IMS Online frequently asked questions

Yes. You may have as many different leave types as you like in IMS Online Plus or Max, however only standard leave types are available in IMS Online Express.

The employee may withdraw the leave, and then create a new Leave Request for the new dates. Alternatively, a Manager or Administrator may decline the leave and create a new Leave Request for the new dates.

Since casual employees do not typically have a standard pattern of work, they do not have a roster. Therefore leave payments cannot be created for them. Either revise the employee status setting in IMS Payroll if they are not a true casual, or upgrade to IMS Plus or Max for customisation in business rules for casual employees.

No, IMS Online will automatically create a salary reversal transaction for the leave payment, saving you time doing manual data entry in IMS Payroll.

It is possible to reduce and pay leave units in different types in IMS Online Plus and Max, however this is not available in IMS Online Express.

It is possible to pay daily leave units in IMS Online Plus and Max in any daily unit type you wish, however in IMS Online Express, daily leave is paid as a full day or half day.

No, this is not possible. Ideally, the Manager should be assigned to a different pay point to the one for which s/he is Manager so that his or her leave requests may be approved as normal.

Yes. All leave requests - whether they have not yet been submitted, submitted but not yet approved, and approved - will be included in the import file for the pay period range.

In standard IMS Online, the following formula is applied when working out partial days (note that this only applies to leave types that are paid in daily units).

The number of partial leave hours are divided by the number of rostered hours for the day. Leave will be paid as either a half day, or a full day. If the result is between 0.01 and 0.50, then a half day will be applied, if the result is greater than 0.50, then a full day will be applied. This formulae may be modifed for IMS Online Plus and Max customers.

Yes. You decide whether negative leave balances are allowed in IMS Online Plus or Max (as well as how far in advance). Negative leave balances are not allowed in IMS Online Express.

Yes. IMS Online uses the unit type stored against each leave type in IMS Payroll to determine the unit type. This means that even if some employees are paid in days and others in hours for the same leave type, this is all catered for.

IMS Online determines the unit type based on other leave types. For example, Statutory Holiday will be paid in hours or days depending on the Alternative Holiday balance type, and Bereavement Leave is based on the Sick Leave balance type.

Leave escalations are handled in IMS Online Plus and Max, however they are not available in IMS Online Express.

It is possible to show different balances to different groups of employees in IMS Online Plus and Max, however this is not available in IMS Online Express.

A Leave without Pay transaction needs to exist in IMS Payroll. It then needs to be assigned to the Leave without Pay code in the Configuration area of IMS Online.

Projected leave balance functionality is available in IMS Online Plus and Max. In IMS Online Express, the leave balance displayed reflects the leave balance as at the last closed pay period in IMS Payroll (assuming an IMS Online Update has been completed).

Leave without Pay is not a standard leave type in IMS Payroll. For this reason, IMS Online can only show Leave without Pay if the description is exactly “Leave without Pay”. It will show as “Other Leave” if the name is labeled as anything else.

The leave history screen uses the leave dates as entered into IMS Payroll. If the leave dates weren't entered with the correct dates at the time of data entry, by default, the pay period end date is used. As future leave transactions get generated by IMS Online via leave requests, this will be correct once IMS Online is used (however historical transactions cannot be changed in IMS Payroll).

If employees work across more than one Work Area, it is possible to allow all relevant Managers to approve the timesheet.

On the Timesheet Summary, the timesheet will display as a solid block of green if fully approved, and if partially approved, it shows as a green stripe.

This functionality will work automatically if you are already capturing Work Areas on your timesheet. Some configuration will be required if you're not capturing them already, however this is minimal.

No. The e-mail will be sent to the employee’s normal Manager only.

No. The entry is initiated by either the employee when filling in their timesheet, or by that employee’s Manager. Only then will the other Manager have access to the timesheet in order to approve the time.

Yes. We can modify the Business Rules to ensure employees only see Work Areas that you want them to be able to see. Contact us to discuss your requirements.

It is only available in IMS Online Max, since this is the only product that has timesheet functionality.

There is a document available on the Documentation page which has further information, including screenshots.

This may be customised functionality in IMS Online Plus or Max. Administrators do not receive leave request e-mails in IMS Online Express.

Yes, Assistant Managers receive a copy of the e-mail that is sent to the employee's manager.

This functionality is not available at this stage.

Yes, this functionality may be made available in IMS Online Plus and Max. It is however not available in IMS Online Express.

A warning will display since no leave payments are generated for non-rostered days.

Managers may be given the ability to maintain employee rosters in IMS Online Plus or Max. In Express, only Administrators may modify employee rosters.

In IMS Online Express, it is only possible to specify a pattern that repeats every x days, usually every 7 or 14 days. If your roster pattern is variable and needs to be updated by managers each fortnight or month, then this can be handled via IMS Online Plus or Max.

In IMS Online Express, it is simply based on whether or not the non-casual employee is rostered on the public holiday or not. IMS Online Plus and Max may be customised to use a four-week averaging rule as well to determine whether today is a "normal" day of work or not.

IMS Online Express simply pays on the number of rostered hours for the day if the Alternative Holiday unit type is hours; if in days, the employee receives one day Statutory Holiday. This may be enhanced in Plus or Max to deal with increased complexities if required.

This functionality is available in IMS Online Plus and Max.

IMS Online recognises that the day is a public holiday based on the Holiday Group the employee is linked to in IMS Payroll, and although the reason code will display as Annual Leave (or whichever leave type they have applied for), the day will actually pay as a Statutory Holiday. A yellow warning will display alerting the user that leave will not be deducted on this day.

Yes. IMS Online Max handles worked time, and will automatically accrue an Alternative Holiday should the employee work on a "normal" day. Note that IMS Online Express and Plus do not handle worked hours so this functionality is not available in these products.

This functionality is available in IMS Online Plus and Max.

Date-effective manager delegations are available in IMS Online Plus or Max. In Express, this is handled via IMS Payroll by assigning a new manager to the Pay Point. IMS Online Express will be updated upon the next IMS Online Update. Note that this is not date effective, so it will apply immediately.

Employees and managers will require:

• Internet connection (preferably broadband)

• Internet browser (Internet Explorer 7 or 8, Firefox 2 or 3, Safari 3.1 or 4.0, Google Chrome).

• Note that IE6 (with recent MS patches) is supported, however it is not recommended.

• Minimum screen resolution of 1024 x 768

• A PDF viewer installed in order to print reports

In addition, the IMS Payroll Administrator user will require:

• Windows 2000, or later

If there is more than one Administrator set up, then the other Administrator may log in and reset your password under Masterfiles. If this is not the case, you will need to contact us to reset the password for you.

 

Please note however if this Admin login is also used to synchronise data in the IMS Online Sync Tool, then you also need to update the password in the Details area of IMS Online Sync. Please see pages 6 to 8 in the Administrator guide.