TNA 2000 allows you to categorise the time worked by the employee. Typical categories include Normal Time, Excess Time, Overtime  1, Double Time and so on. Depending on the time of day worked, the employee accrues time in different categories.

Some of these categories may require authorisation before they can be paid. In other words you may require that time worked at a particular category is Authorised by a supervisor, or manager, before it can be accrued by the employee. 

TNA 2000  supports this authorisation process, and this document explains how to implement it.

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Shift Categories

Concepts

The basic idea revolves around time categories. As you probably know by now you will build up shifts using blocks of time marked at a particular category. Normally the employee is paid directly out of this. 

With authorisations however a second category comes into play. The idea is that the employee works into one category, but is paid out of another. And the way in which the time moves from the one to the other is via the Authorisation system.

The authorisations are captured in the User, or Supervisor modules. You can authorise time on either a Daily hours level or a Payroll hours level. And authorisations can be made before, or after, the employee actually works.

Using the Bulk Authorisations screens it is also possible to authorise overtime for groups of employees at the same time.

At this point it should be noted that employees are not paid for time authorised. Rather they are paid for time worked, up to the amount authorised. Thus if you authorise 4 hours for an employee, but he only works 2, then he'll only be paid for 2.

Configuration

The first important point to note here is that for each "Authorised" category you want to have, you also need to create a "Holding" category. The Holding category will always contain the actual time worked by the employee. The Authorised category will contain authorised part of that time. 

Secondly it should be noted that there are 2 forms of authorisation - one at the Daily hours level and one at the Payroll hours level. If you use Daily authorisation then you can authorise a specific amount of overtime, for a particular employee, for a particular day. If you use payroll authorisations then you you can authorise overtime for a particular employee for a particular week.  

1) Create 2 time categories using the Configuration module, The first is to hold the "worked" time, the other the time that is "authorised". To do this;

A) Use the Configuration module, Shift Setup menu, Shift Time Categories option. Add a category. Call it say OT1w. (This is the "worked" overtime). For this category do not set the Requires Authorisation field.

What you might want to set are the Suppression fields. As this category will contain the time worked, but not the time Paid, you will probably want to suppress it from the normal reports.

Also note that it has No Effect on the Total. You could of course choose to have it affect the Total, but you probably want the effect on the total to be neutral. 

B) Add a second category. Call this one say OT1a (This is where the "authorised" overtime will end up.) For this one set Requires Authorisation to Daily (or Payroll), and select OT1w as the Holding Category.

If the Overtime is being authorised on a Daily level, then click on the Daily box as shown above. If it's being authorised on a Payroll hours level level then click on Payroll.

Notice that the Holding Category has been set to the corresponding  Worked category.

2) Set up your shifts as normal. Use the OT1w category, not the OT1a category.

Advanced Tip : It is possible to have working time that accrues directly to the OT1a category. For example if some time during the week is always authorised then this can go directly into OT1a.

Authorising Overtime

This is done in the User module. As with most employee related information this can be reached in a couple of different ways.

The first is from the Query or Edit menu, Daily Overtime Authorisations option. There is a shortcut to this menu on the Toolbar. 

This will bring up a list of all the daily overtime authorisations, for all employees, from a particular date. (You can specify the date on the window).

You can Add, and Edit the authorisations using the usual Add and Change buttons. The form looks something like this;

Tip : There are 2 minor productivity enhancements on this window. The first is that any time the employee has already worked is displayed on a panel on the right. This can therefore make your decision of how much to authorise easier.

There is also a quick way to authorise the hours already worked. Simply double click on the entry on the right hand list, and that amount will be entered for you on the left hand list.. For example in the above window if you double click on the 2:00 then the Approved hours will also be set to 2:00.  This window also supports Drag-and-Drop. In other words you can drag amounts from the right hand list and drop them on the left hand list.

Another way to see the overtime is via the main list of employees. In the User module go to the Query or Edit menu, to the Information about Employees option. Highlight the employee you're interested in, and click on the Daily Hours button. You're probably familiar with the Daily Hours window that appears, but there are a couple of new features here you may not yet have come across.

The first noticeable item is the Overtime button. This allows you to inspect, and edit, the Overtime authorisations for this employee.

The second noticable thing is that 2 of the columns are coloured. The OT1w column is in Red, and the OT1a column is in green. This is to remind you that the red column will not be usually be paid to an employee, and the green column (which is related to the red column) will be paid.

Note that the OT1a column, the green column, shows the amount of time worked, up to the amount authorised. If the employee works for 2 hours, but only 1 is authorised, then only 1 hour will be in the OT1a column. If however the employee works 1 hour, but 2 are authorised, then only 1 hour will be displayed in the OT1a column since this is the amount actually worked.

Tip : There is a productivity enhancement on this window. If you highlight one of the rows, and press Ctrl-A on the keyboard, then an Authorisation record will automatically be created for you, for that employee, for that day, for the amount of time worked. In other words if all you want to do is authorise what he's already done, then simply type Ctrl-A. 

Bulk Authorising Overtime

You can also authorise a group of employees at the same time using the Bulk Authorising features. These can be found in the User module, in the Bulk menu, Overtime Authorisations option.