Managing Reasons

What is a Reason?

When scheduling employees for hours worked within FLOW you must specify a work code or reason. In FLOW, a reason defines and delineates the various time portion(s) of the day spent for work, training, breaks, meetings, etc.

Reasons are grouped in categories for both payroll purposes and to help designate when, for example, a vacancy generated by a Break or Absence code needs coverage by another employee.

Some work reasons or absences have special pay rules associated with them (e.g. premiums) and so your payroll department will probably require that you designate hours designated for those reasons as well as reimbursements for supplies or other payments made by an employee with a special code.

The following Reason Categories are currently available in FLOW:

1. Worked
   Usually, when employees are scheduled to work the regular duties associated with a job, the work reason is simply “regular” or “worked”.  But you might also schedule employees for other activities such as on-the-job training, meetings, and special projects.

2. Absence
   When scheduling employees for absences or time off within FLOW you must specify an absence code or reason.  Absence reasons may be categorized into Paid Absences and Unpaid Absences, which are recognized in the Rules.

3. Break
   A break may be paid or unpaid, based on the company policy or union rules. Designating a period of time as a break also allows the scheduler to determine whether the position needs coverage for breaks taken by a scheduled employee.

4. Overtime
   Some work reasons have special pay rules associated with them and so your payroll department will probably require that you designate hours worked for those reasons with a special code.  For example, overtime often applies differently to safety meetings and mutual shift exchanges.

5. Premium (for Timecard purposes)
   If you are interfacing FLOW to payroll or time and attendance solution, Premium codes are generated by the rules to appear in the Timecard for exporting.

6. Other (for Timecard purposes)
   This category is designated for Other Payments in the Timecard which may be made to an employee - Mileage, accommodation, etc.

There are three ways to add a reason, from the Settings screen, from the add New Shift Type dialog and after selecting multiple shifts for the same job in the schedule. Editing or managing a reason must be done in Settings.

The article covers the following topics to  manage an Reasons in Settings:

• To add a Reason in Add New Shift Type or Multiple Shift Details

• To add or edit/manage a Reason in Settings

• Reason Options

To add a Reason in Add New Shift Type or Multiple Shift Details

Reasons can be created when adding a new Shift Type, or after having selected multiple shifts in PLAN

1. In the Add New Shift Type grid, click in the Reason column, and choose Add New Reason.
   In the Multiple Shifts Details pane, click the Update Reason checkbox. Choose Add New Reason at the bottom of the list of reasons.
   The Add Reason Dialog box appears.
   
2. Complete the fields:

   1. Name: The full descriptive name of the work reason.

   2. Code: An abbreviated name for the work reason.  You should limit this to 2-3 characters.  This abbreviation is frequently displayed on schedules and/or is the code recognized by the payroll system.  If you are exporting schedules to a payroll or a time and attendance solution, then it’s important that this code be correct.

   3. Choose a Category from the list (see Reason Category descriptions above): Worked, Absence, Break, Overtime. Premium, Other

3. Click Save or press Enter to save your changes.

To add or edit/manage a Reason in Settings

1. In the Navigation sidebar, select Reason
   The Main Pane will now show a list of reasons for the organization

2. If you wish to Add a Reason click on the + Add Reason button ; to edit a Reason, click the pencil (edit) icon in the bottom left corner of the Reason card.

   The Right Pane displays the Reason details pane.

   

    

3. Complete the fields:

   1. Name: The full descriptive name of the work reason.

   2. Code: An abbreviated name for the work reason.  You should limit this to 2-3 characters.  This abbreviation is frequently displayed on schedules and/or is the code recognized by the payroll system.  If you are exporting schedules to a payroll or a time and attendance solution, then it’s important that this code be correct.

   3. Tags: Enter any applicable Tags

   4. Choose a Category from the list (see Reason Category descriptions above): Worked, Absence, Break, Overtime. Premium, Other

4. Click Save or press Enter to save your changes.

Reason Options

Click the three-dot (…) icon in the right pane and select from the Reason Options menu

From here, you can:

1. Add a User Defined Field (UDF)
   See Creating and Managing a User Defined Field (UDF)

2. Delete Reason: If you create a Reason in error or decide it’s unnecessary, you can delete it.
   Note: Once a Reason has been used in the generation of a timecard, it cannot be deleted. It can, however, be archived.

3. Archive: An Archived reason will no longer appear in any Reason drop-down lists.

4. Unarchive: Restore a reason to active status.