Time Processing Tools

Your Time Processing tools will help you to optimize the way you manage your Time, Attendance, Billing and Payroll.

In this article, we'll look at how you can use them.

In this article, we'll be looking at the following on Time Processing tools in Schedule Xpress:

Time processing tools

Add In and Out times

Remove In and Out times

Update shift

Approve time

Remove time approval

Update rates and hours

Reset rates and hours

Update auto-recalculation

Align stat hours

Export

You'll be able to access your Time processing tools by clicking the wrench tool in the top-right corner. It is highlighted in the image below.

Note: The data you're able to view will be dependent on the Grid view layout you choose to use. These can also be customized. We will be using multiple layouts to display all of the Time processing tools information.

Upon clicking Time processing tools, you'll see the following options:

If any shifts are check marked, then you'll notice that you can access some of these options more quickly.

Note: These options will only appear when you highlight a shift or a range of shifts.

These are the options to Approve time, Add in and Out times, Update shift or Update rates and hours. To make any changes after using these options, you'll need to go to the Time processing tools option as above.

These will be explained in more detail in the next sections.

First, click the shift(s) you want to Add in and Out times for. Then press Add in and Out times.

Note: You can also perform this action in your Time processing tools (wrench).

When you click Add In and Out times, it will automatically sync the Check-in and out times as per the Scheduled shift start and end times.

Note: Open shifts will not populate in and out times.

If you want to Remove In and Out times, simply click the Time processing tools. Click Remove In and Out times.

Note: The Time approved must be set to No in order for this to work. The simplest way to figure if a shift is locked or not is to add the Time approved column in your grid view layout.

You'll be asked to click Proceed if you're sure you want to remove the in and out times. These cannot be retrieved once removed.

For any shift where time hasn't yet been approved, you'll notice that the Check-in and out times will now have been removed.

Let's look at how you can update a shift in Time Processing.

Once a shift is selected, you can press Update shift to make changes. Alternatively, you can double tap a shift, or bulk update a range of shifts by check marking them and then pressing Update shifts.

Important: The biggest advantage of updating your shift from within Time Processing is that it does not remove any actions that have taken place prior. For example, if an employee has checked-in to a shift, and you change the Scheduled end time of the shift while it's live, the check-in time will still remain. Whereas, if you change the Scheduled end time in your Schedule, it will remove the check-in time. It's important that you are aware of the difference in behavior.

You'll notice that upon pressing Update shift, the panel will appear on the right-hand side.

The Attendance section is where you can add Check-in and Check-out times. These can be added individually.

You can also add break durations.

You can apply Bill OT to any shift, as long as settings in eTime Xpress are set to allow it.

To apply Bill OT to a shift in Time Processing, you simply need to select it in the shift form.

The Bill OT will default to the setting in eTime Xpress. In order for this to calculate, you'll need to ensure that your the option is selected at Customer level.

From the homepage of eTime Xpress, click Customers, choose the Customer and then select Sites.

From here, click on the Pay Settings, and ensure that the OT Billable Default is set to Yes and Customer. If this requires change, click the update button highlighted by the green arrow.

When defined at Customer level, then for all the sites under one Customer will be applicable for Bill OT. All hours assigned to those sites for the same employee will be summed up and distributed according to the Billing OT rules in your General settings and/out Branch Configuration (Daily/Weekly Billing OT rules).

Note: If Bill OT in the shift module is set to No as below, then the system will bypass any configured Billing rule and all hours worked will be calculated at a standard Billing rate.

To approve time, you're basically locking the time in for Payroll and Billing. This works the same as locking shifts in eTime Xpress' Time & Attendance.

By check marking a shift, you'll be able to Approve time.

If your company likes to approve (lock) shifts, we encourage you to add in the Time approved column. You can click the 3 dots in the top-right of your grid and then check mark Time approved.

Time can only be approved if the shift has been checked out of and hasn't been approved already.

The status of approval will say Yes or No to determine whether the shift is approved or not.

Once you Approve time, you'll see that the status is set to Yes.

The shifts will now be approved and locked for Payroll. If you try to update a shift while it's locked for Payroll, it will display at the top of the Update shift module.

Note: A approved (locked) shift cannot be deleted. You will need to remove the time approval first.

It's important to know that shifts can be partially locked for either Payroll or Billing in eTime Xpress.

Partial locking is NOT available in the Time Processing module. However, partial locking in eTime Xpress will effect how shifts can be edited in Time Processing.

Partially locking a shift in eTime Xpress is done in the Time & Attendance module. Once inside Time & Attendance, go to Data > Lock > Lock Shift or Lock All. You'll then be given the option to partially lock if you choose only one of Payroll or Billing.

Let's look at an example.

If you lock a shift for Payroll only, you'll notice that Payroll will be locked and greyed out in Update rates and hours in Time Processing. Whereas, Billing can still be edited.

As can be seen, Billing can still be edited.

If you want to remove a time approval, you can do so by selecting a shift and clicking Time processing tools. From here, you can select Remove time approval.

When you attempt to remove a time approval, you'll first be warned with the following message:

"You are about to remove time approval from 1 shift. This will reset the approved status that prevents shifts from being updated."

If you're happy to make the change, you can press Proceed.

Once the removal is complete, the Time approval column will go from showing a Yes to a No.

This feature allows you to update your rates and hours just like you would in Time Xpress or eTime Xpress' Time and Attendance. It is the final step in approving your shifts for Payroll.

The Update rates and hours gives the user the autonomy to make any adjustments to their Payroll and Billing prior to approving the shift(s).

First, you may want to look at the setup of your rates and hours. This can be done by visiting your Settings > Branch Defaults > Rates & Hours form.

Or, alternatively, you can press the Settings button at the top of the Update rates and hours module in Time Processing.

Once inside, you can choose to show or hide Pay hours types, Bill hours types and enable Shift Allowances, if required.

Let's look at an example.

If you only want to display Regular and Overtime pay hours, you only need to select Regular (Reg) and Overtime (OT) pay hours.

Whichever you choose to apply will reflect in Time Processing's Update rates and hours module.

Note: Pay total, Shift total, Pay allowances and Pay amount will NOT be affected if rates and hours are distributed to hours types which are not displayed in the form.

There may be certain services that employees are not billed for. These are called unbillable hours.

If you want to incorporate unbillable hours in your rates and hours, it's important that you check mark the option to show them in the Rates & hours form.

Upon clicking ‘Reset to system defaults’, the following types will be checked and displayed in your Update rates and hours.

If you press Reset to system defaults, any other selections will be removed.

The Clear all function will remove all Pay and Bill rates except for Regular and Standard.

So, back to updating rates and hours in Time Processing. Once a shift is selected, you can Update rates and hours.

Then click Update rates and hours.

Important: Before we look further into updating your rates and hours, its important to understand that you can click on the Update hours and rates button for assigned and non-worked shifts only. Payroll and Billing rates and hours are shown in read-only mode because they are not editable until a shift is worked.

First let's look at an example of a shift that has been worked. You can see that the Update rates and hours module contains the hours and rates of the shift.

If you attempt to edit the rates and hours for an unworked shift, this section will be greyed out.

If you decide to distribute your hours across different pay types such as Regular and Overtime, the overall hours will be calculated to summarize the Shift total.

You can also choose to edit the rates.

You'll notice that a manual change will show in red.

These will also show as red within your grid.

The Reset rates and hours option allows you to reset the rates and hours to align with their current state in your system. If manual changes have been made, these will be reset to the system rates and hours.

Let's look at an example.

We'll change a Regular pay rate to reflect $40.00, instead of $30.00 an hour in Update rates and hours.

Any manual changes to rates and hours will show in red.

If you use the Reset rates and hours, you'll notice it will set back to it's original state. Before proceeding, you'll be greeted with the following warning:

"You are about to reset the rates and hours for 1 shift. This will reset any manually overridden rates or hours. This action cannot be undone.

*These changes will not be applied to shifts which are already approved."

Original shift state is restored.

You'll find you can Update auto-recalculation in your Time processing tools.

Note: For users listed as a Manager, this option is only visible if they have update access to both Payroll and Billing. If any of the section has no access, view only or custom access, the auto-recalculation menu option will be hidden.

For shifts which are eligible, you can click on the option. This will bring up a section called Update shifts auto-recalculation. Yes will show as the default.

Note: By choosing Yes or No, this will reflect in the Rates and Hours form where auto-recalculation can also be processed.

If you try to bulk update shifts for auto-recalculation and some are not eligible, you'll be presented with an errors or warnings.

The shifts which can use auto-recalculation are:

Note: If a single shift is open, not worked or not approved is selected, then auto-recalculation cannot be used.

Align stat hours is a tool used by those who have their hours distribution by shift start date, and subsequently need to split these hours to cater a different in pay for shifts overlapping midnight into a statutory holiday.

You can read all about how to utilize this tool in our Align Stat Hours in Time Processing article.

Firstly, you want to ensure that you've selected the most suitable Grid view layout for the purpose of exporting the data you want.

You can use the Time processing tools tab to Export your Time processing module into either PDF or Excel reports.

Exporting your Time processing can be done with great flexibility. You're given the opportunity to customize what you report by editing and adding columns, using filter funnels to narrow your search, or simply selecting a data range.

Here's some examples.

You can pull a Payroll export from Time Processing in Schedule Xpress. You can find it in your Time processing tools > Export > Payroll export.

You can define the Payroll export template, Employee or Pay cycle and the give the file a Batch number and File name before exporting. The file will export as a .txt file.

Note: You can use the Time Processing date range picker to reflect the period you want to export.

You can produce a Billing export from within Time Processing in Schedule Xpress. This means that you no longer have to log into eTime Xpress to export it.

Ensure the User has Run access to the Billing export in their Feature access group.

You'll find the Billing export in Time Processing > Time Processing Tools > Export > Billing export.

Please be aware that Celayix will have control over the export options you have available. Please Contact Support to enable your Payroll export.

For more information on any of the Time Processing tools, please Contact Support now!