Understanding Workgroups

A workgroup is a group of time reporters who share identical compensation requirements. For example, a workgroup may include all time reporters:

  • In the same business enterprise.

  • In the same pay group.

  • In the same union or union local.

  • At the same work location.

Each time reporter who reports time through Time and Labor must belong to a workgroup. In addition, the Time Administration process applies rules by workgroup. A workgroup must be created before any process that uses it.

When selecting a workgroup for an employee with multiple jobs, keep in mind that you need to enroll each job in the same workgroup, in order for each job to be considered for rules that combine data for processing in the same batch.

Field or Control

Definition
Reporting Time Type

You specify the time reporting type you want the system to process for a workgroup. The two Time Types are Exception Time Reporting and Positive Time Reporting.
Compensation Controls

The Compensation Controls allow the system to validate the compensation criteria that is specific to your Rule Program, TRC Program, or Holiday Schedule setup.
Rounding

You must select Rounding Options based on your company's time reporting requirements. Selecting an option will ensure that the time the time reporters enter is properly rounded.
Day Breaker

Enables you to define the point where one day crosses over to the next as the "day breaker." Although the day breaker is usually midnight—the moment when one calendar day becomes the next—you can set the day breaker to a different time to create virtual days that more closely mirror actual shifts worked. The system uses the day breaker to determine the exact "date under report" (DUR) of each punch or collection of punches that comprise the shift.
Time Reporting Codes (TRCs)

Enables you to define the level at which an organization actually needs to track employee time to support its administrative and compensation needs. For example, for payroll processing you establish an Earnings Code for Regular time (REG) and for time reporting you establish TRCs for all versions of regular time, such as tardy-paid, meeting-nonproductive, sick-paid, and so on.
Date under report (DUR)

The actual date of the time being reported for a shift as defined by the Day Breaker Options and Day Breaker Range.

To meet the requirements for belonging to the same workgroup, a group of time reporters must:

  • Be associated with the same time reporting type: Exception Time Reporting or Positive Time Reporting.

  • Use the same holiday schedule if you're going to control the holiday schedule at the workgroup level.

Note: The system first checks for a holiday schedule on the JOB record. If one is not found there, it uses the pay group schedule, and if no schedule is associated with the pay group, it defaults to the workgroup schedule.

  • Use the same TRC Program (which is composed of Time Reporting Codes).

  • If the workgroup is for exception reporters, they must share work schedules for creating payable time if the default work schedule is selected for the time reporter.

  • Use the same compensation rules and the same time period to assist in determining the period of interest for Time Administration.

  • Use the same approval requirement.

  • Use the same day breaker—the time used to determine when one day becomes the next.

  • Use similar rounding rules for rounding punch and elapsed time.

  • They can share the same association to a Compensatory Time Off Plan.

When you make a change to one area of the application, Referential Integrity makes sure that these changes do not adversely affect another area of the application. It checks for retroactive changes to effective-dated setup data or employee related data that could invalidate related objects or values in the system.

The following tables describe Referential Integrity actions that occur when certain changes, inactivations, or deletions are made to workgroup data.

Prevent Inactivation or Deletion of Effective-Dated Rows

You cannot inactivate a workgroup or delete effective-dated rows in the following cases:

Feature

Action

Workgroup

You cannot inactivate a workgroup if the workgroup is associated to a time reporter on the Create/Maintain Time Reporter Data pages.

You cannot delete an effective-dated row if the deletion invalidates an association to a time reporter on the Create/Maintain Time Reporter Data pages.

Execute Error Edit Checking

You cannot change the effective date of the target table to be greater than the effective date of the prompt table. This prevents an invalid association between the prompt value and the target table.

Target Table

Prompt Table

Workgroup

Rule Program ID

TRC Program ID

Compensatory Time Off Plan

Schedule ID

Overtime Limit ID

Nested Effective Dates

You cannot change the effective date of the source table to be greater than the effective date of the target table. This ensures the validity of a value that acts as a prompt on another page.

Source Table

Target Table

Workgroup

Create/Maintain Time Reporter Data