Item Lifecycle: Activate an item

Creating, activating, accepting, suspending, and managing items

Activate an item

Qualifiers

  • An employee has accepted a Package Quote that you have provided and wants to proceed with the packaging arrangement

Process

  1. Go to the Employees / Current Packages tab

  2. Locate the item that is proceeding

  3. Click on the Package Item field to navigate to the Employees / Item tab

  4. Click on Edit

Accepted

If the item needs more paperwork before it can proceed:

  1. Status - change to 'Accepted'

  2. Click on Save

  3. Repeat for each item that needs more paperwork

Active

If the item is ready to proceed:

  1. Status - change to 'Active'

  2. Click on Save

  3. Repeat for each item that is proceeding until they have all been updated

Accept an item

Qualifiers

  • An employee has accepted a Package Quote that you have provided and wants to proceed with the packaging arrangement

  • The Item needs more paperwork to be done before it can be activated

Process

  1. Go to the Employees / Current Packages tab

  2. Locate the item that is proceeding

  3. Click on the Package Item field to navigate to the Employees / Item tab

  4. Click on Edit

  5. Status - change to 'Accepted'

  6. Click on Save

Next Steps

When the paperwork is complete, Activate the item.

Edit or Vary a suspended item

Qualifiers

  • An item has been suspended

  • You want to make changes to the item and its linked contract

Make the item active

Changes made to suspended items do not update into the contract, so the item must be made active again for changes to take place.

  1. Navigate to Employees / Item

  2. Click on Edit or Filter

  3. Status - change to 'Active'

  4. Click on Save

Update the Item

  1. Click on Edit or Filter

  2. Cycles or Remaining Cycles - update to add or remove remaining cycles (which can be 0 if no more pay run transactions are required)

  3. End Date - update if required. This may display a blank date, this is OK. The expected date will display on save.

  4. Deduction Per Pay - update the amount if required

  5. Status - change to 'Suspended'

  6. Click on Save

Note: Remaining Cycles will update to match the new End Date you have selected, or you can update Remaining Cycles to get the required End Date. Deduction Per Pay is adjusted to retain the pre-existing deduction for informational purposes.

If the Disbursement Type is Claim

There may be claims that have been processed and are currently 'Pending Funds' that are scheduled for a payroll deduction and disbursement after the item's Suspend Date.

  1. Contract ID - click on this hyperlink to get to Contracts / Maintenance

  2. Check to see if there are any pending claims

  3. App # - click on pending record to navigate to Contracts / Claim

  4. Review the claim (use the Funds Check pop-up to review a summary).

  5. If the last pay run has already happened and this claim will not be paid:

    • Click on Delete to remove the claim record (you may want to advise the employee about this)

  6. If these claims are not deleted, they will be shown on the Claim Checks exception report when the contract's suspend date has passed, until they are deleted.

If the Disbursement Type is Periodic

If Cycles have been updated, the payment schedule will also need to be updated to match the item changes.

  1. Contract ID - click on this hyperlink

  2. Navigate to Contracts / Billing

  3. Make a note of the Life Budget Totals - Net, GST and Total amounts

  4. Navigate to Contracts / Payments

  5. Click on Edit

  6. Total Payments - edit to reduce the number of payments so that the Payments Total matches the Life Budget Total

  7. If a part-payment is required - edit and update the values of the remaining pending payment row.

  8. Suspended contracts that do not balance will be shown on the Payment Checks exception report.

Suspend an item

Qualifiers

An item will no longer be deducted from the Employee's pay because:

  • It has come to its natural end

  • The Employee has changed their packaging arrangements

  • The Employee is leaving or has left

Final Pay Run Date

Make a note of when the final pay run is for this contract. E.g. 15/12/2021

  • The date may be in the past

  • It's OK if this is a date in the near future

  • You can future-date an item you are suspending, the future-dated pay runs and disbursements will still process.

Option A - the current End Date is correct

The item has come to its natural end.

  1. Navigate to Employees / Item

  2. Click on Edit

  3. Status - change to 'Suspended'

  4. Click on Save

Option B - the item needs to end now and the End Date is dated in the future

  1. Navigate to Employees / Item

  2. Copy the amount in Deduction Per Pay

  3. Click on Edit

  4. Remaining Cycles - change to '0'

  5. End Date - this will update and is now blank

  6. Deduction Per Pay - paste in correct amount (it may have recalculated)

  7. Status - change to 'Suspended'

  8. Click on Save

Note: Deduction Per Pay is adjusted to retain the pre-existing deduction for informational purposes.

Option C - the item needs ends in the future but the End Date needs to change

  1. Navigate to Employees / Item

  2. Copy the amount in Deduction Per Pay

  3. Click on Edit

  4. End Date - select the date of the final pay run (noted in Final Pay Run Date above)

  5. Deduction Per Pay - paste in correct amount (it may have recalculated)

  6. Status - change to 'Suspended'

  7. Click on Save

Note: Remaining Cycles will update to match the new End Date you have selected, or you can update Remaining Cycles to get the required End Date. Deduction Per Pay is adjusted to retain the pre-existing deduction for informational purposes.

If the Disbursement Type is Claim

There may be claims that have been processed and are currently 'Pending Funds' that are scheduled for a payroll deduction and disbursement after the item's Suspend Date.

  1. Contract ID - click on this hyperlink to get to Contracts / Maintenance

  2. Check to see if there are any pending claims

  3. App # - click on pending record to navigate to Contracts / Claim

  4. Review the claim (use the Funds Check pop-up to review a summary).

  5. If the last pay run has already happened and this claim will not be paid:

    • Click on Delete to remove the claim record (you may want to advise the employee about this)

  6. If these claims are not deleted, they will be shown on the Claim Checks exception report when the contract's suspend date has passed, until they are deleted.

If the Disbursement Type is Periodic

The payment schedule needs to be updated so that the payments match the billings created up to the item's suspend date.

  1. Contract ID - click on this hyperlink

  2. Navigate to Contracts / Billing

  3. Make a note of the Life Budget Totals - Net, GST and Total amounts

  4. Navigate to Contracts / Payments

  5. Click on Edit

  6. Total Payments - edit to reduce the number of payments so that the Payments Total matches the Life Budget Total

  7. If a part-payment is required - edit and update the values of the remaining pending payment row.

  8. Suspended contracts that do not balance will be shown on the Payment Checks exception report.

Suspend an item - periodic

Qualifiers

An item will no longer be deducted from the Employee's pay because:

  • It has come to its natural end

  • The Employee has changed their packaging arrangements

  • The Employee is leaving or has left

  • The item's Disbursement Type is 'Periodic'

Process

  • If the benefit has come to its natural end, go to step 3. Suspend Contract.

  • If the employee's final pay has already been processed, go to step 1.a Remove all future pay run records.

  • If the employee's final pay is in the future, go to step 1.b Remove future pay run records that happen after the final pay run.

1.a Remove all future pay run records

  1. Navigate to Contracts / Billing

  2. Click on Edit

  3. Remaining Billings - update to 0

  4. Click on Save

  5. Make a note of the Life Budget Totals "Total"

  6. Go to the Finalise Payment Schedule step.

1.b Remove future pay run records that happen after the final pay run

If the item finishes in the future and will still be on a few more pay runs, do this:

  1. Navigate to Contracts / Lease

  2. Period - open the list and locate the period that belongs to the final pay date. Count how many pending periods there are until including the final period. E.g. 2

  3. Navigate to Contracts / Billing

  4. Click on Edit

  5. Remaining Billings - update to show the required pending periods. E.g. 2

  6. Click on Save

  7. Make a note of the Life Budget Totals "Total"

  8. Navigate to Contracts / Lease

  9. Check that the last pending period has updated to match the required final pay run date. E.g. 15/12/2021

  10. Go to the Finalise Payment Schedule step.

2. Finalise Payment Schedule

  1. Navigate to Contracts / Payments

  2. Scroll to the bottom of the Schedule section and check that there are no records in 'Stopped' status

  3. If there are records in 'Stopped' status or the totals do not match:

    • Click on Edit

    • Stop Payments - un-check

    • Click on Save

  4. Check to see if the Schedule Total matches the Contracts / Billing Life Budget Totals "Total"

  5. If the totals do not match:

    • Click on Edit

    • Total Payments - update the total payments to match what you need

    • Click on Save

  6. If you need to create a part-payment to match the Contracts / Billing Life Budget Totals "Total":

    • Click on New

    • Amount - update amount

    • GST - update amount

    • Click on Save

  7. When the final pay run is processed, the final payment will post when autoPostPayments runs. This will leave no outstanding payments.

3. Suspend Contract

  1. Navigate to Contracts / Contract

  2. Click on Edit

  3. Suspend Date - enter the Final Pay Run Date + 1. E.g. 15/12/2021 + 1 = 16/12/2021

  4. Click on Save

  5. Go to the Finalise Payment Schedule step.

4. Automated update by the Scheduler

A scheduler job should be set-up in your system called Update Item Data. This job does the following:

When a contract:

  • Has a Suspend Date entered

  • Has no pending billings

  • Is linked to an item with an 'Active' status

The item is updated to:

  • Record the final billing date as the "End Date"

  • Update the "Status" to 'Suspended'

  • Update the "Total Deductions" to show the Contracts / Billing invoiced "Total" (i.e. the total amount billed)

View my salary package balance

Click on the View my salary package balance button to navigate to the Transactions screen.

This screen shows a listing of packaging transactions stored in the table that are:

  • Linked to an item

  • Has a status of 'Posted' or 'History Only'.

The display can be restricted to show transactions from a nominated date. Go to the Set-up page for details. If used, an opening balance may be displayed.

Buttons

Button

Description

Output to Excel

Click to generate the Excel in xlsx format.

Columns…

Click to change the displayed columns. All columns except supplier are shown by default.

Field Descriptions

  • Date (Date) - Shows the transaction date.

  • Type (Text) - Shows the transaction type (Payroll Deduction or Disbursement).

  • Description (Text) - Shows the item description. If there is an opening balance to display, 'Balance Carried Forward' is shown. This can arise if the stored transactions dated before driver_portal_view_my_package_balance_from_date do not sum to 0.

  • Supplier (Text) - Shows the supplier's name if applicable.

  • Debit (Number) - Shows the disbursement amounts of each transaction.

  • Credit (Number) - Shows the payroll deduction amounts of each transaction.

  • Balance (Number) - Calculates the running balance of the transactions. If there is an opening balance, this is shown first without Debit or Credit values.

Useful Queries

select et.transaction_date as 'Date', tt.name as 'Type', epi.description as 'Description', ifnull(s.name,'') as 'Supplier', if(et.entry_type='cr','',et.amount_net+et.amount_gst) as Debit, if(et.entry_type='dr',*,-et.amount_net-et.amount_gst) as Credit, * as Balance, UPPER(et.entry_type) as entry_type from sp_employee_transactions as et inner join sp_transaction_types as tt on tt.transaction_type_id = et.transaction_type_id inner join sp_employee_package_items as epi on epi.employee_package_item_id = et.employee_package_item_id LEFT JOIN fm_suppliers as s on s.supplier_id = et.supplier_id where et.status_flag in ('posted','history-only') and et.transaction_date >= '2023-07-01' and et.driver_id = ###### UNION select '2023-07-01' as 'Date', '' as 'Type', 'Balance Carried Forward' as 'Description', ifnull(s.name,'') as 'Supplier', * as Debit, * as Credit, sum(et.amount_net+et.amount_gst) as Balance, UPPER(et.entry_type) as entry_type from sp_employee_transactions as et inner join sp_transaction_types as tt on tt.transaction_type_id = et.transaction_type_id inner join sp_employee_package_items as epi on epi.employee_package_item_id = et.employee_package_item_id LEFT JOIN fm_suppliers as s on s.supplier_id = et.supplier_id where et.status_flag in ('posted','history-only') and et.transaction_date < '2023-07-01' and et.driver_id = ###### having Balance != 0 order by Date, Type desc, Description