ESS FAQs - Frequently Asked Questions

Blackout Dates

1. Do blackout dates appear on leave calendars?

   1. Yes. Blackout dates now appear on the Calendars if the Blackout date is enabled.

2. How do I restrict users from creating a leave request on a blackout day?

   1. District must access System>Configuration>Leave Type Configuration, and check the ‘Disallow Blackout Date’ box for any specific leave types they want restricted. This will prevent an employee from creating a leave request for the specified leave type during a blackout period.

3. Does the Leave Manager get notified when a leave request is created on a blackout date?

   1. Yes, if the blackout date’s ‘Notify Managers’ is marked, users with the leave manager role will be sent an email when a user creates a leave request on a blackout date.

4. If I have an existing leave request and a new blackout date is created that falls on the same date as my leave request, what happens to my request?

   1. When the Leave Manager creates the blackout date, and the corresponding leave type is set to ‘disallow blackout dates’, a pop-up warning notification will display stating there are existing leave requests that will be canceled once the blackout date is created. If they proceed, your leave request will be automatically updated to a canceled status. NOTE: It will only cancel leave requests with a status of initiated or approved. It will not cancel exported or rejected leave requests.

Email Notifications

1. Does a requester receive an email notification that their leave request was submitted? Does their approver?

   1. Yes, if email is configured for the district in ESS, the requester will receive an email when the leave request is submitted. During the workflow approval process, it will send an email to each approver in the group chain at the time they are required to approve the leave request. Group members with  “Read-only access with notifications” will also receive an email notification.

2. Does the requester receive an email notification if their approved leave request is canceled? Does their approver?

   1. Yes, When a Leave Request is cancelled, each approver that approved the Leave Request, as well as the owner of the Leave Request, will be sent an email to their email address notifying them of the cancellation, the user who cancelled the request, as well as a summary of the request in question.

3. When I submit a data change request on my employee record in ESS, do I get notified via email when the change has been made? Does the Data Change Manager get notified via email?

   1. Currently, the requester will not receive an email notification when their employee record has been submitted, approved or updated. Currently, the Data Change Manager will not receive an email notification. However, ESS-948 (scheduled for the 2024.13.0 release) will notify the data change manager via email when a data change request has been submitted. We also recommend the Data Change Manager review the Data Change Management grid periodically to approve/reject data change requests.

4. Our district is tracking 'substitutes needed' on the ESS system. Is the sub coordinator notified via email if a leave request is entered, canceled or rejected?

   1. Currently, the sub coordinator is not receiving updates via email ESSFB-55. The Substitute Coordinator has access to the Sub Coordinator grid which contains outstanding leave requests that have been marked with ‘substitute needed’. This grid is automatically refreshed every 5 minutes in order to keep it up-to-date on outstanding leave requests that need a substitute scheduled.

Leave/Leave Requests

1. How can a supervisor view/approve leaves for their staff under Leaves and Calendars?

   1. First, ensure the group/group chain is set up correctly in order for the supervisor to view/approve their staff’s leave requests.

   2. The supervisor must have the ‘Leave Request Approver’ role to approve leave

2. Do the balances in my ‘Leave Information’ area of ESS take into account all leave requests statuses I currently have in ESS?

   • No, the leave balances under ESS>Leave Information comes directly from the current USPS leave balances.   It will not tally up your outstanding leave requests in ESS and produce a balance that includes them. Examples:

     • If you currently have a sick leave balance in USPS of 15 days, your sick leave balance in ESS will be 15 days.  If you have outstanding sick leave requests in ESS, they are not subtracted from your leave information in ESS. 

     • If you have exported sick leave requests that have NOT been loaded into USPS yet, they are NOT subtracted from your leave information in ESS.  Once the exported sick leave is loaded into USPS, it will update the USPS leave balances and automatically sync those leave balances with the leave information in ESS, thus updating your leave information balances in ESS.

3. How do I get the leave expense area to appear on the leave request form in order for users to fill out their estimated leave expenses?

   1. Ensure the System>Configuration>Leave Expenses Configuration has the correct/selected options configured

   2. Ensure the System>Configuration>Leave Type Configuration’s ‘Capture Expense’ is checked for the desired leave type (i.e. professional)

   3. Users with Leave Manager role will be able to view all district leave requests that contain leave expense information under Leave Management>Leave Expense Report (view only grid).

   4. NOTE: Please refer to Leave Request Status breakdown to determine who is able to edit the leave expense area on a leave request form.

4. What does an elevated create leave request do?

   1. Allows users with Leave Manager, District Manager or Admin role the ability to create a leave requests for another ESS user in their district.

5. My district doesn’t use Leave Requests in ESS. What needs to be turned off in ESS so we don’t see the Leave Request options?

   1. Ensure the System>Configuration>ESS Functionality Configuration’s Leave Requests option is not checked.

6. Who can create, edit, cancel, reject, approve or export a leave request. I’m having trouble determining who (roles) can do what depending on the status of the leave request. Any guidance?

   1. Absolutely. Our appendix contains a Leave Request Status breakdown of the key statuses of a leave request and who (roles) has the ability to manage and monitor the leave request at a particular status.

7. Can I delete my leave request? Can a supervisor delete a leave request? Can a leave manager delete a leave request?

   1. Our appendix contains a Leave Request Status breakdown of the key statuses of a leave request and who (roles) has the ability to manage and monitor the leave request at a particular status.

8. Can I cancel my leave request that has already been approved?

   1. Our appendix contains a Leave Request Status breakdown of the key statuses of a leave request and who (roles) has the ability to manage and monitor the leave request at a particular status.

9. Can I cancel my leave request that has already been exported and posted to USPS? If so, how does this affect USPS?

   1. Currently, there is not a way to cancel an exported leave requests in ESS or to create a negative leave request in ESS in order to back it out of both ESS and USPS. Our recommendation:

      1. In ESS, leave manager, district manage or Admin roles can back out the exported leave request via Leave Management>Export Leave History using the revert option. After clicking ‘Revert’, you have the option to select individual leave requests you would like to revert or select the top checkbox to select all. The leave request(s) will revert to an approved status. From there, the requester can cancel the leave request under their ‘My Leave Requests’ grid.

      2. In USPS, the district may create an adjustment to the employees attendance/leave record.

10. When exporting leave using the 'Direct to USPS' option, if the resulting file includes any errors,  does it reject the entire file or only the items that incurred an error?

    1. Successful line items will get posted to USPS and only failures will be reported on the resultant file.

11. If I revert leave in ESS, does it automatically update it in USPS?

    1. No, it does not make any automatic updates in USPS.

Leave Calendars

1. After filtering my calendar, it does not seem to save my settings? Why?

   1. Correct, currently, when you use the ‘Filters’ on a calendar, it does not retain your settings once you exit leave calendars. ESSFB-87

2. Standard User has been assigned the Leave Calendar by Building role. Under Leave Calendars, the ‘District Leave Calendar’ is display but the calendar is blank. How can the user see the calendars for her building?

   1. Currently, they will need to click on ‘Filters’ to select the desired building codes in order to display staff who have positions defined for that building. The staff leave requests for their building will then be displayed on the user’s ‘district leave’ calendar.

3. Standard User has been assigned the Leave Calendar by Department Code

4. Standard User has been assigned the Leave Calendar by District Building

5. Standard User has been assigned the Leave Calendar by Pay Group

6. Standard User has been assigned the Leave Calendar for District Staff

7. Is the leave type sub category included on the Leave Calendars? For example, SI is displayed for sick leave however the sub category (FI for family illness) is not.

   1. Currently the sub category on leave request details do not appear on leave calendars.

8. What does the image below reference on a leave calendar?

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   It displays the name - Type of leave (PR for personal) and length of leave (i.e. 3 days)

9. Can I print a leave calendar?

   1. Currently you cannot. ESSFB-31

User Accounts/Roles

1. Can a user self register in ESS?

   1. Yes, if your district would prefer you self register for a new account in ESS, please click on ‘Register User’ link on the ESS login page.

2. What does a converted from Kiosk user need to do in order to initially log into ESS?

   1. Your existing Kiosk username will, by default, become your ESS username. Your ESS user account will contain the same access (roles) you had in Kiosk. Your Kiosk password will no longer work and you will be need to set up a new password in ESS using ‘Forgot Password’.

3. Some of our users who were Kiosk approvers are not converting to ESS with an approver role. Why is that?

   1. The user must have ‘Leave Request Approver’ role in ESS (this role is not a converted user role from Kiosk) in order to approve their staff’s leave requests. In Kiosk, supervisors could approve if they were set up one of two ways:

      1. …if the supervisor was included as a Group Member as an approver in Kiosk. If so, they will (automatically) be granted the ‘Leave Request Approver’ role in ESS when the Kiosk workflow extract is imported.

      2. …if the supervisor was included in their staff’s position record in Kiosk. This came came directly for their position record in USPS. If so, ESS cannot convert that into an ESS role so the ‘Leave Request Approver’ role must be added to the user’s account in ESS in order for the user to approve leave.

   2. Tip: If you have quite a few users that need the ‘Leave Request Approver’ role added to their ESS user account, we recommend filtering and extracting those users from the ESS user’s grid into a spreadsheet, add the role to their existing roles (in the spreadsheet) and mass-load back into ESS via the System>Mass Load option. Otherwise, you will need to edit each user account individually in the User menu and the role.

4. How can I determine the ESS options available to a user based on their role(s)?

   1. Please review the ‘ESS Menu Options by Role’ chapter in the appendix.

5. Our district wants to change the usernames that came over from Kiosk. Can I mass change them?

   1. District may mass change their usernames if they would like to. Extract the existing users via Users>Users grid, make the changes to their username in a spreadsheet and then load back into ESS using System>Mass Load. Please refer to the specs in the Mass Load chapter - it’s very important they keep the user_id column intact when updating User data.

6. Where does the email address come from on the user account?

   1. If converted from Kiosk, it will pull the ‘primary email address’ from the employee’s USPS Employee record.

   2. If self registering, you will manually enter your email address. This email must match one of your email addresses in your USPS employee record (primary, secondary or other) email address.

   3. NOTE: We recommend using the same email address used in USPS (direct deposit email address)

   4. If I request a data change on my employee profile record’s primary email address, does it update the email address in my user account to the newly updated email?

      1. Currently it does not. If you submit a data change request to change an email address in your ESS employee record, once approved and posted to USPS, it will then auto update their Employee profile record in ESS since that data is coming directly from USPS. However, it currently does not update the email address on their ESS User record. That will have to updated manually.

7. If an employee in USPS is archived, but still still has a position marked as Active/Inactive, can an ESS user account be created for them?

   1. No, you cannot assign an ESS user account to an archived USPS employee. However, if an ESS user account exists and an employee is then archived in USPS, you will need to disable their account so they no longer have access to ESS.

8. How do I know if my ESS user account is locked?

   1. If you try to log in, you will receive a pop-up message indicated ‘Your account has been locked. Please contact your administrator’. Please contact your district administrator or ITC in charge of unlocking ESS user accounts.

Workflows

1. What is the difference between a Group and a Group Chain?

   1. A Group is a collection of one or more users that can be assigned as participants in a Group Chain for a Leave Request. A Group Chain defines how the Leave Request approval will flow from one Group to another throughout the approval process.

2. What does the priority level do in a Group Chain?

   1. It determines the order of the workflow for each group chain. If two or more groups have the same priority number, it then goes in alphabetical order based on the chain name.

3. What if I edit a group or group or re-arrange the priority on a group chain? Will it affect anything?

   1. Yes, it will affect outstanding leave requests involved in those groups/group chains. If I re-order the priority level or edit the group/group chain, the outstanding (initiated) leave requests will get re-submitted to their updated workflow. Keep in mind also that will trigger email notifications to the requesters, approvers and view w/-notify based on the edited groups/group chains and/or priority levels.

4. Should I create a ‘catch-all’ group in case a user has no chain to submit to?

   1. We would recommend it as long as the group is a ‘Leave Manager’ or ‘District Manager’ role. That way if a user submits a leave request and is not in a Group Chain for some reason, the leave request will go to the Leave Manager or District Manager for approval.

5. If I update properties on a USPS position (i.e. supervisor/building code), will existing Leave Requests be re-directed to the new Group Chain?

   1. No. Updating these properties do not update the existing Leave Requests Group Chain. If the district wants the existing Leave Request to change the approval Group Chain, the existing Leave Request will need to be rejected and resubmitted. This way the resubmitted Leave Request will be submitted to the correct Group Chain.

Absence Management (AESOP) Integration

1. My district is ready to integrate Absence Management with ESS. We are going to use Absence Management for ALL employees (sub-calling and absence entries/approval) and we have our approval workflows set up in Absence Management. We plan to use ESS to view data coming from USPS (employee record, position, payslips, W2s and leave balance information). What are the steps needed to integrate with ESS?

   1. Please refer to the ‘ESS/Absence Management Integration’ area of the ESS Conversion Guideline. It includes ESS/AESOP integration steps as well as links to the AESOP Integration related menu options.

2. What if my district has their AESOP Integration enabled but the Leave Request module is disabled in ESS, what can they still see in ESS?

   1. The Leave Request menu will be displayed however they will be restricted from creating a leave request in ESS. Depending on the user’s role(s), the following options may include:

      1. My Leave Request

      2. Supervised Leave Requests

      3. District Leave Requests

      4. Export Leave Requests

   2. The Leave Calendars menu options will be displayed as well depending on the user’s role(s).

   3. Leave Manager role will have access to the Export Leave History option

3. If my district uses both ESS and Absence Management to create leave requests (use ESS for employees who don’t need a sub and Absence Management for employees who do need a sub), how can I tell where the leave request originated from?

   1. If the leave request originated from Absence Management (AESOP), the AESOP Origin, AESOP Absence Instance ID and AESOP Configuration Number will be displayed below the Supervisor information on the Leave Request Details are of the leave request form.

4. Can I configure when I want the AESOP Leave Balance Sync to run?

   1. In the System>Configuration>Absence Management District Configuration, by default, Absence Management leave balances are synced with ESS weekly (Friday at 7:00 PM). If your district would prefer a different time period, it will allow you to select a Time, day of the Week, and Period (Weekly, Biweekly) to run the AESOP Leave Balance Sync job.

5. If there are Leave types that don’t sync correctly and show a red x on the Synced Absence Management Data, you will need to verify the sub-category for the leave types. Check to make sure they are in both Aesop and ESS.

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   If they are using sub category in ESS, the district would need to add the same leave sub-category in AESOP.

   1. Absence Reason Id2: The AESOP Absence Reason Id2 must match the 2 character sub category code from ESS/USPS

Miscellaneous

1. When setting up my columns on a grid, are my settings retained?

   1. Currently, when adding/removing columns or resequencing the column order, your settings will not be saved. ESS-642

2. How can a user request a change be made on their employee record?

3. How are blackout dates added in ESS and what is their effect in ESS?

4. How can I add announcements on the home screen?

5. What’s the advantage of filling out the user’s profile record?

6. Do I need to run USPS Data Sync periodically?

7. Can I track FBI/BCI checks in ESS?

   1. Currently District Manager or Admin role can enter the existing Custom Date Code you have set up in USPS Core>Date Codes for FBI check into ESS via System>Date Codes. Please refer to the Date Codes chapter for more details on how to set it up. NOTE: ESS doesn’t have a way to notify users (via email, notification or at login) of an approaching Date Code deadline. This is a planned enhancement for CY2025.

8. If I update position information in USPS today, (i.e. changing building code or dept code on an employee's position), when will it reflect the updated position information in ESS?

   1. The updated USPS information will sync with ESS upon user login. This not only includes position information, but also employee, compensation and leave balance information as well.

   2. ESS also has a nightly scheduled sync job that will sync USPS leave balance and position information with ESS.