You can associate each absence type with a recurring or nonrecurring absence element. Each element has an input value with either hours or days as its unit of measure.
Nonrecurring element entries are valid for one payroll period. When you enter an absence of a type associated with a nonrecurring element, the application creates an element entry for the period in which the absence start date falls. For example, if you enter an absence that starts on 4 May for someone on a monthly payroll, the entry is dated 01 May to 31 May.
The entry is only created when you enter the absence end date, and you must enter the absence duration at the same time. The duration can be defaulted if you set up an absence duration formula. The full value of the absence duration is recorded in the absence element entry, even if the end date falls outside of the payroll period.
Attention: This option is only available if you use Oracle Payroll and the Proration functionality is enabled in your localization.
UK Users: If you use the Statutory Absence Payments feature you must continue to use nonrecurring elements to record long term sick leave.
Use this approach if you want to begin processing absences before end dates are recorded. You do not enter absence duration on the recurring element entry. Instead, you use a payroll formula to calculate the absence duration to be processed in each payroll period. Use the absence duration formula to calculate the duration displayed on the Absence Detail window. This value is deducted from the current PTO accrual when you enter an end date for an absence type that is associated with a PTO accrual plan.
Recurring element entries start on the absence start date and end on the absence end date (if there is an end date). If the absence ends in the middle of a payroll period, the payroll run detects and processes the absence using the proration functionality.
When you define an absence type, you specify whether the application should maintain an increasing balance, a decreasing balance, or no balance of time off. The balance is a running total of the hours or days an employee has taken for the absence type, as recorded in the Duration field.
As you would expect, an increasing balance for an absence type starts with no time entered, and increases as you enter employees' hours or days absent. For example, if the absence type Compassionate Leave has an increasing balance, the balance starts from zero for each employee and increases by the number of hours entered for each absence of this type.
Increasing balances are appropriate for most absence types. For absence types for which your enterprise sets a maximum time allowed, the system issues a message when an entry of time absent exceeds this maximum, or Oracle Alert can notify you when an employee reaches the maximum time or takes excess time.
See: Oracle Alert User's Guide
When defining an absence type for a PTO accrual plan, you give it an increasing balance that shows the employee's accrued time taken. When you record an absence using the Absence Detail window, you can see the amount of accrued time a plan participant has available for use as vacation or sick leave.
If your enterprise sets a maximum time allowed for an absence type, you have the option of setting up a decreasing balance for this type, instead of an increasing balance. (If the absence type is used for a PTO accrual plan, it is simpler to use an increasing balance and an accrual formula that records an up-front accrual amount.)
For example, suppose your enterprise allows certain employees 32 hours leave per year for professional development. The Professional Leave absence type can have a decreasing balance, and an initial entry of 32 hours.
If you record an employee absence of 4 hours for this absence type, the decreasing balance shows 28 hours still available to be taken.
Decreasing absence balances require more maintenance than increasing balances. They need a prorated initial balance entry for all eligible new hires throughout the year, and require resetting each year for all eligible employees.
Notice that an absence type cannot have both a decreasing and an increasing balance; it has one or the other.
You can initialize or adjust an absence balance using the Element Entries window, or the Element Entry API. You can also initialize a decreasing balance by entering a negative value using BEE. For example, if you enter -16 hours using BEE, a decreasing balance starts at 16 hours. However, be aware that using BEE creates an absence record that will show on employees' absence history.
You can define an absence element as an Information element or an Earnings element.
If you define an Information absence element, you can use a recurring Earnings element to manage the calculation and payment of vacation and sick pay. When you define the absence element, you check the Database Item box for the input value that holds the absence balance. Entries to this input value then become database items that formulas for payroll calculations can access.
US Users: You will typically set up your absence elements in the Information classification for employees who do not submit timecards (Timecard Required = No on the Statutory Information tab of the Assignment window). If you are using the seeded Regular Salary or Regular Wages elements, the payroll run creates indirect results for the seeded Vacation Pay or Sick Pay elements when it finds absence entries in the Vacation or Sickness categories. These elements appear on the Statement of Earnings, but the Information elements do not. You do not need to set up any additional absence Earnings elements for these employees.
Other localizations: Typically, you define an Earnings element to have a skip rule that triggers processing when it finds an entry for the absence element. The element's payroll formula uses the database item for the entry value so that it automatically gets the sum of all the entries in the pay period. Then, using the salary database item to get the salary or hourly rate, it calculates the total absence pay for the period. You can also use the formula to reduce regular earnings for the period so employees do not get paid twice.
The advantage of this approach is that it simplifies the processing of absence payments into one calculation.
Select the Earnings classification for absence elements if you want to process absences individually in each payroll period. You can use these elements with Oracle Time and Labor. This approach creates a one-line entry on the statement of earnings for each absence type. Typically, you would create nonrecurring Sick and Vacation Pay earnings elements. You can also create different absence elements for each rate or multiple of pay if the element must appear on the statement of earnings as a different line item.
US Users: For employees who do submit timecards (making entries in BEE to the Time Entry Wages element), you can create your absence elements as Earnings. This also applies if you do not use the seeded Regular Salary and Regular Wages elements, and you want your absence payment to show on the Statement of Earnings. Use the Earnings window to initiate the element. Select the Category Regular and check the Reduce Regular box.
Oracle Payroll users: If you enter or update an absence retrospectively, or you delete an absence that started in the past, these changes are listed in the Retro Notification report the next time you run this report. This enables you to use RetroPay to correct any payroll processing.