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Do you ever have moments you wish you could see balances (including accruals and absence information) for specific employee(s) and for a specific date range all on one report? The wait is over! The newly added Leave Activity Report will provide you with just that.
How the Report Works:
Ask yourself a couple questions:
- What date range do I wish to show the balance for?
Enter those dates in the Begin Date and End Date fields. The Begin Date is used to determine the beginning balance 'as of this date' for the leave type specified. The End Date is used to determine the ending balance 'as of this date' for the leave type specified.
- Do I wish to include all leave types in the report?
Sick leave, personal leave, and vacation leave can all be included in the report. By default, all three leave types are selected. To select a different combination, use the left arrow (or highlight the option and use the left arrow) to move the undesired options to the Available column.
- Are there specific employee(s) I want to run the report for?
In the Select Employees section, begin typing an employee name or ID. Then select the employee from the list and click Add. Any number of employees can be selected. By def
The report provides the leave balance as of the begin date entered, the leave balance as of the end date entered, and then all of the absences and accumulations that were entered and applied to the balance to show how the employee went from the begin balance to the end balance. We used the applied date because that is the date the absence/accum truly affected the leave balance. If I'm not using deferred absence posting and I enter a personal day for today for an employee who will be out a day next week, that employees personal balance in the system reflects the usage today. So the report was setup to show this by using the applied date. This employee's balance in the system as of today is lower by 1 personal day even though that day off is not happening until next week. So if I run the report with an end date of today, it should show the personal day being removed from the balance. If the report worked using the activity date, the report would show a different balance for the employee as of today (the personal balance would be higher by 1 day) and would not match what the system shows for the balance as of today.So our thinking was that the report would show the absences/accums that have been applied to the balance between the dates entered on the report. The 'Activity' part of the report name was not intended to mean 'Activity Date'. It was just meant as this is the leave activity (absences and accumulations) that caused the balance to go from the begin balance to the end balance. We may also want to see what the team thinks about possibly changing the report prompts for Begin Date and End Date to be something like Show Balance as of Begin Date and Show Balance as of End Date. There is a tooltip in place on the report fields that indicates this, but maybe that is not being seen by the users.
Custom Forms in USPS Public Shared Reports Library
The Public Shared Reports Library includes various customized report definitions that you can download and import into the Report Manager grid in either USAS or USPS. The reason for this library is to encourage ITC fiscal support staff to share customized report definitions with other state software users that have been helpful for their own districts. All shared report definitions are tested by the SSDT before they are added to the library. You can easily access the library by clicking on the option under the Help menu in your instance.
It will redirect you to the main reports library wiki page where you can click on a link to access either the USAS or USPS libraries. Listed below is a partial image of the USPS shared reports library wiki page.
We recently added custom direct deposit and salary form templates under the 'Custom Form Templates' section of the library, providing various form layouts you can choose from. One of these formats could also be a starting point, allowing you to even further customize it to fit your needs. If you need further instructions on how to customize a salary notice form, please refer to this month's 'Video Spotlight' on salary notices. It provides tips and tricks on how to customize the form as well as how to import the form and generate salary notices.
Five Year Forecast: Review and Extract
It's Spring Update time! The Five Year Forecast update window for submitting to ODE is closing at the end of this month. There are some helpful tools available in USAS to help with reviewing and extracting your forecast data. These can be used to help with the current submission or to keep tabs on your forecast figures throughout the year!
Accounts
Before we get to the actual submission, let's talk about how USAS keeps track of forecast accounts! If you review your Core > Account grid, the Expenditure and Revenue account records include a field for the Forecast Line #. This field is automatically assigned to the account by USAS when it is created IF that code meets the proper parameters. These parameters are based on the Category/Line Number fields as defined in the ODE EMIS Manual.
Reports
Five Year Forecast Extract
Useful links:
- SSDT Wiki
- April Release Recap
- Newsletters Home Page
- SSDT Documentation
- Inventory Documentation
- SSDT YouTube Channel
- Inventory YouTube Playlist
We have a 2 for 1 special for you this month! One of our latest trainings with ITC staff included New Contract preparations. Covered in this video is how to create new contracts using new contract maintenance, mass copy compensations, importing new contracts and non-contract compensations.
In addition to that is a separate recording on Salary Notices. We take you through how to generate and email salary notices as well as how to customize a salary notice form in Word.
New Position Building/Department UI under Core>Codes
You can now create, update and delete Building and Department Codes in its own UI under Core.
For more information, please click here.
The Codes are available to STANDARD_READONLY_USER, STANDARD_USER and GROUP_MANAGER. Any other Roles will need to add USPS_STANDARD_CODE:
- _VIEW
- _UPDATE
- _CREATE
- _DELETE
If using Mass Load>Positions, the updated fields are:
- buildingCode.code
- departmentCode.code
The hotfix of 6.91.2, USPSR-6577, updated the Position Template records to add the building/department codes:
Options Available for Closing Purchase Orders
As the end of the fiscal year approaches, you have the option to close purchase orders that will no longer be used so that account encumbrances are not carried forward to the next fiscal year.
Depending on the Rules set at your district, there are different ways to close a purchase order.
- If you have an open purchase order that has never been invoiced, you can Amend the purchase order and click on the Cancel button on the PO line item(s) to close the purchase order.
- If the last partially paid invoice is in a closed or archived posting period and the rule is set to prevent opening a previously closed posting period, an AP Invoice can be created to cancel the remaining encumbrance amounts by selecting the remaining open PO item(s) and selecting the status ‘Cancel_Full’.
- If the last partially paid invoice is in an open posting period, or if the posting period can be reopened, you can change the status on the previously paid invoice to 'full' to cancel the remaining encumbrance(s). Sort the AP invoice grid by the purchase order & date, navigate to the last paid invoice, click
to view the invoice. Click 'Full'. A helpful tool tip is provided when hovering over the Action button stating the action that will be taken if you click on it.
Mass Inactivating Accounts in USAS
Cleaning up accounts from prior fiscal years? Closing a building code? The best way to go about mass inactivating accounts that are no longer being used depends on the situation, user preference or grouping of accounts. For more information on the options available, please refer to our May 2022 feature article on how to mass inactivate accounts.