How do I setup comp time? – Help Center

Question

How do I setup comp time?

Answer

Background

A common way to compensate exempt employees who work overtime, but cannot be paid for overtime work, is to grant them "comp time" or "time in lieu" in its place. Comp time can be tracked by setting rules with certain hours total thresholds so if an employee works beyond that threshold those hours will accrue to a comp time balance. The comp time balance can used later by the employee to take scheduled time off.

Comp Time Setup

The Comp Time setup has three major elements:

Comp time pay code
Comp Time Balance and Accrual rules, and
Comp Time rules

Comp Time Pay Code Setup

To setup Comp Time you need to enable the built-in Comp Time pay code in Pacific Timesheet:

Navigate to System > Pay Codes
When viewing the list of built-in pay codes you can edit Comp Time.
If you don't see Comp Time in the pay code list, click on "Show Inactive" to see if Comp Time exists but is inactive in your system.
If it's inactive, edit the Comp Time pay code profile, and change the status to active and save.
Continue editing the Comp Time pay code profile setup: enable its balance and make it requestable (i.e. an employee can create a comp time leave request)
Now you will have a new Comp Time pay code that users can select on their timesheet in the time off area of the timesheet like any other leave pay code. They will also be able to view their comp time balance on the home page.
You can restrict access to the comp time pay code using security permissions for that pay code.

Comp Time Balance and Accrual Rules

Comp Time balances, like all leave balances, should have a minimum balance rule enabled to prevent employees from taking more Comp Time Leave than they have earned. You can set this minimum balance rule as follows:

Navigate to System > Policies > Balance and Accrual Rules
Ignore the accrual rules settings
Enable the Minimum Balance Rule and enter the minimum value you will allow for the Comp Time balance, e.g. 0.
Now when employees try to request or take comp time, the system will enforce this minimum balance rule, stopping them from taking more comp time than they have accrued.

Comp Time Rules

Comp Time Rules allow you to automatically accrue hours into the Flex Time balance when employees work more than a specified number of hours in a day or week. This allows employees to 'bank' these hours for use on later days.

Note: You can change the name from Flex Time to whatever you prefer (for example Comp Time) by simply renaming the Flex Time pay code on the System > Pay Codes page. You will be warned against modifying a built-in pay code, but renaming this will not cause any problems unless you have previously created work flows (such as timesheet exports) that rely on this name.

The following rules can be configured:

Rule	Description
Daily work hours over	If enabled, then total work hours over this threshold in a single day will result in hours being added to the Flex time balance. The number of hours added depends on the Accrual Rate (see below). For example, if the daily threshold is 8 and the accrual rate is 1.5, then an employee who works 10 hours in one day will have 3.0 hours added to their Flex Time balance. You can override this daily threshold to specify values for each day of the week, too. For instance, you might specify a threshold of zero for Saturday and Sunday in order that any weekend work adds to the employee's Flex Time balance. You can cap how many hours over the threshold can contribute to the flex time balance by setting the Maximum Hours value next to each daily threshold. For instance, if the employee works a total of 5 hours over the threshold, but the maximum is 4, then only (4 x Accrual Rate) hours will be added to the Flex Time balance.
Weekly work hours over	If enabled, then total work hours over this threshold in a single week will result in hours being added to the Flex time balance. The number of hours added depends on the Accrual Rate (see below). For example, if the weekly threshold is 40 and the accrual rate is 1.5, then an employee who works 42 hours in one week will have 3.0 hours added to their Flex Time balance. This rule is processed after any daily rules, so that hours will not be double counted. That is, any daily limits will be processed first, and any hours over the daily limits will not add to the weekly total. You can cap how many hours over the threshold can contribute to the Flex Time balance by setting the Maximum Hours value next to the weekly threshold. For instance, if the employee works a total of 5 hours over the threshold, but the maximum is 4, then only (4 x Accrual Rate) hours will be added to the Flex Time balance.
Period work hours over	If enabled, then total work hours over this threshold in a timesheet period will result in hours being added to the Flex time balance. The number of hours added depends on the Accrual Rate(see below). For example, if the period threshold is 80 and the accrual rate is 1.5, then an employee who works 82 hours in the timesheet period will have 3.0 hours added to their Flex Time balance. This rule is processed after any daily and weekly rules, so that hours will not be double counted. That is, any daily and weekly limits will be processed first, and any hours over those limits will not add to the period total. This rule is only useful for timesheet periods that are longer than one week. You can cap how many hours over the threshold can contribute to the Flex Time balance by setting the Maximum Hours value next to the period threshold. For instance, if the employee works a total of 5 hours over the threshold, but the maximum is 4, then only (4 x Accrual Rate) hours will be added to the Flex Time balance.
Accrual Rate	The multiplicative factor used to determine how many hours will be added to the balance for every work hour over the specified limit. For instance, if the accrual rate is 1.5 and the employee works 2 hours over the limit, then 3.0 hours will be added to the balance. The accrual rate value defaults to 1.0, but can be any positive value.