Personnel Action Requests

Table of Contents

Introduction

Personal Action Requests (PARs) application allows people to create, approve, disapprove pars for current, new and terminated employees and volunteers. Pars are divided up by actions and subactions. There are 4 main actions , new, change, terminate and volunteer. These actions also define how the application is setup. Under each action is a sub action, which are specific actions under the main action. For example "Returning From Leave of Absence" is a subaction of "New" or "Student Volunteer" under "Volunteer". A full list is given with the par types combo box (described below). Once a par is created, the originator must mark the par to send it on it's way through the approval process. Each time the par is approved it is sent to next person needed to approve it. Canceling and disapproving and assigning items to the employees is also supported This document is meant to describe how to do each of these things.

Full Size: parui-default.png

Approval Levels

Each step in the process must be approved by the appropriate party. Each approval is a 'level'. example process: Campus Facilitator creates a par, marks it as the originator, then it is sent to the Campus Administrator, to HR to review it. Then to the business office for budget verification, then sent to the HR Admin to approve it. The last steps are for HR to finalize it and set a governing board date, with it finally going to payroll for them to do their magic. When payroll approves this par, it will open payroll jobs with the employee and job info loaded.

Full list of approval levels.

Originator
Campus Facilitator
Campus Administrator
Department Administrator
HR PreView
Program Administrator
Budget
HR Administrator
Payroll Department
YETC Notification
HR Final
Other Approval
Other Notify

Rules

There are a few basic rules about the application that apply to everything.

Locations. A user is only able to create PARs for their location. Changes to other locations can be made. i.e Kofa Campus Facilitator can transfer a teacher to YHS, but can not transfer from YHS.
Employees. Are similar to locations. If the user does not have access to change the employee info, the user can not create a par.
The minimal information required to be entered into the application to create a par is the the employee info, the requestor and the start date.
The start date can not be a date previous to the day the PAR is created, except when created by HR.
Terminates "Last Work Day" must be filled in instead of "start date".
Terminate requires the job to be selected.
HR must assign a Governing Board date before HR final posting.

Menus

File

New - CTRL+N - Creates a new PAR.
Save - CTRL+S - Saves the current PAR. Does not mark the PAR.
Delete - DEL - Deletes the current PAR. Can not be deleted once the par has been marked.
Print - CTRL+P - Prints the current par.
Next - ALT+Right Arrow - Moves to the next item in the list. Only enabled when a list of PARs is available.
Prev - ALT+Left Arrow - Moves to the prev item in the list. Only enabled when a list of PARs is available.
Advanced Search = CTRL+F - Opens the advanced search dialog (discussed below).
Exit - CTRL+Q - Quits the PAR Application

View

Icons - Allows you to view the Toolbar icons or show text or both icons and text.

Image Only
Text Only
Image and Text Only

Fiscal Year

Allows you to set the fiscal year you want to work in/with.

Send or Mark

Approve Current PAR - Will mark the current PAR.
Disapprove PAR - Will disapprove the PAR.
Cancel PAR - Will cancel the PAR.
Return to Originator - Sends the PAR back to the originator
Send to Another User - Can send the PAR to another

Tools

Items - launches the items dialog (discussed below).
Save Template - Saves the current par data for reuse in other pars.
Load Template - Loads a saved template.
Delete Template - Deletes a saved template.
Copy Current Par - Copies the current PAR, allowing the reuse of employee and job info.
Copy to New Par - Copies the current PARs job, allowing reuse of the job.

Search

The search bar in PAR application allows searching for specific par items by the par master id. By using "par:" or "id:" (with the trailing colon) before the id number, PAR application will load the par information into the application.

Example:

Searching by name, employee id is also supported. If more than one result is returned, a dock widget is opened and shows the list of items you can cycle through to fill in the data.

In addition to the search bar, there is also an advanced search dialog that has more search filters/options and allows you to create fun ways to view pars. The advanced search options are seen in the image below, but by choosing the field, then the type of search you want to do. The search options are described below.

Match drop down box contains a list of ways to match.

All - Gets records that matches all of the dialog field rows. DEFAULT
Any - Gets records that matches any of the field rows.

The search conditions are described here.

"Contains" and "Does not Contain" is saying the field you are searching has or does not have (respectively) the text to search for.
- This will match start/end or middle of the search text. eg. abc in 'abcdef', 'fabcde' will be matched or not matched.
"Is" and "Is not" are exactly the same as equal and not equal. The results will contain the field with the search text exactly or results missing it.
- searching for 'abc' with is will not match 'bde', 'bca', 'cde', is not will match all of those.
"starts with" and "ends with" are similar, just that the text will start with or end with the search text.
- searching for starts with 'abc' will match 'abcdef' but not 'fabcde', ends with will match 'defabc
The -/+ buttons on the row allow you to add an extra row or remove that row. With these buttons you're able to search the ledger for account codes in a variety of ways, based on the rules above. When adding rows, this is where the 'Match' choices come into play, they tell compass how to group these conditions together in the ways described above.

Full Size parui-advSearch.png

Toolbar Items

Shortcut sequences are always viewable in the menus, these items are the same as the File menu entries. Listed here in order, for completeness.

New - CTRL+N - Creates a new PAR.
Save - CTRL+S - Saves the current PAR. Does not mark the PAR.
Delete - DEL - Deletes the current PAR. Can not be deleted once the par has been marked.
Next - ALT+Right Arrow - Moves to the next item in the list. Only enabled when the dock widget is available.
Prev - ALT+Left Arrow - Moves to the prev item in the list. Only enabled when the dock widget is available.
Advanced Search = CTRL+F - Opens the advanced search dialog (discussed below).

Printing PARs

To print a par, search for a PAR (as described above), select 'Print' from the File menu. It will show a Preview in a PDF viewer, then click "Print" from that application's File menu. When the printer selection menu appears, select the 'CompassClientPrinter", this will load the file in your local PDF Viewer (most likely Adobe) with the print preview screen showing, select the printer you want to print to and fix and settings you wish to. This will print the currently loaded PAR to your default printer.

Central Area

The central area is divided up into three main sections. The upper part is for data that is common for all types of par. Such as the employee's name, id, address, the current status and where it is in the approval level process. This area also contains the par types drop down and the ability to set up different pars.

The middle section is the main work area and switches based on the action. Switching the action and the widget, while working on a par, does not destroy any of the work you've done so far, but one widget has a detail the other doesn't, then it won't show things correctly.

The bottom section is comments, reference and Governing Board agenda info.

These areas are disabled by default and only enabled if you're creating a new par or have the permissions to edit an existing par or just areas you have permission to edit.

Employee Info

When creating a new PAR, click 'Add New' then in the employee id field, you can enter the employee info or in the name or social security fields, the respective information will search for the employee data that matches and load it in. If you enter a partial amount of data, a dialog box will appear and allow you to choose the employee to enter. If the results of the search are more than 50 results, you will have to refine the search. If the employee exists, it will display what is in the system.

The requestor and date is filled automatically but can be changed.

Approvals and Notifications

As the PAR goes through the different approval levels the current status is shown to the right of the employee info section. In addition to the current status, you can see who originated the PAR and when it was originated and the various approvals for the PAR. Approved PARs will be highlighted in green and Canceled or Disapproved PARs will be highlighted in red.

Approvals routing is discussed more in Par Routing Rules

When a PAR has been approved and the next person who needs to adjust/approve the PAR logs into compass the next time, compass will launch a notification window that lists all the PARs they need to manage. Double clicking a list item will launch the PAR dialog, loading the PAR item.

Full Size parui-notifications.png

Work Area

Under approvals and employee info sections is a line with two drop down menu, the second box sets the priority of the PAR. The first drop down allows you to select the type of PAR that will be created or reviewed. It is only selectable during the creation of PAR and depending on the type chosen, the area below it can change.

The PAR action/type drop down needs some explanation. It gives you a list of choices, each choice has two pieces of information. The first part is the main action, 'New' (new employee par), 'Chg' (change employee par), 'Trm' (terminated par), and 'Vol' (volunteer par). Each of these 4 main actions has specific sub actions, allowing for more detailed information about what this par is supposed to do. The very last entry allows you to edit the list. If you don't choose a sub action, the PAR will not save correctly.

Full Size parui-partypes.png

The edit dialog for the part types allows you to add new sub actions to an existing action. These sub actions will be available once entered to the whole district. It's not really fancy, just enter the name of the sub action and choose an action, click OK and you're good to go. Only a member of Human Resources can add and change PAR sub actions. This is done on purpose, to keep changes to a minimum and controlled.

Full Size parui-partypes-dlg.png

Priority refers to how important this PAR is and fast it should go through the process.

There is a different look to the PAR application for each action. These looks define the information that is used for that par type.

The minimal information required to be entered into the application, to create a PAR is the the employee info, the requester and the start date. The start date is entered in different areas of the work areas below.

Coding Widget

The coding widget is the area of the par where you enter account code information. Only New and Change PARS have it. It is shown in their screen shots below. All you should need to do is enter the account code and set the FTE, the salary and budget balance shall be filled in for you. If you're adding a split funded PAR, the add/del allows you to add new lines to enter the other account codes.

There a couple caveats with the account code part of the widget. Because it validates the account code as you enter it it will get a bit tricky. First, if you notice a typo in a chunk of the account code you are already past (i.e. the fund is wrong and you're entering the program), you can't go back and just edit the fund, you need to start over. If you're about to enter the last couple numbers of the account code and the text turns red and will not allow you to enter the last number, the account code is invalid and you need to start over with the right one.

New PAR

The new widget is the default look to the PAR application. This is for entering PARs for new jobs.

The top half is about setting up the job information for the par. The coding table is for entering the account code information for the job.

Enter the employee information as described above. Then choose the appropriate NEW sub action. Make sure to fill in the start date and any other information wanted. Click Save, at this point the PAR is still editable and can be changed. Once the par is correct and saved, then it must be marked, by choosing Approve Current PAR. Once it has been approved changes can not be made. This process is repeated for the different types of pars, differences will be explained.

Full Size parui-new.png

Change PAR

The change widget is a predominantly a table divided into two columns, to and from. this information is basically the same as new, but rearranged for the action. Double clicking any cell in the From column will either fill in the employees current job or if there is more than one job, a dialog will appear allowing you to choose the job. Only the start date is required in the To column to save the par.

Full Size parui-chg.png

Terminate PAR

The terminated widget is used when handling a terminated job. For this, "Last Work Day" is the date you need to fill in and the position being terminated.

The 'other' text box is enabled only when you make an Terminated Other PAR. This allows you to fill in the reason why.

Retirement PARS also collect funding information for retirement benefits.

Full Size parui-trm.png parui-trm-retired.png

Volunteer PAR

Volunteer allows you to set parent and student volunteer PARs. Parent Volunteers also need a Student name to go with the PAR.

Full Size parui-vol.png

Comments

The comments table allows users to enter comments about the par at any point in time. Right click on the table area for the comments and choose add to add a new comment. Highlight an existing one and choose delete to remove a comment. The GB Approval section is for Governing Board Approval. When HR finalizes the PAR, the date must be set by HR. The ID section will display the ID of the current PAR, once saved.

Items

Items are 'things' issued to users when they are hired/transfered or they need something from the school district such as keys, email accounts and pcards. Choose "Tools" menu, choose "Items" to launch the dialog after starting a new PAR. You only need to choose the Items from the drop down list, set if it's active or not, write in a specific description of this item. Items can be saved to templates and reused.

Full Size parui-items-dlg.png

Templates

PAR templates are a rather simple way to do repeated pars. To create a PAR, set up the basic PAR information, then choose Save PAR Template. This will then be available to all users to create similar pars. To load a PAR template, choose the menu item and then click OK. This will load the template data into the UI as it was saved. Deleting a PAR template will remove it from the database.

Templates do not save the date of the par, requestor, employee, employee address, reference verification information, comments or items.

All templates are available to all users, once one has been saved, all anyone needs to do is load the par template.

If you find yourself needing to change a PAR template, make your changes to the template, then choose Save PAR Template and re-enter the templates name into the dialog box. This will save the template again, without saving a new template.

Renaming a template will require to save as the new name and delete the old one.

Load and Delete templates have a similar screen, the window title (not shown here, sorry) will specify if it is to load or delete.

Save PAR Template Load and Delete PAR Template

Reports

Most reports (all but one) are located in the Compass Menu under "Reports and Update Programs" of the "People" section.

PARs with contracts not signed. This is a report that shows all PARs that have contracts assigned to them that are not signed.

PARs with contracts not viewed. This is a report that shows all PARs where the contracts have not been viewed, online, by the user.

PARs without a Governing Board date. This is a report that shows all PARs without a governing board date assign (has not reached HR Final yet).

Print Single PAR. This is a print out of the PAR that is loaded into the PAR application and not in the menu (only one like this).

Wiki

Wiki

Should you need help, please send an email to compass@yumaed.org

Personnel Action Requests