paid. 

ESS leave application setting 

• Must maintain non-negative balance?: ''Nope'' employees could apply for leave application without limit, and their leave balance will turn into a negative balance if they don't have enough balance. ''Yes, against normal balance'' employees could apply leave with pro-rated leave balance as of the end of the year. ''Yes, against actual balance'' employees could only apply leave with pro-rated leave balance as of today. 
• No application within probation: If enabled, employees could not apply for this leave before probation end date (probation end date can be set up in placement)
• Limit application in current period?: If enabled, employees could not apply leave for the next leave period(next month or next year)

Leave periods setting

• Period number: Depends on levels within this leave entitlement
• Period length: The length of the period
• Days entitled: Number of Leave days entitled within the period
• Use number of holiday: Number of Leave days will be entitled according to Holiday Group defined in the roster
• Max days to B/F: Maximum days to brought forward to next period  

3) Create Shifts

Note 1* Shift code cannot be modified after created, while Shift name can be modified anytime

Note 2* Break time does not included in working hours and this break time will divide shift into equal halves 

• Go to Attendance --> Shift
• Add New 
• Shift type: ''Workday'' is a working day that employees need to work. ''Restday'' is a rest day that employees do not work all day and will not report attendance. 
• Start time: shift start time
• End time: shift end time
• Break start time: normally for lunch start time
• Break end time: normally for lunch end time
• Standard working days: 1.0 for a full day shift, 0.5 for a half day shift and so on...this will affect how system record unit of this shift day 
• Standard working hours: the actual working hours of the shift, which normally should exclude the break time 

4) Create Locations for shifts

• Go to Master Data -->Location 
• Add New 

5) Create Rosters

Note 1* Roster code cannot be modified after created, while Roster name can be modified anytime

Note 2* Please fill in all shifts in a roster so the system could define shift time for timesheet, leave application and leave entry

Note3* Timesheet is a monthly based attendance record, that employee's in/out time could be filled manually or imported by the raw data file 

Note4* There are four status for a timesheet: Preparing(timesheet is not completely filled), Pending(timesheet is filled and ready for roster manager's confirmation), Approved(timesheet is confirmed and approved by roster manager, no further modification is allowed

• Go to Attendance --> Roster
• Add New 
• Input Roster code and Roster name
• Is attendance recorded?: if enabled, employee actual in/out time will be recorded in the timesheet. If disabled, no timesheet will be shown in ESS and no attendance could be recorded 
• Is timesheet filled by staff?: if enabled, employees can fill in their in/out time in timesheet
• Is approval required: if enabled, timesheet will remain ''pending'' until it is approved by roster manager
• Is limited to defined shift?: if enabled, no shifts could be created when managing roster in ESS(Employee Self-Services), only existing shifts in Backstage can be used for this roster
• Is rest days paid: if enabled, rest days will be included in the Basic monthly salary 
• Holiday group: Statutory or Public holiday for this roster

Next >  Step 5: Adding Employee Profile Manually