In Oracle Time & Labor, you can define time structures that, together, define the hours that you expect your workers to be working each week.
Yes. The rotation plan controls the amount of time that a work plan is in use. Your employees are assigned to a rotation plan. This allows you to plan your workforce so that it is optimized. You can use the rotation plan to switch between multiple work schedules as often as you like.
You might wish to have shifts with start and stop times for various time of the day, to cover a 24 hour period. However, you may wish to define shifts to be only 8 hours without having workers note their time in and time out. Using the Shifts window, you can create varying shifts using both start and stop times, and with straight hours.
In Oracle Time & Labor, you can define the following time structures that, together, define the hours that you expect your workers to be working each week:
Holiday Calendars
Holiday calendars allow the system to recognize paid and unpaid holidays. Holiday calendars are part of an earning policy.
Shifts
Shifts define the duration or time-in and time-out of work schedules. Shifts are a building block for work plans and must be defined first.
Work plans
Work plans identify applicable shifts for each of the seven days of the week. Work plans are a building block of rotation plans.
Rotation plans
Rotation plans identify the dates on which an employee moves from one work plan to another.
Notice that these structures are hierarchical, so you must define them in the order listed above.
In addition, you can define the following structures for reporting purposes:
Project Accounts, which you use to input time and/or dollar estimates for tasks and work orders.
Variances, which define low, average, and high levels of hours you expect to see recorded each period for a selected organization, location, or earning type.
Earnings groups, which you use group earnings together for reporting purposes. You can also use earning groups to identify the earning types for which you accumulate hours to compare with weekly overtime limits you define on the earning policy.
Holiday calendars are a special structure to hold information about your enterprise's policies for time off, both paid and unpaid You can have multiple holiday calendars; for instance, your policies might have different holidays depending upon the organization or location, or for closing down a facility for a holiday period.
Using a holiday calendar, you can:
Determine paid and unpaid holidays. This is the only area in the system to record this information.
Automatically generate (autogenerate) a detail time entry line item with the correct number of hours.
Validate hours taken are correct. The application validates manual time entries to determine if the day worked is a valid holiday; whether the day has actually been charged as a holiday; and if the number of hours entered are correct according to the assigned holiday calendar.
You can add holidays to an existing holiday calendar at any time.
Holiday calendars are not assigned to a person, but rather to an earning policy, which in turn is assigned to a person.
Shifts define work schedules. You might have several work shifts during the course of your business day or week. For instance, some operations have an early, a middle, and a late shift; some operations have a weekend shift. You can define as many shifts as needed.
You define shifts first, then use them in work plans, which, in turn, you can use in rotation plans. You assign people to a rotation plan.
Off shifts define the times when employees are not working, such as weekends. Off shifts do not have to be consecutive, such as Saturday and Sunday. Define an off shift as a shift with either start and stop time of 00:00 or with hours equal to .00. You must define an off shift before creating a work plan.
You can create shifts with Start and Stop times or with Hours, but not with both. Optionally, you can enter Early Start and Late Stop times. These are particularly useful for shifts where people clock in and clock out. You may require a period before the shift start time and after the shift stop time to allow all people working that shift to clock in and clock out. Therefore, the application does not generate additional time for people who clock in and clock out during these periods.
Work plans identify the shifts you plan to use to compose your work week. You create a work plan for each day of the week, including any days off. For instance, during a big project, your work plan might include early, midday, and late shifts Monday through Friday, and a midday shift Saturday and Sunday. Another week you might decide not to schedule so much activity on your work plan.
You can reuse existing work plans. As a strategy, some sites have developed a library of proven, tested work plans for periods of business ramp up (or down).
Using work plans, you can autogenerate hours for all the employees affected by the work plan. Work plans include information about the calculation of day premiums and shift differential overrides.
If your company pays a premium for those who have worked hours other than their regular shift, you can select the appropriate earning type for the Shift Differential Override. Shift differential may be entered in three places, on the timecard, on the work plan window, and on the shift differential policy. Oracle Time & Labor processes the shift differential premium in the same hierarchy.
A work plan is a component of a rotation plan, and so you must define work plans before rotation plans.
The rotation plan controls the amount of time that a work plan is in use. Your employees are assigned to a rotation plan. This allows you to plan your workforce so that it is optimized.
For instance, you might decide to have quarterly rotation plans which coincide with your business cycles. During your busiest season, your rotation plan might include a work plan with three daily shifts, seven days a week. During your “off" season, your rotation plan may reflect your decision to use your least ambitious work plan.
You can define as many rotation plans as needed
Autogeneration of hours and the calculation of day and shift differential override premiums use rotation and work plans.
A variance defines average, high, and low levels of hours per period, by organization, location, or earnings. You can use this information to notify users that the limits on the expected number of earnings hours have been reached.
For instance, if you have 10 employees working 40 hours a week, you would expect to see 400 hours of time reported. You can set up variances to alert you when this number is outside your expectations, such as 500 hours reported.
Variance tracking is an ideal use of triggers for an Oracle Alert. Management can be notified about possible excessive overtime use within an enterprise.
Use earning groups to identify those earning types you want to include in the accumulation of hours for calculating weekly overtime caps on the earning policy. When the limit is met for an earning group, the system creates overtime hours.
You can define multiple earning groups for various groups of employees. You select an earning group on an earning policy, and assign earning policies to employees.
Oracle Time & Labor uses holiday calendars to:
Determine paid and unpaid holidays. (This is the only area in the system to record this information.)
Automatically generate (autogenerate) a detail time entry line item with the correct number of hours.
Validate hours taken are correct. The application checks manual time entries to determine if the day worked is a valid holiday; whether the day has actually been charged as a holiday; and if the number of hours entered are correct according to the assigned holiday calendar.
Use the Holiday Calendar window to create a holiday calendar.
To create a holiday calendar
Change the effective From date to the appropriate start date for the holiday calendar. For initial implementation, this is usually a standard date (such as 01-Jan-1950) that predates any employee hire dates. If the calendar expires on a known date, you can enter it in the To field.
Enter the name of the calendar, and optionally enter a description.
Select the Holiday Pay Earning Type.
Select an Organization. This field is optional.
In the Holiday Days region, enter the first holiday in the Name field.
Enter the holiday date.
This date should be the observed date. For example, if Independence Day is actually July 4th on a Thursday, but management has decided to observe it on Friday, you enter July 5th.
Enter number of hours associated with the holiday. The number of hours should correspond to the number of paid hours. Enter zero if the holiday is an unpaid holiday.
Enter the remaining holidays.
Save your work.
Use the Holiday Calendar window to expire an existing holiday calendar.
Note: Do not delete a holiday calendar unless you wish the record removed permanently from the application. Deleting a holiday calendar prevents an audit trail.
To expire a holiday calendar
Query to find the holiday calendar you wish to expire.
Place the cursor in the To field in the Effective Dates region and enter the appropriate end date.
Save your work.
Use the holiday calendar window to view an expired holiday calendar.
To view an expired holiday calendar
Change the effective date to the beginning date of the period you are interested in viewing prior to the calendar end date.
Query to find the expired holiday calendar you wish to view. The application returns the query with the expired holiday calendar.
Shifts define work schedules. Create shifts before work or rotation plans.
You can create shifts either with Start and Stop times or with Hours, but not both.
Note: You must create an “off" shift with either start and stop time of 00:00 or with hours equal to .00 before creating a work plan.
Use the Shift window to create or add shifts.
To create or add shifts
Change the effective From date to the appropriate start date for the shift. For initial implementation, this is usually a standard date (such as 01-Jan-1950) that predates any employee hire dates. If the shift expires on a known date, you can enter it in the To field.
Enter a short, definitive name for the shift.
Enter a concise description for the shift.
Optionally, enter the Early Start and Late Stop of the shift.
If a person clocks in before the Early Start time, the application generates hours for that person based on the clock in time. However, if the person clocks in between the Early Start Time and the Shift Start Time, the application does not regard the extra minutes before the shift start time. Similarly, the application does not generate extra time for people clocking out between the Shift Stop Time and the Late Stop time.
Do one of the following:
Enter the start time for the shift in a 24-hour clock format in the Start field and the stop time for the shift in the Stop field.
Enter hours (the length of the shift).
Save your work.
Use the Shift window to expire a shift.
Note: Do not delete a Shift unless you wish the record removed permanently from the application. Deleting a shift prevents an audit trail.
To expire a shift
Query to find the shift you wish to expire.
Place the cursor in the To field in the Effective Dates region and enter the appropriate end date.
Save your work.
Use the Shift window to view an expired shift.
To view an expired shift
Change the effective date to the beginning date of the period you are interested in viewing prior to the calendar end date.
Query to find the expired shift you wish to view. The application returns the query with the expired shift.
Work plans identify applicable shifts for each of the seven days of the week. You select at least one work plan when you create a rotation plan. Oracle Time & Labor uses work plans to:
Autogenerate hours for each person
Calculate day premiums and shift differential overrides
Use the Work Plan window.
To create a work plan
Change the effective From date to the appropriate start date for the work plan. For initial implementation, this is usually a standard date (such as 01-Jan-1950) that predates any employee hire dates. If the work plan expires on a known date, you can enter it in the To field.
Enter the name of the work plan, and optionally enter a description.
Enter the first day of the work week in the Start Day field.
In the Work Shifts region, select the appropriate shift. The Early Start, Late Stop, Start and Stop times or hours display for the shift you select.
Select a value for the Day Premium field if your enterprise pays a premium to people who work on their days “off". Select the type of premium that will apply to this particular day on this particular shift.
If your enterprise pays a premium for those who have worked hours other than their regular shift, select the appropriate earning type for the Shift Diff Override field. A value in this field overrides any shift differential policy assigned to a person on the Assignment Time Information window.
Continue selecting all needed shifts.
Save your work.
Use the Work Plan window to expire an existing work plan.
Note: Do not delete a work plan unless you wish the record removed permanently from the application. Deleting a work plan prevents an audit trail. You cannot expire a work plan if it is assigned to a rotation plan. You must expire the rotation plan prior to expiring the work plan.
To expire a work plan
Query to find the work plan you wish to expire.
Place the cursor in the To field in the Effective Dates region and enter the appropriate end date.
Save your work.
Use the work plan window to view an expired work plan.
To view an expired work plan
Change the effective date to the beginning date of the period you are interested in viewing prior to the calendar end date.
Query to find the expired work plan you wish to view. The application returns the query with the expired work plan.
Rotation plans indicate the dates on which a person moves from one work plan to another. You assign all people to a rotation plan, even if that rotation plan only has one work plan on it.
Oracle Time & Labor uses rotation plans in the autogeneration of hours and the calculation of day and shift differential override premiums.
Use the Rotation Plan window to create a rotation plan.
To create a rotation plan
Change the effective From date to the appropriate start date for the rotation plan. For initial implementation, this is usually a standard date (such as 01-Jan-1950) that predates any employee hire dates. If the rotation plan expires on a known date, you can enter it in the To field.
Enter the name of the rotation plan, and optionally enter a description.
In the Rotation Plan region, select the appropriate work plan to start the rotation plan.
Enter the Start Date of the work plan. This is the date on which employees should start working this work plan.
If you want to view the selected work plan, choose the Work Plan button. To return to the Rotation Plan window, choose the Rotation Plan button.
Select any other work plans required to set the pattern for the rotation plan and enter their start dates. For example, if the rotation plan contains two alternating work plans, select the two work plans and their first start dates.
If you only select one work plan, this plan stays in effect indefinitely.
Save your work.
If you have entered at least two work plans, you can autogenerate the pattern you have set. Enter the next start date and the number of rotations. For example, to repeat the pattern ten more times starting on 1 March, enter that date in the Next Start Date field, and 10 in the Number of Rotations field.
Choose the Autogenerate button.
If you make a mistake, you can choose the Delete All button to clear all the work plans from the window.
Save your work.
Use the Rotation Plan window to expire an existing rotation plan.
Note: Do not delete a Rotation Plan unless you wish the record removed permanently from the application. Deleting a rotation plan prevents an audit trail. You cannot expire a rotation plan if the plan is assigned to an employee.
To expire a rotation plan
Query to find the rotation plan you wish to expire.
Place the cursor in the To field in the Effective Dates region and enter the appropriate end date.
Save your work.
Use the Rotation Plan window to view an expired rotation plan.
To view an expired rotation plan
Change the effective date to the beginning date of the period you are interested in viewing prior to the calendar end date.
Query to find the expired rotation plan you wish to view. The application returns the query with the expired rotation plan.
If you do not use Oracle Projects, you can create basic project information using the Project Accounting window. You can enter time or money estimates against tasks, then track progress using reports. A manager can analyze the data for a specific period or for a range of dates to use in projections, forecasting, and alert notification.
This window applies only to manually input time and not autogenerated time entries.
To create a project
Change the effective From date to the appropriate start date for the project. If the project ends on a known date, you can enter it in the To field.
Enter the name of the project and a brief description.
Enter the number for the project in the Project/Work Order Number field.
Select the organization associated with the project.
In the Tasks region, enter each task for the project on a separate line. You can enter a name, identifying number, and description.
Ensure that the effective From date for the task is on or after the From date for the project.
In the Estimate field, enter a value in hours or money, and in the Units field, select Hours or Dollars.
Save your work.
Use the Project Accounting window to expire an existing Project.
Note: Do not delete a project unless you wish the record removed permanently from the application. Deleting a project prevents an audit trail.
To expire a project
Query to find the project you wish to expire.
Place the cursor in the To field in the Effective Dates region and enter the appropriate end date.
Save your work.
Use the project accounting window to view an expired project.
To view an expired project
Change the effective date to the beginning date of the period you are interested in viewing prior to the calendar end date.
Query to find the expired project you wish to view. The application returns the query with the expired project.
You can define the average, high, and low levels of hours you expect to see recorded per period for an organization, location, or earnings type. Then you can use this information for variance reporting.
Use the Variance window.
To create a variance
Change the effective From date to the appropriate start date for the variance. You cannot report on this variance before this start date. If the variance expires on a known date, you can enter it in the To field.
Select the Period for which you are defining average, low, and high levels.
Select a Type: Organization, Location, or Earnings.
Select the appropriate organization, location, or earning type.
In the High field, enter the highest number of base hours allowed within the period for the organization, location, or earning type you selected.
In the Average field, enter the average number of base hours allowed within the period for the organization, location, or earning type you selected.
In the Low field, enter the lowest number of base hours allowed within the period for the organization, location, or earning type you selected.
Save your work.
Use the Variance window to expire an existing variance.
Note: Do not delete a variance unless you wish the record removed permanently from the application. Deleting a variance prevents an audit trail.
To expire a variance
Query to find the variance you wish to expire.
Place the cursor in the To field in the Effective Dates region and enter the appropriate end date.
Save your work.
Use the variance window to view an expired variance.
To view an expired variance
Change the effective date to the beginning date of the period you are interested in viewing prior to the calendar end date.
Query to find the expired variance you wish to view. The application returns the query with the expired variance.
Use earning groups to identify those earning types you want to include in the accumulation of hours for calculating weekly overtime caps on the earning policy. You can also define earning groups for reporting purposes.
Use the Earning Group window.
To create an earning group
Change the effective From date to the appropriate start date for the earning group. For initial implementation, this is usually a standard date (such as 01-Jan-1950) that predates any employee hire dates. If the group expires on a known date, you can enter it in the To field.
Enter the name of earning group and optionally enter a description.
Select all earning types required.
Save your work.
Use the Earning Group window to expire an earning group.
Note: Do not delete an Earning Group unless you wish the record removed permanently from the application.
To expire an earning group
Query to find the earning group you wish to expire.
Query to find the expired earning group you wish to view. The application returns the query with the expired earning group.
Use the Earning Group window to view an expired earning group.
To view an expired earning group
Change the effective date to the beginning date of the period you are interested in viewing prior to the calendar end date.
Place the cursor in the To field in the Effective Dates region and enter the appropriate end date.
Save your work.