Staff Availability Exception Search
This article steps through the purpose of the 'Staff Availability Exception Search' Report, as well as how to generate it and the available search criteria. Viewing the list results, printing the Staff Availability Exception List and downloading the Staff Availability Exceptions List CSV file are also discussed.
Privileges: Human Resources For ALL Staff
Audience: HR Specialists
Summary
The following list summarises the content of this article. Click on the links below to take you to the relevant sections:
- Report Purpose
- How to generate the Staff Availability Exception Search Report
- Search Criteria
- List Results
- Print Staff Availability Exception List
- Download Staff Availability Exception List
Report Purpose
This Search Report is a useful tool for managing both 'Available' and 'Unavailable' Staff Availability Exceptions and may also be helpful for payroll. It can be filtered by a range of search criteria and therefore utilised for a couple of different purposes as outlined below.
Pending Availability (Leave) Exceptions
Firstly the Report can be used to identify Availability (Leave) Exceptions awaiting approval, that relate to a specific pay cycle. In this instance the Report can be filtered by the relevant Type: Unavailable, Status: Pending and the relevant From and To Dates: e.g. 01 to 31/07/2021:
The Results List displays as follows:
Holistic Overview of Annual and Personal Leave
As Availability Exceptions are not included in Time Sheet Batches, this separate Search Report is useful for providing a holistic overview of Approved and Pending Annual and/or Personal Leave hours within a specified period. The results of this Report could be used in conjunction with Time Sheet Batches for the purpose of payroll.
In this instance, the Report can be filtered by the relevant Type: 'Unavailable', Status: can be left blank to include Approved and Pending or these can be selected individually, and the relevant From and To Dates e.g. 01 to 31/07/2021:
The Results List displays the hours for each Availability (Leave) Exception per Staff Member on a separate line. The total number of Annual Leave hours and Personal Leave hours for the selected period is displayed at the bottom:
The List may be sorted by 'Staff Member' for ease of tallying hours relating to individual Staff Members or the List may be downloaded in a CSV file for further manipulation and review.
How to generate the Staff Availability Exception Search Report?
Select 'Reports' from the Dashboard:
Navigate to the Staff > Human Resources section and select 'Staff Availability Exception Search':
Search Criteria
A range of search criteria is available to select from that can be used independently, or in conjunction, to search for Availability Exceptions across all Staff Accounts within the organisation:
The available search criteria include the following:
- Type - options include 'Available' and 'Unavailable'. 'Available' refers to positive Exceptions where Staff are available to work additional hours to their Standard Availability. 'Unavailable' refers to negative Exceptions where Staff are unavailable to work specific days or hours which normally are part of their Standard Availability:
- Status - options include Select All, Approved, Not Approved, and Pending. This refers to the approval Status of the Availability Exception:
- Date From and To - the calendar icon can be used to select the 'From' and 'To' Dates:
- Staff Member - individual or multiple Staff Members may be selected as required, and the list is grouped first by 'Active' Staff Members, followed by 'Inactive' Staff. There is also the option to 'Select All', select all 'Active', or select all 'Inactive':
Alternatively, the options to select from may be narrowed down by selecting the search criteria, then typing in part of the name you are looking for e.g 'Mal':
- Notes - this is a free-text field where keywords or phrases can be entered which may have been entered in the 'Private' or 'Shared Notes' section of Availability Exceptions e.g. special senior management approval:
Alternatively, the options to select from may be narrowed down by selecting the search criteria, then typing in part of the name you are looking for e.g 'Mal':
Once options have been selected within a field, simply click the triangle icon to minimise this:
To remove the criteria selected for any fields and revert to all field options, simply click on the cross to the right-hand side of the field:
Once the desired criteria have been set, select 'Search' to generate the Report:
List Results
Once the report has been generated the results List displays with the total number of Staff Availability Exceptions listed at the top and total Annual Leave Hrs and Personal Leave Hrs for all Staff inclusive displayed at the bottom:
The Staff Availability Exception List results display information regarding Availability Exceptions as included in the Availability tab of Staff Accounts and includes the following columns of information:
- From date - the 'From' date selected for the Availability Exception
- To date - the 'To' date selected for the Availability Exception
- Staff Member - includes a link to the Availability tab of the Staff Account record
- Type - 'Available' i.e. the Staff Member is available for a period additional to their Standard Availability, and 'Unavailable' i.e. the Staff Member is not available when they would normally be so relative to their Standard Availability
- Status - the approval status of the Availability Exception either 'Pending', 'Approved', or 'Not Approved'
- Annual Leave Hrs - the Annual Leave hours entered for the Availability Exception
- Personal Leave Hrs - the Personal Leave hours entered for the Availability Exception
- Private Notes - Any notes Staff with the relevant privileges to approve the Availability Exception may have entered in the Private Notes section
- Shared Notes - Any notes either the Staff member creating or the Staff Member approving the Availability Exception may have entered in the Shared Notes section
Selecting the arrow on the dividing line between the search options and results List will minimise or expand the search criteria section as required:
Sorting the Staff Availability Exception List
By default, the Staff Availability Exception List results are sorted by 'From' date with the most recently dated Exception appearing at the top.
The results can, however, be sorted by any of the columns in the List, other than Private and Shared Notes, based on how you wish to view the results. Selecting the double arrows next to the column header e.g. Staff Member, will either sort the list in ascending or descending order:
Print Staff Availability Exception List
The results List may be printed by selecting 'Staff Availability Exception List' from the Print menu:
This prints the List as displayed onscreen:
Download Staff Availability Exception List
Once the Staff Availability Exception Search Report has been generated, the results List data can be downloaded into a CSV export file.
To do this navigate to the Actions menu and select 'Download Availability Exceptions List':
The Staff Availability Exceptions List export file contains all of the information displayed onscreen as well as the following additional Payroll related data:
- SupportAbility Staff ID
- Payroll System Category
- Payroll System Identifier
N.B. SupportAbility does not export Availability Exceptions as, or with, Staff Timesheets.
The complete list of columns of information included in the export file are as follows:
- From Date - the 'From' date of the Availability Exception
- From Time - the 'From Time' of the Availability Exception
- To Date - the 'To' date selected for the Availability Exception
- To Time - the 'To Time' of the Availability Exception
- Type - the Type of Availability Exception (e.g. Available, Unavailable)
- Status - the Approval Status for the Availability Exception (e.g. Pending, Approved, Not Approved)
- Staff Member First Name - the Staff Member's first name
- Staff Member Last Name - while the Staff Member's first and last name are combined in the onscreen results, these are split into two separate columns in the export file to facilitate easier sorting of data by surname, and potentially more easily match data fields when importing the data into your Finance/Payroll System.
- SupportAbility Staff ID - the unique identifier created by SupportAbillity for the Staff Account as displayed on the User Details tab
- Annual Leave Hrs - the number of hours entered for the Exception relating to Annual Leave
- Personal Leave Hrs - the number of hours entered for the Exception relating to Personal Leave
- Private Notes - Any notes Staff with the relevant privileges to approve the Availability Exception may have entered in the Private Notes section
- Shared Notes - Any notes either the Staff member creating or the Staff Member approving the Availability Exception may have entered in the Shared Notes section
- Payroll System Category - the applicable Payroll System Category as selected in the Payroll details section on the Human Resources tab of the Staff Account
- Payroll System Identifier - the unique Payroll System Identifier corresponding to the identifier in your organisation's payroll system for this Staff Member, as entered in the Payroll details section on the Human Resources tab of the relevant Staff Account