V A C A T I O N T R A C K I N G

July 2012

T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

Introduction – Vacation Tracking System ......................................................................... 1

Chapter 1 – Reporting Vacation (Employee) ..................................................................... 2

Overview .............................................................................................................. 2

Employee Vacation Management ........................................................................ 2

Navigating to Time Reporting .............................................................................. 2

Viewing Vacation Data ......................................................................................... 3

Entering Vacation Hours....................................................................................... 5

Reviewing Vacation Hours Approved ................................................................... 8

Adjusting Vacation Hours Previously Approved ................................................... 9

Yearly Time Reporting Sheets .............................................................................. 9

Chapter 2 – Reviewing & Approving Vacation (Supervisor) ............................................ 10

Overview ............................................................................................................ 10

Supervisor Vacation Management ..................................................................... 10

Navigating to Time Review and Time Approval ................................................. 10

Time Review ....................................................................................................... 11

Time Approval .................................................................................................... 15

Submitting Hours for an Employee .................................................................... 21

V A C A T I O N T R A C K I N G 1

I N T R O D U C T I O N

VACATION TRACKING SYSTEM

Overview

The University of Saskatchewan is committed to supporting the health and wellness of all employees. Managing annual vacation usage promotes a healthy work/life balance, assists in maintaining healthy productivity in units, and also addresses the financial liability to the university.

A vacation tracking system has been developed for employees and supervisors to track vacation usage and ensure a consistent process is in place. The system is accessed through the PAWS portal (paws.usask.ca), providing a secure, online service for reporting, authorizing and tracking vacation usage.

Some of the features of the vacation system include:

Employees can enter monthly vacation time taken on a Time Reporting page and may review their vacation usage, vacation accrual date and vacation balance on a Time Summary page.

Supervisors can review vacation data for employees reporting to them through a Time Review page, as well as approve monthly vacation time that has been taken through a Time Approval page.

Department or unit administrators may also request access to a Leave Reporting page in About-US that will allow them to review or approve vacation for employees within their unit.

The following chapters provide further details on reporting and managing vacation accrual and usage.

V A C A T I O N T R A C K I N G 2

C H A P T E R 1

REPORTING VACATION (EMPLOYEE)

Overview

This chapter provides details on the Time Reporting page employees will use to enter vacation time and the Time Summary page they will use to view a history of vacation usage and balances.

Employee Vacation Management

It is the employee’s responsibility to:

a) Plan ahead to ensure the full annual vacation entitlement is utilized on a yearly

basis.

b) Request vacation with sufficient notice and in accordance with the unit’s

policies.

c) Track all requested and scheduled vacation. The system will not be used to

request vacation. Scheduled vacation that has been approved may be entered

and saved on the Time Reporting page in advance of taking the vacation.

d) Enter the vacation hours in the Time Reporting page in PAWS and submit on a

monthly basis after vacation time has been taken.

Navigating to Time Reporting / Time Summary

Steps

Log into PAWS at paws.usask.ca

Employee

My Employment

Time Reporting

V A C A T I O N T R A C K I N G 3

Viewing Vacation Data

Time

Summary

The initial Time Summary page displays a summary of the vacation data.

Vacation Accrual Date – The vacation accrual date, which will be maintained by Human Resources, is the service date used to determine the rate at which employees are accruing vacation. It is the date of hire to the university and includes service in positions which are exempt from a bargaining unit or are in scope of ASPA, CUPE 1975, CUPE 3287 or USFA. It does not include casual employment, student payments or appointments funded from research or other grants.

The vacation accrual date is adjusted for:

- a leave of absence or layoff greater than 31 days, excluding maternity or parental leave, or short or long term disability. The date is brought forward by the length of the leave or layoff.

- a break of employment. The vacation accrual date is reset to the last hire date when an employee has terminated and rehired where the break in employment is greater than 31 days.

Hours Reported- The total hours entered for the month are displayed.

Hours Accrued- The Hours Accrued is populated by a vacation accrual process run by Payroll at the end of each month. If the display is 0.00, the accrual has not yet been run for the month.

The accrual each month is in hours and is calculated based on the hours worked each month and the accrual rate (per the vacation accrual date). The accrual will vary each month based on the working days in that month but will equal the full yearly entitlement over the varying months.

Click on the

Month link to

navigate to the

Time Reporting

page to enter

vacation hours.

Samantha’s hire date

was August 11, 2003.

The starting rate of

vacation accrual is 20

days per year. After 6

years of service, or

effective August 1,

2009, Samantha is

accruing at 25 days per

year. After 16 years of

service, or effective

August 1, 2019, her

accrual will increase to

30 days per year.

V A C A T I O N T R A C K I N G 4

As an example, an employee accruing at 20 days per year will receive an annual accrual of 150 hours (based on a 7.5 hr day). The accrual each month will vary but over the year will equal the full 150 hours. For a quarterly example: In April, 2012 the accrual will be 12.12 hours, May 13.27 hours, June 12.12 hours, and July 12.69 hours for a total of 50.02 hours (which is 1/3 of 150 hours in a 4 month period).

Following is a chart of the monthly accrual rate based on the number of week days per month (including statutory holidays) and the yearly accrual:

Monthly Accrual in Hours Based on Full-time Employment

Week Days per Month

Accrual Rate

20 days per year 25 days per year 30 days per year

20 11.54 14.42 17.31

21 12.12 15.14 18.17

22 12.69 15.87 19.04

23 13.27 16.59 19.90

Current Balance- displays in ‘hours’.

The balance includes the vacation accrual for the current month less any hours that have been entered for the current month.

The current balance is not displayed for future months. This information will be displayed when the vacation accrual processes are run at the end of each of the future months.

To calculate a balance in days, divide the total hours by the daily working hours (to a maximum of 7.5 for a typical full-time job for ASPA and Exempt staff).

Status -

Open - If the Hours Reported are ‘0’, hours have not been entered for the month. If the Hours Reported are > ‘0’, scheduled vacation time has been entered, but not yet been submitted.

Submitted - Vacation hours taken have been submitted and are waiting for the supervisor’s approval.

Approved - The supervisor or department administrator has approved the submitted time but it has not yet been updated in the month-end vacation accrual process run by Payroll.

Processed - The vacation hours have been updated in the month-end vacation accrual process run by Payroll.

Reopened - The supervisor or department administrator has reopened a time report that was previously submitted.

Locked - The vacation timesheet has been locked for the previous fiscal year or because of a termination. Vacation hours cannot be entered.

V A C A T I O N T R A C K I N G 5

Entering Vacation Hours

Time Reporting

View Options

Click on the month link on the Time Summary page to navigate to the Time Reporting page to enter vacation hours.

The initial default view is set to ‘By Week’. Click on the and to scroll between the weeks within the month displayed above.

The view may be changed to ‘By Month’. Click on the and to scroll to different reporting months. If you change to the monthly view, the default will stay at the monthly display for the next time you log in.

Weekly View

Monthly View

Click on the

month link to

navigate to the

Time Reporting

page to enter

vacation hours.

V A C A T I O N T R A C K I N G 6

Daily

Hours

Enter your daily vacation hours in the weekly or monthly calendar view.

- The Hours Reported will calculate as you complete the entry.

- The Current Balance will reduce based on the hours you have entered.

Save

Click on to store the values entered in Time Reporting. Your supervisor will be able to see your hours in the Time Review / Time Approval pages but will not be able to Approve the hours until you submit your time.

The total hours will be calculated

and the Current Balance reduced

by the hours you enter.

V A C A T I O N T R A C K I N G 7

Submit

Click on once the vacation hours have been taken in the month and are ready to be approved by your supervisor. *Note – the supervisor is approving that the time has been taken as vacation and should be deducted from your vacation balance. Submission Deadlines - The hours for each month should be submitted by the end of the month if possible. Entry is required only when vacation is taken. If no vacation is taken, no submission for the month is required, unless otherwise directed by your department.

- The vacation accrual process to deduct the vacation hours taken and calculate the monthly accrual will be run at the end of the 3rd week of the next month, so you will have an additional few weeks in the next month to submit. Please keep in mind, however, you will also need to provide time for your supervisor to complete the approval process.

Missed Deadlines / Entry for Previous Months - If the submission or approval deadline is missed for the current month, the hours deductions will get picked up in the processing for the next month after the approval is complete. You may also report hours at any time for previous months that may have been missed.

Reopen

Click on to change any hours reported. This can be done while the status is still ‘Awaiting Approval’. If your supervisor has approved the time submitted for the month, the status message will change to ‘Approved by’ and only your supervisor will then be able to reopen the submission (see Adjusting Vacation Hours Previously Approved on Page 9).

Once you have

submitted, the

‘Awaiting Approval’

message will

appear until your

supervisor

approves the time

taken.

Once you have

submitted, you

may Reopen and

change your hours

only until your

supervisor

approves the time.

V A C A T I O N T R A C K I N G 8

Reviewing Vacation Hours Approved

Approved

Hours Once your hours have been approved by your supervisor, a status message of ‘Approved by’ will appear and the ‘Reopen’ button will disappear.

Supervisor

Submission

Your supervisor has an option to submit and approve your vacation hours in your absence. In this instance a status message of ‘Submitted by’ and ‘Approved by’ will appear.

The supervisor,

Emma East,

has approved

the vacation

time taken.

The supervisor,

Emma East,

has submitted

and approved

the vacation

time taken.

V A C A T I O N T R A C K I N G 9

Adjusting Vacation Hours Previously Approved

Adjust Approved

Hours

Your supervisor can reopen a month for entry if the previous hours that were approved require a change.

Your supervisor will enter a reason for reopening which will be emailed to you from ‘About-Us Notifications’.

Sample Email

From: About-US Notifications To: South, Samantha Subject: Time Report Reopened Your May 2012 time report was reopened by Emma East for the following reason: The employee has requested this be reopened as some hours were missed in the original submission. This is an automated message sent from the About-US system.

The Time Reporting sheet will be open again for entry. You can change the hours as required and Submit. The adjustment to the hours will be processed after they have been approved by your supervisor.

Yearly Time Reporting Sheets

The vacation time reporting sheets will be generated for each fiscal year, May 1 to April 30th.

At the end of each May the time reporting sheets will be locked for the previous fiscal year and will be viewable but will be closed for entry. Any time reporting required for a previous fiscal year will have to be submitted to Payroll on a ‘Vacation Adjustment Form’. The form is available on the FSD website at the following: http://www.usask.ca/fsd/resources/forms/index.php#payroll .

V A C A T I O N T R A C K I N G 1 0

C H A P T E R 2

REVIEWING & APPROVING VACATION

(SUPERVISOR)

Overview

This chapter provides details on the Time Review and Time Approval pages the supervisor will use to review and approve the employee’s vacation time taken.

Supervisor Vacation Management

It is the supervisor’s responsibility to:

a) Reasonably work with employees to ensure vacation is utilized.

b) Monitor vacation accumulation and, whenever possible, confirm that vacation

hours are taken by the end of the year after they are earned to eliminate excess

vacation accrual.

c) Ensure employees have accrued the necessary vacation before it is used.

d) Meet with employees who have an over-accumulation of vacation to develop a

plan to use the excess vacation.

e) Ensure vacation accumulation is accurately tracked and reported by employees.

f) Review the vacation time submitted by the employees on a monthly basis and approve the time taken in a timely manner to ensure the vacation balances in the system stay current.

Navigating to Time Review and Time Approval

Steps

Log into PAWS at paws.usask.ca

Employee

My Employment

Time Review

Time Approval

V A C A T I O N T R A C K I N G 1 1

Time Review

The Time Review page displays the vacation usage and balances for all employees who report to you.

The initial default view is set to ‘By Week’. Click on the and to scroll between the weeks within the month displayed above. To display weeks in a subsequent month, scroll to the next month.

Weekly View

The view may be changed to ‘By Month’ by clicking on the View Options link on the Time Review page and selecting ‘By Month’ under the View Time field.

Click on the and to scroll to different reporting months. If you change to the monthly view, the default will stay at the monthly display for the next time you log in.

Monthly View

Click on this link to

change to a Monthly

view.

V A C A T I O N T R A C K I N G 1 2

View

Options

Click on the View Options link to select different viewing options.

Time For: Select ** All Employees** to view time for all employees who report to you. You may also select time for only one individual

View Time: You may view time By Week or By Month.

Include: Select the type of time you want to view. Selecting ‘All Time’ will include submitted, approved, processed, reopened and entered (but not submitted) time.

Indirect Reports: View the vacation taken for employees who report to your direct reports. (In the example above, indirect reports would be employees who report to Nicholas North, Samantha South or Juanita West.)

V A C A T I O N T R A C K I N G 1 3

View Vacation

Data The Time Review page can be used to view all employees Hours Reported, Hours Accrued, Current Balance and Status for a given week or month.

Employee Status – The options for employee status are active, leave (without pay),leave with pay, or suspended (seasonal or other layoff).

Hours Reported- The total hours entered for the month are displayed.

Hours Accrued- The Hours Accrued is populated by a vacation accrual process that is run by Payroll at the end of each month. If the display is 0.00, the accrual has not yet been run for the month.

The accrual each month is in hours and is calculated based on the hours worked each month and the accrual rate (per the vacation accrual date). The accrual will vary each month based on the working days in that month but will equal the full yearly entitlement over the varying months.

As an example, an employee accruing at 20 days per year will receive an annual accrual of 150 hours (based on a 7.5 hr day). The accrual each month will vary but over the full year will equal the full 150 hours. For a quarterly example: In April, 2012 the accrual will be 12.12 hours, May 13.27 hours, June 12.12 hours, and July 12.69 hours for a total of 50.02 hours (which is 1/3 of 150 hours in a 4 month period).

Following is a chart of the monthly accrual rate based on the number of week days per month (including statutory holidays) and the yearly accrual:

Monthly Accrual in Hours Based on Full-time Employment

Week Days per Month

Accrual Rate

20 days per year 25 days per year 30 days per year

20 11.54 14.42 17.31

21 12.12 15.14 18.17

22 12.69 15.87 19.04

23 13.27 16.59 19.90

V A C A T I O N T R A C K I N G 1 4

Current Balance- displays in ‘hours’.

The balance includes the vacation accrual for the current month less any hours that have been entered for the current month.

The current balance is not displayed for future months. This information will be displayed when the vacation accrual processes are run at the end of each of the future months.

To calculate a balance in days, divide the total hours by the daily working hours (to a maximum of 7.5 for a typical full-time job for ASPA and Exempt staff).

Status -

Open - If the Hours Reported is ‘0’, hours have not been entered for the month. If the Hours Reported is > ‘0’, scheduled vacation time has been entered, but not yet been submitted.

Submitted - Vacation hours taken have been submitted and are waiting for the supervisor’s approval.

Approved - The supervisor or department administrator has approved the submitted time but it has not yet been updated in the month-end vacation accrual process run by Payroll.

Processed - The vacation hours have been updated in the month-end vacation accrual process run by Payroll.

Reopened - The supervisor or department administrator has reopened a time report that was previously submitted.

Locked - The vacation timesheet has been locked for the previous fiscal year or because of a termination. Vacation hours cannot be entered.

V A C A T I O N T R A C K I N G 1 5

Time Approval

The Time Approval page is used to approve an employee’s vacation time taken as well as to reopen a previously approved or processed month if an adjustment to vacation hours is required.

If the page displays no data, click on the View Options to select the time type.

View

Options

Time For: Select the employee you want to view time for. You may choose **All Employees ** to view the vacation for employees that report to you.

Include: Select the type of time you want to view. Selecting ‘All Time’ will include submitted, approved, processed, reopened and entered (but not submitted) time.

Indirect Reports: Select to view the vacation taken for employees who report to your direct reports.

The supervisor’s

name appears in

the top left corner.

V A C A T I O N T R A C K I N G 1 6

All Time Following is a sample view of all employees selected with ‘All Time’:

Approve:

Click on the

‘Approve’ button to

approve months

with a status of

Submitted.

Reopen:

Click on the

‘Reopen’ button to

open a submission

for the employee to

change hours after

it has been

submitted,

approved or

processed.

Click on a

month link to

view the Time

Reporting page

the employee

has completed.

V A C A T I O N T R A C K I N G 1 7

Submitted Time

Following is a sample view of all employees selected with ‘Submitted Time’. This will display only those employees with vacation time that is waiting for approval.

Approved Time

Following is a sample view of all employees selected with ‘Approved Time’. This will display those employees with approved vacation time that has not yet been processed.

Click on the

‘Approve’ button to

approve.

Click on the ‘Reopen’ button to have either

the employee or yourself change the hours

before they are processed in Payroll.

Click on the ‘Reopen’ button to reopen the Time Reporting

page for the employee if they have requested to change hours

entered after the time has been submitted.

V A C A T I O N T R A C K I N G 1 8

Processed Time

Following is a sample view of all employees selected with ‘Processed Time’. This will display those employees with vacation time that has been updated with the monthly leave accrual processes in Payroll.

Entered Time Following is a sample view of all employees selected with ‘Entered Time’. This will display those employees with vacation time that has been scheduled and entered but not yet taken or submitted.

The status will be ‘Open’ as the hours haven’t been submitted. The hours entered will display in the ‘Hours Reported’ column.

Click on the ‘Reopen’ button to have either

the employee or yourself change the hours

after they were processed in Payroll.

The adjusted hours will be processed in

the next month leave accrual processes

after re-approval by the supervisor.

Employees may enter vacation

hours in advance of taking the

time as a way for the employee

and unit to track scheduled

vacation time.

V A C A T I O N T R A C K I N G 1 9

Approve Vacation

Click on the month link to view the vacation hours entered for the month you are approving the vacation time taken.

Click on the button on the Time Approval page, OR

Click on the button on the Time Reporting page after you have clicked on the Month link under View Details.

Once you have

reviewed the

vacation time on

the Time

Reporting page,

you can ‘Approve’

and then Return

to the Time

Approval page.

Click on the

month link to

view the

vacation time

V A C A T I O N T R A C K I N G 2 0

The status on the Time Approval page will now display as ‘Approved’.

Reopen a Vacation Timesheet

Time may be reopened either at the employee’s request or by the supervisor when the status is submitted, approved, or processed.

Click on the button. The following box will appear to enter the reopen reason.

Click OK and the employee will receive an email from About-US Notifications indicating the reopen reason. (See page 9 of this guide for a sample of the email)

V A C A T I O N T R A C K I N G 2 1

Submitting Hours for an Employee

Following are the steps to submit hours for an employee:

Click on the

month you

will be

submitting

time for.

Click on

Approve.

Enter the

hours for the

required

days. The

Total Hours

and Current

Balance will

calculate.

Click on

Submit.

V A C A T I O N T R A C K I N G 2 2

The status on the Time Approval page will now display as ‘Approved’.

Click on Return to

“Time Approval”

Status now

displays as

Approved.

V A C A T I O N T R A C K I N G 2 3

The Time

Reporting page

will indicate

Submitted and

Approved by

the supervisor.