Set up absences properly while using time balances
Creating and registering absences can, depending on your chosen calculation method, interfere with the time balances and potentially distort the results.
In some cases, it might be desired that absences are being counted negatively in the employees' time balances, for example when an employee is absent in order to reduce overtime. However, sometimes you might not want the absence to take influence on the balance, for example when the person is absent due to a public holiday, a day on which your business might be closed anyway. For these particular cases, there are ways of counteracting the negative influence of the absences on your employees' time balances.
In this article we are going through the three calculation methods one by one and show which options you have regarding each of them. If you are already aware of which calculation method you prefer, you can jump right to it:
Attended hours minus Planned hours
Attended hours minus Target
This is probably the most common calculation method. Here, your employees' time balances will be based on the actual hours that they have worked - their attendance.
Option 1: Create an absence without compensation
If you would like to register the absence in Smartplan, you can do so. However, it is very important in this scenario, that you have created shifts for the employee on the days of his absence as well. As the attended hours are the base for the calculation, it is important that there exist shifts whose attendance can be tracked in the first place. So even if it might feel counterintuitive: if there are not any shifts created during the absence period yet, please go ahead and create them first. The length of the shifts should correspond to an average work day.
When creating an absence, it is very important that you select that the shifts should trigger hours and, thus, feed into the time balance:
By having created shifts and registering attendance during the absence period, the hour target can be met and the time balance will not be affected negatively.
An example:
Alex has a weekly target of 30 hours and is usually working from Monday to Friday. Next week there is a public holiday on friday. I don't want his balance to become negatively affected by him not working that day. So I am creating a shift for him on next friday with a length of 6 hours (1/5 of the weekly target corresponds to his average work day). After that I am creating an absence with the absence type "Public holiday" for him and I choose that the 6-hour shift on friday should be counted as attended. As the calculation base for the time balance is the attended hours, the target of working 30 hours/week will be met and the time balance will not go into minus.
Option 2: Combine absence and compensation
If you absolutely want to create an absence for your employee, but you also do not want the employee to have any shifts in the rota in that period, there is a solution for you as well.
You can simply go ahead and create an absence without having created shifts in the period first. As there are no shifts during that period, the employee will probably not reach his hour target and his time balance will be affected negatively. To equal this out, you have to manually add a compensation to the employee's balance. The value of that compensation would usually be calculated proportionally from the target (see example above). But it could also correspond to the length of the shifts that were maybe already planned before the absence came up. This is your call.
If you are unsure on how to add a compensation to an employees balance, continue reading here.
Option 3: You don't want to create an absence
If you do not register the absence in Smartplan, there are alternative ways of keeping the balance neutral. You can either create shifts for the respective days in the rota for that person or you could add a compensation to the person's time balance.
In order to keep the balance neutral or unaffected, the length of the shift or the value of the compensation, respectively, should be calculated proportionally from the set target. So when there is a monthly target of 160 hours, for example, and there are 20 work days in that respective month, you should add a shift or compensation of 8 hours (160 hours / 20 days) for each absence day. But in the end it is your call.
If you choose to create shifts in order to reach the target, please do not edit the attendance afterwards or mark the shift as unattended. As the base for this calculation method is the attended hours, it is important that the shifts during the absence period are counted as attendance.
Planned hours minus Target
With this calculation method, the time balance is being based on the hours as they were planned in the rota, not the actual attendance.
Option 1: Create an absence without compensation
If you would like to register the absence in Smartplan, you can do so. However, it is very important in this scenario, that you have created shifts for the employee on the days of his absence as well. As the planned hours are the base for the calculation, this will then result in the employee's target being reached and the time balance being unaffected by the absence. So even if it might feel counterintuitive: if there are not any shifts created during the absence period yet, please go ahead and create them first. The length of the shifts should correspond to an average work day.
When creating an absence, you can choose freely between the first two settings/options here:
The only thing you should be aware of, is to not delete the persons shifts in the period. If the shifts need to be covered by someone, you should rather create new vacant shifts instead.
An example:
Alex has a weekly target of 30 hours and is usually working from Monday to Friday. Next week there is a public holiday on friday. I don't want his balance to become negatively affected by him not working that day. So I am creating a shift for him on next friday with a length of 6 hours (1/5 of the weekly target corresponds to his average work day). After that I am creating an absence with the absence type "Public holiday" for him and I choose that there should not be any attendance registered for that shift. As the calculation base for the time balance is the planned hours only, an attendance of 0 hours will not have any negative effect on his time balance.
Option 2: Combine absence and compensation
If you absolutely want to create an absence for your employee, but you also do not want the employee to have any shifts in the rota in that period, there is a solution for you as well.
You can simply go ahead and create an absence without having created shifts in the period first. As there are no shifts during that period, the employee will probably not reach his hour target and his time balance will be affected negatively. To equal this out, you have to manually add a compensation to the employee's balance. The value of that compensation would usually be calculated proportionally from the target (see example above). But it could also correspond to the length of the shifts that were maybe already planned before the absence came up. This is your call.
If you are unsure on how to add a compensation to an employees balance, continue reading here.
Option 3: You don't want to create an absence
If you do not register the absence in Smartplan, there are alternative ways of keeping the balance neutral. You can either create shifts for the respective days in the rota for that person or you could add a compensation to the person's time balance.
In order to keep the balance neutral or unaffected, the length of the shift or the value of the compensation, respectively, should be calculated proportionally from the set target. So when there is a monthly target of 160 hours, for example, and there are 20 work days in that respective month, you should add a shift or compensation of 8 hours (160 hours / 20 days) for each absence day. But in the end it is your call.
Attended hours minus Planned hours
In this scenario, there is no specific target to be met. Instead, the time balance is calculated from the comparison between the hours planned inside the rota and the hours actually worked.
Option 1: Not creating shifts
The simplest solution to not let the time balance be affected by an absence, would be simply to not create any shifts during the absence period. Or to delete them, when there were shifts already existing during the absence period. When there have been 0 hours planned inside the rota and 0 hours were worked, the time balance will not be affected in any way, accordingly.
Option 2: Creating shifts
If you want to create shifts for your employees even though they are absent, you can do so. If you are not editing the shifts attendance afterwards in any way, the attended hours will be equal to the planned hours and the time balance will stay the same.
If you want to register the absence in Smartplan on top of creating shifts, this is possible as well. As soon as the shifts are created, you can go ahead and create the absence. When it comes to how Smartplan should handle the shifts in the period, choose that the shifts should count as hours worked:
This way, attendance will be registered and the time balance will not be affected in any way by the absence.
We are aware that the combination of the time balance and absences is a complex topic. If you are dealing with a very specific issue and have difficulties making sense of it all, please do not hesitate to contact the Customer Support Team in order to get more precise guidance on how to solve your specific situation.