How to Set Up Payroll Calendars

The Calendar Definition (PYUPCA) is a mandatory process that requires setting up at least one employee work calendar. Calendars affect payroll processing along with being required (fields) on Employee Master (HREMEN) and Pay Assignment (HRPYPA). Optionally, the calendar definition can be associated with a position on the PCN/Position Code Definition (HRTBPC) page which would cause it to default on the Pay Assignment screen. 
Items to keep in mind when defining calendars:   

• Each employee must be associated with at least one calendar. 

• An employee may have multiple calendars if the employee has multiple pay assignments. 

• At least one calendar MUST be defined for the payroll system to function. 

• For clients that utilize more than one calendar; calendar definitions can be conveniently copied from one to another and from one year to the next. 

Purpose 

The two primary purposes for the Calendar Definition are to calculate the employee days worked per year and to patch paid hours if an employee is a salaried:

1. Calculation of days per year – In the creation of pay assignments the system will read the employee's assigned calendar in conjunction with the employee's work dates to derive how many days per period the employee works.  This is particularly important for School District clients to accurately calculate contract earnings. 

2. Paying exception-based employees – Each pay period the payroll system will read the days defined on the calendar definition for the period to determine what workdays and/or holidays for that period should be calculated to pay the employee for time earned. 

Required Setup 

Before a Calendar Definition can be created, a Work Schedule Definition (PYUPSC) has to be entered to define the types of days that exist on the calendar. The day codes define what days on the calendar are working days, non-working days, holidays, invalid days, and how many hours per day and employee works.  

Optional Setup 

Common code PYFG/PY310C allows you to define what defaults into the Edit Command window in the Create Default Calendar Year Tool. 

Create a Calendar 

The steps to create a calendar:

1. Create the calendar definition — Go to Calendar Definition (PYUPCA) and click the + sign to create a new calendar.  Calendars can be set up in either fiscal or calendar year format. Hours entered reflect the hours that employees assigned the calendar work. These fields are mainly used for reporting and do not generally affect payroll processing. 

2. Enter the appropriate day codes — To create all of the days on the calendar, first define the standard days (Saturdays, Sundays, etc). Then add the holidays and other unique days for each organization. 

Calendar Tools 

There are three Tools available for Calendar Definition:  

• Edit Command  

• Create Default Calendars

• Copy Calendar Definition.  

Edit Command 

Select Edit Command to populate the selected calendar with Saturdays, Sundays and Invalid Days (i.e., Feb 30). Type DEFAULT in the Edit Command and click Save. The Calendar will be populated with S for Saturday, U for Sunday and X for invalid days.  
 
Next, add holidays and client specific work days. Add unique days that appear each week – Another tool can be used to set all days in the year for a particular day of the week to a unique day code.  An example of this would be if the calendar is 10-hour days Monday through Thursday and off on Fridays.  For example, place FRI=N in the Edit Command field to place an N (NON-WORKING DAY) on every Friday on the year. 

To manually add in holidays and any other days unique to the calendar, simply click the three-character month on the calendar. In the Day Code Editor view you have the ability to add the desired Day Codes. For example, on the first day of the year you type an H for Holiday. 

Create Default Calendars

The Create Default Calendars tool can be used to create a calendar over multiple years. Note that the Edit Command information can be defaulted using common code PYFG/PY310C.

For example, to create calendars for 2024 through 2029 based on an already-defined 2023 calendar named TEST, on the Define Default Calendar Years dialog window, enter:

• Base Calendar Code = TEST

• Base Calendar Year = 2023

• New Range Year Begin = 2024

• New Range Year End = 2029

Select the Create button. The new calendars appear in the PYUPCA Entity List.

Copy Calendar Definition

The Copy Calendar Definition is best for copying calendars to a calendar with another Calendar Code. In the To Calendar Code/Year fields, enter a Calendar Code and Year to copy to. Select the Copy button to create the new calendar. The description field remains the same in the newly created calendar. If needed, update the calendar description and save the record.

Additional Tools

Beside the DEFAULT command there are other tools can be used to help define the calendar. 

CLEAR Command

Entering the word CLEAR in the Edit Command will result in a blank calendar. With a new calendar we can populate it with another command option. 

Range of Days Command

The Mon-Fri=X option allows you to select a range of days that you would want to place a day code on for the year. For example, entering TUE-THUR=N will mark all Tuesdays through Thursdays with an N.  

Set Null Days Command

Note that there are invalid days such as Feb 29, 30 & 31. The NUL=X command will default the invalid code for all invalid days for the year.  

Pattern Command

The PAT=XXXXXXX command, where PAT stands for Pattern, allows you to create a pattern and replicate it throughout the calendar. This is useful for schedules that have varied work weeks.  With the Pattern Command option, you will not want to use the Default Command Option or copy the Calendar from year to year. You have to determine the pattern that your Calendar will follow based on the first day of your calendar or fiscal year. 

For fiscal year, look at the first day of the Fiscal year by opening the month which would be July. If the first day of the fiscal year is a Tuesday, that day would be used as the beginning of the pattern. Patterns may be established by 14 charters or 14 days.  

The following Pattern command results in Tuesdays, Thursday and Fridays being marked as work days, Wednesdays and Mondays being marked as non-work days, Saturdays marked as S, and Sundays marked as U:

Edit Command: PAT= N SUN N SUN

The pattern is filled throughout the entire year. You will still need to run the NUL=X command to fill in the Invalid days.