Managing Time Sheet Generation for Negative Time Recorders

As a Time Administrator, if employees in your organization record their time in the Payroll Time Sheet using the negative time recording method, you will need to manage the process whereby working time for these employees is automatically generated, auto-approved and submitted to payroll for processing by two time sheet background jobs.

Employees who use the negative time recording method do not need to make entries in their time sheet and do not need to submit a time sheet for weeks when they have not recorded any deviations (exceptions) from their planned working time. In these cases, the scheduled hours for the employee are automatically generated in the employee's time sheet and auto-approved. Two specific jobs perform these tasks, running automatically in the background.

Tip

The Recalculation in Time Management Administration Guide contains detailed information on using the Time Management Job Summary to access a summary of key data for all recalculation processes in Time

Management.

Find the most current version of this guide on the SAP Help Portal at http://help.sap.com/cloud4hr. On the Success Factors HCM Suite page, under Product Information, choose Employee Central Administration Guides Recalculation in Time Management .

The remainder of this section is divided into three parts and answers the following questions:

● Which Time Management Background Jobs Generate Time Sheets for Negative Time Recorders?

● How can I use the Time Management Job Summary to Manage Time Sheet Generation for Negative Time Recorders?

● Where Can I find Error Messages in the Time Management Job Summary?

Caution

To run the two required time sheet background jobs described below, the TLMTriggerTasks job must already be configured in Provisioning for Time Off and be scheduled to run in your system. It must contain all required time sheet background jobs, including the Time Sheet Generate Working Time Job and the Submit Time Sheet Job. All time sheet background jobs will run automatically based on the configuration for the TLMTriggerTasks job in Provisioning.

Which Time Management Background Jobs Generate Time Sheets for Negative Time Recorders?

● Time Sheet Generate Working Time Job

The Time Sheet Generate Working Time Job generates time sheet entries for employees using a negative time recording method. Only employees who are active according to their Employment Status in the Job

Information are selected by this job. The job does not select employees who are on a leave of absence.

Time sheet entries generated by this job are based on the planned working time per day, where no

corresponding manual entries in the time sheet exist. The job also generates the time sheet if it does not exist so far in the specified period.

The Time Sheet Generate Working Time Job is automatically triggered by the TLMTriggerTasks job, which is normally scheduled to run once per day, and generates planned working time up to and including the previous day. It also then triggers a valuation of the time sheet and saves it.

Tip

The Time Sheet Generate Working Time Job automatically recalculates failed time sheets and time sheets processed with errors in the current time sheet week.

It also recalculates time sheets retroactively. Two typical scenarios where a retroactive calculation of a time sheet is performed by this job are listed below:

○ Retroactive error correction

An error occurs in the generation of a time sheet in the current time sheet week. Because of this error, a time management recalculation event (TMRE) is created to trigger an automatic recalculation (and regeneration) of the time sheet for the week in question, once the error has been corrected. Therefore, if this error is only corrected in the following time sheet week, the failed time sheet for the previous time sheet week will be generated retroactively.

○ Retroactive record entered in Time Off

For example, an employee returns to work after a sickness absence taken during the previous time sheet week. He records this absence in Time Off in the current time sheet week. This triggers a time management recalculation event, and the time sheet from the previous week is recalculated as a result.

The same type of recalculation is triggered, for example, where an employee works on a day in the previous time sheet week that was already recorded as a day's holiday in Time Off. The employee cancels his holiday in Time Off only in the current time sheet week, triggering a recalculation processed by a time management recalculation event.

● Submit Time Sheet Job

When the current time sheet week is over, a follow-on job, the Submit Time Sheet Job selects all time sheets of negative time-recording employees generated and saved by the Time Sheet Generate Working Time Job in the previous timesheet week (with status 'PENDING'), and submits them for payroll processing.

Generated time sheets that have not been manually updated after they were generated are automatically submitted to payroll by the Submit Time Sheet Job and the regular approval workflow is bypassed. Where manual updates to a generated time sheet have been made (either by the employee or by a manager or time administrator on behalf of the employee), the time sheet is also submitted by the job. The relevant workflow setting in the employee's time recording profile then controls if the time sheet is automatically approved or whether an approval workflow is generated.

This job runs after the Time Sheet Generate Working Time Job has ended, submitting all relevant time sheet entries. It runs each time the TLMTriggerTask is scheduled.

Tip

The Time Management Job Summary generates a view on these two jobs. It is available in the Admin Center, under Manage Data and provides a summary of key data for both background jobs for a Time Administrator with the required permissions to access it. Read on to find out more about the Time Management Job Summary and how it can help you manage the generation of time sheets for negative time recorders.

How can I use the Time Management Job Summary to Manage Time Sheet Generation for Negative Time Recorders?

The Time Management Job Summary provides you with a summary of key data for all time sheet background jobs.

We don't recommend that you import, create, or change the Time Management Job Summary instances, but as a time administrator you are normally allowed to view and delete individual records in the summary, depending on the permissions assigned to you.

As a time administrator, you will need to monitor these background jobs, ensure they run correctly, and correct any errors that may arise using the Time Management Job Summary to assist you.

You can access the Time Management Job Summary in the Admin Center, under Manage Data. It contains the following information as shown in the picture below:

● Job Name - Name of job from which the Time Management Job Summary is generated

● Runtime (min) - time taken (in minutes) for completion of the job

● Start Time - time stamp for start of job

● End Time - time stamp for end of job

● Details - link to a log file (.csv file) with detailed information for the job

● Users Selected - total number of users processed in the job

● Time Sheets Selected - total number of individual time sheets processed in the job

● Time Sheets Changed - total number of time sheets changed during the run. The following changes are possible:

(a) Change of time sheet status (b) Change of workflow action

(c) New time sheet entry generated, for example, if an employee creates a new time sheet entry since the last job run

● Time Sheets Failed - total number of time sheets processed with an error

● External Code - a unique external code for the Time Management Job Summary

● Instance Id - instance Id of job that has processed the request

● Run Status - status of job. The following job execution statuses are possible: Running, Finished, and Finished with Errors

Here is an example of a Time Management Job Summary for the Submit Time Sheet Job:

A log file (.csv file) for the time sheet job is available in the Details field. There is a row in the .csv file for each time sheet that was processed in the job run, either successfully or with an error. The log file includes the following information for each row in the .csv file:

● External Code - unique identifier of the time sheet

● User ID - of employee whose time sheet has been processed in the job

● First Name - of employee

● Last Name - of employee

● Start Date - of processed time sheet

● End Date - of processed time sheet

● Approval Status - approval status of processed time sheet. The following statuses are possible: To be Submitted, To be Approved, Approved

● Workflow Action - describes the outcome of the workflow for each time sheet in the job. Save is relevant for the Time Sheet Generate Working Time Job where the job output is saved to the database. Submit is relevant for the Submit Time Sheet Job where the job output is submitted to payroll.

● Error Message - provides you with more information about job errors for a specific time sheet All fields within the Time Management Job Summary are read-only.

After you have corrected any errors, you may want to manually check certain timesheets to ensure that the correct time sheet entries and time valuation results have been generated for the current day (or period). You do this in the Admin Center, under Manage Data, opening the Employee Time Sheet object and searching for your required employee(s).

Note

We recommend searching for a specific time sheet within the .csv file by using the External Code of the time sheet itself. You can also search via User ID or Start Date.

Tip

All jobs run using the Q2 2016 and subsequent releases of the Payroll Time Sheet are monitored using the Time Management Job Summary

The Time Management Job Summary replaces the Time Sheet Job Summary. Time sheet job summaries already created in the system are not deleted or removed, but are retained and renamed in a future release.

Where Can I find Error Messages in the Time Management Job Summary?

The following errors may appear in the log file of the Time Management Job Summary:

Configuration Errors

These errors occur when the configuration of a time sheet is incomplete, has been changed, or where an error has occurred with time recording in the time sheet itself. Common errors as listed below can usually be corrected by adding the missing data to the configuration of the specified time sheet:

'No time recording profile is assigned to you. Please contact your administrator.' 'No time profile is assigned to you. Please contact your system administrator.'

'No main attendance time type is assigned to your time profile. Please contact your system administrator.' 'No holiday calendar is assigned to you. Please contact your system administrator.'

'No work schedule is assigned to you. Please contact your system administrator.'

'No time recording method is assigned to your time recording profile. Please contact your administrator.' 'There is more than one time recording profile assigned to you for this week.'

'The time recording profile assigned to you is not valid for the whole week. Please contact your administrator.'

Payroll Integration Errors

The following are examples of payroll-related issues in the time valuation for a time sheet that may trigger error messages:

● Employee Class is missing from the employee's employment data

● Company is missing from the employee's employment data

Consistency Errors

The following errors in the time valuation for a time sheet can occur due to consistency checks running on these jobs:

● Consistency error AMBIGUITY_DETECTED: A calculated time type group appears more than once as the result of a valuation rule (of the same profile).

● Consistency error INCALCULABLE_DETECTED: For each calculated time type group used as an input group in a valuation rule of a time profile, there must be another valuation rule which has that group as one of its result groups.

● Consistency error ENDLESS_RECURSION_DETECTED: There is an endless recursion when valuating a calculated time type group. The time type group calls the engine to get the rule where it is one of the results.

You also use the Time Management Job Summary to monitor a third Payroll Time Sheet background job, the Time Sheet Import External Times Job. This job imports time data recorded by employees in an external time