2022 Q1 Product Release Notes

We are constantly striving to enhance the functionality Staffology HR delivers to its users. This product update provides information on new features, enhancements and fixes developed during January to March 2022.

All new features and enhancements arise from feedback and suggestions from customers.

Users can suggest product enhancement ideas in the Big Ideas portal available from the Guide page within the Staffology HR product.

Complete release notes are available in the Guide page within Staffology HR.

Product Enhancements

Staffology Payroll Integration

As part of our continued and exciting integration with Staffology Payroll, in this release we have added a number of enhancements:

Absence Types

In this quarter we have added the ability to sync the following absences:

  • Holidays
  • Illness
  • Maternity
  • Paternity
  • Shared parental Leave
  • Adoption leave
  • Unauthorized
  • Compassionate

We’ve also added the following to help facilitate administration and auditing of the integration between Staffology HR and Staffology Payroll:

Half day Absences

You can now use half-day absences with Staffology Payroll integration.

When a half day-absence is created in Staffology HR, this will now be copied to payroll so that the payroll will reflect the correct length of absence.

Types of holidays that can be sent as half day absence.

  • Holidays
  • Illness
  • Unauthorized

Overlapping Absence

If an overlapping absence occurs, the integration will only accept the first absence entered; the second absence will be ignored unless the original is removed.

For example, if Holiday is approved for an employee for 1st of April to 3rd of April and Compassionate Leave is approved for 2nd of April to 7th of April for the same employee, only the Holiday will be sent to Staffology Payroll. This is because two Absences cannot overlap within Staffology Payroll. You would resolve this is by removing the first absence of Holiday and re-entering it for only 1st of April, meaning they no longer overlap. Both absences will be accepted and sent to payroll.

Initial link date

In System Tools > Utilities > Payroll > Staffology Payroll, we have added a field that records each Company’s initial Link Date.

Audit

Staffology Payroll Integration is now included in the Audit. Audit records companies linked or unlinked, along with the Date, Time and User who has made the change.

Tax Code Validation  

On the Payroll tab, we have introduced Tax Code validation within legislation guidelines, so that if an incorrect tax code format is entered, you will be notified when pressing Save.

Validation applied:

  • 999999L
  • 999999N
  • 999999M
  • 999999T
  • BR
  • 0T
  • NT
  • K999999
  • D0, D1
  • Pluss all Scottish and Welsh equivalents – SD2
  • Not included in the validation – SNT or CNT

Exclude from Staffology Payroll function

On My Details > Payroll in Staffology HR, we have introduced an Exclude from Payroll Integration tick box allowing the admin user to prevent individual employee records being linked with Staffology Payroll.

If this is implemented on an employee record, any updates on the employees will not be sent to Staffology Payroll.

Manage API Key

If a Company in Staffology HR has been linked with Staffology Payroll, and the API Key is deleted in Staffology Payroll, the integration is removed for that Company.

We have introduced a new feature called Manage API Key that will allow an admin user to relink a company once a new API Key has been created.

This new feature can be found in Staffology HR > System Tools > Utilities> Payroll > Staffology Payroll > Manage API Key, however it is only to be used if the original API Key has been deleted.

Pay Type

Pay Type is now synced from Staffology HR to Staffology Payroll. Once the integration has been turned on the Pay Types below will automatically be created in Staffology HR, so they are ready for you to use:

  • Weekly = weekly pay frequency = 52
  • Monthly = monthly pay frequency = 12
  • Four-Weekly = four-weekly pay frequency = 13
  • Fortnightly = Fortnightly pay frequency =26

Please note – Staffology HR does not accept Custom Pay or Daily Pay from Staffology Payroll – any employee with these Pay Types will not be synced.

Employee Number cannot be edited

Once the integration is turned on Employee Numbers will no longer be editable, to prevent mismatch of information between the systems.

Employee Number included in Data Checker

Employee Numbers will be included in the data check to make sure that they are not already being used.

New information sent from Staffology HR to Staffology Payroll

Employee Details

HR Field HR Location Staffology Payroll Location Staffology Payroll Validation
Basic Salary Payroll Pay Options > Regular Pay> Annual Salary Numeric

Try Staffology Now

Absences

HR Field HR Location Staffology field Staffology location
Holidays Absence Holidays Leave
Illness Absence Sickness Leave
Maternity Absence Maternity Leave
Paternity Absence Paternity Leave
Shared parental Leave Absence Shared parental Leave Leave
Adoption leave Absence Adoption leave Leave
Unauthorized Absence Unauthorized Leave
Compassionate Absence Bereavement Leave

User Interface/ User Experience Enhancements

This quarter we are continuing to make improvements in the user experience with various enhancements to improve the performance of the Home screen.

Employee Photo

On the Profile page, there is now an Edit icon displayed on the Employee Photograph. Select the Edit icon to open the image selector form.

Address fields

We have added the ability to change the Address memo field on the My Details > Personal tab to five separate lines plus the Postcode.

To do this, in System Tools > Utilities > Tools > System Configuration > Personal, select the new tick box labelled Split Address field over separate lines?

When ticked, this switch splits all addresses currently in the memo field into 6 separate address lines. The switch is OFF by default for existing customers and ON by default for all new systems.

From the feedback we received from our recent survey, we are continuing to make improvements in this area. This release contains various minor enhancements to improve the performance and look of the Home screen.

Other UI/UX Enhancements include:

  • Contacts panel – improvements to display more complex HTML formatting
  • Communication panel – we have increased the maximum height of this panel to allow more information to be shown and made it dynamic to shrink when less text is displayed
  • Other Home page enhancements, including:
    • Tasks Panel – Task Name length increased and will adjust based on the panel width
    • Holiday Panel – Aligned row heights so they match with the Notification panel (opposite)
  • Clickable labels– clickable labels are now only for lookups; links that were previously informative have been replaced with an ‘i’ icon
  • Documents lookup form change – On System Tools > Lookups > Documents > Document Category form, first ‘Sensitive’ changed to Sensitivity. Heading added if it does not exist. Same change on Directories > select user > Documents > Create New popup

Blackout feature explanation

We’ve added a Learn More button within the Blackout pop-up to explain the feature. Blackout can be found in System Tools > Lookup Tables > Absence > Blackout. The explanation reads:

Use Blackout to create days on which employees cannot book an Absence. They must be created one day at a time. Select the date that the Blackout day falls on then set ONE of the following if you need to limit the Blackout day:

  • Country
  • Location/Division
  • Department
  • Team
  • Cost Centre

Position Management

We are delighted to annouce the MVP launch of our Position Management (PM) module, a key feature that will enable you and your organisation to start operating through core positions independant from the employees who currently fill these roles, allowing for more effective workforce and talent management.

What is Position Management?

HR systems generally operate in two ways, Employee Management and Position Management.

Thinking of it in terms of seating:

  • Employee management is where you bring your own chair to the organisation. That’s your chair and has all your details with it. When you leave or move roles your details go with you
  • Position management on the other hand is like a football stadium, the seats are fixed, all the position information is held and saved against that seat. When an employee leaves the seat or moves to another and none of the information like salary, FTE, reporting line etc. is lost

More information can be found here:

Position ManagementRead the Blog

API Integration Enhancements

We have created a new API end point to help facilitate integration with our partner iSAMS, however, the API’s created are available to everyone. This means you will be able to use the API to send and receive your employee’s External Provider ID, as well as the Redirect URL.

Swagger definitions

If you would like to explore this functionality further, please pass on the link above to your technical team and get in touch with us to find out how we can support you.

iSAMS HR API

iSAMs is a leading school management system for independent schools and is just one of the many integrations that we support. The following changes have been made to facilitate the integration with iSAMS, enabling iSAMS HR to seamlessly send all their single sign on (SSO) information direct to us using our API’s. The changes will then allow a single click login between the two systems.

  • iSAMS HR SSO – New endpoint for iSAMS url
  • iSAMS HR SSO – Create POST endpoint for external provider ID
  • iSAMS HR SSO – Create GET endpoint for external provider ID
  • iSAMS HR SSO – Facilitate button in iSAMS to log directly into HR
  • iSAMS HR – Address sync
  • iSAMS HR – Button for SSO login

New NI Codes and tick boxes on Payroll tab

We have added new NI codes and new tick boxes to the Payroll tab, so that we are compliant with legislation and any payroll integration works correctly.

New NI Codes are being introduced for Tax Year 2022/2023 and these have been added to the NI Code drop down.

NIC Holiday for Veterans Employer’s NIC Relief – Reduction of Employer National Insurance for veterans in their first year of civilian employment – NI Rate V

Freeports Employer’s NIC Relief – Reduction of Employer National Insurance for employees working in freeports in their first three years of employment – NI Rates F, I, S & L

  • New Working in Freeport tick box on Payroll tab
    • Only enabled when NI Code H, M, V or Z are selected
    • Automatically ticked when NI Code is set to F, I, S, or L
    • Not possible to untick the box for NI Codes F, I, S or L
    • Unticked and disabled for any other NI Code when that Code is first selected
  • New Date field for Date of Veteran’s First Civilian Employment
  • Blank by default
  • The date must be the same as or before the employee’s Cont. Service Date

Support is now available via our customer service community Service Cloud

GET IN TOUCH
Chat Now