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Working with Banked Time

eNETEmployer allows you to work with employee banked time, where an employee accrues paid time off instead of receiving overtime wages when they work extra time. This time is accrued in the employee's bank and can be stored in dollars or hours. When the employee wishes to withdraw bank time, the corresponding hours are deducted from the bank and paid at their standard hourly rate.

For this tutorial, we will show you how to create three different types of bank time accumulators:

  1. Method 1: Manual Bank Time - Where you manually enter time in the employee's bank.
  2. Method 2: Accumulated Bank Time by Dollar - Where eNETEmployer accumulates the bank time by dollar amount.
  3. Method 3: Accumulated Bank Time by Hour - Where eNETEmployer accumulates the bank time by the hour.

Method 1: Manual Banked Time

This lesson will show you how to create a banked time earning and its related accumulator, so that you can manually assign banked hours and withdraw from the bank as needed. The lesson is comprised of four sections:

  1. Create the banked time earning and related accumulator.
  2. Assign the banked earning and accumulator to the employee.
  3. Add any pre-existing amounts to the banked time accumulator.
  4. Pay out banked time.

A: Create the banked time earning and related accumulator

  1. From the Payroll tab, open the Current Payroll - Earnings screen where you can work with your payroll earning types.

    2. Earnings Help page...

  2. Choose the New button to insert an earning row in the table. The row appears in Edit Mode with its cells ready for editing.
  3. Move to the Name cell and enter "BankedTime", and then set the Short Name to "Bank".
  4. Set the Type to Hourly and change the Calculate Method to As Rate Of.
  5. Set the earning's Rate to "1", then choose the Regular earning from the Rate of Earning drop-down list. When the BankedTime earning pays out an amount, it will do so at at 1x the employee's Regular earning rate.
    Example: In Fig. 01 below, we have created the BankedTime earning and its related settings.
    6. Fig. 01: The Earnings screen with the completed bank time earning.
    Fig. 01: The BankedTime earning and it's related settings.

    Now we can create the related accumulator that will accrue the amounts until you are ready to pay them out.

  6. From the Payroll tab, open the Current Payroll - Accumulators screen, and then choose the New button to insert an accumulator row in the table.

    7. Accumulators Help page...

  7. Move to the Name cell and enter "BankedTime", and then set the Short Name to "Bank".
  8. Place a check in the Appear on Pay Statement box. This will display the accumulated amounts on the employee's pay stub.
  9. Set the Pay Out As cell to use the BankedTime earning.
    Example: In Fig. 02 below, we have created the BankedTime accumulator and it's related settings.
    Fig. 01: The Accumulators screen with the completed bank time accumulator.
    Fig. 02: The BankedTime earning and it's related settings.

    Now we can assign the banked time earning and related accumulator to an employee.

B: Assign the banked earning and accumulator to the employee

  1. From the Payroll tab, open the Employee - Earning Items screen, and then click the Add Earning button for the employee who will be assigned the banked earning. This displays a pop-up list of earnings that can be assigned to the employee

    2. Earning Items Help page...

    Example: In Fig. 03 below, we will assign the BankedTime earning to the last employee in the list - Isabelle.

    Fig. 03: The Add Earning button allows you to assign earnings to each employee.
    Fig. 03: The Add Earning button displays a list of available earnings that can be assigned to the employee.
  2. Select the BankedTime option from the list to assign the earning to the employee, and then Save the row.
  3. Select the Update All Rates button from above the table to apply the earning rate multiplier to the BankedTime earning (we set the rate multipler back in Step 1 when we set the BankedTime earning's Calculate Method to As Rate Of the Regular earning). Note: If you prefer, you can also set the rate manually by moving to the Rate cell and entering the earning's rate of pay.
    Example: In Fig. 04 below, we have assigned the BankedTime earning to the employee, and have set its pay rate to match the employee's Regular rate.
    4. Fig. 04: The earning is assigned to the employee.
    Fig. 04: The Earning is assigned to the employee.

    Now we can assign the related accumulator.

  4. From the Payroll tab, open the Employee - Accumulators screen, and then click the Add Accumulator button for the employee who will be assigned the accumulator. This displays a pop-up list of accumulators that can be assigned to the employee

    5. Accumulator Items Help page...

    Example: In Fig. 05 below, we will assign the BankedTime accumulator to our sample employee.

    Fig. 05: The Add Accumulators button allows you to assign accumulators to each employee.
    Fig. 05: The Add Accumulator button displays a list of available accumulators that can be assigned to the employee.
  5. Select the BankedTime option from the list to assign the accumulator to the employee.
    Example: In Fig. 06 below, we have assigned the BankedTime accumulator to the employee, and its default action will be to accrue all banked amounts.
    6. Fig. 06: The accumulator is assigned to the employee.
    Fig. 06: The Accumulator is assigned to the employee.

    If you have any year-to-date balances for your banked time accumulator, you can proceed to the next step and enter the accrued amounts. If you do not have any accrued amounts, you may skip this section and proceed to Step 4 below.

C: Add any pre-existing amounts to the banked accumulator

  1. From the Payroll tab, open the Employee - YTD Accumulators screen. This screen allows you to view and modify year-to-date accumulator values for your employees.

    2. YTD Accumulators Help page...

  2. Double-click on the accumulator row for the employee whose banked time you wish to enter. Note: If you cannot see all of the rows for a given employee, use the Expand icon (the right-facing arrow located at the left side of each row) to expand all of the rows for the employee.
  3. Move to the Adjustment cell and enter a dollar amount for the employee's existing banked time. This amount will remain until a portion (or all) is paid out.
    Example: In Fig. 07 below, we have expanded the two accumulator rows for our sample employee, and have entered an existing banked value of $500.00.
    4. Fig. 05: The employee's existing banked time amount has been added.
    Fig. 07: The employee's existing banked time amount has been added.

    You may also notice that our sample employee's "Vacation Pay" accumulator shows a value of zero. This is because the related accumulator's Action is set to "Always Pay", thus the employee receives all calculated vacation amounts on each cheque. The other two sample employees are set to have their Vacation "Accrue", and their YTD vacation amounts will continue to build until they are paid out.

    When you are ready to pay out a portion (or all) of the employee's banked time, you can proceed to the final step below.

D: Pay out banked time

  1. From the Payroll tab, open Payroll Processing - Speedy Update screen, and then edit the row for the given employee

    2. Speedy Update Help page...

  2. Move to the Bank Hours cell, enter the number of hours that will be paid out for the period, and then Save the row.
    Example: In Fig. 08 below, we have entered 12 banked hours to bring our employee up to a full 80 hours for the pay period.
    3. Fig. 08: The employee will be paid 12 'Banked' hours along with their 68 'Regular' hours.
    Fig. 08: The employee will be paid 12 "Banked" hours along with their 68 "Regular" hours.
  3. Save the row, and then calculate the payroll.
    1. The Pay Register report will show the paid amount on the BankedTime row.
    2. The left column of the Pay Register report will show a negative payout value for the BankedTime accumulator.
    3. The employee's pay stub will also show the payout and remaining amounts (if any).

Example: In Fig. 09 below, our sample employee is paid $300.00 of their banked time (12 hours at $25.00 per hour), and the accumulator totals at the bottom left show the remaining banked amount ($200.00).

    Fig. 09: The employee has $200.00 remaining in their BankedTime accumulator.
    Fig. 09: The employee has $200.00 remaining in their BankedTime accumulator.

Method 2: Accumulated Bank Time by Dollar

This lesson will show you how to create a banked time earning and its related accumulator, so that you can manually assign banked hours and withdraw from the bank as needed. The lesson is comprised of the following four sections:

  1. Create a function to accrue bank time by a dollar value.
  2. Create the related accumulator.
  3. Assign the accumulator to the employee.

A: Create a function to accrue bank time by a dollar value

  1. From the Payroll tab, open the Current Payroll - Functions screen where you can define the formula for the function's calculation.

    2. Functions Help page...

  2. Insert an Empty Function (via the New button in the button bar), and then enter "Banked Hours" in the Name column.
  3. Move to the Type column and change the type to "P Value". This will allow you to specify the value to be used when the function is calculated.
  4. Move to the Symbol column and change the suggested symbol from "x1" to the letter "P". Note: Although you could leave the default x1 symbol in your expression, changing it to a more recognizeable character (P) makes the expression more easier to understand.
  5. Move to the Expression column and change the suggested symbol from "x1" to the letter "P".
  6. Press the Save button at the top left of the screen. This saves your row changes and keeps the row in Edit Mode because you will need to make further modifications.
  7. Select the Add Variable button to insert a sub-row, and then move to the Type column and change the type to "Hours". This will instruct the function to use hours in the calculation, instead of dollars.
  8. Move to the Symbol column and change the suggested symbol from "x1" to "HRS". This symbol will be more recongnizeable in your expression.
  9. Move to the Expression column and change the suggested symbol from "x2" to "HRS". The resulting P*HRS expression will take a specified value ("P" - to be defined later at the emoplyee-level), and multiple it by
  10. Once your changes are complete, select the Save icon (the check mark icon at the left side of the row) for both rows. This accepts the changes and the Edit Mode icons are removed to indicate that the row changes have been saved. You can also choose the Save button from the Button Bar above the table.
    Example: In our example below, we have added a function that will .
    Fig. 04: The redundant symbol is removed from the expression.
    Fig. 10: The Bank Hours function accrues hours (HRS) based on a user-definable value (P).

    a) The resulting expression, P * sum(E1, E2, E3, E4, E5, E6), instructs the program to multiply (by a factor of 4%) the sum of items E1 through E6.
    b)     The "P" symbol in the Expression column will use the value that is assigned in the Value column at the far right side of the row. This pre-defined function uses 4% as a starting value and corresponds to typical starting vacation percentage in Canada. Note: that the "P" symbol is arbitrary and can be substituted for a number, or even a word (refer to the Symbol cell's description found on the Functions screen's help page).
    c) The corresponding amounts for each income type (shown in the Item column) will be used when the payroll is calculated. Note: This function supports both Hourly and Salary employees by including their respective earning types.
    d) The numbers in the Value cells are arbitrary and represent test values only. As mentioned in the previous point, the program will use actual payroll values in place of these test values when the payroll is calculated.

  11. Move to the Function cell and enter a name for your function.
  12. Choose the Save button for the main row, then click the Collapse icon so that the sub-rows become hidden.
    Example: In Fig. 05 below, we have entered "Vacation Pay" as the function name.
    Fig. 05: The Collapse button changes to the Expand button when chosen (and vice versa).
    Fig. 05: The Collapse button changes to the Expand button when chosen (and vice versa).
  13. Select the Test button to try out the new function. If you used our sample data during this lesson, the test result should read 4.00 (i.e. 4% of $100 of regular earnings). If the words Invalid Expression appear, please review the variables above and adjust them as required to achieve a valid result.

    This completes the vacation pay function.

 

 


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