Maintain Absences

When entering open-ended absences (provided the corresponding leave management parameter permits open-ended absences), you should leave the End Date field blank. If a future dated absence exists that is prior to the pay date of the current period, you are prompted to delete it. Upon confirming the deletion, the absence is automatically deleted and the contra payment is generated if necessary. If the future dated absence is after the pay date, you are warned but can continue entering the open-ended absence.

Note: You cannot enter an open-ended absence if the Use Employee Work Pattern field in Leave Management Parameters is set to I and the No Times field in Employee Work Patterns is set to Y.

As you progress with the absence entry, an assumed end date is displayed in blue, which is used to process the open-ended absence. The assumed end date is the relevant period end date:

• If the absence starts on or before the current period's end date, the assumed end date equals the current period's end date.
• If the absence starts after the current period's end date, the assumed end date equals the end date of the period in which the absence starts.

Note: If an alternative tax period set has been specified in Current Tax Period Detail, the assumed end date always equals the end date of the alternative tax period set if the entitlement type is ROLLBACK or PAYSSP.

Note: Other absences can be entered when an open-ended absence exists provided the new absence starts after the open-ended absence's assumed end date.

Once an actual end date is known, it can be entered via the End Date field using the End Date an Open-Ended Absence window to return the open-ended absence to a normal absence state:

• If the actual absence end date is before the assumed end date, the absence is fully undone and contra payments are generated if the absence has been paid up to the assumed end date. You must then re-process the absence using Bulk Absence Process to generate payments up to the actual end date.
• If the actual absence end date is the same as the assumed end date, no further changes are required.
• If the actual absence end date is after the assumed end date, the absence must be processed using Bulk Absence Process to generate payments for the additional period.

Concurrent absences can be entered for absence types that have been set up to be concurrent. Concurrent absence periods must be entered as full days, must not start on the same day, must not be of the same absence type and only one can be open-ended. If a concurrent absence is entered that overlaps a processed concurrent absence, the processed absence is undone. You should manually re-process any affected absences viaBulk Absence Process. Similarly, if a concurrent absence is deleted, the remaining concurrent absence is undone and should be re-processed manually.

Note: Start dates of concurrent absences and the Details field for unprocessed concurrent absences are shown with an orange background.

OSP is suppressed when processing a sickness absence if the sickness day overlaps with a holiday day. The holiday pay for concurrent days is calculated as normal. The concurrent days in both the sickness and the holiday record are shown with a reason code of CONCUR. OSP entitlement is not reduced for concurrent holiday days but the holiday entitlement is reduced. SSP is calculated and recovered as per standard functionality for all sickness days regardless of whether they overlap holiday days.

Note: If the highest OSP band is less than 100% of holiday pay, you must make manual adjustments as required.

When entering a historic absence, all absences of the same absence type are automatically unprocessed if they have been processed after the historic absence. If the subsequent absences have been processed and paid, that is, have a status of ‘Complete - Paid’ or ‘Awaiting Payroll’, Undo Absence Generate Reverse Payment is displayed with details of the reversing payment and the default tax period to use for the reverse payment.

For ACTUAL entitlement types, entitlement is calculated as follows depending on the Entitlement Calculation Point specified in Leave Parameters Additional Detail:

• If the Entitlement Calculation Point is EP or blank, there are two scenarios for payroll users:
• Absence is after the last paid period - portions of the absence are processed in the relevant pay period and processed via payroll, which updates the entitlement as of the tax period end date.
• Absence is prior to the last paid period (Historic) - the entitlement is calculated according to the setting of the Use Crnt Ent (Hist Abs) check box Leave Parameters Additional Detail. This controls whether the entitlement is recalculated as of the end of the pay period in which the absence ends or whether the entitlement accrued to date is used.
• For HR only users, the absence is always calculated as of the end date of the tax period in which the absence ends.
• If the Entitlement Calculation Point is SU, the entitlement is recalculated and the absences are processed using the entitlement available as of the anniversary date prior to the absence start date, regardless of whether the absence is in the past or in the future. This ensures the correct entitlement is used and subsequently processed for all ACTUAL entitlement types including category and dual based ones. Once the absence is processed, the entitlement is recalculated and updated in line with the current pay period.

You can delete one or more absence lines at the same time. If the selected absences have been processed and paid, that is, have a status of ‘Complete - Paid’ or ‘Awaiting Payroll’,Generate Reversing Payments is displayed with details of the reversing payment and the default tax period to use for the reverse payment.

Any associated temporary pay elements which have not yet been processed are deleted.

Note: If a retrospective absence that has been processed is deleted, all processed absences of the same type and post that are after the deleted absence are automatically unprocessed, and a contra pay element is generated if the absence was paid.

• U - Unprocessed.
• P - Part Processed.
• C - Complete. This process status is also used if there are no payment or contra pay elements set up against the associated absence parameter.
• A - Awaiting Payroll.
• N - No Parameters.