Managing Banked Hours

Objective

You can postpone the payment of certain hours or bonuses to employees by banking them.

Upon the hours transfer, the hours and bonuses costs, for which the Bank box is checked, will be posted in the project identified in the transaction. The contra will be charged to the project, activity, and groupe specified in the Time Management module's Configuration option.

 

No fringe benefit reconciliation (Payroll Reconciliation option) is applied to transactions involving banked hours.

Banked hours are paid during time entry by clicking on the Banked Hours Management icon. When these transactions are transferred, an entry is generated to reverse the first transactions and a new entry is generated, with the date on which the hours were paid to complete the transaction. Project costs are therefore ajusted based on the payment of the banked hours and take into account any potential changes that may be made when these hours and bonuses are paid.

 

Prerequisites

 

Summary

 

Steps

Activating the Accounting of Banked Hours

To activate and use the accounting of banked hours in maestro*, some configurations must first be done beforehand.

 

Step 1 - Completing the Banked Hours Posting Section in the Configuration Option

 

maestro* > Time Management > Maintenance > Time Management > Configuration - Time Management

 

  1. In the Configuration window, open the hierarchy on the left section of the window and click on the General option.
  2. Complete the Bank Hours Posting section, which appears in the right section of the same window. This step allows to identify the entry's contra for the hours that will be banked. It also allows to indicate the maximum duration for which the hours can be banked without penalties, as well as the rate to which these hours must be paid.

Fields

Required Configurations

Liability Project

The project to which banked hours are posted.

Activity

The activity to which banked hours are posted.

Group

The group to which banked hours are posted.

Pay out after

Leave this field empty. Otherwise, the banked hours will be paid automatically after X days.

Pay the hours with the rate

In the scroll-down menu, select the Current option to pay hours using the ongoing rate at the time of the payment.

NOTE: As for the Original option, it allows to pay the hours using the rate that was ongoing when they were banked.

Never pay automatically

Check this field to manually generate the payment of banked hours to the employee.

  1. Click on Save.
  2. Click on Quit.

 

Step 2 - Checking the Banked Hours Management Parameter

 

maestro* > Time Management > Maintenance > Payroll > Configuration

 

  1. In the Configuration window, open the hierarchy on the left section on the window and click on General.
  2. In the right section of the window, check the Banked Hours Management box.
  3. Click Save.
  4. Click Quit.

 

Identifying Which Hours Will Be Banked

When entering the amount of hours worked for an employee, the user must manually indentify the hour(s) or the income-type bonus that must be banked.

 

maestro* > Time Management > Project Time > Processing > Enter Hours

 

  1. In the Enter Hours window, enter the hours and bonuses worked by the employee in the beakdown grid. Refer to the Enter Hours online help (F1) if needed.
  2. Pay special attention the following fields and check box:

Field

Notes

Rate Type

Banked hours are usuallt entered at a Regular rate.

NOTE: However, if the banked hours must always be paid at time and a half and you wish to charge the projects time and a half rate, it is possible to select Overtime for banked hours.

Hours

The number of hours to bank.

Bank

Check the box to indicate that the hours must be banked.

NOTE: If the Bank column does not appear, make a right clic, select the Configuration option, and check the View box corresponding to the Bank field. Click Ok. If ever the field is still not available, it is because the configurations for this option have not been completed.

  1. Click on the Save icon.
  2. Transfer the hours normally; that is by clicking on the Transfer icon in the Hours window (to transfer one transaction at a time) or simply by clicking on the Transaction Transfer icon, available from the toolbar in maestro*'s main menu. The labour costs will then be charged to the project and the generated contra entry will be applied to the project identified for the accounting of banked hours.

 

Banked hours for each employee can be viewed in the Employee Management option, using the following link: maestro* > Time Management > Payroll > Employees > Employee Management. Once in the Employee Management option, click on the Payroll Information tab. The information can be found in the Total Banked Hours field. Please note that the data in this field is updated when the printing of cheques is accepted.

It is also possible to view the banked hours through the List of Project Transactions or the List of Hours report, as described in the step named Tracking the Banked Hours of All Employees Using the List of Hours Report.

 

Paying Banked Hours

When the time comes to pay the banked hours and/or use them to fill in for missing hours on a payroll, proceed as follows:

 

maestro* > Time Management > Project Time > Processing > Enter Hours
  1. In the Enter Hours window, click on the Banked Hours Management icon.
  2. A new window opens, displaying the list of banked hours.

 

By default, the hours and bonuses that were banked for a period longer than the number of days that were defined in the configurations will automatically be checked, except if the Never pay hours automatically box is checked. They will be paid, except if the user unchecks them. Furthermore, they will be paid at time and a half by default.

 

 

To filter and display transactions by employee, enter the employee's code and press on the Filter Data According to Specified Parameters icon.

  1. Still in the Banked Hours Management window, modify the table if needed:

Column

Notes

To Pay

When this box is checked, it indicates to maestro* that the banked hours must be paid.

To liquidate

This column is used to manage the hours' reserves applicable to the residential and heavy residential sectors. For more details, refer to the How To - Managing CCQ Banked Hours.

Substracted Hours

Number of hours to substract from the hour bank.

Hours to be paid

Number of hours that will be paid based on the sector and hour bank type ratio.

NOTE: It is possible to manually modify the number of hours to be paid; the number of substracted hours will be automatically updated.

Rate to pay

Hourly rate used for the payment of hours.

 

 

The user can modify the information in the following columns: Project-#, Activity, Group, Hours to be paid, and Rate to pay. Furthermore, it is possible to partially pay an hour bank by modifying the number of hours to be paid.

Be default, the proposed rate to pay is the one from the original transaction. However, if the hour bank is paid after the number of days defined in the Configurations, the hours originally at a regular rate will be modified to be paid at time and a half. It is possible to change this by manually modifying the Rate to pay column.

  1. Click on the Validate the Table icon.
  2. Click on Apply. The Banked Hours Management window will close and maestro* will copy the hours and premiums to be paid in the Enter Hours window, used for hour entry.
  3. In the Enter Hours window, a new transaction is displayed. This transaction must include the hours and premiums selected in the previous window. Click on Save.
  4. When transfering the transaction, which can be done right away or during the accounting of fringe benefits, the original entry will be reversed and replaced by a new one which will take into account the modifications made during the payment of the banked hours and premiums.

 

Displaying the Number of Banked Hours on the Employee's Paystub

 

maestro* > Time Management > Maintenance > Payroll > Define Work Categories

 

To configure the display of banked hours on the employee's paystub:

  1. In the Define Work Categories window, select the desired work category.
  2. Click on the Pay Stub tab.
  3. In one of the Value on Stub fields, select the Banked Hours option, using the scroll-down menu.

 

Warning! Entering a new value has for effect of deleting the default values. It is therefore necessary to once again select the desired default values: Worked Hours, Vacation Calculated, Tax Ben Prov. / State, Tax Ben Fed., Pension Plan, and Advance Pay.

  1. Click on Save.
  2. Perform steps 1 to 4 for every desired work category.
  3. Click on Quit.

 

In the event of layoff, the banked hours must be paid in full before the last week worked. The banked hours must appear in weeks where the employee worked.

 

Tracking the Banked Hours

To make sure the banked hours are managed without any mistakes, it becomes necessary to compare the banked hours with the general ledger account in which the banked hours are accumulated. The List of Hours option allows to generate a list including all hours and premiums paid by employee, for the the desired period(s). This list also makes it possible to ensure that the banked hours of the Project module correspond to those indicated in the employee's file.

Tracking the Banked Hours of All Employees Using the List of Hours Report

To generate the list of hours:

 

maestro* > Time Management > Project Time > Reports > List of Hours

 

 

Before printing the report, it is important to ensure the hours for the desired period have been transferred.
  1. In the List of Hours window, complete the required fields and take note of the specifications for some of the fields.

Field

Notes

Date Range

Enter the beginning and ending period dates.

NOTES: If the employee has a banked hour balance on the beginning date entrered, the starting balance will be indicated on the report. Furthermore, to compare the value of banked hours with the general ledger account indicated for the bank hour management, leave the beginning date field empty, in order to take into account the hours banked since the start of using the payroll module in maestro*.

Employee Range

Leave this field empty to select all employees.

Project Range

Check the All Projects box.

Printing Order

Select the Employee/Date option in the scroll-down menu.

Hour Type

Check the Banked Hours (Added and Substracted) box.

Banked Hour Balance per Employee

Check this box to get the number of hours to compare to the banked hour cumulative indicated in the employee's file.

 

For more information on each of these fields, please refer to the List of Hours' Online Help (F1).
  1. Click on the Accept icon.

On the report, the total of the Amount column should correspond to the account balance in which the banked hours are accounted for.

 

Tracking the Banked Hours of an Employee Using the List Generator

If all of an employee's banked hours are always generated from projects (maestro* > Time Management > Project Time > Processing > Enter Hours), the banked hour balance of this employee indicated in the List of Hours report, should correspond to the banked hour cumulative indicated in the employee's file. If the balance indicated in the List of Hours report does not correspond to the employee's cumulative, it is possible to compare, per period, the banked hours and the paid banked hours by creating a list using the Employee Management's List Generator.

To do so:

 

maestro* > Time Management > Maintenance > Payroll > Employee Management
  1. Click on the arrow to the right of the Print icon, and select Generator.

 

All employees who have had banked hours will be processed.

For more information on each of the fields, read the List Generator's Online Help (F1).

  1. Complete the fields and select the following variables, so they might appear in the right section of the window:
  • Number
  • Last Name
  • First Name
  • Pay Date
  • Group
  • Year
  • Hour Bank

 

To add the Pay Date, Group, Year, and Hour Bank variables, the hierarchy must first be opened for the Number variable, followed by the one for the Payroll Calculation variable.

It is important to enter the "P" value in the From and To columns for the Group variable, and to enter the "<>0" value in the Conditions column for the Hour Bank variable.

  1. Click on the Save icon.
  2. Click on the View Excel File icon.

 

This list does not include the Opening Cumulatives nor the modifications brought to the bank hour cumulatives in the Edit Employee Cumulatives icon.

It is possible to export the data in an Excel file to compare the result to the employee's in the List of Hours report.

  • When the value in the report's BH Types column is A, the number of hours for the equivalent period in the Excel file must be > 0.
  • When the value in the report's BH type columnn is S, the number of hours for the equivalent period in the Excel file must be < 0.

 

See Also

 

Last modification: September 20, 2024