Whether you're using ESO Scheduler to generate payroll, or just using it for scheduling employees, it is important to use Earning Codes as they drive many reporting features in ESO Scheduler.
Earning codes, also referred to as pay codes by some companies, represent a type of paid for hours worked (or hours not worked but still paid). These can be customized to meet your payroll or scheduling needs.
Some examples of pay types are Regular, Overtime, Sick Time, Vacation, PTO, Jury Duty, Bereavement, and Holiday Pay. In ESO Scheduler, every schedule item includes an Earning Code dropdown menu.
Most companies use a default code with a description of "Regular" for most shifts (E.g. "R - Regular", "1 - Regular", "Reg - Regular") and then change the code as needed based on the situation.
Earning Codes can even be created to track non-paid hours such a Leave Without Pay and Sick No-Pay for the sake of reporting on those hours in ESO Scheduler.
Important things to note:
The Configure Earning Properties tool provides the ability to map Earning Codes to Item Types for selection in payroll items. You may need to contact support to hide or enable additional item types.
If you aren't currently using our Timekeeping and Payroll tools, you may need to contact support and request the Earning Codes be mapped to appropriate Item Types for you.
Getting Started:
To begin adding or editing Earning Codes in your system, you will navigate to Administrator > Keywords.
This will take you to a page where you will choose the Earning Codes option from the 'Keyword Lists' drop down field shown below.
To add a new Earning Code, you will enter the Keyword Value, Descriptor, and Sort Order. You will then click the green 'Add' button.
- The 'Keyword Value' is the name or code that represents your Earning Code. This can have any naming convention appropriate for your company. In our examples, we have listed them as abbreviated alphanumeric codes. This field can not be changed or edited once it has been created.
- The 'Descriptor' is a more long hand way of describing the Earning Code's Keyword Value.
- The "Sort Order' will determine where the Earning Code shows up in your list. You can list this as a whole number or with a decimal value like in our example.
- The 'Default Row' check box will allow you to indicate if this Earning Code should be the default item that always shows up in the Earning Code drop down fields across the system.
- The 'Hide' check box will allow you to hide or un-hide the Earning Code from the system, essentially making it inactive.
Once you have added your new Earning Code, the page will refresh showing it in the list depending on the sort order you chose. In our example, the 'OC' Earning Code is listed under the '1' Earning Code because we used a decimal to insert it within the existing sort order.
To edit an existing Earning Code you will click on the blue link of the Earning Code. This will populate the fields with the Earning Code details. Once you make a change, such as hiding the Earning Code, you will click the blue 'Update' button.
Mapping Earning Codes to Item Types:
Earning Codes should be mapped to Item Types in order to properly access them from schedule items or when making custom time off types for employees.
To map the Earning Code to Item Type you will navigate to ESO Scheduler > Payroll > Configure Payroll > Configure Earning Properties.
If you don't have the Payroll module with us, you will need to access this from an alternate location. You will navigate to ESO Scheduler > Scheduling Admin > Configure Scheduling. From that page you you will see a blue link called 'Configure Earnings Code Properties'.
Here you will be brought to a page where you can begin mapping the Earning Codes to Item Types. You will first choose the Item Type appropriate for your new Earning Code, in our example we are choosing Regular (Other) since our new Earning Code 'OC - On Call' will be paid. Next we make our configuration settings selections and click the green 'Add' button.
- 'Paid' indicates whether or not the Earning Code will show in the payroll file as paid hours.
- 'Pays Overtime' indicates if the hours for this Earning Code will count towards Overtime.
- 'Requestable' indicates if employees can request this Earning Code within time off requests or by the green 'Enter Time' button on their timecard.
- 'Hide From Employees' allows you to hide the schedule item from schedule views when used.
- 'Show Qualification' allows you to list the 'Schedule Description' in place of the qualifications in the schedule views. The qualification, however, will still be listed in the schedule item and can be viewed through reports, or when being edited.
- 'Ignore Schedule Conflicts' allows you to schedule an employee for more than one shift at a time.
- 'Schedule Description' is how this Earning Code will appear to employees requesting time off or requesting to add time to their timecard. This will also be used if the 'Show Qualification' option is chosen.
- The 'Make available as custom time off bank?' option allows you to tie a Timeoff (Other) mapped Earning Code to a custom time off bank. The time off bank will be named based on the 'Schedule Description' field.
The newly mapped Earning Code will show up based on the sort order originally given to the Earning Code. To edit a mapping, you will select the blue link of the Earning Code to populate the fields above. Once you make your change you will click on the blue 'Update' button.
To delete a mapping, you will click on the blue link for the Earning Code to populate the fields above and then click the red 'Delete' button.
Using Item Types:
Item Types are static category filters for earning codes. Since they are hard coded into the system, they are not customizable and can only be enabled or hidden based on your payroll and scheduling needs. Below are examples of the most common Item Types used.
- The 'Regular' Item Type is used primarily for a regular earning code. Because this is a hard coded item type for regular hours, the earning code property settings are grayed out and can not be edited. Anything mapped to this item type is considered paid and accumulates towards overtime.
- The 'Vacation' Item Type is used for a vacation earning code and is tied to the vacation time off bank. Because this is a hard coded item type for vacation hours, the earning code property settings are grayed out and can not be edited. Anything mapped to this item type is considered paid, categorized as off, and pulls from a time off bank.
- The 'Sick' Item Type is used for a sick earning code and is tied to the sick time off bank. Because this is a hard coded item type for sick hours, the earning code property settings are grayed out and can not be edited. Anything mapped to this item type is considered paid, categorized as off, and pulls from a time off bank.
- The 'LWOP' Item Type is used for a leave without pay earning code. Because this is a hard coded item type for leave, the earning code property settings are grayed out and can not be edited. Anything mapped to this item type is considered unpaid and categorized as off.
- The 'Sick - No Pay' Item Type is used for a sick/no pay earning code. Because this is a hard coded item type for sick time, the earning code property settings are grayed out and can not be edited. Anything mapped to this item type is considered unpaid and categorized as off.
- The 'PTO' Item Type is used for a PTO earning code and is tied to the PTO time off bank. Because this is a hard coded item type for PTO hours, the earning code property settings are grayed out and can not be edited. Anything mapped to this item type is considered paid, categorized as off, and pulls from a time off bank.
- The 'Regular (Other)' Item Type is used when mapping any earning codes that might be considered working or need to be customized with the earning code properties settings. This is going to be the most versatile option for working hours.
- The 'Timeoff (Other)' Item Type is used when mapping any earning codes that might be considered time off, need to be customized with the earning code properties settings, or that need to be tied to a custom time off bank. This is going to be the most versatile option for time off hours.
A) Hard Coded Item Type (ex. Vacation)
Here you can see an example of a hard coded Item Type with the property settings grayed out. This means anything mapped to this Item Type will behave as coded in the back ground. In our example using the Vacation Item Type, this means the earning code is considered paid, categorizes the schedule item as off, and pulls the hours from the Vacation Timeoff Bank.
B) Regular (Other)
Here is an example of the Regular (Other) Item Type. This item type allows you to select the property settings for how the Earning Code will behave. In our example, we chose to map the 'OT-Over Time' Earning Code. We would like this to be paid, for the hours to accumulate towards overtime, and for employees to have access to request it.
C) Timeoff (Other)
Here is an example of the Timeoff (Other) Item Type. This item type allows you to select the property settings for how the Earning Code will behave. In our example, we chose to map the 'B-Bereavement' Earning Code. We would like this to be paid and to hide any schedule items with this earning code from employee schedule views for privacy.
Earning Codes in Action:
Now that the Earning Code has been mapped to an Item Type, you can choose this when updating a schedule item. To do this you will navigate to your preferred schedule view, in our example we are using the Schedule Worksheet. Next click the pencil and paper icon to edit the schedule item.
A) Regular (Other)
The 'Regular (Other)' Item Type is used when mapping any earning codes that might be considered working or need to be customized with the earning code properties settings. This is going to be the most versatile option for working hours.
Below we have mapped the 'OC-On Call' earning code to the 'Regular (Other)' item type because we need the earning code to do things the 'Regular' item type won't allow it to do.
Since this earning code is for on call hours, we need to be able to schedule an employee for their normal shifts in addition to their on call shifts. To do this we are using the 'Ignore Schedule Conflicts' setting. We've also decided that these on call hours won't count towards overtime even though we do want the employee to be paid for them.
To show this earning code doing its job, we're going to assign our employee, Bob Anderson, to the open on-call shift in addition to his already scheduled paramedic shift.
To do this we will click on the pencil and paper icon to open the schedule item window.
Next we will choose the 'Regular (Other)' item type giving us access to the 'OC - On Call' earning code. Once we have made our selection, we will click the green 'Save' button.
This has properly assigned Bob Anderson to his second scheduled shift despite the scheduling conflict it might usually cause.
A) Timeoff (Other)
The 'Timeoff (Other)' Item Type is used when mapping any earning codes that might be considered time off, need to be customized with the earning code properties settings, or that need to be tied to a custom time off bank. This is going to be the most versatile option for time off hours.
Below we have mapped the 'JD - Jury Duty' earning code to the 'Timeoff (Other)' item type because we need the earning code to do things the 'PTO' item type won't allow it to do.
Since this earning code is for jury duty hours, we need employees to have access to request time off for this. We've also decided that these hours will count towards overtime and that the schedule description will show instead of the qualification from schedule views.
Next we will choose the 'Timeoff (Other)' item type giving us access to the 'JD - Jury Duty' earning code. Once we have made our selection, we will click the green 'Save' button.
Since this earning code is considered off, the system automatically asks if you would like to create a new open schedule item in its place.
Here we can see both the off schedule item for our example employee on jury duty, along with a new open shift available for staffing to cover the absence.
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