Human Resources

Employee Services and Recruitment

Employee Attendance and Cost Review

Background

It is an audit requirement that following the completion of each pay cycle, organisational units of the University verify details of attendance, leave and payments to all staff employed within the Faculty/School/Administrative Area during the pay period, to ensure they were paid correctly. This was previously achieved centrally by Faculties/Schools/Administrative Areas by printing Employment Certificates for the relevant cost centres, manually checking details, obtaining an authorising signature and returning the certificates to Human Resources for retention and audit purposes.

With effect from the pay period ending on pay day 23 November 2007, Employment Certificates will be replaced by an automated process called Employee Attendance and Cost Review which will be accessed via StaffOnLine. It is a task which must be undertaken each fortnight by every supervisor who has continuing and/or fixed term staff reporting directly to them during the pay cycle under review.

Each pay day [Friday], Workflow will send an email to all supervisors who have staff reporting directly to them, advising that a Workflow Item 'Employee Attendance and Cost Review' has been sent to their Workflow Inbox. The email will also set out the three step process required to complete the task.

Employee Attendance and Cost Review does not display details for casual employees. It will be the responsibility of areas employing casual staff to verify payment details using a different method which utilises the Details of HR Costs report. More information is provided further down this page.

• The confirmation of attendance and costs occurs after the pay has run, therefore it does not impact on salary payments to individuals.

Please note: Employment Certificates will be required for all pay cycles up to and including the pay period ending 9 November 2007 but will not be accepted for any future pays. Outstanding Employment Certificates must be completed and returned to Human Resources as a priority.

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Supervisors of continuing and fixed term staff

Each pay Friday, supervisors of continuing and fixed term staff will receive an email advising that Employee Attendance and Cost Review has been sent to their Workflow Inbox. The email will also set out the three step process required to complete the task.

If you are temporarily acting in the supervisory position, you will be required to liaise with all other supervisors who have been responsible for the listed staff in the pay period under review and ensure you are all satisfied that attendance and payment details are correct.

When you first log on to StaffOnLine http://www.latrobe.edu.au/staffonline, select the Workflow Inbox item. You will see the 'Employee Attendance and Cost Review' item with the relevant pay cycle dates listed. When you select this item, you will see buttons for two reports which you must review in order to complete this process:

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Attendance lists all staff reporting to your position during any part of the pay cycle under review. Normal working days for each person will be displayed and will include information describing approved absences on leave. If any of your staff were absent during the pay period and their leave is not displayed in the report, you should ask the staff member to promptly submit a leave application via StaffOnLine and ensure it is approved prior to confirming the Employee Attendance and Cost Review for that pay. Once you have approved the leave application, it will update the Attendance information almost immediately however you will need to refresh your screen to see the updated details.

• Days not worked by part time staff will be blank in the Attendance display. When part time staff are absent on approved leave for full week blocks, the Attendance screen will appear as full time, however, payment will be made for the part time hours only.
• If a staff member is absent for a prolonged period, the supervisor may complete a paper Application for Absence ESS or NON ESS form on their behalf, preferably with a medical certificate attached. Once the Head of School has endorsed the form, please send it to HR for processing. http://www.latrobe.edu.au/hr/forms/leave.htm

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Costs repeats the same list of staff as in 'Attendance' and displays their respective payroll costs, cost centre and fund for the pay cycle under review. Selecting each employee's record individually will display additional details relating to payments made.

If you discover any discrepancies in the costing details, you should notify HR by memorandum from the Head of School/Dean/Director providing all the necessary information for the problem to be corrected for the next available pay run.

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Confirmation Once you are satisfied that attendance details are correct [i.e. any absences during the pay cycle are accounted for and the appropriate leave has been approved] and any discrepancies identified in the costs have been reported to HR for adjustment in a future pay, the Employee Attendance and Cost Review for that pay period may be confirmed.

Please note: Discrepancies in attendance must be followed up and corrected prior to confirmation of the Employee Attendance and Cost Review. DO NOT complete the process if you are aware of any attendance anomalies which remain unresolved, or if you have identified costing discrepancies which have not been investigated and reported to HR. If you come across any problems which you are unable to resolve within your work unit, please contact HR for further advice.

For specific processing information, please refer to the Employee Attendance and Cost Review user manual located at

https://www.latrobe.edu.au/sap/manuals.htm

As stated previously, Employee Attendance and Cost Review confirmation has been introduced to meet the University's audit obligations. Consequently, Human Resources will regularly monitor compliance and report on outstanding Employee Attendance and Cost Review verifications for past pay cycles.

• If you are experiencing any difficulties which are precluding your confirmation of Employee Attendance and Cost Review , please email Human Resources at ess_hr@latrobe.edu.au with the details and someone will contact you as soon as possible.  

IMPORTANT INFORMATION! With the high level of security access now attached to positions, it is important that positions that are temporarily vacant due to absences or pending recruitment are filled by someone in an 'acting' capacity to enable work units to continue functioning efficiently. These changes must be made in SAP to ensure continued access to certain activities. To authorise HR to make the changes in SAP, please complete an Acting in Another Position form (see the link below) and forward it to HR as soon as possible. Ideally, this should occur well in advance of the commencement of leave. http://www.latrobe.edu.au/hr/forms/other.htm

Casual staff: validation of hours/payments

As casual hours/payments are entered and approved online by employing areas within the University, they will not appear on the Employee Attendance and Cost Review for validation. Faculties/Schools/Administrative Areas employing casual staff are solely responsible for ensuring that payment details are correct. It is recommended that each area puts in place a process for validation to occur regularly at the completion of each pay cycle.

The validation can be achieved by checking the Details of HR Costs report against the Approved Casual Payments report and the Return of Hours Worked - Casual Staff forms submitted by your casual employees. Both reports have been available to staff with SAP HR Reporting access since the online system for casual payments processing was introduced and should be familiar to most staff who have been involved in checking Employment Certificates in the past.

Because of the nature of casual employment, it is anticipated that this function will be conducted each fortnight by a nominated staff member within each Faculty/School/Administrative Area and may be those people who have traditionally had the responsibility of checking the obsolete Employment Certificates.

• If you are sending the Return of Hours Worked - Casual Employees form to HR for processing, please keep a copy for your records and use in this process.

The HR Costing report is readily accessible via Manager Self Service in StaffOnLine or via SAP=>HR Reporting and will be familiar to many of you. The information contained in this report (eg. names of casual staff paid in the pay period, classification codes, total value of payments, cost centre and fund etc) should be checked against the Approved Casual Payments report which can also be accessed via Manager Self Service in StaffOnLine or via SAP=>Casual Timesheet Entry or SAP=>Casual Timesheet Approval.

Details of HR Costs report [Page 2 of the SAP Human Resources Reporting Manual]

https://www.latrobe.edu.au/sap/downloads/manuals_end/HR140v2-07.pdf

Approved Casual Payments report [Page 17 of the SAP Manager Self Service Human Resources Reporting Manual]

https://www.latrobe.edu.au/sap/downloads/manuals_end/HR190v1-07.pdf

Please report any discrepancies to HR in writing from the Head of School or equivalent clearly explaining the nature of the problem and the action you wish HR to take to make the necessary adjustment in the next available pay period. If you identify a situation which you cannot readily resolve within your area, please contact HR for further advice.

Verification of casual hours worked, classification codes and payments is an audit requirement and must be completed in a regular and timely manner following each pay period, however, reminders will not be sent to undertake this validation and HR will not be monitoring compliance by Faculties/Schools/Administrative Areas.

How to Contact Us…

If you experience any difficulties which you are unable to resolve using the information in the Employee Attendance and Cost Review user manual, other relevant manuals or this webpage, please send an email to ess_hr@latrobe.edu.au explaining your concerns or problem and someone will contact you as soon as possible. Alternatively, you may wish to contact Mary Servinis or Rita Del Pizzo.

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