BEACON Issues

1. BEACON Issues What to watch for and how to fix.

2. This webinar covers known and recurring BEACON issues. • The goal of this session is for you to be able to recognize when they occur and in most cases, send to BEST because you will not be able to correct them yourself.

3. Definition of a BEACON glitch… • A process that is not aligned with State Policy or • A process that is not clearly spelled out in current BEACON Business Process Procedures (BPP) or • A calculation that is not done correctly in the system.

4. For PA PA20, IT0027 Cost Distribution, 0014 Recurring Payments/Deductions Knowing what Infotypes are supposed to be touched when processing certain Actions. For Time PA20, IT9901 PT_BAL00 Finding true negative balances and knowing the steps to resolve them. To investigate, you will need to have mastered the following Transactions or tasks

5. Benefits errors when changing an employees payroll cycle from monthly to biweekly/biweekly to monthly Longevity being stopped when processing certain kinds of Reinstatement-Return from Disciplinary Suspension Actions Holidays populating after LOA IT0027 Cost Distribution not delimiting on Reinstatements-Return to state government if done out of sequence IT0008 Basic Pay not showing up on Reinstatements Issues we will cover for PA:

6. 9000 Approved Leave coming out of two buckets and going negative 9000 Approved Leave being offset when it comes out of two buckets and given the full amount of leave back to each bucket Negative leave balance occurring when the system attempts to create an accrual and apply that Leave to an absence within the same block of time entry. Time worked on a holiday not being applied towards Adverse Weather Liability Issues we will cover for Time:

7. PA: Deduction Error when changing from one payroll cycle to another. • When an employee has an existing deduction, it is taken from them according to their payroll area; monthly or biweekly. • When they change payroll areas and this is not switched to the new payroll area, it will cause an error. (Modifiers in Payroll Area do not match)

8. Infotypes we will see can be viewed by either going to the individual tabs OR by entry of the number of the Infotype in Direct Selection at the bottom.

9. The payroll area is located in PA20 IT0001 Organizational Assignment this is the code that identifies the payroll area or frequency of payroll (bi-weekly, monthly, etc.).

10. PA20 IT0014 Payment Model (Recurring Deductions/Payments): This defines a time pattern in which deductions are withdrawn and payments made. This must match what is on the IT0001 Org Assignment screen.

11. How to correct an IT0014 mismatch: • If an error occurs, it must be handled by your Payroll Office. • A proactive strategy would be to let your payroll office know you have completed the Action so they can go in and create new IT0014s. This Infotype should not be entered/created/updated until the “new” Action has been processed. This should significantly reduce these types of errors.

12. PA: Longevity being stopped when processing certain kinds of Reinstatement-Return from Disciplinary Suspension Actions • An employee who is out on a Disciplinary Suspension Action will not be credited for time that would apply to longevity. • However, IF the employee indeed still achieves 50% of the month in active pay status, they should receive credit for the month. • What happens is that the system restarts the count of the current month instead of picking up where it left off prior to the Disciplinary Action being processed. • What makes it worse is if the employee returns to work on an FX schedule and the system doesn’t count the days worked on the weekends towards accruals!

13. In the PA20 IT0000 Actions Overview, you see that an employee was out on Disciplinary Suspension and Reinstated. To see what the system does, we can go to PT_BAL00. Note the Start Date of the Suspension is 2/2/2011.

14. Click on the desired time period. It is suggested to use current year. Enter the employee personnel number. Click on the multiple selection icon so that you can enter the specific time types.

15. To see whether or not the employee is or is not supposed to get credit for the month, you will use the following Time Types: • % reached in Month. • 2225 50% reached in Month. You will see this time type appear once the percentage in 2220 exceeds 50% • 9000 Length of Service. This is a count of the service months that will occur each day and once 2225 appears, the Length of Service should change the months total. Click on the Copy icon when you are ready to continue.

16. To give you an example of how the time types work, let’s see what they look like when all is well. Here you can see that 1/16, 9000 Length of Service = 26 months 2220 % reached in month = 48% On 1/27/2011, 2220 % is 52% and as a result, 2225 50% reached in month is activated and as a result, 9000 Length of Service changes to 27 months.

17. When an employee is out on Suspension, we may see the following: Remember the employee was out 2/2/2011 to 2/15/2011. Note that 9000 LOS is 59 months (and is that way through the end of the month.) Also the employee started with 5% of the month completed and came back working the first day and the system does not give them credit for that day. 2220 % reached in month is increasing but didn’t increase in the month to trigger 2225 and a change in the 9000 LOS. Why?

18. The 2012 was created in the background to stop longevity but the employee could have come back in time to record enough days worked to count for accruals.

19. Counting the number of days recorded in February, we have 11. The number of work days in February was 20. The employee should have received the accrual on 2/28/2011. Why didn’t the employee receive credit?

20. The employee returned to work on an FX schedule. The system does not count work on weekends towards accruals. To see that, let’s go back to PT_BAL00.

21. The employee worked on 2/26 and 2/27 which was on a weekend. Notice that the system did not increase the % of the month reached in month. It stayed at 40%

22. To fix: • If the employee was on an FX schedule, consider changing the employee for that month to a GN schedule. This will let the system count the number of days worked (on the weekends) towards accruals. • If you cannot make the change because leave was used on the weekends, send to BEST to manually adjust LOS.

23. PA: IT0027 Cost Distribution not delimiting upon Reinstatements: Return to State Government… • The purpose of IT0027 is to continue to pay an employee after they have officially separated. Ex. Leave Payouts. • It is created on a Separation Action. • Upon Reinstatement, it is supposed to be automatically delimited in the background when the Reinstatement-Return to State Government Action is done.

24. The problem occurs… • If the Infotypes for the Reinstatement Action are not done in order they appear per the Business Process and Procedure (BPP) that BEACON has posted on their website. • http://help.mybeacon.nc.gov/beaconhelp/Human_Resources/Workflow/r_PA%20Workflow_%20Complete_Reinstatement_Reemployment_Action.htm#TopOfPage • If for any reason, you do not process the Action in order, you will need to manually check to see if the Cost Distribution has been delimited. You will go to PA20 and go to IT0027 in direct selection.

25. In this example, the employee has returned to work on 2/1/2011. If the Action was processed correctly, we should see an IT0027 with a delimit date of 1/31/2011.

26. In this example, the Action was processed correctly because the delimit date is 1/31/2011. If it is 12/31/9999, it will need to be manually corrected.

27. Make sure you are in PA30 Maintain Master Data. Type in 0027 in direct selection at the bottom and click on the green check. Click on the Copy button.

28. Change the TO date to one day before the employee Reinstates. Go to Edit and Maintain Text to put in notes to explain why you made this change. Note: If the Start Date of the Record is before Payroll Wall, you will send it to BEST to process.

29. PA: IT0008 Basic Pay not populating on Reinstatements-Return to State Government • Because a Reinstatement Action includes all the Infotypes associated with a New Hire, it is imperative that when the Infotypes present themselves, they are not skipped. • When they are skipped; either because we do not have the paperwork or someone else is going to do it, background processes may not occur and the consequence is that the IT0008 Basic Pay may not present itself to be completed. • The result is that you will be paying the previous rate of pay of the position the employee held prior to this new position.

30. The Fix: • Rerun the Action so that all background processes occur. • If you are unfamiliar with how to do so, please contact someone in Central HR or send in a ticket to BEST and explain the situation.

31. PA: Holidays populating upon Reinstatement-Return from a Leave of Absence (LOA) • Leave of Absences (LOA) can be either paid or unpaid. • If the LOA is paid, the employee is due the accrual of a holiday according to State Policy. • Once the system recognizes that the employee is in pay status, it populates the accrual of the holiday. • The problem occurs when the employee comes back to work. The system may also populate the holidays that were accrued (and used) while on LOA.

32. The Fix: • Review the accruals for holidays when the employee is reinstated and do a 2013 Quota Correction to reduce the holiday entitlement. Use the date of the Reinstatement as the date of the 2013. • IF this is not done, the holiday converts to holiday comp and IF the holiday comp is used or paid out, it is extremely difficult to undo. • Take note! Keep in mind that the system begins the aging out of holiday leave 30 calendar days from the date the holiday actually occurred. The holiday time that was there on one day may have turned to holiday comp the next!

33. Questions about PA related issues?

34. Time: 9000 Leave coming out of two buckets creating negatives Scenario: Employee records 8 hours of 9000 Approved Leave. Employee has 2 hours of holiday comp and 6 hours of overtime comp. The system attempts to take all 8 hours out of holiday comp and creates a -6 hour holiday comp balance.

35. The fix: • Touch Absences if the employee has an available balance elsewhere in the 9000 Approved Leave Hierarchy AND there are no other negatives within that hierarchy. • If there are negatives, they will have to be resolved first.

36. Time: 9000 Leave coming out of two buckets and being offset back to the full amount of offset to each bucket. Scenario: Employee records 8 hours of 9000 Approved Leave. The employee records 44 hours of time for the work week. Employee used 2 hours of holiday comp and 2 hours of overtime comp. The system attempts to give back 4 hours to each bucket.

37. The fix: • Send to BEST. • Do not do a 2013 Quota Correction.

38. Time: 9000 Leave being used at the same time Holiday Comp (or OT Comp) is being created causing a negative. Scenario: Employee records 8 hours of 9000 Approved Leave in a block of time in which there could be the creation of holiday comp. The system attempts to use the 9000 Approved leave hierarchy by applying the potential holiday comp to the 9000 Approved Leave Request. This causes a negative.

39. The fix: • Touch absences • If it is not cleared, check for other negatives. • If there are no other negatives, send to BEST. In the case of a negative holiday comp balance, it could be that the holiday comp is created but is not being used which will cause it to age out and pay out.

40. Time: 9300 Holiday Leave going negative because it is being used in the week that it is set to age out. Scenario: Employee records 8 hours of 9300 Holiday Leave on 2/12/2011. This leave is the leave that was not used and time was not recorded on the holiday of 1/17/2011. The system attempts to use the 9300 Holiday Leave but upon processing the time entry for the week ages out the 9300 and turns it into holiday comp. This causes a negative.

41. The fix: • Change time entry from 9300 to 9000. • Ideal strategy is to limit the amount of mass calculations that the system will do by entering time for an OT period only (work week).

42. Time: 9500 entered on a holiday and the system converts that time to holiday comp instead of applying that time to an Adverse Weather Liability. Scenario: A full-time Employee records 8 hours of 9500 Holiday Leave on 1/17/2011. The employee totals 40 hours of time for that work week. The employee also has 8 hours of Adverse Weather Liability. The system creates 8 hours of holiday comp but does not instead apply that time to an Adverse Weather Liability. This is against policy but programmed this way because Adverse Weather is only reduced by the system when the employee exceeds recording time in excess of required hours. Holiday comp is not really overtime.

43. The fix: • You should do a manual 2012 to reduce the liability owed. • Do not use record 9300 on the holiday and move the Time Worked to other days as that is a violation of FLSA rules. • Likewise, do not record 8 hours of holiday leave and 8 hours of Time Worked on the same day if the employee is only supposed to account for 8 hours that day.

44. Questions about Time related issues?

45. Resources • Workflow Documentation Guide http://www.ncdhhs.gov/humanresources/hrservices/classandcomp/workflow_documentation_guidelines.pdf • DHHS Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) http://www.ncdhhs.gov/humanresources/sop/procedures.html • BEACON Help http://help.mybeacon.nc.gov/beaconhelp/TOC7.html