Sometimes, when executing accruals, there are errors that come up that stop accruals from executing. Below are some common examples of those, and how to resolve them.
| Error | Issue | Where to find settings | Other Considerations |
| Employee has not worked long enough to be eligible for the accruals |
Employee has not passed the waiting period. If a waiting period is set, the accrual will not do anything until after that waiting period has passed. At that point, if it is marked to include the time earned during the waiting period, it will go backwards to the beginning of the waiting period, and accrue forward. If it is NOT marked to include the time earned during the waiting period, the accrual will begin the calculation at the end of the waiting period. |
In the accrual profile itself, within the specific accrual rule, there is a section for waiting period. This is where you will find the actual waiting period.
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If the client wants to stop the employee from requesting time during the waiting period, but DOES want it to show the accrual during the waiting period, you can use the time off request profile to stop the request within the waiting period timeframe. NOTE: this would not stop an admin or manager from still being able to add time to the timesheet directly during the waiting period.
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| Updated to date not set |
Employee's date that is used for accruals (seniority date, hire date, etc) is too far back for the system to generate automatically, and an updated to date is not set. |
1. If intending to accrue from a certain point in time, the updated to date can be found and set within the Edit Balances section of accruals.
2. If you want the system to go back to the beginning, but it is giving you an error, you can extend the timeframe the system will use. Within Global Setup > Company Setup > Global Policies, there is a section on accruals policies that allows you to set this time however you'd like. Default is 365 days.
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A new hire should not need an updated to date set. The system will automatically use their hire date as the date to start from. The exception to that would be if the new hire has a seniority date more than 365 days before - in this case, the hire date needs to be added as the updated to date. It will use seniority date to determine the rate, but it needs to know when to start
The accrual policy will tell you which date the system is looking at. Best practice is to set to the seniority date, and then the hire date. That way, we can direct any one off changes to be made in the seniority date field. This means that anyone who is re-hired would need that re-hire date added into the seniority date field, if that should become the new accrual date.
Any re-hires would also need the updated to date added, so the system knows where to start the accrual, and doesn't try to go all the way back to the last time they accrued.
If a brand new employee has seniority date/hire date in earlier pay period than start date, this can also stop the accrual from happening. In these cases, an updated to date WOULD need to be entered, to avoid confusion in the system. Without this, the system thinks you are trying to accrue before they even start. |
| Unable to calculate hours. Date range requested has open pay period |
This is a per hour accrual, looking to the timesheets for hours, and there is a pay period that is not locked |
Under Payroll > Process Timesheets, you can see any pay periods where the timesheets are currently open. You will want to run this over the date range you are trying to accrue, and make sure all pay periods are set to "closed". If they are open, the hours are not locked, and the system cannot accrue. |
If the client has any of these periods open for a reason, you will need to wait until they are done, and can close the pay period before you will be able to accrue.
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| Pay period is not defined for date range being processed | This is a per hour accrual, and the employee is missing from one or more of the pay periods |
Under Payroll > Process Timesheets, you can view the employees attached to that pay period. Sometimes, for some reason or another, the employee is not attached in the pay period. When you get this error, you will need to look at the pay periods you are trying to accrue, and make sure the employee is listed within the period.
Click on the icon for the employees.
If you don't see your employee there, click Add under the ... at the top right to add them in. NOTE: pay period must be unlocked, in order to add the employee.
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If you are trying to process a large range, it is sometimes easier to try accruing each period, rather than the entire range. That way, when you get the error, you know exactly which pay period you need to look at, rather than going through every single period you are trying to accrue. |
| Value "DATE" is not set for the employee | A date is being used to determine the accrual that the employee does not have |
When you set the dates for the accrual to use, it gives you two options, use this date, or if this date doesn't exist, use that date. This generally will stop you from having an issue where a date doesn't exist on the employee. However, the waiting period only gives you one option. Therefore, whatever option you choose here MUST be listed on all employees. If the employee doesn't have this date, then the system has no idea whether they have passed the waiting period, and will give you an error.
Most times, this date is set at the hire date or start date for this reason, but there are times when a client wants to use re-hire date or seniority date in this field. When this happens, it is important that whatever field you choose is required for all employees. For that reason, it is best practice never to use re-hire date here, but to use seniority date, or an alternate date field you create, so that everyone can have that filled in. Anyone without a separate seniority date would just get their hire date entered there, and anyone with a re-hire date would get their re-hire date entered there.
Waiting period is found within the rule of the accrual profile
You would make the date required under Global Setup > Company Setup > Global Policies
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Although it's primarily a waiting period issue, this could also potentially come into play if you choose two dates to use as start date, and the employee doesn't have either of them. |
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