Dynamics 365 Time and Attendance – Absence Management
Today’s blog goes over the setup and use of Absence Management in Time and Attendance for Dynamics 365 for Finance and Supply Chain.
Sidebar: Configuring Time and Attendance to track absences can vary greatly from company to company. One can have a few or many absence groups & absence codes.
The example we will be using is a packaging company producing carton products for the food industry. The company utilizes the Time and attendance module in Dynamics 365. On the production floor, they have kiosk terminals installed that workers use to clock in/out. Human Resources wants the ability to document when hourly team members are late or leaving early. If the clock in/out does not match the expected user profile, the worker is prompted with an absence dialogue and can select the reason why they are late or the reason they are leaving early. The following demonstrates how to set this up in Dynamics 365.
Please note that a similar functionality can also be found in Dynamics AX 2012.
First thing first – let’s setup the Absence groups. Click Time and attendance > Setup > Groups > Absence Groups.
Create the Absence groups with payroll in mind. For example, using names like Community, Holiday, Illness, Late, Leave, and so on. This can make payroll setup easier later, if you have not already done so.
To create a new Absence group, click New.
To reduce flex when the absence group is selected, check the box for Reduce flex.
To deduct overtime when the absence group is selected, check the box for Deduct overtime.
To enable absence recording during the Time and Attendance process, check the box for Registration.
After creating the Absence groups, you need to create the Absence codes. Click Absence codes in the menu.
Absence codes are grouped into absence groups. You use absence groups to group absence codes that have common characteristics. Examples include absence codes for a legal absence, or absence because of a doctor’s appointment, jury duty, or a sick child.
Time and attendance (form) setup:
- Registration – To make the Absence code available to the user, set to Yes.
- Icon – Specify the number of the icon to be displayed for the absence code button on the absence dialog shown when time to not match profile, if not provided only text will be shown on the button. Below is an example of the icon if you use a 1 in the field.
- Method – Specify if the absence registration, which is assigned to the selected absence code, should be counted according to pay Hours or pay Days. Note: toggling between Hours and Days only works with the Human resources type of absence.
- Continued absence – To indicate that the absence registrations that are assigned to the absence code should continue to the next clock in registration, set to Yes.
- Column – Specify the number of the column that this absence code is displayed as in Absence form report. Below is an example of the Absence codes order on the report. The arrangement of these columns are dictated by the number you use in the field. For example, if you want Sick Child to be shown to the left of Injury, you would use a 1 in the field.
Using a 1 works for this example because Illness and Injury did not have a number in the field. You would need to adjust the number if other Absence codes have a number in the field.
Letter code – Specify a letter or single-digit number that identifies the absence code in absence reports.
Include in report – If you do not select this slider, worker absences that were registered using the absence code are omitted from the statistics that you can generate in the Absence statistics form. Below is an example of the Illness, Injury, and Sick Child absence code not included in the report.
- Pay type – Select a pay type for the absence code. For example, pay types can be hourly pay rates, overtime pay, sickness benefit, and so on.
- Days – Enter the number of days that will be registered as absences if the worker has not made a clock in registration. For absences like Vacation that should result in a full day. You can set the Days parameter to 1.
- Main account – Select the general ledger account to post absence costs for the absence code.
- Offset account – Select the offset account for the transaction in the general ledger.
- Cost price per hour – Enter the hourly cost price for a worker who is absent and uses the selected absence code in their absence registration.
Possible reasons (form) setup:
To add possible reasons to the absence code, click New. Adding a Possible reason may be required if from a HR perspective the Absence group ‘Illness’ was too generic, and HR wants to know what kind and how many times a particular illness was being reported.
To create new a Reason code, navigate to Human resources > Setup > Reason codes.
All done!
Try clocking in outside the expected profile times. You will get prompted to select an absence reason.
