2024-12-09 Employee Self Service Completed Work Review

Owned by Jodi Becher
Last updated: Dec 09, 2024 by Marc Davis
11 min read

Releases Since Our Last Meeting

  • Employee Self Service 2024.5.0 Release Notes

    • Bug Fixes

      • Allow leave type to be changed when updating a leave request

    • Improvements

      • Leave Calendar

        • Remove start time for entry

        • Format entry as NAME - CODE LENGTH (i.e. JANE DOE - VA 1.000)

      • Leave Request Form

        • Update time increments to 15m

        • Allow buttons to scroll with the form

        • Add helper text to let the user know if leave is daily or hourly

      • Sync Employee Leave Balances on login

      • Allow District Managers, Leave Managers, and Admins to cancel approved leave request

  • Employee Self Service 2024.5.1 Release Notes

    • Correct how leave calendar entries that span multiply days are displayed on Leave Calendars.

  • Employee Self Service 2024.6.0 Release Notes

    • Bug Fixes

      • Correct sort of custom links on home page

      • Correct an issue where Leave Requests time is not correct if spanning more than one month

      • Remove W2 and Pay Slip ‘view’ button (downloads and automatically opens the pdf). Download will be the only option.

        • Multiple reports of different browsers and extensions causing issues with this feature. It was decided to remove the option and have the use download the file then open in whatever application they prefer

      • Correct an issue on My Leave Calendar where an employee would see leave for the entire district

    • Improvement

      • Disable Data Change Exports

        • An issue was found in how the data was sent to USPS that is causing items to be changed that shouldn’t. This feature will be disabled until the other bug is corrected

        • Position Sync - schedule as a nightly job

        • Enable multiple read only views when a districts is using Absence Management but has Leave Request disables in Employee Self Service

    • New Features

      • Staff and District Leave Analysis

      • Absence Management Configuration - allow users to choose the date and time Leave Balances are synced back to Absence Management

  • Employee Self Service 2024.6.1 Release Notes

    • Correct a problem introduced by ESS-761 that was released on 2024.6.0

      • A new option was added to the Absence Management Configuration to allow users to select the day and time of Leave Balance syncing

      • This feature didn’t take missing values into account and will prevent startup for any district that has the Absence Management Configuration enabled.

      • This has been corrected. The application will start as normal and districts can override the default value in the Absence Management Configuration.

  • Employee Self Service 2024.6.2 Release Notes

    • Add a task to the startup process to fail any spring batch jobs with an unknown status.

      • A batch job that is in progress while the application restarts can be set to an unknown exit status

      • This can cause issues in the application when jobs are expected to fail or succeed

      • To handle this, a new query will run during the startup process to set all unknown statues to failed

  • Employee Self Service 2024.6.3 Release Notes

    • Bug Fixes

      • Refresh grid after approvals

    • Improvement

      • Improve message when workflow task can’t be found

  • Employee Self Service 2024.6.4 Release Notes

    • Change column length of external_id property on Absence Management School records from 20 characters to 50.

  • Employee Self Service 2024.7.0 Release Notes

    • Bug Fixes

      • Remove duplicated menu item

      • Correct Leave Calendar Building filters

      • Timesheet form leave length should be read only

      • Leave Expenses is not mobile friendly

      • Blackout dates updated to ignore rejected leave requests

    • Improvements

      • Leave Request created notification will now navigate to the leave request if clicked instead of opening a new tab

      • Patch to remove duplicated Leave Request from Absence Management for a specific district

      • Remove unused District Extension property

    • New Features

      • Allow users to Self Register

  • Employee Self Service 2024.7.1 Release Notes

    • Prevent thread leak from HTTP connections

    • Correct null pointer exception when storing automatically created timesheets

  • Employee Self Service 2024.8.0 Release Notes

    • Bug Fixes

      • Kiosk Sub Category Loader - handle blank value in the Required column

      • Improve blackout date validations

      • Handle Timesheet configuration options

    • Improvements

      • Clean up Timesheet emails

      • Timesheet Form - When adding a new line item, default to EXC activity

      • Timesheet Holiday internal changes

      • Allow automatic period generation to run weekly

      • Add Group Chain to Workflows automated resubmission note

      • Change Forgot Password email when account is lock to inform the User

  • Employee Self Service 2024.8.1 Release Notes

    • Add a patch to correct a sub category on a leave request for a specific district\

    • Improve default in HTTP Utils configuration

  • Employee Self Service 2024.9.0 Release Notes

    • Bug Fixes

      • Employee Data Change validation failures should not be clearing fields

    • Improvements

      • User Form - add Sync to Absence Management property

      • Leave Calendars - change color to soft black when entry is exported

      • Leave Request Form - change column length of Leave Expense Purpose of Leave property and update user interface component to a text area

      • Group - add validation to require one APPROVER member

  • Employee Self Service 2024.10.0 Release Notes

  • Employee Self Service 2024.10.1 Release Notes

    • Leave Request Form - handle missing user profile causing exception

    • Leave Request Export - handle missing appointment type

  • https://mcoecn.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ESSR/pages/751796225

    • Bug Fixes

      • Correct sorting for Export Leave History and Revert Leave Details grids

      • Leave Request Form - Sub Category may not exist causing errors on the form

      • Supervisor Leave Calendar entries should filter based on Job Status configuration

      • Period Close Job doe snot always create the next Period

      • Handle exclusion of timesheet holidays when creating line items

      • Reset password dialog overflows form on mobile

      • Leave Expense Details - allow users to edit the budget accounts and other expense details after approval

    • Improvements

      • Add appointment type and sub category columns to Leave Request CSV export

      • Add new configuration option to restrict new data change requests

      • Format compensation details on mobile based on configurations

      • Add Approval Trail tab to Leave Approval form

      • Improve label for district leave request extract button

      • Combine Timesheet Staff Supervisor and Timesheet Approver roles

      • Filter positions available for timesheet creation / generators by timesheet required flag in USPS

      • Timesheet Export Exceptions option should only export exception hours

      • Group and Chains - Users can now copy leave request groups and chains into timesheet groups and chains

      • Blackout Date escalated flag will cause leave request to notify Leave Managers

      • Absence Management Sync Views

        • Absence Reason Improvements

        • School Improvements

      • Internal change to USPS Position cache to use USPS Employee reference

      • Write a patch to remove duplicated leave requests from Absence Management for two specific districts

      • Remove Absence Management Configuration Loader

      • Improve User Form validations to prevent multiple users from being linked to the same user

    • New Features

      • Add new Timesheet Configuration option to email users when their timesheet is updated

  • https://mcoecn.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ESSR/pages/756023297

    • Correct permissions in Leave Request Form

    • Remove a district from the Patch that is applying as part of the 2024.11.0 release

  • https://mcoecn.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ESSR/pages/756547585

    • Correct order of conditionals when handling Ethnicity checks for Data Changes

    • District Leave Request view using current employee when loading forms

    • Sub Category selection showing on LR form when blank and no sub categories are available for the leave request

  • https://mcoecn.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ESSR/pages/766083074

    • Correct an issue with Data Changes that can result in clearing fields that are turned off in the Configuration when posting to USPS.

      • Data Changes couldn’t be posted to USPS until ESS 2024.11.0 was released on 9/28/2024.

      • Any Data Change posted to USPS will need to be reviewed to make sure the data was correctly changed in USPS.

        • You can look up the Employee in USPS and run the Single Audit Report to find any changes.

      • All outstanding Data Change Requests created prior to installing 2024.11.3 should be rejected and resubmitted (if applicable) to make sure all fields and values are included in the request to USPS.

    • Correct Leave Request Form in the Sub Coordinator view to persist changes.

  • https://mcoecn.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ESSR/pages/772669441

    • Leave Request Export - improve user interface to prevent duplicate submission if a user tries to resubmit while processing

    • Absence Management Sync - Absence Management request not matching ESS for Custom Absences.

  • https://mcoecn.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ESSR/pages/780206127

    • Absence Management Sync - Absence Management leave requests will be rounded based on Leave Time Configuration.

  • https://mcoecn.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ESSR/pages/780206189

    • Bug Fixes

      • Correct issue in Leave Request Details where properties were not read only when they should be

      • Fix race condition that causes Generate Period job to fail to find Automatic Period Generator

      • Concurrent approvers can cause a 500 error from Workflows

        • Handle error and provide a better message to the user

    • Improvements

      • Leave Calendar - make font on calendar entries smaller

      • Compensation pay rate will now display unit amount from USPS

      • Improve the manager name for Leave Request and Timesheet Groups

      • Refresh page notification added when saving Absence Management Config

      • Allow Absence Management Jobs to be disabled in the configuration

        • Will allow districts to determine if they want the enable or disable part of the integration

          • Absence Pulling from Absence Management

          • Leave Balance Sync back to Absence Management

          • Employee Sync back to Absence Management

        • All are enabled by default when the Absence Management Configuration is enabled

      • Limit Group / Group Chains views based on roles

      • Allow submission/recalling of a timesheet from the grid

      • Add notification when recalling a timesheet

      • Improve email when bulk resetting passwords

      • Run Absence Management Absence Sync at a 15m interval

      • Make Group and Group Chain names case-insensitive

    • New Features

      • Add new job to sync Employee data nightly back to Absence Management

      • Add new matches Employees grid to Sync View

  • https://mcoecn.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ESSR/pages/790167555

    • This release of Employee Self Service disables a job that posts employee data back to Absence Management. This job was added as part of the 2024.12.0 release of Employee Self Service. This was a feature of the HR Kiosk, but a few of the static values used in the HR Kiosk will not work going forward as districts begin to use workflows in the Absence Management application.

  • https://mcoecn.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ESSR/pages/801374209

    • Handle hibernate proxy error in the Sub Coordinator view

  • https://mcoecn.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ESSR/pages/809369601

    • Bug Fixes

      • Handle Duo timeout redirect

      • Leave request approval dialog creating leave expenses when it shouldn’t

      • My Leave Requests View allowing edits when approved

      • Creating consecutive leave requests clears out supervisor property

      • Leave Request line items not flowing to timesheets when approved

    • Improvements

      • Improve layout of Group Chain Form

      • Improve grids to show first and last name as separate columns

      • Allow elevated users to uncheck the sub assigned option on leave requests

      • Move category property from Leave Request Detail table to Leave Request table

      • Patch to remove old leave balance sync job that was replaced

    • New Features

      • Leave Expenses Form Report

  • https://mcoecn.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ESSR/pages/813662209

    • Bug Fixes

      • Handle rounding in Leave Expose form for mileage calculations

      • Leave Request Form

        • Sub Category is not reading into the form

        • Sub Category is not validating

      • Sub Coordinator Grid - cannot edit approved requests

    • Improvements

      • Add a patch to remove bad leave expense records that were missed in 2024.13.0’s release

  • https://mcoecn.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ESSR/pages/815890435

    • Handle error on home page caused by the workflows task display index out of bounds

  • https://mcoecn.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ESSR/pages/831553547

    • Bug Fixes

      • Leave Approved Event Listener - handle overlapping periods when updating timesheets after leave is approved

      • AESOP Employee Sync View - handle no user found exception

      • No Group Chain Dialog displayed when it shouldn’t be

    • Improvements

      • Leave Export CSV - change appointment type to 1 or 2 for use in USPS Attendance Absence Import

      • Data Change Manager - new configuration added to send email to Data Change Managers when data change request is submitted

      • Mass Approve / Reject leave requests from the home view

      • Additional Leave Request Details added to the Leave Calendar entry window

      • Leave Calendar Entries displayed per day

    • New Features

      • Include blackout dates on calendars

      • Cancelled fully approved leave will email approvers

      • Include Leave Balances on the approver grid

      • Add Employee / Position a group chain can apply

      • Add filter flag to Timesheet Export grid to see timesheets with only EXC or OT line items

      • Timesheets Holiday escalated flag - email Timesheet Managers

  • https://mcoecn.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ESSR/pages/836468737

    • Leave Calendar entries showing full leave length for daily entries

  • https://mcoecn.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ESSR/pages/845185025

    • Automatic Period Generator - correct bug causing hibernate proxy error when selecting positions

    • Employee Name missing from Leave Request Analysis reports

      • Employee Name will be included in this CSV report as 3 columns (EMPLOYEE_LAST_NAME, EMPLOYEE_FIRST_NAME, EMPLOYEE_MIDDLE_NAME)

      • Substitute Name will be included in the CSV report as 2 columns (SUBSTITUTE_LAST_NAME, SUBSTITUTE_FIRST_NAME)

    • Drop timesheet auto generated property from the database

  • https://mcoecn.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ESSR/pages/874283009

    • Bug Fixes

      • Handle 1 character sub categories

      • Handle null pointer exception in flexible shift

      • Map pay types to USPS when exporting timesheets

      • Correctly handle supervisor information in leave request form

      • Email service updated to handle a user with no USPS employee assigned

    • Improvements

      • Handle missing email addresses when canceling leave requests

      • Add a new button to the App Log form to extract error messages to a text file

      • Add mass approval/rejection for timesheets to the home view

      • General user view enhancements

      • Handle the Absence Management ‘Split From’ option

      • Perform a health check before syncing data with USPS

    • New Features

      • New Timesheet CSV report

      • Add support for flexible shifts

      • View W2 and Payslips in app

      • Calendars

        • Add name and leave type sort

        • Add custom date range option

        • Add CSV and PDF reports

      • Internal

        • Add Template storing feature that will be used for Grid Preferences

  • https://mcoecn.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ESSR/pages/886800385

    • Temporary disable the Leave Calendar PDF report that was released on ESS 2024.15.0. A memory leak in the report was discovered and could cause the application to crash.

    • The ESS team is working on a new solution to build the PDF report for Leave Calendars and it will be released as soon as possible.

  • https://mcoecn.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ESSR/pages/908560072

    • Set the Vaadin close idle sessions property to true.

  • https://mcoecn.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ESSR/pages/920453121

    • Bug Fixes

      • Check for missing absence reason id when importing leave from Absence Management

      • Check for missing absence reason id in the Absence Reason data sync grid

      • Correct sort for categories in Export Leave History

      • Correct calculations for Absence Thresholds

      • Update Timesheets to use the period start / stop dates when checking for Leave Request line items

      • Leave Request Create - remove archived positions

    • Improvements

      • Leave Calendar PDF Report - rewrite report to use Jasper Grid Details (corrects memory leak from 2024.15.0 release)

      • Leave Calendar PDF Report - conditionally show printer friendly option

      • Group Chain Grid - add options to the more button

      • Timesheet Period Close - add new confirmation dialog

      • User Form - make lock flag read only

      • Absence Management Integration

        • Improve position selection

        • Update how absence data is stored from Absence Management

      • Add option to Leave Request Extract to include / exclude items to be extracted

      • Deleting Automatic Period Generators no longer a 2 step process

      • Timesheet Period Grid - conditionally add Close Date and Time column based on configuration

      • Position Selection Component - Add employee name to the label

      • Add Position Column to the District Timesheet Grid

      • Update Timesheet and Leave Request workflows to include the user id

    • New Features

      • Send an email to a user when account is locked due to login failures

      • Create custom email validator to allow non-standard emails

      • Create background process to clean orphaned workflow processes

      • Add a patch to remove a building code for a specific district

  • https://mcoecn.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ESSR/pages/930775076

    • Users Grid

      • Allow admin and external users to be selected in the grid for Lock and Unlock options. These users will be removed (with a warning) if included in the Bulk Password operation.

  • https://mcoecn.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ESSR/pages/947290344

    • Bug Fixes

      • Employee Profile View - update to display both legal and name properties

      • Timesheet Holiday line items can be assigned to the wrong position

      • Blackout Date Form - entire day checkbox is not readonly

      • Leave Request Details can be changed from the district leave request view

      • Possible error when removing a leave type in the daily detail layout

    • Improvements

      • Absence Management Data Import View

        • Update Process Message field to a text area on all forms

        • Add Processed date and message to all grids

      • Improve filtering of the announcement grid

      • Shrink whitelist form dialog

      • Add notification to refresh screen when custom links are changed

      • Change ordering of columns in the Leave Analysis grid

      • Leave Calendar CSV Report - add length and type as separate columns with new headers

      • Absence Management Employee Sync Grid - improve how a matched employee is displayed

      • Change comp time to a leave request timesheet activity

      • Allow exporting leave request reports before final processing

      • Custom Link and Whitelist grid filtering improvements

      • Update frontend dependencies

    • New Features

      • Implement Sub Coordinator by X roles

        • Sub Coordinator by Building

        • Sub Coordinator by Department Code

        • Sub Coordinator by Pay Group

Upcoming Releases

  • Employee Self Service 2024.18.0

    • Remember District / Supervisor filters

    • Better error reporting for deleting Leave Request Sub Categories

    • Better error reporting for deleting Groups

    • Show a notification in the approval view if mass approval goes over absence threshold

    • Improve how read only checkboxes are displayed

    • Add internal components to store Grid column preferences

      • User will implement this feature, then it will be moved to other grids

    • Skip certain validations that do not matter for sub assignment by Sub Coordinators

    • Add new column to Timesheet Period grid to quickly show if a Period was auto generated

    • Sync USPS Employee data when syncing USPS Position data