Glossary of Terms

The glossary includes terms used throughout the system. These terms are listed in alphabetical order.

When a field requires a time value, the value must be displayed in 24-hour format or military time. To convert an hour value after noon, add 12 to the hour value. For example, if the time to be entered is 3:00 pm, the correct value to be entered in the field is 15:00 (3:00 + 12:00).

The acceptable variance setting allows the user to determine the level at which overstaffed and understaffed staffing values are color highlighted in the balancing grid.

The acceptable variance values is set up by accessing the right click menu in the balancing grid, then selecting Format> Acceptable Variance> Overstaffing/Understaffing.

When trading or offering a schedule, the accepting employee is the second employee involved in the traded schedule or the one who accepts the offered schedule. The employee who initiated the trade or who offered the schedule is the requesting employee.

ActiveLink is a process that allows for seamless and immediate information flow between the different Workforce Management solutions, for example, between Payrollmation - NT and Time and Attendance. Clients who use Time and Attendance (v.9 and greater) for all functions will not need the ActiveLink process.

Acuity is a measurement of how critical the illness is of a patient and, therefore, the amount of nursing care needed. A patient in ICU with chest pains would have a higher acuity level than a patient staying overnight for routine tests. The higher the acuity, the more care hours needed for a patient.

Patient acuity levels and patient census (number of patients) are used by Staffing and Scheduling in the Recalculate Staffing Needs feature to determine the total hours of patient care needed, and the necessary staff to provide that care.

For more information see the Action section>Scheduling card>Schedule screen>Staffing Tools section>Recalculate Staffing Needs.

An adjustment is a correction to an employee's pay information. Adjustments are paid in the current or future pay periods, even if the date of the adjustment was in a past pay period.

An alternate home labor distribution of an employee indicates the alternate job class or position assignments that the employee is authorized to work within his/her Home organization unit. Alternate home labor distributions for an employee are set up on the Labor Distribution screen in the employee record. An employee can only have one Primary Home labor distribution effective at one time, but may have multiple alternate home labor distribution assignments.

An alternate labor distribution of an employee indicates the job class or position assignments that the employee is authorized to work which are not in their Home labor distribution. Alternate labor distributions for an employee are set up on the Labor Distribution screen in the employee record. An employee can only have one Primary Home labor distribution effective at one time, but may have multiple alternate labor distribution assignments.

Note: For more information, see the Employee section>Labor Distribution screen>Alternate Labor Distribution.

An archived schedule is a schedule that has gone through a process where a "snapshot" is taken of the schedule at a certain point in time. The archive shows the names of the employees, scheduled activity codes, the staffing needs and coverage information.

Authorized users can view archived schedules but cannot make any changes to them. Note: For more information, see Archive Schedule.

In an ascending sort, the values are sorted from lowest to highest. Numbers are sorted 1-9, letters are sorted A-Z.

Values can be sorted by clicking on the heading at the top of the column to alternately sort in Ascending or in Descending order, as indicated by the icon. This feature is available for values displayed in a grid format, for example, the schedule screen or the results list of a search.

Values displayed in a grid can be sorted by clicking on the heading at the top of the column to alternately sort in ascending or in descending order, as indicated by the icon.

Ascending Sort Order

When sorting mixed values in a field in the Ascending sort order, the values are sorted in the following sequence:

Spaces (the first element in a field cannot be a space)
Characters
Numbers (1-9) Note: Alphanumeric fields (those that can accept either letters or numbers) are "left justified" and sorted starting from the left side. Numbers would be sorted 1, 10, 100, 2, 20, 200, etc.
Letters (A-Z)

Descending Sort Order

When sorting mixed values in a field in the Descending sort order, the values are sorted in the following sequence:

Letters (Z-A)
Numbers (9-1) Note: Alphanumeric fields (those that can accept either numbers or letters) are "left justified" and sorted starting from the left side. Numbers would be sorted 200, 20, 100, 10, 1.
Characters
Spaces (the first element in a field cannot be a space)

The fields displayed in the results list of a search are selected in the Preferences section>My Preferences>Search screen. The records are sorted by the first column selected and default to the ascending sort.

The fields displayed on the Schedule screen are selected in the Preferences section>My Preferences>Schedule View Styles>Schedule Grid Sort or Needs Grid Sort The records are sorted in the order the columns are listed, and each column can be set to sort ascending or descending.

The branch structure level is the third of the four major organization structure levels used for payroll processing and scheduling. There can be up to nine structure levels within an organization, but the four key structure levels are called root, trunk, branch, and leaf. Many of the payroll and scheduling reports are totaled by these levels.

During initial system set up, these levels are identified and linked in the system. Authorized users can view the structure levels assigned to each of these levels on the Configuration section>Organization Unit card>Organization Link Level screen.

A calendar is a scheduled activity where the employee is NOT clocked in and working. Some examples of calendar entries are vacation, sick, jury duty, etc.

CBT is an acronym for Computer Based Training, which are classes that can be taken online using a computer. When successfully completed, these CBT classes fulfill the requirement of the course. Some courses can be taken through either a traditional class or as a CBT class. When a class is offered as a computer based training class, the CBT icon

is displayed. Click on the icon to link to the class. Authorized employees can also select a Computer Based Training program from the Actions section>Employee page>Computer Based Training.

For more information, see the Configuration section>Education Tracking card>Computer Based Training.

Census or volume is the number of patients being cared for in an organization unit. This information is used by the Recalculate Staffing Needs wizard in the Schedule screen to determine the staff needed to adequately care for the number of patients.

For more information see the Action section>Scheduling card>Schedule screen>Staffing Tools section>Recalculate Staffing Needs.

A child organization unit is one that exists at a structure level in line below a parent organization unit. Organization units are parents of all organization units in structure levels in line below it and children of all organization structure levels in line above it.

The term click in this document refers to an action involving the computer mouse. To "click" on a check box, field, menu, or action button, move the cursor over that target and then press the right mouse key on a right-handed mouse or the left mouse key on a left-handed mouse.

Clicking on a check box alternately adds or removes a check mark indicating the record is selected, clicking on a field sets the focus of the cursor on that field, clicking on a drop down menu expands the list so one of the options can be chosen, and clicking on an action button activates the action.

A client is a health care provider using the Time and Attendance and Staffing and Scheduling system (e.g. your hospital, clinic, etc.)

Clocking is a coined term referring to a time punch entered into the system, similar to "punching a clock". Clockings are created by swiping a badge at the badge reader, registering online through Quick Badge screen in the portal, calling in through the TimeCall system, automatically generated by the system, etc.

The time and attendance application processes these clockings to determine whether they are an IN punch or an OUT punch, what kind of pay code should be associated with the resulting hours, etc.

Clocking information can be viewed in the employee record on the ActiveRoster screen, the Time Card Screen (TCS screen), employee Monthly View, and in various Time and Attendance reports.

A competency is an education tracking requirement for an employee. Employees must meet all course and competency requirements for a profile to be eligible for scheduling. Competencies are usually "hands on" demonstrations of abilities, compared to a Course which is more "classroom" information and training.

Competencies can also be set up as Stations (for example, EKG’s, Injections) or a set of competencies can be internally determined to equal a specific skill level in Staffing and Scheduling.

For more information, see the Configuration section>Education Tracking card>Course/Competency screen.

A core schedule is a set schedule rotation that the employee is usually scheduled to work, defined by

activity code and

profile. For example, an employee might have a core schedule to work every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and alternate weekends. The employee can expect to be scheduled for these days unless he or she is on vacation or makes other arrangements. Core schedules are set up in the employee records.

The core staffing plan defines the staffing levels needed for an organization unit for a scheduling period, set up for each combination of profile and activity code. These values are used when running the scheduling process using a

selection style that is set up to use a core staffing plan. These staffing level needs are usually loaded from an existing

core staffing template, but can be manually entered.

The Core Staffing Template is a staffing grid used for populating needs-based schedules in an organization unit. These staffing needs are set up for each combination of profile and activity code. This option can be used to set up staffing needs for organization units that use “staggered shifts” where coverage for specific time frames are needed.

Core staffing templates are used to create the Core Staffing Plan, which indicates the staffing needs for a specific scheduling period. Auto Schedule Passes where the Selection is set to Core Staffing Plan use this information when running the scheduling process.

For more information, see the Configuration section>Scheduling card>Core Staffing Template.

The number of staff scheduled to work or “cover” a specific time frame. Coverage is measured by number of staff working during a Coverage Period.

In the scheduling process, the system will schedule qualified employees to provide “coverage” for the staffing needs set up in the Staffing Template.

To monitor staffing, scheduling and productivity, a 24-hour day is broken down into coverage periods or shifts (for example, Day, Evening and Night). The entire set of coverage periods for a day is referred to as a Coverage Set.

Coverage periods can be of any length, and do not have to be of the same length. For example, there can be a coverage set with the following coverage periods: 8-Hour Day, 4-Hour Evening1, 4-Hour Evening2, 8-Hour Night.

For more information, see the Configuration section>System card>Coverage Set screen>Coverage Period section.

A coverage set is a group of Coverage Periods spanning the times the organization unit is staffed. If an organization unit is staffed 24 hours per day, the coverage periods should span 24 hours. If an organization unit is only open from 7:00 AM to midnight, the coverage periods should span those hours. Examples of typical coverage periods are Day, Evening, Night or Day1, Day2, Eve1, Eve2, Night1, Night2.

Coverage Sets are used with Staffing and Scheduling, and Productivity reporting.

For more information, see the Configuration section>System card>Coverage Set screen.

A default is a setting that is automatically selected or a value that is automatically entered in a field unless an alternative is specified. Default settings may be used in fields with drop down menus, in education tracking courses and categories expiration values, and for indicator settings.

In the descending sort, the values are sorted from highest to lowest. Numbers are sorted 9-1, letters are sorted Z-A.

Values in columns can be sorted by clicking on the heading at the top of the column to alternately sort in Ascending or in Descending order, as indicated by the icon.

Values displayed in a grid can be sorted by clicking on the heading at the top of the column to alternately sort in ascending or in descending order, as indicated by the icon.

Ascending Sort Order

When sorting mixed values in a field in the Ascending sort order, the values are sorted in the following sequence:

Spaces (the first element in a field cannot be a space)
Characters
Numbers (1-9) Note: Alphanumeric fields (those that can accept either letters or numbers) are "left justified" and sorted starting from the left side. Numbers would be sorted 1, 10, 100, 2, 20, 200, etc.
Letters (A-Z)

Descending Sort Order

When sorting mixed values in a field in the Descending sort order, the values are sorted in the following sequence:

Letters (Z-A)
Numbers (9-1) Note: Alphanumeric fields (those that can accept either numbers or letters) are "left justified" and sorted starting from the left side. Numbers would be sorted 200, 20, 100, 10, 1.
Characters
Spaces (the first element in a field cannot be a space)

The Edit Validation type of Selection Style is used to verify that an employee being manually added to the schedule meets the specified qualifications of the profile and does not violate any of the selected rules (for example, Maximum Work Stretch, Overtime, etc.).

Education Tracking and Management application is one of the applications in Time and Attendance and Staffing and Scheduling. This application is used to establish and track the course and competency requirements for employees based on the job classes, positions, and/or organization units they are assigned. Employees are notified on the Home page if they are missing requirements or if a requirement has expired. Employees can search for and register for required classes through various education tracking screens in the portal.

For more information on configuration, see the Configuration section> Education Tracking card.

The Extra Shift indicator determines whether a shift is an extra shift or a regular shift. Marking certain shifts as "Extra" allows you to prioritize employees that should be called off first in the event of a low census scenario. Note: The Extra Shift indicator is only available for pending/published schedules.

Factors are used in the

Pay Code Equation to determine employee pay. Factors can be set up to apply at different labor distribution levels (i.e. job class, profile, organization unit, payroll group, union code, grade, or status code) or can be set up to apply to certain shifts, projects, unions, or employees etc. The level the factor is set up is called the

Target.

For more information, see the Configuration section>Time and Attendance card>Factor screen.

When staff members are unavailable to work (for example, due to sickness or vacation time) they need to be replaced by qualified staff. The replacement staff often has a home department specified to rotate or to "float" to different department. This home department may be referred to as the "float pool" or "resource pool".

Float pool employees are initially scheduled to work specific days in the float pool and then are reassigned to the department where they will actually be working on that day.

FTE is an acronym for Full Time Equivalent. This value compares the approved working hours of a position to that of a full time position. FTE values are used in budgeting and position control.

Full time positions are usually defined as 80 hours in a pay period. For example, if an employee works 40 hours in a pay period, they are working 40/80 hours or a .5 FTE. An employee who works 60 hours in a pay period would be considered a .75 FTE.

A Home Employee is an employee whose Primary Home Labor Distribution matches the organization unit being processed or reported on. This is set on the Labor Distribution screen in the employee record by selecting the Primary Home button when creating the record.

The home labor distribution of an employee indicates the main organization unit where the employee is assigned. The Home labor distribution assignment is used to determine the access Roles and processing Assignments for the employee and also to determine whether employees are included in reports and other processing (such as calculations and scheduling).

The primary home labor distribution assignment specifies the main job class/position of the employee within the home labor distribution. An employee can only have one effective Primary Home labor distribution assignment effective, but may have multiple Alternate Home labor distribution assignments (same organization unit as the Primary Home but with a different job class/position) and Alternate labor distribution assignments (different organization unit than the Home labor distribution).

Note: All labor distribution assignments for an employee are set up on the Labor Distribution screen in the employee record. For more information, see the Employee section>Labor Distribution screen>Primary Home Labor Distribution.

An icon or image is a picture or symbol that represents a function, transaction, information, screen, etc. These symbols can be quickly identified by the users, without having to display text.

To view the explanation or description of the icon, hover the cursor over the icon. The description appears as a tool tip.

For more information and examples of the icons used in the system, see the Help section>Icons/Images.

Indicators are predefined values that specify how application options will be executed for a selected record. Indicator value options for a record are previously set up, and can be selected on the Indicators tab of that record.

Indicators have a default setting, which is the setting for all the records in the related screen unless this value is manually updated for a specific record. Default values are set up on the Configuration section>System card>Indicators screen.

The indicator settings of multiple records can be updated at the same time by using the Replace feature. For more information, see the Help section>Record Management>Replacing Record Values.

Information cards are displayed on the employee Home page and the employee TCS page. These cards contain important information for the employee. the cards can be opened and viewed by clicking the card arrow on the card. Cards that display on the Home page and on the TCS screen can be selected by authorized users on the My Preference card.

An inherited role is an authorization role that is indirectly assigned to an employee. This role is set up on any level of the Organization Unit screen>Roles section, and is automatically assigned to all employees whose Home labor distribution matches any of the levels of the organization unit. For example, if an employee belongs to a home labor distribution of Corporation A/Facility 1/Department 304/ Unit 1, he or she will "inherit" all the roles set up in the Organization Unit screen for Corporation A and for Facility 1 and for Department 304 and for Unit 1. An inherited role can be overridden at the employee level by assigning the employee the same role but with a different level of access (grant, deny or pass through).

Note: Inherited roles are not listed in the Roles screen in the employee record. They can be viewed in the employee record on the TCS screen>Employee Authorization Information card.

Various input devices may be used by employees to register into the system. Badge readers (where employees swipe their badge), TimeCall (where employees are able to call in via telephone), Quick Badge (where employees are able to clock in via the web portal) are examples of input devices.

A job class is a work assignment. Some examples of job classes are registered nurse, maintenance worker, laundry aide, etc. For more information, see the Configuration section>Labor Distribution card>Job Class screen.

The Labor Distributions screen in the employee record is used to view and/or configure the employee organization unit, job class and/or position assignments. These assignments are used for scheduling, time and attendance calculations, rules processing, etc. An employee can have multiple Alternate and Alternate Home assignments but can have only one Primary Home assignment with the same effective date time frame.

The leaf structure level is the lowest of the four major organization structure levels used for payroll processing and scheduling, and is optional. There can be up to nine structure levels within an organization, but the four key structure levels are called root,

trunk,

branch, and leaf. Many of the payroll and scheduling reports are totaled by these levels.

A license is formal permission from the proper authorities to perform certain acts or to carry on a certain business, which without such permission would be illegal; such as to practice medicine.

Licenses are tracked in the employee record and when the Licenses qualification rule is validated during the scheduling process, only employees with the required licenses are scheduled.

A need-based schedule pass is one that populates only the staff required, as defined on the Staffing Plan or Core Staffing Plan. For example, if there are 4 LPN schedule openings during the day coverage period and 3 are already filled, when running a need-based schedule pass, the system will schedule 1 LPN to fill that 4th staffing need.

By contrast, core schedule passes do not look at the staffing needs, but populate all employees who have a core schedule set up for that day.

For more information on schedule passes, see the Configuration section>Scheduling card>Selection Styles screen>Auto Schedule Passes section.

In the Staffing and Scheduling application, needs are the number of staff required to provide adequate patient care for the labor distribution. The baseline needs for a department is set up by number of staff required by coverage period in the Staffing Template, or by number of staff required by activity code in the Core Staffing Template.

The needs can be adjusted for patient census and acuity by using the Recalculate Staffing Needs feature in the Schedule screen.

For more information, see the Actions section>Scheduling card>Schedule screen>Schedule Tools>Recalculate Staffing Needs.

The needs grid is the lower grid in the Schedule screen. This displays the profile and coverage periods, and also the Coverage, Need, and/or Variance of the required staff for each day of the scheduling period.

For more information, see the Actions section>Scheduling card>Schedule screen>Needs Grid Features.

Non-productive time is scheduled activities or pay codes that are not set up to be "Productive" time. Usually, these are activities where an employee is not physically working at the facility; for example, vacation, sick, and on call are examples of non-productive time. Non-productive time may be paid or unpaid, based on the pay code assigned.

Employees can sign up to receive a notification when certain events occur. The notification to receive are selected by the employee through the Preferences screen>My Preferences card>Event Subscriptions.

Notifications can be received via email, or as a message (in the employee's My Unread Messages screen on the Home page, in the Messages screen in the Actions section>Employee card), or both.

The Messages action option opens a screen to view new or existing messages, or to create a new message using the wizard. Messages that have been read can be marked as Read and saved, or they can be deleted.

Messages are displayed in a list format. The list can be sorted by any of the columns by clicking on the column label name. An arrow appears to the left of the column to indicate whether the list is being sorted in ascending or descending order. Click on the heading label again to change the sort direction.
Click the card arrow on a record to open the record and view the details. If there is more than one page of messages, the message must be closed (by clicking on the card arrow) before scrolling to another page of messages.
For information on creating and sending a new message, see Steps for Adding a New Message.
Note: Messages can also be viewed on the employees' Home page under the Messages notifications heading by selecting the View Messages button. The wizard can be accessed by clicking on the Add Message button from this section as well.

The My Unread Messages card displays any messages sent to the employee which are not marked as Read. The screen displays an icon for High or Low priority messages, shows the severity of the message, indicates if there is an attachment, shows who sent the message, displays the subject of the message, and shows the date and time the message was sent.

To open and read a message, click the folder icon to the left of the message. Once a message is opened, it is marked as Read, and is automatically removed from the My Unread Messages card because it is no longer unread.

To bring a read message back to the My Unread Messages screen, click on the View Messages button open the Actions section>Employee card>Messages screen. Check the box to the left of the record and click on the Mark as Unread button.

Messages that have been read are still available in the Actions section>Employee card>Messages screen. To permanently remove the message, check the box to the left of the record and click on the Delete Selected button.

The following fields are displayed on this card:

Folder

Click on the folder icon to open the record and view the details. This will take the user to the Actions section>Employee card>Messages screen so the user can open and view all messages.

Priority

The priority icons can be assigned by the user sending the message to indicate the importance of the message. When the Normal priority is selected, no icon is displayed.

	High Priority	Indicates that this message was sent with a high priority.
	Low Priority	Indicates that this message was sent with a low priority.

Severity

This field shows the severity level of system-generated notifications. The severity level icon displayed is determined by the severity level assigned to the notification. Messages sent by other users have a severity level of Informational.

Critical

Indicates that this message has a status of Critical. Depending on settings, the employee may be locked out from badging into the system with a critical message relating to Licenses or Education Requirements.

Note: Contact your supervisor if you are locked out due to a Critical message.

Warning

Indicates this message has a status of Warning. The employee may have to complete an action. If not completed by a certain date a related Critical message may be issued (for example, renew a license or education requirement.)

Informational

Indicates that this message is used to relay information to the employee. An action may need to be taken by a certain date or a related Warning message may be used.

Status

Unread

Indicates that this message has a status of unread. Once a message has been opened, the status is automatically reset to Read and this icon is no longer displayed.

Attachment

Indicates this message has an attachment. Click on the icon to open the Attachment page, and a link to the attached document.

From

Indicates the user who sent the message. If the message is generated by the system as a result of a Notification Subscription, this field displays System Account.

Subject

The heading that describes the message.

Date

The date and time this message was sent.

More About Date Value Fields

More About Time Value Fields

Action Buttons

The following actions are available at the bottom of the grid:

Add Message

View Messages

The following actions are available in the left pane when the View Messages button is enabled:

Organization units are the corporate structure levels of a health care facility. There may be up to nine organization levels in a corporation, but only three are used directly for scheduling and time and attendance. These three main levels are generically called the Trunk, Branch, and Leaf levels. In the fields displayed in Time and Attendance and Staffing and Scheduling, the labels display the names of these levels that are specific to the corporation, which are defined with the initial setup of the system.

When viewing information in the application, the screen "window" may be divided into segments called "panes".

Parameters are setting values for a selected record. They can be used to group together records, or replace values (such as job class abbreviations for job class codes) Parameter value options for a record can be added, edited or viewed on the Parameters tab of that record.

Parameters may have an optional default setting, which is the setting for all the records in the related screen unless this value is manually updated for a specific record. Default values are set up on the Configuration section>System card>Parameters screen.

The parameter values of multiple records can be updated at the same time by using the Replace feature. For more information, see the Help section>Record Management>Replacing Record Values.

Pay codes are used to calculate the employee pay, based on the employee pay rate and formulas of the pay code. Pay code formulas can include differentials for working evening or night shifts, weekends, holidays, overtime, etc.

Pay codes also determine the pay categories for employee earnings during the pay period to be used in reporting.

For more information, see the Configuration section>Time and Attendance card>Pay Code screen.

A pending schedule is a scheduled activity on the schedule screen that has not gone through the publishing process. Some schedule reports only include published schedules, while other reports have parameter options to include pending or published schedules or both.

Schedules that are pending have an icon displayed to the left of the activity code in the schedule cell.

Each position identifies a job class held by one or more employees within a specific labor distribution. For example, positions are used to differentiate an RN who works in the ICU department from an RN who works in the Med-Surg department. Position codes can be created by stringing together (or concatenating) the organization unit codes and the job class code identifying the position. For example a trunk organization unit code (20) plus the branch organization unit code (3270) plus the job class code (2000) can be concatenated to create the position code of 20-3270-2000.

Employee positions are used to determine the schedules an employee is authorized to work, staffing and payroll assignment tables the employee qualifies for, education requirements of the employee, etc.

For more information, see the Configuration section>Labor Distribution card>Position screen.

Position permissions means that an employee is assigned one of the positions that is included in this listing of authorized positions (e.g. for a schedule, a selection style, scheduling filter, etc.) An employee's positions are set up in the Employee section>Employee Sections>Labor Distribution screen in the Profile Code field.

Note: In order for an employee to have position permissions to available schedules, the Position Code field must be set up. It is not enough to have a job class/organization unit match to the position; the field itself must have a value.

Predefined notes are standardized text which can be attached as pay period notes, as employee transaction notes, as schedule notes or to the ActiveRoster.

Predefined notes can be set to allow editing of the Text field, so additional information can be added.

Note: For more information, see the Configuration section>System card>Predefined Notes screen.

Preferred shifts are set up on the employee Rotating Schedules screen. These indicate the days of the week that the employee prefers to be scheduled. When running the scheduling process, the selection style can be set up to only schedule those employees who prefer to work specific days of the week.

The primary home labor distribution assignment specifies the main job class/position of the employee within the Home labor distribution. An employee can only have one effective Primary Home labor distribution assignment effective, but may have multiple Alternate Home labor distribution assignments (same organization unit as the Primary Home but with a different job class/position) and Alternate labor distribution assignments (different organization unit than the Home labor distribution).

This is set up in the Employee record> Labor Distribution screen by selecting the Primary Home option.

Productive time is scheduled activities where the employee is clocked in and working, and where the activity has been set up to be "productive".

A profile is a scheduling assignment for an employee. Built into the profile codes are the qualifying position codes, station requirements, skill levels, and license requirements to work a schedule assignment.

For more information, see the Configuration section>Labor Distribution card>Profile.

Profile licenses are licenses or certifications that are required to work a specific profile. These licenses may not be required by the Position linked to the profile. For example, a license or certification to operate a specific piece of equipment (e.g., EEG, MRI) by a Lab-Tech position.

Profile permissions means that an employee has a position in their employee Labor Distribution record that matches one of the positions authorized to work the profile. Profile permissions is used in scheduling and also with the schedule assistant call off/call in wizard.

For more information, see the Configuration section>Labor Distribution card>Profile.

A published schedule is a scheduled activity on the schedule screen that has gone through the publishing process. In Self Scheduling, shift trading and offering are only available for published schedules. Some schedule reports only include published schedules, while other reports have parameter options to include published or pending schedules or both.

Schedules that are not published are classified as Pending, and have an icon

displayed to the left of the schedule.

Read Only Access means the user is able to view the information in fields but cannot add, edit or delete any values. Read Only Access is indicated grayed out fields .

A relief employee is an employee who has an

Alternate Home or

Alternate position in a labor distribution, and also has the Relief Position field set to Yes in the record. This setting is used with the Scheduling Assistant to locate employees set up with Relief positions.

Relief employees are not included in the schedule when the organization unit is open, but can be added using the Add Employee schedule tool. For more information, see the Actions section>Scheduling card>Schedule screen>Add Employee.

Replication is an action that copies all general, indicator, and parameter attributes of an existing record to help you save on setup time.

The request queue is the listing of submitted requests waiting to be handled by an authorized user. These requests are accessible through the Actions section>Approval card. Depending on the type of transaction submitted, it may be available on one of the following screens: Education Requests, Request to Work, Trade Requests, Transaction Requests, or Unavailability Requests.

Note: The roles assigned to a user determine whether submitted requests need to go through the request queue for approval or whether they are entered as transactions.

The Request to Work feature allows employees to search for schedule openings they are qualified to work. The system searches for any openings that the employee has

position permissions to work. In addition, if organization unit indicator set up allows, the search can be expanded to include openings where employees have the required job class and/or license.

The Request To Work period is defined as all days on or after the Request to Work Minimum Date and on or before the Request to Work Maximum Date, as set up on the Staffing Configuration screen of the organization unit of the schedule.

For more information, see the Configuration section>Scheduling card>Staffing Configuration screen>Requests to Work tab.

When trading or offering a schedule, the requesting employee is the one who initiated the trade or offer. The second employee involved in the trade or the one who accepts the offered schedule is called the accepting employee.

A rotating schedule is a recurring pattern of staffing activities used by the system when running the automatic scheduling passes. These can be core schedules or a mixture of core schedules and need-based schedules.

A Rotating Schedule Template can be set up at the system level and assigned to employees, or one can be created specifically for the employee in the employee Rotating Schedule screen.

A schedule group contains multiple labor distributions combined into a single group, used for creating schedules, viewing schedules, generating reports, etc. Certain set up screens display an option button to select either a single labor distribution or a schedule group. When selecting a schedule group, the groups listed in the left pane have been previously set up on the Configuration screen>Scheduling card>Schedule Group screen.

Note: Users must have data access to all organization units in the Schedule Group to be able to see the schedule group and select it from the list.

The Selection Styles screen defines the rules used in the scheduling features, such as automatic schedule creation, validation of manually entered schedule assignments, self scheduling, shift trading/offering/bidding and the Scheduling Assistant wizards.

Selection Styles are set up on the Configuration section>Scheduling card>Selection Styles screen. Default selection styles for the different functions are set up on the Preferences section>My Preferences card>Default Selection Styles screen.

Skills can be used to qualify employees for an assignment by their expertise in the Position and/or Station requirements of the Profile. Employees must meet or exceed the minimum Skill Level value to qualify. For example, an RN position may require a skill level of 3 or above to be scheduled in the Charge Nurse profile.

Staffing and Scheduling is an application in Workforce Management that is used to manage employees. Within Staffing and Scheduling is the ability to define labor distribution staffing requirements, populate and maintain a schedule, define employee scheduling preferences and rotating schedules, as well as other staffing and scheduling functions.

The Staffing Plan screen is used to define the staffing levels needed for an organization unit for a scheduling period, set up for each combination of profile and coverage period. These values are used when running the scheduling process using a Selection Style that is configured to use a Staffing Plan. These staffing level needs are usually loaded from an existing Staffing Template, but can be manually entered.

The staffing template is a staffing grid indicating the baseline staffing levels needed for an organization unit. These staffing needs are set up for each combination of profile and coverage period. These templates are used to create the Staffing Plan, which indicates the staffing needs for a specific scheduling period when running the scheduling process.

For more information, see the Configuration section>Scheduling card>Staffing Template screen.

When a user swaps a schedule, he/she is moving it from one schedule cell to another. Schedules can be swapped from one day to another for the same employee or can be swapped from one employee to another.

The new cell for the schedule is the cell it is swapped to and the cell where it originated is where it is swapped from.

The TCR is an acronym for Time Card Report. This is a report that displays all the pay period information on a selected employee. This report can be viewed in the employee record by clicking on the Time Card Report button, and can be forwarded to another user by clicking on the Carbon Copy button in the Report Actions section. Current, Future and Previous time card reports can also be viewed in the Reports section>Employee card.

TCS is an acronym for Time Card Screen. This is the main viewing screen in the employee record, and the default screen that is displayed when an employee record is first open. The Transaction List or Transaction Grid is automatically displayed at the top of the screen. Other cards of information can be selected for display through the Preferences section>My Preferences>Time Card Screen.

The term third party vendor refers to a company other than API Healthcare and the health care facility using Time and Attendance and Staffing and Scheduling (i.e. your hospital).

For example, certain computer based training programs and acuity calculating programs are created by other software vendors but can be interfaced with Time and Attendance and Staffing and Scheduling.

Time and Attendance tracks time and attendance in the Workforce Management system. Using indicators, parameters and table value rules, it processes information on employee clockings, calendars, adjustments, benefits, deductions, etc. to determine the type of pay to be distributed to the employee (for example, regular, overtime, shift differential, holiday, vacation, etc.). This information is then sent to a payroll system.

The TimeCall feature is an application where users are able to clock into the system by phoning in their badge numbers from authorized telephone locations, rather than using other input devices such as a badge reader or the Quick Badge feature in the portal.

The trunk structure level is the second of the four major organization structure levels used for payroll processing and scheduling. There can be up to nine structure levels within an organization, but the four key structure levels are called root, trunk,

branch, and leaf. Many of the payroll and scheduling reports are totaled by these levels.

During initial system set up, these levels are identified and linked in the system. Authorized users can view the structure levels assigned to each of these levels on the Configuration > Organization Unit > Organization Link Levels screen.

UDF is an acronym for User Defined Field. These UDF's are values that are defined by the user to add flexibility to the system. An example is the Pay Code UDF Categories. The categories can be used for reporting purposes.

URL is an acronym for Uniform Resource Locator (or Universal Resource Locator). It is the address of a resource, such as a document or Web site on the Internet (e.g. http://www.google.com) or Intranet (e.g. \\genhosp\gh031\HelpFiles). The address consists of a communications protocol followed by the name or address of a computer on the network and often includes additional locating information (such as directory and file names).

When scheduling employees, the system does a validation process to verify the employees meet or exceed the qualifications of the position they are being scheduled to work.

The scheduling rules that are validated are set up on the

Selection Styles screen. Different selection styles can be set up for manual scheduling, automatic scheduling, self scheduling, requests to work, etc.

Variance is the difference between the number of staff scheduled to work (coverage) and the number of staff required to provide adequate patient care (need).

Zero-length activity codes are those codes set up with the Length (Hours) field set to zero. These are usually non-productive activities, such as sick time or vacation. Creating activity codes without a predefined length allows flexibility for the scheduler to enter a single code into the schedule screen and then get a prompt to specify activity length for the specific employee.

The setting of Activity Code Indicator SS Solution Standard 6 determines whether a prompt is generated when a zero-length activity is entered.

N	This activity code is non-productive.
P	This activity code is productive.

N	This pay code is non-productive.
P	This pay code is productive.