Some Days It’s The Little Things

“Rather than asking IT to write a custom program to load a job row, I thought I’d give the mass update a try. Can we take a look at the mass update process?”

We’ve created mass update processes for several clients. This one required knowing when a rule gets triggered. I suggested that we review the high level steps and I would verify when PeopleCode processing, audit record management, and the HCM Benefit Administration updates are triggered.

I gathered my thoughts on working with JOB data and mass updates and we began. I presented a brief phone tutorial on the mass update process including how-to define, create, report, and execute one.

On the next call, we reviewed my findings and the client’s initial mass update process definition. I assisted in refining the child row results, addressed reporting questions, and detailed each step.

Result: While discussing another issue one day, the caller proudly announced that she had created two mass updates recently without help.

“Can you document exactly how TL rounds punches at the end of the day? I know there must be a point where it rounds up versus rounding down.”

The Time and Labor module in HCM provides several ways to control rounding for daily reported time. The client was using a custom rule program. After reviewing the SQL, I identified the applicable time rounding rule and how it works. I demonstrated the rule using an example precisely when TL rounds the time up and another at the point when TL rounds down.

Result: The client was delighted to now reply to daily time rounding inquiries, with exact certainty.

“Can you determine which transactions generate workflow emails? We know that changing a punch/or adding a punch/save sends an email. When we add elapsed hours/save, it does not. Can you be specific?”

An employee is notified when “Reported time modified only” is selected on Time and Labor Installation Emails tab. To determine what the manual means, I analyzed the PeopleCode for reported time properties that trigger email generation. I determined that both punched time and elapsed time generate an email IF the time quantity or another field’s value has changed AND the current operator does not match the originating operator ID.

We discussed my findings and the client explained how the employee web clock serves as their time entry source. He said time keeping operators, using several operator IDs, make punch corrections.

I suggested adding reported time as elapsed time to eliminate emails as long as no other time is reported for the day. Another option involved each time keeping operator correcting their time data.

Result: The client can inform management and clearly answer inquiries regarding automated emails sent due to time reporting changes.