Sage Abra SQL HRMS System. User Guide

Sage Abra SQL HRMS System User Guide

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Table of Contents Add an Employer...1 To Add an Employer...1 Copying From Another Employer...3 Delete Employers...4 Delete an Employer...4 Archive Terminated Employees...5 Important Considerations...5 Before Archiving Terminated Employees...6 To Archive Terminated Employees...6 Back Up and Restore Data...7 Customize the Reports Menu...8 To Add a Custom Report Group...8 To Modify a Report Group...9 To Delete a Report Group...10 Delete Audit Trail Records...11 To Delete Audit Trail Records...11 Synchronize Payroll History...12 System i

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Add an Employer Add an Employer After setting up your enterprise, you are ready to start working with your employers. Setting up your employers is much easier if you gather all the required information beforehand. You can have as many employers as you like. Each of these employers can have different specifications, such as different codes for jobs in the company, or different salary grade structures. When you set up your employers, you define different sets of specifications for each employer. When adding an employer to your system, you must define some basic information, such as your employer s name and address. The employerʹs name is at the top of most pages and prints on most standard reports. You can also define setup information for each Sage Abra SQL HRMS product you are using. The system provides the Add Employer action so you can add an employer at any time. To Add an Employer 1. Log on to the Enterprise. From the Navigation Pane, select System > Tasks > Add Employer to open the Steps for Add Employer Task page. Note: The image below displays the Steps for Add Employer Task page in a Sage Abra SQL HRMS installation without Sage Abra U.S. Payroll (SQL). To configure an employer for Sage Abra U.S. Payroll (SQL), refer to the Sage Abra U.S. Payroll (SQL) book in the Table of Contents in this Help system. 2. Check the steps you want to complete. Depending on the products you installed, you must set up the employer for each product you are using. Complete each step now or schedule steps for yourself or another user to do later. Add Employer is a required step. 3. Click OK to start moving through the steps. The Employer Setup page opens. The figure below shows setup for a Canadian company. System 1

Add an Employer 4. Select the country in which the employer does business, enter either Canada or U.S. 5. Enter the Employer Code that uniquely identifies the employer. You must enter three characters. 6. Enter the Employer Name. This field is required because the name appears at the top of pages and prints on most reports. You can also add the employer s street address, city, state/province, Zip/postal code, telephone number and fax number. The City and State fields are required. 7. Select the Pay Frequency used for the majority of the employees. 8. In the Normal Units field, enter the hours or units per pay period worked by most employees. For example, if employees are paid each week for a 40 hour week, enter 40.00. If employees are paid every two weeks for a 37.5 hour week, enter 75.00. 9. Select the employerʹs main spoken language. 10. Select the Industrial Sector (used for Canadian Employment Equity reporting). Note: The selections you make for steps 7 10 are the defaults when you add new employees to this employer. 11. If you have Sage Abra U.S. Payroll (SQL) installed, the Payroll Database ID field appears. In this field, you must enter the ID for the database you created in the SQL Enterprise Manager. 12. When you finish, click OK. The system adds the employer. If you selected to complete additional setup steps, the appropriate page (HR Setup, Time Off Setup, or Training Setup) opens. 2 Sage Abra SQL HRMS

Add an Employer 13. Log out of Abra SQL HRMS by selecting File > Logout, then log back in to see the new employer in the ER filter drop down. Copying From Another Employer If you previously set up an employer with information similar to the employer you are currently adding, you can copy the information from the existing employer to the new employer. The copy feature saves you considerable time by letting you copy security and code table setup information from an employer with a similar setup. From the Employer Setup page, click Copy to open the Employer Selection dialog box. Select an employer from the list and click OK. The selected employerʹs setup information appears in the fields on the Employer Setup page. You can edit this information as needed. System 3

Delete Employers Delete Employers You can delete any employer added to your Sage Abra SQL HRMS system, for example, an employer you added by mistake. The system provides two options to delete an employer: Delete the employer and employee information but maintain the security information and employer setup information. Delete all employer and employee information (including security options and employer setup information). Warning: Deleting an employer permanently deletes all the related employee information. Before deleting an employer, you should back up the employer s databases. If you need to restore information, you can restore the databases from the backup. Note: If you are using Sage Abra U.S. Payroll (SQL), employee information will only be deleted from Sage Abra SQL HRMS databases, not Payroll databases. Delete an Employer 1. Log on to the Enterprise. From the Navigation Pane, select System > Tasks > Delete Employer task. 2. Select the employer you want to delete and select the appropriate option for deleting the employer information. 3. Click OK to delete the employer. The system asks you to confirm the deletion. 4. Click Yes to delete the employer or No to cancel the process. 4 Sage Abra SQL HRMS

Archive Terminated Employees Archive Terminated Employees When you terminate an employee using the Terminate Employee action, data for the employee you terminate remains in the active database files. At the end of the year or after a reasonable period of time, you might want to remove terminated employees from your active database files without deleting them completely from your system. Running the Archive Terminated Employees process periodically helps to conserve disk space and makes Sage Abra SQL HRMS run faster. We recommend you archive terminated employees on a regular basis, depending on your organization s needs. You can archive a maximum of 999,999,999 records at one time. The Archive Terminated Employees process removes terminated employees data from your system but stores information from the Demographic, HR Status, Current Pay, Current Job, Termination, and Job History pages in a separate database file. All records from other pages, such as Events, Dependents, and Skills are deleted. Note: Archive Terminated Employees is a system process and archives terminated employees in all the components installed on your system. This process affects all terminated employees. Important Considerations The system only archives terminated employees whose benefits are no longer active. The Sage Abra SQL HRMS system archives terminated employee records only if the year has been closed. That is, employees may not be removed if there is data for the current fiscal year in the employee tax withholding register or if there is an unprinted W 2 on file. When you archive a terminated employee, you permanently lose all information about the employee except demographics and job history data. Information lost permanently includes, but is not restricted to, the following data: benefits, dependents, wellness, skills, events, education, and secondary jobs. Once you archive terminated employees, you cannot restore them to your active system. You can only access archived terminated employees stored in history files using Crystal Reports. The only information about a terminated employee available to you is demographics and job history data. System 5

Archive Terminated Employees Before Archiving Terminated Employees A government agency might possibly ask your employer for information regarding terminated employees on some future date. Therefore, we strongly recommend you print and store any reports containing critical information before you use the Archive Terminated Employees process. In particular, we recommend you at least print the following items: Employee Profile report (for each employee you plan to archive) Turnover Performance vs. Longevity Matrix Terminated Employee Log To Archive Terminated Employees 1. Log on to the Enterprise. 2. From the Navigation Pane, select System > Processes > Archive Terminated Employees. 3. Select an employer from the list. 4. The process archives all terminated employees whose termination dates fall prior to the effective date you enter in the dialog box. To specify an effective date other than the current date, move the cursor to the Effective Date field and enter a new date. 5. Click OK to begin the process. The system informs you of the number of employees to be deleted and prompts you to continue. Click No to stop the process, or click Yes to continue. After Sage Abra SQL HRMS executes the Archive Terminated Employees process, the Archived Employees Summary dialog box opens. This dialog box displays a list of files and the number of records deleted from each file due to the process. 6. Browse through the list and then click Close. 7. Copy the terminated employees history files from your hard disk to a backup disk or tape for storage. The two files to copy are HTERMPE and HTERMJH. These files reside in your \DATA directory. After you complete this process, terminated employees demographic and job history data are available for you to use in custom reports you create in Crystal Reports. 6 Sage Abra SQL HRMS

Back Up and Restore Data Back Up and Restore Data As with all applications containing important data, the ability to back up your data easily and regularly is vital. To back up or restore your Sage Abra SQL HRMS database, you must use the back up and restore functions provided with Microsoft SQL Server. The name and location of the database is set up on SQL Server by the administrator and will be the default when you use these processes. Several processes in Sage Abra SQL HRMS remind you to back up your data before you actually perform the process. If you back up your data before you change it, you can always restore the original data if needed after running the process. For example, you create a backup of the Sage Abra SQL HRMS database in SQL Server. After creating the backup, you run the mass update process in Sage Abra SQL HRMS to increase the salary of all employees by 10%. Later, it is determined that the pay increase should only be 8%. You use the restore function in SQL Server to restore the Sage Abra SQL HRMS database backup, which contains the data in its original state, then rerun the mass update process to apply the 8% increase. For additional information about backing up and restoring your Sage Abra SQL HRMS database, refer your Microsoft SQL Server documentation. System 7

Customize the Reports Menu Customize the Reports Menu Sage Abra SQL HRMS enables you to customize the Reports menu. You can: Create your own report groups and add custom reports. Modify a report group. Delete a report group. Change the order of the report groups and the order of reports within groups on the Reports menu. Add report groups to submenus on the Reports menu. Note: When you add, modify, or delete report groups on the menu, Sage Abra SQL HRMS automatically synchronizes the Navigation Pane to match your menu changes. To Add a Custom Report Group 1. Log on to the Enterprise. From the Navigation Pane, select System > Processes > Customize Menu. 2. From the Product field drop down list, select a product. 3. In the Activity field drop down list, select Report. 4. From the Group drop down list, select All. The report groups appear in the list on the right. 5. Click Add. The Customize Groups dialog box opens. 6. In the Report Group field, enter the name of the new group. 7. In the Status Bar Message text box, enter a message. This message displays in the Status Bar at the bottom of the Sage Abra SQL HRMS page whenever you move the mouse pointer over the report group in the Reports menu. If you enter nothing, the status bar message will default to the name of the report group. 8. Click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box. 9. From the Group drop down list, select the new report group. The Reports list on the right shows all the reports in the group. Initially, there is none. 10. Click Add. The Customize Reports dialog box opens. This dialog box enables you to select any of the reports located in the custom report libraries shipped with Sage Abra. 8 Sage Abra SQL HRMS

Customize the Reports Menu 11. If you are adding a report from one of the custom report libraries shipped with Sage Abra, select the library from the Library drop down list, then select the report from the Report drop down list. 12. If you are adding a report not located in the custom libraries, select nothing (blank) from the Library drop down list, then select the report from the Report drop down list. Tip: If you want to select a custom report not shipped with Sage Abra, you must first save the report directly to the appropriate product folder (HR, Attendance, or Training). Open the report in Crystal Reports, select Save As from the File menu, and save the report in the appropriate product folder located in Sage Abra/Programs/Crystal. 13. Click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box. 14. When done, click OK. 15. Select Yes to rebuild your system files. To Modify a Report Group 1. Log on to the Enterprise. From the Navigation Pane, select System > Processes > Customize Menu. 2. From the Product field drop down list, select a product. 3. In the Activity field drop down list, select Report. 4. From the Group drop down list, select All. The report groups appear in the list on the right. 5. Select the report group and click More. The Customize Groups dialog box opens. Note: The only change you can make to a standard Sage Abra SQL HRMS report group is to place it in a submenu. Also, if you change the name of a report group you have created, you must reestablish any security privileges associated with the group, since changing the name of the group is equivalent to deleting it and creating a new one. 6. Select the report group from the Group drop down list. The reports appear in the list on the right. 7. To delete a report, select the report and click Delete. Confirm the deletion. 8. To add a report, click Add. The Customize Reports dialog box opens. Enter the report information and click OK. 9. To edit information about a report, select the report and click More. The Customize Reports dialog box opens. Change the report information and click OK. System 9

Customize the Reports Menu Note: You can only add or edit reports for a report group you have created. 10. When done, click OK to save the changes. 11. Select Yes to rebuild your system files. To Delete a Report Group 1. Log on to the Enterprise. From the Navigation Pane, select System > Processes > Customize Menu. 2. From the Product field drop down list, select a product. 3. In the Activity field drop down list, select Report. 4. From the Group drop down list, select All. The report groups appear in the list on the right. 5. Select the report group you want to delete and click Delete. Confirm the deletion. Note: You can only delete a report group you have created. 6. When done, click OK to save the changes. 7. Select Yes to rebuild your system files. 10 Sage Abra SQL HRMS

Delete Audit Trail Records Delete Audit Trail Records If you enabled the audit trail, each time you or another user makes a change to an action or page in any of the products you are using, the system creates an audit trail record. To maintain the audit trail files, the system requires a large amount of disk space. We strongly recommend you delete audit trail records frequently; otherwise the records might eventually consume all your hard disk capacity. Note: We recommend you run the Audit Trail reports before you delete your audit trail records. To Delete Audit Trail Records 1. Log on to the Enterprise. From the Navigation Pane, select System > Processes > Delete Audit Trail Records. 2. Click the File button and select the files containing the audit trail records you want to delete. The list includes all files that are available to audit. If you do not select a file, Sage Abra SQL HRMS will delete audit trail records from all the files set up to audit. 3. Enter a date range to delete all changes that occurred during a specific period of time. If you do not enter a date range, Sage Abra SQL HRMS will delete all audit trail records for the selected file. 4. When you have selected your files and date ranges, click OK to start the process. When the process is complete, the system tells you how many records were deleted. 5. Click OK. System 11

Synchronize Payroll History Synchronize Payroll History This menu item appears only if you have the Sage Abra U.S. Payroll (SQL) module installed. If you are using Sage Abra U.S. Payroll (SQL), you must synchronize the payroll history from Sage Abra SQL HRMS to Abra Workforce Connections (AWC). After you run this process, users can view their check history from within AWC on the Pay History page. To synchronize the payroll history: 1. From the Navigation Pane, select Payroll > Tasks > Synchronize Payroll History. The name of the employer for which you are logged on appears in the Employer field and the date of the Last Sync appears. 2. To process the synchronization, click Process. To return to the menu and not run the synchronization, click Cancel. After the process completes, a message appears to indicate the process completed successfully. In AWC, you must do the following before users can view and access their payroll information In System Setup, specify whether to Display Pay History Before Pay Day and then enter a date in the Display Pay History From field In Employer Setup, set the Pay History page access to View or No Access. Important! If you are a Sage Abra U.S. Payroll (SQL) user and you do not synchronize the payroll history, the Year to Date (YTD) totals will not be accurate on the checks and direct deposit advices. The YTD accrual begins AFTER the first synchronization is processed. For example, if you begin using AWC and then run the Synchronize Payroll History process for the first time on June 1 and then allow users to view their pay history from January 1, the YTD totals will not be accurate for January 1 to May 31. The YTD totals for these checks will be the same as the YTD totals for the month the checks were issued. Also, the payroll system currently saves the YTD totals by month and not by check date. Therefore, this situation will occur each time you run a payroll and do not run the Synchronize Payroll History process. The same situation may occur if a pay period is missed. To always have the correct YTD totals appear, you MUST run the Synchronize Payroll History process every time you run a payroll. If you run the process as part of the payroll process, each check will have the updated YTD totals as of that check date. 12 Sage Abra SQL HRMS