Listed below are the available configuration settings for the ESS application.

Role: District Manager or Admin role.

Absence Management District Configuration

In order for a district to integrate ESS with Frontline’s Absence Management (AESOP) application, the AESOP District Configuration needs to be enabled.

• If converting from Kiosk, the final step of the ESS Import from Kiosk guide is the importing of Kiosk AESOP Configuration data. Once imported, System>Configuration>AESOP District Configuration will be populated with the provided CSV information*. If the AESOP_DATA_INTEGRATION is marked as 'Y' on the CSV file, the ‘Enable AESOP Data Sync’ will be automatically checked.

• If new to ESS/AESOP integration (did not convert from Kiosk), steps will be provided in the near future.

• More information on the AESOP Integration is listed here.

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Data Template Definitions:

• Enable Absence Management (AESOP) Data Sync

• API Key

• Org ID

• Vendor ID

• Vendor Pin

• Absence Data Template

• Absence Data for Update Template

• Absence Cancelled/Deleted (Absence Log Data) Template

• Absence Updated (Absence Log Data Template

• Substitute Assigned (Absence Log Data) Template

• Substitute Removed (Absence Log Data) Template

• Employee Information Template

• School Information Template

• Absence Reason Type Template

• Enable Absence Management (AESOP) Data Integration Flag - STAFF ID

Application Configuration

This configuration option will default to Production with External Notifications and User Jobs enabled unless the APPLICATION_INSTANCE_TYPE is updated in the Docker Configuration. When configuring Non-Production instances (training/test) this can be used to prevent scheduled jobs or notifications from sending from both the live database and test database. Uncheck the corresponding check box to disable External Notifications or User Job Execution.

• "External Notification Enabled":  If this option is disabled, then any "notifications" (email, FTP, etc) which are addressed to any non-local system will be disabled.   Internal notifications or notifications involving "localhost" will remain enabled.

• "User Job Execution Enabled":  If this option is disabled, all jobs scheduled by users in this instance will not execute at the scheduled time.

The above options default to "enabled" when the APPLICATION_INSTANCE_TYPE is set to "Production".  All other instance types will default to disabling both external notifications and user jobs

For additional information see the Redesign Technical Documentation page for How to Configure Non-Production Instances. ?

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Default Substitute for Appointment Type Configuration

• Certificated: When checked, the ‘Substitute Needed’ on the certificated employee’s leave request will always be checked by default regardless of type of leave. When submitting leave, they won’t have the option of unchecking ‘Substitute Needed’.

• Classified: When checked, the ‘Substitute Needed’ on the certificated employee’s leave request will always be checked by default regardless of type of leave. When submitting leave, they won’t have the option of unchecking ‘Substitute Needed’.

ESS Functionality Configuration

Select the ESS functionality available for a district. NOTE: You will receive a pop-up when saving “NOTE: This change may not take full effect until page is refreshed. Click here to refresh”. Once you refresh, the change will take place.

• Announcement Board:  If checked, it displays the Announcement Board panel on the Home screen.

• Employee Time Sheet: If checked, it displays Timesheet capabilities on the menu in order for user to create timesheets in ESS

• Leave Analysis Parameters: Provide users leave balance information and any “in process” requests on the same screen. (ESS-335 and ESS-336)

• Leave Requests: If checked, it displays the Leave Requests capabilities on the menu in order for users to create leave requests in ESS.

• Payslips: If checked, it displays the View/Print Payslip option on the menu in order for users to view and/or download payslip information that came from USPS.

• Substitute Needed: N/A: will be removed (ESS-425)

• W2 Wage and Tax Statements - If checked, it displays the View/Print W2 option on the menu in order for users to view and/or download W2 information that came from USPS.

Email Configuration

If using Leave Request Approval workflows in ESS, the email configuration must be configured in order for users and approvers to receive email notifications.

• Application Link is the full URL to the district’s Employee Self Service application. When filled in, leave request and timesheet emails will include the link in the email. Without the URL, no link to the application will be included in the leave request or timesheet emails.

• Default Administrator Address is not being used at this time.  It is potentially to be used for reporting outages or email replies from an administrator but this is not something that has been implemented at this time. This can be left either as "root" or can be left blank and emails generated from the software (jobs) will come from the Default From Address.  (The Default Administrator Address could be something like "root@mx.servername.com.)

• Default From Address is a valid Email Address of the sender. It will be used when sending emails from the application.

• The SMTP Host and Port information must also be entered for emails to be sent. Generally, the Port and SMTP Host information would be known by the ITC. (The port is often, but not always 25).

• Username and Password: (optional) login credentials if required to access the mail server

• Enable Start TLS is an email security protocol. For example, the box should be checked if the district has MS Exchange Office 365 with SMTP authentication enabled. 

Employee Profile Configuration

Controls what is displayed under a user’s Employee Profile.

If the following are checked, they will display under the Profile tab on the Employee Profile record:

• show ID Information

• Show Name Information

• Show Other Information

If the following is checked, it will display under the Contact Info tab on the Employee Profile record:

• Show Contact Information

If the following is checked, it will display under the Dates tab on the Employee Profile record:

• Show Employee Dates Information

If the following are checked, they will display under the Qualifications tab on the Employee Profile record:

• Show Experience Information

• Show Qualification Information

Forgot Password Configuration

Allow you to change the forgot password settings. Default settings are displayed below but can be changed if necessary.

• NOTE: Local Authentication only

• Minimum Minutes until Expiration that can be set is 5 minutes

• Minimum Temporary Password length that can be set is 8 characters.

Job Status Configuration

Determines the job statuses on employee’s position that are displayed in Position Details. The statuses are pulled from USPS and may include Active, Deceased, Inactive and Terminated status, depending on if it is selected (checkmarked).

Leave Balance Details Configuration

Controls the columns displayed under a user’s Leave Information>Leave Balances tab. All boxes are checked by default.

• Show Accumulation Max: If unchecked, ‘Absence Max’ column is removed

• Show Balance: If unchecked, ‘Balance’ column is removed

• Show Beginning Balance: If unchecked, ‘Beginning Balance’ column is removed

• Show Leave Type: If unchecked, ‘Leave Type' column is removed

• Show Monthly Accrual: If unchecked, ‘Monthly Accrual’ is removed

• Show Unit: If unchecked, ‘Unit’ is removed.

Leave Expenses Configuration

• Used primarily for Professional Leave requests if the district prefers employees fill out estimated leave expenses when creating their leave request. The configuration settings allow you to control what is displayed in the Leave Expense area of the leave request. For more information on how to include the Leave Expense area when creating a specific type of leave request, please refer to the Leave Type Configuration’s Capture Expense option.

• Mileage Rates: You can enter a mileage rate for certified and classified staff. Entering a mileage rate in certified will apply to staff with an appointment type of certified and the classified rate will apply to staff with an appointment type of classified.

• If the following are checked:

  • Show Budget Account Approvers: Future Improvement INV-620

  • Show Budget Acct Everyone: Future Improvement INV-620

  • Show Estimated Costs: Displays ‘Estimated Costs’ section on the Leave Expense area of the leave request

  • Show Event Location Displays ‘Event Location’ section on the Leave Expense area of the leave request

  • Show Leave Purpose: Displays ‘Purpose of Leave/Leave Description’ section on the Leave Expense area of the leave request

  • Show Vendor Location: Displays 'Vendor Location' section on the Leave Expense area of the leave request.

Leave Request Workflow Configuration

Allows you to customize the verbiage on the default emails sent during the leave request workflow approval process. Variables listed in image below are included in the following email details. Please click on the arrow to view the details of each email.

• Request Submitted Email Details: Email sent to Leave Request Submitter when their leave request has been initially submitted.

• Approver Email Details: Email sent to each approver in a group when a leave request requires their approval.

• Request Approval Email Details: Email sent to Leave Request Submitter when their leave request has been approved.

• Request Rejection Email Details: Email sent to Leave Request Submitter when their leave request has been rejected.

• Escalated Approval Email Details: Email sent to Leave Request Submitter when their leave request has gone through escalated approval.

Leave Time Configuration

Ability to set the leave time increments for daily and hourly leave increments when creating a leave request. Recommendation: should be set the same way it is configured in USPS

Daily Increments:

• No restrictions

• 1/4 day

• 1/2 day

• 1 day

Hourly increments

• No restrictions

• 1/4 hour

• 1/2 hour

• 1 hour

Leave Type Configuration

If your district has configured the use of Leave Requests, the Leave Type Configuration option will allow you to further define each leave type.

Listed below are the available Leave Type Configuration options:

• Available Leave Types: By default, all leave types are checked. If your district does not want to implement one or more of the leave types listed, uncheck the desired leave type(s) and it will not appear as a listed leave type when creating a leave request.

• Reason Required: If checked on specific leave type(s), it will require users to enter a Reason when creating a leave request.

• Default Substitute Needed: If specific leave type(s) requires a substitute, check the appropriate leave type(s) and the ‘Substitute Needed’ box will be checked automatically when creating a leave request. Once the leave request has been submitted, the ‘Substitute Needed’ box cannot be unchecked.

• Capture Expense: If specific leave type(s) requires estimated expenses to be defined, check the appropriate leave type(s) and the Leave Expenses area will be displayed in the leave request allowing the user to enter estimated expenses.

• Sub Category Required: If you require staff to select a sub category for specific leave type(s), check the appropriate leave type(s). Additional prompting will be provided in the leave request where the user can select a sub category. Sub Categories are defined under the Leave Management menu.

• Disallow Blackout Date: If you want to restrict leave requests from being created for black out dates (defined under the Leave Management menu) for specific leave type(s), check the appropriate leave type(s). TIP: Please refer to USPS calendars for the black out dates that need to be created in ESS.

• Required Cancellation Reason: For specific leave types, if you require staff enter a reason when canceling an existing leave request, check the appropriate leave type(s).

• Disallow Negative Balances: If you want to restrict leave requests from being created due to negative leave balances, please check the appropriate leave type(s).

Password Expiration Configuration

Ability to set the password expiration on a user account. If set (i.e. 90 days), when a user selects the ‘change password’ option in ESS, it will auto populate the password expiration date field to a date 90 days after the created date. The user’s password will expire on the password expiration date and the user will be required to change the password after this date. NOTE: This will not affect users with Active Directory accounts.

You may select No Expiration, 30 Days, 90 Days or 180 Days.

Payslip Configuration

If payslips are enabled for the district, it will, by default, pull all payslips from USPS, including the archived payslips from Classic USPS and display them in the employee’s Payslip grid. If the district doesn’t wish to include the archived Classic USPS payslips, you can uncheck ‘Include Archived Payslips', and the Classic USPS payslips will no longer be displayed under the user’s payslip grid.

Position Details Configuration

Controls what is displayed under a user’s Position Details.

Please refer to the image below. If any of the following fields are unchecked in the Position Details Configuration, those fields will no longer be displayed under the user’s position details.

Timesheet Configuration

The Time Entry Precision can be set to increase/decrease ‘Hours Worked’ and ‘Break Time’ on a user’s timesheet form. If timesheet employees are required to enter a reason for overtime items on their timesheet, please ensure ‘Require Reason for Overtime Items’ is checked. ESS-851 will improve how these settings are displayed on the user’s timesheet.

Hourly increments

• No restrictions

• 1/4 hour

• 1/2 hour

• 1 hour

Timesheet Period Close Configuration

If a district would like their timesheet periods to close automatically, the ‘Automatically Close Periods’ setting must be checked. The district can then specify how many days after the period ending date the timesheet period will be closed. For example, if the timesheet end date is 09/28, and the ‘days after end date to close’ is set to 3 days, the period will automatically close on 10/1.

This setting applies to both manually and automatically created timesheet periods. The maximum ‘days after the the end date to close’ is 7 days.

Timesheet Workflow Configuration

Allows you to customize the verbiage on the default emails sent during the timesheet workflow approval process. Variables listed in image below are included in the following email details. Please click on the arrow to view the details of each email.

• Timesheet Submitted Email Details: Email sent to Timesheet Submitter when their timesheet has been initially submitted.

• Approver Email Details: Email sent to each approver in a group when a timesheet requires their approval.

• Timesheet Approval Email Details: Email sent to Timesheet Submitter when their timesheet has been approved.

• Timesheet Rejection Email Details: Email sent to Timesheet Submitter when their timesheet has been rejected.

• Escalated Approval Email Details: Email sent to Timesheet Submitter when their timesheet has gone through escalated approval.

White List Configuration

Whitelisted URLs are managed under the ‘Custom Links’ menu option and appear on the Home screen under Custom Links. If a website has been whitelisted, once a user clicks on it from the Home screen, they will be taken directly to the new site on click. For websites that have not been whitelisted, a dialog box will appear to warn the user they are navigating to the website. If a district would prefer only White List links to appear on the Home Screen, they can check the Show White List Links Only under the White List Configuration menu.