Auto-Step Employees Page

Use this page to advance selected employees to the next steps on their salary schedules. Auto-stepping also updates employees' Pay Rate records with new schedules and calendars that you have assigned to their job classes.

If needed, you can also apply new pay start and stop dates to employees' pay rates and reset the rates' paid-to-date and contract balances.

Menu Path:  Human Resources > Entry & Processing > Salary Negotiations > Auto-Step Employees

Prerequisites

Before using the auto-step option, complete these steps in the order shown:

1. Process the final payroll of the current fiscal year.
2. Use Salary Negotiations' Salary Projections option to add new schedules to Human Resources' Salary Schedule table.
3. Create new year calendars in Human Resources. If your fiscal year and calendar year differ, you do not need to create new calendars.
4. Assign the new salary schedules and calendars to the appropriate job classes in Human Resources' Job Class table.

Caution
The Auto Step Employees option should only be run after the last payroll of the current fiscal year and before the first payroll of the new year. Also, if step increases go into effect at a different time of year, you can still use this option, but be sure to leave the page's Reset Dates and Reset Balances fields blank.

Auto-Stepping Employees on Salary Schedules

The Auto-Step Employees option advances employees one step on their salary schedules, whether or not increases have been entered in Salary Negotiations.

• The auto-step option updates pay rates with new salary schedules and calendars. However, you must first assign the schedules and calendars to the proper job classes in Human Resources.
• If an employee has already reached the maximum step in a range, autostepping has no effect; the employee remains at the current step. To move the employee to a new range and step, you must change the employee's Pay Rate record in Human Resources.
• If the Reset Dates and Reset Balances fields are selected, the AutoStep Employees option applies a new calendar's start and end dates to Pay Rate records and resets paidtodate balances to zero for the start of the new fiscal year. In addition, the option resets the Contract Limit fields in contracted rates to the new annual salaries.
• If auto-stepping is done at fiscal year end, you must also run the Update New Year Rates option to update pay rates with the new salaries, dates, and balances.

Auto-stepping employees

1. Complete the requirements outlined in the Prerequisites section.
2. Select Human Resources > Entry & Processing > Salary Negotiations > Auto-Step Employees to display the Auto-Step Employees page.
3. Enter criteria in the Schedule, Class, and Start Date fields.
   • You can enter multiple codes in the Schedule and Class fields by inserting the pipe symbol between each code, for example, SA1|SA3|SB2.
   • None of the fields are required. For example, you can select employees solely by salary schedule or job class, but keep in mind that if you leave all three fields blank, all employees on salary schedules will be auto-stepped.
   • You also can use the Advanced button to run an advanced search.
4. Select the checkboxes as needed. For details, refer to the Fields section.
5. Click OK.
6. In the confirmation dialog:
   • Click Yes if the Job Class records selected for auto-stepping have been updated with new salary schedules or calendars. You can also make this selection if you want the job classes to retain their current schedules.
   • Click No if you have not updated your job classes and still need to do so. This selection cancels the auto-step process.
7. In the Print page, enter settings for generating the Employees AutoStepped report. The report's default file name is autostep.rpt.
8. Click OK to begin auto-stepping.
9. Before processing the first payroll of the new year:
   • If auto-stepping applies to the fiscal year end, run the Update New Year Rates option to update pay rates with new salaries, dates, and balances.
   • Verify that employees' pay rates are correct. For details, refer to the next procedure.

Verifying data in employee pay rates

After you autostep employees, you should review their Pay Rate records to ensure that the proper changes were made. This should be done before processing the first payroll in the new year.

1. Select Human Resources > Entry & Processing > Employee > Employee Pay Rates to display the Pay Rate Information search page.
2. In the Job Class field, select a job class from the drop-down list.
3. Click Find to list the pay rates associated with the class.
4. In the List section, select the rate you want to review, and then click OK to display the Pay Rate Information detail page.

5. Review the following fields and make any changes that are needed:

   Class	The appropriate job class code should display.
   Calendar	The code for new year calendar should display, unless you did not add a new calendar to the job class.
   Start/End Dates	The new year's start/end dates should display, unless you did not add a new calendar or you chose not to select the Reset Dates field in the auto-step option.
   Schedule	The code of the proper salary schedule should default from the Job Class table.
   Step	The entry displayed should be one step higher than the step for the previous year, unless the employee was already at the maximum step in a range.
   Days Worked	The number of work days defaults from the calendar that is in effect.
   Pay Rate	The hourly or pay period rate should display, as set by either the employee's salary schedule (for hourly schedules) or system calculations (for salaried schedules).
   Annual Salary	The salary is either system-calculated (for hourly schedules) or determined by the employee's step/range (for salaried schedules).
   Contract Days	This field applies to contract employees. The number of days defaults from the assigned calendar.
   Contract Limit	This also applies to contract employees. The limit should match the annual salary, unless you did not select the Reset Balances field in the auto-step option.
   Balance	The balance should equal the contract limit, unless you did not select the Reset Balances field.

6. To close the page, click OK as many times as needed.
7. To review another pay rate that is listed, repeat Steps 4-6.
   If you left the Continuous checkbox selected, the next rate from the List section displays automatically. To return to the list and select another rate, click Back.

Fields

Auto-Step Employees Page

Report Notes

The Employees Auto Stepped report provides a comparison of the step and rate changes for each employee affected. In the report:

• The Position column indicates that all rates are primary pay rates. Keep in mind that secondary rates that use schedules can also be autostepped in the same manner as primary rates.
• Two employees who are already at the maximum steps in their ranges have the message MAXIMUM STEP listed in the New Step column. If you need to apply a salary increase for such employees, you must manually update the Pay Rate Information detail page.