Monthly Leave Reporting

Exempt Employees eligible for annual leave and sick leave will utilize the Employee Dashboard for Leave Reporting to record any leave taken or confirm no leave taken during the reporting period. The Leave Reporting period is the 1st of the month through the last day of the month. Exempt Employees must submit their Leave Reports through the Employee Dashboard to their Approver no later than the 7th of the month following the reporting month as outlined in the Leave Reporting Schedule Below. Leave Reports are submitted for each reporting period, regardless of leave taken.

Monthly Leave Report Schedule

Month of the Year	Reporting Pay Period	Report Opens for Employee	Deadline for Employee Submission	Deadline for Approval
January	January 1 – January 31	January 8	February 7	February 10
February	February 1 – February 28	February 8	March 7	March 10
March	March 1 – March 31	March 8	April 7	April 10
April	April 1 – April 30	April 8	May 7	May 10
May	May 1 – May 31	May 8	June 7	June 10
June	June 1 – June 30	June 8	July 7	July 10
July	July 1 – July 31	July 8	August 7	August 10
August	August 1 – August 31	August 8	September 7	September 10
September	September 1 – September 30	September 8	October 7	October 10
October	October 1 – October 31	October 8	November 7	November 10
November	November 1 – November 30	November 8	December 7	December 10
December	December 1 – December 31	December 8	January 7	January 10

NOTE: When the deadline for Employee Submission (7th) or Approval (10th) fall on a weekend or holiday, the deadline remains in effect.

Instructions for Employee Dashboard Leave Reports

Follow links below for step-by-step instructions on utilizing the Employee Dashboard for Leave Reports.

Entering Time on Leave Report
Approving Leave Report
Approving Leave Report as Proxy
Returning Leave Report for Correction

Employee’s Responsibilities with Leave Reports

Initiate your Leave Report at the beginning of the Reporting Period. NOTE: You will submit a leave report each month even if no leave was used.
Record accurate hours and days on your Leave Report.
Use appropriate Earning / Leave Codes to ensure pay is in accordance with UA policy.
Check your leave balances to verify availability of hours claimed. NOTE: Entry of leave balances in excess of available balance may result in reduction of payment amount.
Add Comments to your Leave Report, if needed, to document special circumstances, changes to your normal work schedule, or any other important information.
Review your Leave Report for accuracy BEFORE submitting it for approval.
Submit your Leave Report prior to the close of business on the Employee Submission Deadline (the 7th of the month following the reporting period).
Remember, after the Employee Submission Deadline, you cannot submit for approval or make any changes to a Leave Report. If your report was submitted by the Employee Submission Deadline, your Approver can make changes to Leave Report on your behalf before the Deadline for Approval. Look for an email from your Approver regarding changes made.

Approver’s Responsibilities with Leave Reports

Verify Employees have initiated their Leave Report well in advance of the Employee Submission deadline.
If needed, designate at least one Proxy to perform your responsibilities in your absence. Notify your Proxy to review and approve Leave Reports on your behalf when you are not going to be available to perform this responsibility.
Verify that all Employees have submitted their Leave Reports for approval prior to the Employee Submission Deadline.
Notify Employees that they need to submit Leave Report when they have not done so.
Review all submitted Leave Reports in detail. It is the responsibility of the Approver to verify the Employee has accurately recorded the time off and leave taken is in accordance with UA policy. When corrections are necessary:
1. If time permits prior to the Employee Submission Deadline, return the Leave Report with errors to Employee for correction. Notify the Employee of the returned Leave Report.
2. If after the Employee Submission Deadline but before the Approver Deadline, make the necessary correction, and send written communication to the Employee informing them of the change. NOTE: The Approver is the last opportunity to address or correct any errors prior to processing.
3. If corrections are needed after the Approval Deadline, the Approver should provide instructions to employee for submitting corrections on previous month (see below) and follow up the with the next leave report to ensure correction was properly recorded.
Add Comments documenting changes you made to a submitted Leave Report BEFORE approving. Comments cannot be added to Leave Reports which have already been approved.
Approve all Leave Reports individually prior to the Approver Submission Deadline.

Understanding Leave Report Statuses

Not Started: The Employee has not yet started to enter hours on the Leave Report.

In Progress: The Leave Report has been started by the Employee, but has not been submitted for approval.

Pending: The Leave Report has been completed by the Employee and submitted for approval. The record is waiting for the Approver (or Proxy) to approve. The Approver may send back for a correction and therefore, could be in the queue pending further action from the Employee.

Approved: The Leave Report has been approved. An approved Leave Report will be processed and docks the approved time from the Employee’s leave balances.

Completed: The Leave Report has been approved and processed.

Returned For Correction: The Leave Report has been returned by the Approver (or Proxy) to the Employee for correction.

Understanding Common Error and Warning Codes

Approver’s position is vacant for the pay period
Has the approver been transferred or promoted to another position? Has the approver terminated employment with UA? See FAQ’s for information on updating your department’s approver information.

Approver not in GOAEACC
If an approver is not fully set-up in Banner, the end user cannot open their timesheet or leave report. See FAQ’s for information on updating your department’s approver information and/or access.

Extraction of Time Transaction Not Allowed
This error occurs if you are attempting to access a leave report outside of the reporting window. Leave Reports open for reporting on the 8th of the reporting period month and close for reporting with the Employee Submission Deadline on the 7th of the month following the reporting period. See FAQ’s for what to do when this occurs.

Time Transaction Already Exists
This notifies the employee that they have already attempted to start a Leave Report that has already been initiated and has a transaction status of IN PROGRESS. This error can occur when a user clicks on the Web browser back button after previously selecting and starting a Leave Report.

Submit Not Allowed
A record was attempted to be submitted more than once. This error can occur when a user double-clicks on the Submit for Approval button, or if the user attempts to use the Web browser back button and make changes to the record after it has been submitted.

Warnings (Possible insufficient Leave Balance)
Warning will appear when a Leave Report is submitted with exception time usage that could potentially be in excess of employee’s leave balance. If the message is for Long Term Disability, Administrative Leave, Military Leave, Jury Duty, Family Medical Leave, no action is necessary, simply approve the leave report. If the message is for sick or annual leave, the approver should carefully review their employee’s leave balances to determine if their employee is in a leave without pay status. Exceeding the available leave balance may result in a pay adjustment.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. If employee did not take any leave during a period, do they have to submit anything? Are they able to submit a blank request?
Answer: Employees should submit a leave report each leave period even when no leave is taken. To submit a blank report, employees should follow the steps to start a leave report, then preview report and submit.

2. What if I make an error and need to make a change to the leave report?
Answer: Employees can make changes until the leave report is submitted to the Approver. If you have already submitted your leave report, ask your Approver to send it back to you for correction if before close of day on the 7th. If after the 7th, ask your Approver to make the change and send you an email confirmation. If the Approver has already approved the incorrect leave report, you will need to enter the additional leave taken and not yet reported on the first Saturday of the next reporting period. If you have reported time in excess of what was used, contact Payroll (see #11 below).

3. What if happens if my leave report is not submitted and approved by the deadlines?
Answer:

For Leave Reports in a “Not Started” status, you will need to record any leave taken and not reported on the first Saturday of the next reporting period. If you did not take leave, no action will be required to correct.
For Leave Reports in “In Progress” status, the started and not submitted leave report will be pushed through to your approver and payroll processing by the Payroll department. Payroll is unable to process with In Progress Leave Reports. Any time recorded by the employee in the report will be docked from the leave balance. Any time not recorded by the employee will need to be corrected by the approver or reported on the first Saturday of the next reporting period
For Leave Reports in “Pending” status, the submitted and not approved leave report will be pushed through by the Payroll department for payroll processing. Payroll is unable to process with Pending Leave Reports. Any time recorded by the employee in the report will be docked from the leave balance. Any time not recorded by the employee will need to be reported on the first Saturday of the next reporting period

Note: It is important for all Leave Reports to be properly reviewed and approved. To assure understanding and adherence to Leave Report guidelines, Leave Reports in a Not Started status or submitted / approved by Payroll are reported to departments.

4. What if my hours did not feed over correctly from Absence Tracker?
Answer: Please contact your Benefits Specialist for additional instructions.

5. I am an approver and I think I am missing an employee in my list to be approved. What do I do?
Answer: If you believe the approval routing has been established, but you cannot see an employee you were previously able to view and approve, below are some common reasons you are not able to see an employee you are the approver for:

The employee has not started their leave report for the reporting period. When you log in to Approve Leave Reports, the drop-down for the status will default to “All Status except Not Started.” To view those who have not started, selected “Not Started” from the drop-down menu. Note, when viewing Leave Reports with a status of Not Started, you are able to see all employees assigned to departments (orgs) you have authorization to view regardless of who their approver is. If you are not the sole approver for the orgs you are authorized to view, you will see additional leave reports in this view that will not come to you for approval once started.
The employees position number or org number has changed. A change in an employee’s position number or their home org will impact the approval routing setup. If you believe this is the case, please contact Payroll (see #10 below).

6. I updated the Supervisor information in the Hierarchy Designation Tool (HDT), but the Leave Approval routing did not update. Why?
Answer: Changes made to the Hierarchy Designation Tool do not impact the Leave Approver. These are two separate designations within the system. please contact Payroll (see #10 below).

7. Will approval routing changes be reflected immediately?
Answer: When changes are made to Leave Report approval routings prior to the report being started, the changes are reflected once the report is started. If changes are made while a report is in a Pending or In Progress status, the changes will not be reflected until the next reporting period.

8. I assigned another user as my Proxy, but they are not able to see my employees. What do I do?
Answer: Users setup as a Proxy must also be fully setup in Banner. If you have this issue, contact Payroll to have the access for the Proxy checked and setup, if needed. (see #10 below).

9. How are approvers setup for Leave Reports? What is the best way to do this?
Answer: Approval routings can be setup by the Department (Org) or the Position. When routing is setup by the Org, the approver in the routing reviews the Leave Reports for all the positions with monthly leave reports in that Org. When routing is setup by the Position, the approver reviews the Leave Report for only that specific position. You can have a mixture of Org routings and Position routings. Routings setup by Position will override the routings setup by the Org. To review the primary approver for the Org routing and any Position routings assigned within an Org, departments should contact Payroll to request information.
Below are some helpful tips to creating efficient approval routings that are easy to maintain:

It is recommended that you establish your primary routings by an Org Approver because this allows the approver to approve all the monthly leave reports associated with the org in one approval queue. This method requires less setup and maintenance than establishing a routing queue by a specific position number.
You should use position number to control queues only for employees that require an approval from a specific individual who is outside of the normal structure (and Org approval routing) or is the Org Approver who needs a separate routing for their leave report.
It is recommended that departments designate a point of contact to maintain routing queues for their area and communicate with Payroll when changes are needed. Understanding how the routing is setup and who is assigned as the approvers, allows departments to be more proactive in communicating changes that may otherwise cause an error on leave reports and delays in the submission/approval process.
Using secondary approvers and FYI approvers in routing queues should only be done when absolutely necessary. These additional approvers can make the maintenance of the routing more cumbersome as they cause the same reporting errors when there are changes in the position. In most situations, departments have found setting up Proxy access instead of adding mandatory approvers to a routing queue is more beneficial and easier to maintain.

10. How do I make changes to an approval routing?
Answer: Contact Payroll at monthlyleave@ua.edu to request changes to leave approval routings. The following information will be needed:

For an Org Approver Change:
- Org Number
- Approver’s Name, Approver’s CWID, Approver’s Position Number
For a Position Specific Approver Change:
- Org Number of the Employee
- Approver’s Name, Approver’s CWID, Approver’s Position Number
- Employee’s Name, Employee’s CWID, Employee’s Position Number
If you are unsure of the best type of routing change to make, or do not have all the necessary information, please provide the Org number and Payroll can work with you to get the information and discuss the best way to setup the approval routings based on the routings already in place.
If you received an error in your report and are not sure why, please contact Payroll and provide the specific error you received.

11. Who do I contact for other assistance with monthly leave reporting?
Answer: Contact Payroll at monthlyleave@ua.edu. To efficiently resolve your issue, the following information will be needed:

Employee’s Name and Employee’s CWID
If you received an error in your report and are not sure why, please provide the specific error you received.
If you have a different question or issue, please provide as much detail as possible.

12. I recently started an exempt position (new hire or transfer) and I do not see my leave report. What should I do?
Answer: Leave Reports are generated in the Employee Dashboard on the 8th of the leave period month. If your start date in the exempt position was after the 8th (or entered in the system after the 8th), you may not see your leave report for the first reporting period. If this occurs, please follow the instructions #3 above to record any time taken in the next leave period.

13. I recently transferred to a different exempt position and I have two leave reports. What should I do?
Answer: For the reporting period where you spent a portion of the time in one position and a portion of the time in another position, you will have 2 separate leave reports. The dates available for entry in these leave reports will only be for the dates you were in that specific position. Record any time taken in the applicable report and submit both reports. The next reporting period, you will only have one report.