Introduction    

This document explains how to perform the Entitlement Year-End Procedure which allows you to reset the entitlements for all employees to the start of a new year.  This procedure should be performed after each entitlement reaches the end of its specified year. Any entitlement to be carried over will then be calculated automatically. 

The year start and year end may vary for different entitlements.  For example, the holiday entitlement year may run from January to December, whereas the training entitlements might run from April to October.  Your current Start and End Dates can be confirmed by clicking on the menu: System > Entitlements. 

If you use individual entitlement years (i.e. different year start and end dates for each employee), you should still perform this procedure once a year so that the default settings remain correct for any employees who do not have individual entitlement years set up.

Please note you will also need to carry out this procedure separately for each entitlement type you have defined (even if the year ends on the same date). 

Preparation for the Year End Procedure:

1. Before performing this year-end procedure, it is recommended that your IT Department has taken a full backup of your TMS database as the procedure cannot be reversed.  If you do not do this and the procedure fails or is not followed correctly Mitrefinch Support will unfortunately be unable to assist you. Note that if your TMS system is hosted by Mitrefinch the database is automatically backed up each night.
   

2. It is recommended that you run the ‘Entitlement Report’ (available from the menu: Reports > Custom Reports) to check that the relevant employees have taken their entitlement for the previous year and also save a copy of the report for future reference.
   

How to perform the Year End Procedure:

1. First check that the employees have an entitlement value for ‘Next Year’. In TMS, select an employee then the menu:  Employee > Employee Details and click the Entitlements tab at the bottom of the Employee Details screen.  
   

When you run the Year End procedure, the value in the `Next Year` field will move across into the `This Year` field.  Therefore, you must ensure that the `Next Year` field is correct for each employee prior to performing the Year End procedure. If the ‘Next Year’ value is incorrect you will have to enter the correct value into the `This Year` field before the Year End procedure is run.  

To modify an entitlement, click the Edit button and then select the required Entitlement from the list. 

The example below shows 22.00 Days in the ‘Next year’ field. This means that after the Year End is performed, both the `This Year` AND `Next Year` fields will show 22.00 days. 

The ‘Carried over’ field shows how many days the employee has carried over from the previous year and the Credit field shows any manual adjustment that has been made to the entitlement over the past year.  

2. Once the details have been checked, load the Entitlements screen via the menu: System > Entitlements.  Select the required Entitlement by clicking the appropriate tab at the base of the form then click the Year end button.  Please note you can ONLY perform this after the date shown for ‘End of current year’ 
   

If you attempt to perform the Year End procedure prior to the end date, the following window will open stating that the current year is still in progress.  You will need to wait until after the end date before this procedure can be completed.  Click OK then Close to return to the main TMS screen.

3. A Process year end window will open.  The Start and End of New Year fields are populated automatically by TMS based on the dates of the previous year.  If you need to alter these dates you can either enter the new dates directly into the fields or use the calendar.  Please ensure you check the start and end dates are correct prior to proceeding.
   

You must then select one of the four Carryover options:

1. Select None if you do not wish any entitlement to be carried over to the New Year.  
   

2. Select All if you wish to carry over all unallocated entitlement i.e. both positive and negative. 
   

3. Select Positive only to carry over any entitlement still owing from the previous year i.e. not taken by an employee.  
   

4. Select Negative only to carry over any NEGATIVE entitlement i.e. entitlement that is to be taken away from the employee.
   

Once you have selected a Carryover option, click ‘OK’ to proceed and perform the Year End procedure for the Entitlement. Alternatively, click Cancel to return to the previous entitlement screen.  

4. TMS will automatically adjust the associated Start and End dates on the entitlement form and any ‘This Year’, ‘Carryover’ and ‘Credit’ values.  You can verify that this has been performed by checking that the date range has changed to the new year within the Employee Entitlements screen via the Employee menu: Employee > Entitlements 
   

5. For any other entitlements requiring a Year End, repeat from step 2 and select the appropriate entitlement tab located at the bottom of the Entitlements window.
   

6. If you are also using Web TMS or the Silverlight module of TMS, then your IIS will need to be recycled to read these changes.  To do this, log into Web TMS as MASTER and click the "Clear Cache" button in the top right.  Alternatively, Web TMS will reload these settings automatically after 29 hours.
   

Further Information: 

As stated in the introduction section, once this procedure has been performed it cannot be reversed within TMS.  Should you need to reverse the procedure then please contact your IT Department to arrange a database restore via your last backup.

Should you have any queries relating to this procedure, then please contact Mitrefinch Support on 0330 726 0090 or log a case via https://customers.oneadvanced.com/.