Assigning an event to an open shift

When creating an open shift, managers can now assign an event to the shift. The New Open Shift dialog box in Employee Schedules includes an Events drop-down menu from which the event can be selected.

Notification for denied pickup shift request

When managers approve pickup shift requests, employees who accepted the request but were not approved will receive an email and mobile push notification informing them that their pickup requests were not approved.

Housekeeping Dashboard

This release introduces the Housekeeping Dashboard, which provides at-a-glance information to improve the monitoring and management of housekeeping operations. The dashboard offers a unified view of crucial metrics, including room cleaning times, inspection pass/fail rates, cleaning delays by room type, and trends in service performance. By providing these insights, the Housekeeping Dashboard helps optimize cleaning efficiency, improve inspection consistency, and enable more effective resource allocation and scheduling.

You can access the Housekeeping Dashboard from a new Housekeeping Analytics menu option in the Housekeeping software.

With the Housekeeping Dashboard, you can do the following:

• View operational KPIs—Track key performance indicators related to housekeeping efficiency, inspection success, and cleaning times.

• View and interact with charts for various metrics—Visualize important metrics such as cleaning times, inspection trends, and cleaning delays with easy-to-read charts.

• Customize charts—Tailor the data displayed in the charts to focus on specific room types, cleaning tasks, or time periods that matter most to your operations.

• Add, edit, and delete scheduled notifications from the calendar () icon—Set, manage, and modify notifications to stay informed about key housekeeping updates, such as delayed cleaning or failed inspections.

• Export the view as an image, PDF, or Excel file from the export () icon—Export your dashboard data as an image, PDF, or Excel file for easy sharing and reporting.

For instructions and more information, see Housekeeping Dashboard.

Note: Housekeeping Dashboard is available only to users with Reports access. Users must have the Create Housekeeping Reports role enabled. For more information, contact your Unifocus Client Success Manager (CSM).

Note: Housekeeping Dashboard is currently available for limited release only. If you are interested in this feature, contact your Unifocus Client Success Manager (CSM).

Events permission in the User Administration screen

The Action & Application Access tab of User Administration now includes a new Events option for setting the permission to access the Events screen. The permission is found in System Setup > Secondary.

Incomplete Schedule Indicator in Mobile Configuration

In previous releases, if managers wanted their employees to be able to see an indicator of incomplete schedules in the Mobile App, they had to contact the Unifocus Service Desk to set a backend property data flag.

In this release, the Mobile Configuration screen includes an Incomplete Schedule Indicator checkbox that managers can select to ensure that active employees will see an indicator in their Mobile Apps to signal that the schedule is incomplete and subject to change.

Additionally, the Incomplete Schedule Indicator in the Mobile Configuration screen features a tooltip with the following message:

When a schedule has been published but a job in the planning period is either unlocked or marked as not complete, an indicator will show next to these shifts in the mobile app.

Labor software preserves open shifts with pending shift requests

In previous releases, the Labor software removed all open shifts and replaced them with new shifts when projected hours were run. Now, the software preserves (and does not replace) open shifts that have pending shift requests associated with them.

Resolved issues with employee home jobs

In some instances of previous releases, when users updated employees' home jobs to jobs at different properties in Employee Maintenance, they frequently needed to consult with the Unifocus Service Desk to avoid system errors.

The software has been updated so that users can update employees' home jobs to jobs at different properties without requiring assistance from the Unifocus Service Desk, as expected.

Resolved issue with open shift count

In some instances of previous Employee Schedules releases, if an open shift was assigned to an employee and then reassigned to other employees, the open shift count was incorrectly reduced by each assignment and reassignment.

The software has been updated so that if an open shift is assigned to an employee and then reassigned to other employees, the open shift count is not affected, as expected.

Paid hour distributions appear correctly

In some instances of previous Mobile App releases, paid hour distributions for time off requests (TORs) appeared incorrectly if the TOR was edited after initial distributions occurred.

The software has been updated so that distributed hours appear correctly in the Mobile App.

Drill-through and maximization functionality in Maintenance Dashboard

This release of the Maintenance Dashboard includes the following new features:

• Drill-through functionality in charts—Clicking a chart element (bar, pie slice, line, and so on) opens a table with more details and information related to that specific data point in the chart.

• Maximization of charts—When right-clicking a chart, the resulting context menu now includes a Maximize () option that expands the selected chart to a full-screen view. Right-clicking and selecting the Restore Down () option returns the chart to its original, minimized view.

For more information, see Viewing and customizing charts in Maintenance Dashboard.

Action Reason filter option in the Work Order Console

This Maintenance release introduces a new Action Reason filter option in the Work Order Console, enhancing users ability to filter and analyze work orders based on their action history.

This new option is available in the Filters dialog box of the Work Order Console, which is accessed by selecting the Filters () button. Action Reason options include the following actions:

• Complete

• Park

• Reassign

• Reopen

Asset attachment management

This Maintenance release introduces the ability to attach assets to a work order before starting it, which provides greater flexibility and improves workflow management. With this new functionality in the Work Order Console, you can now attach necessary assets directly to a work order to ensure better tracking and more streamlined operations.

Filtering by multiple statuses in the Work Order Console

In this release, you can now select multiple statuses from the Work Order Console to refine your results. For example, you can select Unassigned, Assigned, Pending Approval, In Progress, Parked, and Completed statuses at the same time. This improvement offers flexibility and control on how you can view work orders.

Copying AMC, Warranty, and Insurance Details

In this release of Maintenance, the Asset Services dialog box, which is accessed through the Add Service Details field on the New Asset screen, now includes new radio buttons. These radio buttons allow users to copy AMC, Warranty, Insurance, and Maintenance details across different sections of the dialog box.

Drill-through and maximization functionality in Service Dashboard

This release of the Service Dashboard includes the following new features:

• Drill-through functionality in charts—Clicking a chart element (bar, pie slice, line, and so on) opens a table with more details and information related to that specific data point in the chart.

• Maximization of charts—When right-clicking a chart, the resulting context menu now includes a Maximize () option that expands the selected chart to a full-screen view. Right-clicking and selecting the Restore Down () option returns the chart to its original, minimized view.

For more information, see Viewing and customizing charts in Service Dashboard.

Resolved issue with holiday earnings

In some instances of previous releases, employees received holiday earnings while on leave of absence. Employees on leave of absence should not accrue holiday earnings.

The software has been updated so that employees on leave of absence do not accrue holiday earnings, as expected.

Confirmation message when deleting a job with an assignment

When deleting a job that has an assignment in Employee Maintenance, a confirmation dialog box alerts you that the job is associated with an assignment and that both the job and assignment will be deleted. You can either confirm or cancel the deletion.

Audit button and functionality on the Preferences screen

The Preferences screen (in Setup) now includes an Audit button that you can select to view the audit trail for changes made to the screen.

User interface changes to the Shift Difference OT work rule screen

In the Shift Difference OT work rule configuration screen, the parameters now appear in the following order:

• Hours Between Shifts

• Earning

• Overtime Factor Rate

• Convert Hours to OT

• Convert Full Second Shift

Entering time off requests with two decimal places for hours

In this release of the Mobile App, you can now enter time off requests (TORs) with two decimal places in the Hours field. For example, you can submit a TOR for 5.25 hours. This improvement allows for more accurate TOR submissions.

Pay rate in time cards displays two decimal places

In this release, the notes section of an employee's Review Time Card screen now displays the pay rate rounded to two decimal places.

Improvements to the Shift Difference OT work rule

This release includes the following improvements to the Shift Difference OT work rule:

• Customizable time threshold—The rule includes a new parameter to specify the time between shifts before the Shift Difference OT rule is triggered.

• Overlapping shifts—The rule includes two new checkboxes to indicate that overlapping hours should be converted to overtime (OT) hours:

  • Convert Hours to OT—If selected, the rule will convert the hours of the second shift to OT and not create an additional earning.

  • Convert Full Second Shift—If selected, the rule will convert the entire second shift to OT, not just the portion inside the hours threshold. It will also not create an additional earning.

Adding the percentage symbol to operating code names

In the Operating Codes screen, you can now add the percentage symbol (%) to operating code names.

Employees can pick up overlapping shifts

In this release of Employee Requests and the Unifocus Mobile App, employees can request to pick up a shift that overlaps an existing shift on their schedule if the amount of overlap is equal to or less than the configured overlap threshold.

Disabling bulk mobile invites

For single sign-on (SSO) clients, the Bulk Mobile Invite button is now disabled on the Employee Maintenance screen.

Break Period Penalty work rules allow only a single earning per calendar day

The Break Period Penalty Post-Calculation work rules include a new Only allow earning once per day parameter that, when selected, ensures that the earning generated from this rule will apply only once per day.

This improvement enhances payroll accuracy and compliance by ensuring that employees who qualify for a meal or rest earning receive that earning once per day, regardless of multiple qualifying events.

Exporting the budget structure

The Budget Structure screen in Budgeting now includes right-click functionality to export the complete budget structure to CSV, XLSX, or XML formats.

For instructions, see Exporting the budget structure.

Schedule labels are applied by start times

In previous releases of the Employee Shift Details screen in the Mobile App, labels were applied to any shift that overlapped with the day the label was intended for, including overnight shifts ending on that day.

With this update, schedule labels will only attach to shifts whose start time falls within the day of the label. This change prevents confusion by ensuring labels only appear on relevant shifts, enhancing clarity and accuracy in shift scheduling.

Increased system threshold for active employees

In previous releases, transactions in various modules and screens in Unifocus software were limited to 2100 active employees.

In this release, the software has been updated to increase the threshold for active employees processed in various transactions in Labor, Planning, Scheduling, and Time & Attendance.

PM Compliance Percentage chart in Maintenance Dashboard

This release of Maintenance Dashboard includes a new PM Compliance Percentage chart that displays the ratio of completed compliant work orders to total preventive maintenance work orders. This chart aids in enhancing operational efficiency and asset management by ensuring that maintenance tasks meet established standards and timelines.

Calculation: Number of compliant work orders / Total number of work orders

Work Order Count by Asset Category chart in Maintenance Dashboard

This release of Maintenance Dashboard includes a new Work Order Count by Asset Category chart (based on various sources: ah hoc, Service, and Preventive Maintenance) that displays the total number of work orders by asset category. This chart provides a visual representation of maintenance efforts, categorizing and quantifying work orders by asset type to aid in resource allocation and strategic planning. You can also add different filters, such as Suppliers and Cost Centers, to gain additional insights.

Checklist Analysis chart in Maintenance Dashboard

This release of Maintenance Dashboard includes a new Checklist Analysis chart that aggregates and displays the total number of passed and failed responses from maintenance checklists, providing a comprehensive measurement of compliance and identifying areas in need of improvement.

Events screen and scheduling functionality

This release introduces a new Events screen and scheduling functionality for entering event information and associating events with shifts. This first release includes the following:

• Events screen—Accessible from Setup > Labor > Events, the new Events screen allows you to add, edit, delete, and clone events.

• Ability to associate events with shifts—On the Employee Schedules screen, you can associate events with scheduled or open shifts. The Add/Edit Shift pane (for scheduled shifts) and the Edit Open Shift dialog box (for open shifts) include an Event field, from which you can select a configured event to associate to the shift.

Registered Interface module in System Configuration

This release introduces the new Registered Interface module. Accessed from the System Configuration menu, the Registered Interface module allows you to view, manage, and control all interfaces registered for a selected property. With this module, you can enable, disable, or remove registered interfaces based on your access rights, making interface management more efficient and straightforward.

For more information, see Release Document 2024-08-29.

Column view preferences are saved when changing dates in employee time cards

In the Review Time Card screen, your column view preferences are now saved when changing dates to view different periods.

New Break Period Penalty (Group by Day) Post-Calculation work rule

This release includes a new Break Period Penalty (Group by Day) Post-Calculation work rule. The Group by Day option will process total net hours for the day, even if there are multiple associated shifts and/or job IDs.

Renamed Post-Calculation work rule

The Break Period Penalty Post-Calculation work rule has been renamed Break Period Penalty (Group by Shift) to distinguish it from the Break Period Penalty (Group by Day) rule.

Make Shift(s) First Come First Serve feature for employee shift pickups

The Edit Open Shift dialog box in Employee Schedules now includes a new Make Shift(s) First Come First Serve toggle. This new feature allows managers to send shift pickup requests that do not require approval once accepted by an employee. When enabled, any accepted shift will automatically be approved.

This improvement simplifies the shift pickup process, reducing managerial workload and expediting scheduling adjustments.

Enhanced employee selection for shift pickups

Employees with approved time off requests (TORs) that conflict with the timing of available shift pickups will automatically be excluded from the recipient lists in the Edit Open Shift dialog box in Employee Schedules. This update ensures that scheduling managers no longer see or select employees who are unavailable, streamlining the process of assigning shifts and reducing scheduling conflicts.

Employee Class field is no longer required in the Earnings Detail By Employee report

In previous releases, the Employee Class field was required when running the Earnings Detail By Employee report.

In this release, the Employee Class field is no longer required when running the Earnings Detail By Employee report.

Options for exporting pay groups

In previous releases of the Review Pay Period screen, you could export only ZIP files from the Pay Period view.

In this release, the Export Pay Group section of the Pay Period view includes an Export as. zip toggle. By default, the toggle is turned on. If turned on, pay group files are compressed and exported as a single ZIP file. If turned off, each pay group is exported as an individual file.

Enhanced visibility of adjustments in Budgeting

TheAdjust Hours and Rates screen in Budgeting has been updated to improve how adjustments are displayed. You can now see if adjustments exist for a specific period and job without needing to expand the period data. A new visual indicator has been added to the period label, ensuring that you can quickly identify and access adjustments.

Resolved error when accessing P&L groups

In some instances of previous Budgeting releases, users encountered an error when accessing P&L groups.

The software has been updated so that users no longer encounter an error when accessing P&L groups in Budgeting.

Fix for projected and standard hours deletion in partial week generation

In some instances of previous releases, generating projected or standard hours for partial weeks inadvertently deleted hours from unselected days.

The software has been updated to ensure that only the selected part of the week is affected, preserving the integrity of the schedule for the entire week.

Survey Solutions improvements and fixed issues

Improvements:

• Restored connection for enhanced comment analysis

Fixed issues:

• Successful addition of notifications without errors

• Corrected user display in Users tab

• Reliable permission removal

• Resolved error on opening the new dashboard

• Corrected department appears on the Details by Department page

• Resolved issue with permission-related API

For more information, see Survey Release Document S32-33 2024-07-10.

New expand all / collapse all button on the Adjust Hours and Rates screen

The Adjust Hours and Rates screen in Budgeting now features dedicated buttons for expanding and collapsing all tree menu items for periods. These buttons complement the existing right-click functionality, providing a more user-friendly experience. Additionally, the screen will remember your last used settings for these options in future sessions.

Performance improvements for modifying employee punches

This release of Review Pay Period features performance improvements to punch modifications for existing employees.

Service Dashboard

This release introduces the Service Dashboard, which provides at-a-glance information to enhance monitoring and decision-making for service management. The dashboard offers a unified view of crucial metrics and data, including guest room utilization, service demand, job description frequency with corresponding escalations, and departmental service dynamics. By providing these insights, the Service Dashboard enables more efficient resource allocation and scheduling.

You can access the Service Dashboard from a new Service Analytics menu option in the Service software.

With the Service Dashboard, you can do the following:

• View operational KPIs.

• View and interact with charts for various metrics.

• Customize charts.

• Add, edit, and delete scheduled notifications from the calendar () icon.

• Export the view as an image, PDF, or Excel file from the export () icon.

For instructions and more information, see Service Dashboard.

Note: Service Dashboard is available only to users with Reports access. Users must have the Create Service Reports role enabled. For more information, contact your Unifocus Client Success Manager (CSM).

Note: Service Dashboard is currently available for limited release only. If you are interested in this feature, contact your Unifocus Client Success Manager (CSM).

Multiple ranges in the Minimum Daily Hours Shift Adjustment work rule

The Minimum Daily Hours Shift Adjustment work rule has been updated to increase flexibility and precision in scheduling adjustments. This work rule now supports three rounding thresholds, allowing managers to set up varied minimum hours for different scenarios without needing separate rule items.

Example scenario—Click to expand.

Range 1:

• Minimum Daily Hours: 4.00

• Minimum Hours Worked to Qualify: 0.00

Range 2:

• Minimum Daily Hours: 9.50

• Minimum Hours Worked to Qualify: 4.01

Range 3:

• Minimum Daily Hours: 14.00

• Minimum Hours Worked to Qualify: 12.50

With the specified parameters above:

• For employees who work less than 4 hours, the rule will round their hours to 4.

• For employees who work more than 4 hours but less than 9.5, the rule will round their hours to 9.5.

• For employees who work more than 12.5 hours but less than 14 hours, the rule will round their hours to 14.

Note: To prevent conflicts, ranges cannot overlap.

Improved conflict management for mobile time off requests

When a scheduling manager approves a time off request (TOR), the approval will automatically unassign the employee from these shifts, which will remain open for reassignment.

Restrictions on editing approved and paid time off requests

In this release of Review Pay Period, time off requests (TORs) that are approved, have distributed paid hours, and fall within a locked pay period can no longer be edited. If these conditions are met, all fields in the Time Off Request pane will become uneditable, the Submit Request button will be disabled, and only the Cancel button will remain active. Additionally, while the Distribute Hours button will remain functional, all editable fields in the pane will also be disabled. A notification in red at the top of the pane will alert users:

The following request has been approved and paid in a locked pay period. It cannot be edited.

User preferences are saved in employee time cards

In the Review Time Card screen, user preferences are now saved for future sessions. These saved preferences include:

• Column position.

• Column sort order.

• Expanded or collapsed state of the details pane at the bottom of the screen.

Pay period selector in employee time cards

The Review Time Card screen for each employee now includes a planning period selector. This improvement allows managers to change planning periods directly in the time card rather than returning to the Review Pay Period screen to select a different time frame.

Edit Pay Rates screen applies correct user permissions

In some instances of previous releases, the appropriate user permissions were not applied to the Edit Pay Rates screen.

The software has been updated to correct these permission issues.

Refined hours projection handling

This release includes improvements to how projected hours are calculated in scenarios involving open shifts. Now, when scheduling managers generate projected hours without selecting to clear schedules, the system will retain any open shifts linked to pending shift requests and include these hours in the total projection without duplication. These improvements ensure more accurate and reliable scheduling projections.

Improved notifications for availability requests

When a manager responds to an availability request, employees receive a detailed in-app message and, if enabled, SMS and push notifications indicating whether the request was approved or denied. This update ensures that employees are promptly and clearly informed about the status of their availability changes.

Survey Solutions improvements and fixed issues

Improvements:

• User Administration performance improvement

• GUESTScope enhancement

Fixed issues:

• User Administration - Security User checkbox display

• User Administration - Assign to field

For more information, see Survey Release Document S31 2024-06-12.

Search field in New Open Shift - Select Employees dialog box

In some instances of previous releases, the Search field in the Select Employees screen of the New Open Shift dialog box in Employee Schedules did not automatically filter the employee list as you typed.

The software has been updated so that the Search field automatically filters the employee list as you type, as expected.

Last Refresh Date in Maintenance Dashboard

This release of Maintenance Dashboard includes Last Refresh Date information in the upper-right corner of the screen. This read-only text displays the date and time (in the UTC time zone) when data was last refreshed.

Note: The data in the Maintenance Dashboard is updated every 5 hours, starting at 00:20 (12:20 AM) UTC, and might not match data in existing reports or in the Maintenance software, depending on when you last made changes in the software.

Improved filter labels in Maintenance Dashboard

In previous releases of the Maintenance Dashboard, when right-clicking the List of Work Orders table view and selecting a filter, the resulting filter names did not reflect the headers in the table.

This release features improved filter labels that match the selected table column headings. For example, the previous WorkOrderNum label has been renamed Work Order Display Number.

Clearing schedules for tasks

In previous releases of Task Scheduler, scheduling tasks for the Generate Projected Hours and Generate Schedules tasks automatically cleared schedules when these tasks were run.

In this release, the General screen of the Create New Task, Edit Task, and Duplicate Task wizards now include a Clear Schedule checkbox for the Generate Projected Hours and Generate Schedules tasks. This improvement provides greater control over whether schedules are manually or automatically cleared.

Prompting attestations for Back punches in offline Unifocus Time Clocks

Offline Time Clocks can now be configured so that employees must respond to attestation questions for Back punches.

For more information on this configuration setting, contact your Unifocus Client Success Manager (CSM).

Birthday format in Employee Maintenance

The birthday formatting specified in the Preferences screen is now reflected in the General tab of Employee Maintenance.

Improved performance in the Budget Tree screen

This release includes improved performance and quicker load times in the Budget Tree screen of Budgeting.

Mapped employee names in Manage Schedules screen

In the Manage Schedules screen, the Completed Schedules column displays the number of schedules that have been completed out of the total number of jobs. When you drill down to the job level, this field displays the name of the user who completed the schedules.

In previous releases, the Manage Schedules screen displayed users' login names under the Completed Schedules column. For many organizations, the login names might not effectively identify the user responsible for running the task. For example, login names might be strings of numerals.

In this release, if users are mapped to Unifocus software, the Manage Schedules screen shows their display names under the Completed Schedules column. This improvement allows other users to identify who completed the schedules.

Note: Users' display names are entered on the General tab of Employee Maintenance.

Enhanced Schedule Publication message

When publishing a schedule from the Manage Schedules screen, the Schedule Publication confirmation dialog box now specifies the planning week. This update ensures that scheduling managers can confidently verify the data they are publishing.

Previous confirmation message: "Do you want to publish the selected schedule?"

New confirmation message: "Do you want to publish the selected schedule for the planning period ending on [date]?"

Labor Productivity report displays the KBI name

In previous versions of Reports, the Labor Productivity report displayed the unit of measure for the KBI but did not display the name of the KBI.

In this release, the Labor Productivity report displays the name of the KBI along with an abbreviated unit of measure.

• FTE—Full Time Equivalent

• H/U—Hours per unit

• M/U—Minutes per unit

• U/H—Units per hour

• U/M—Units per minute

Employee Class filter in Birth Dates report configuration

The Birth Dates report configuration screen now includes Employee Class filter. This improvement allows managers to filter employees that will appear in the generated report by employee class.

Editing future hire employees

In some instances of previous releases, information for employees with future hire dates could not be edited in Employee Maintenance. Attempting to edit employees with future hire dates resulted in an error message.

The software has been updated so that information for employees with future hire dates can be edited in Employee Maintenance, as expected.

Job rank appears for single and grouped employee selection

In this release, managers can see employees' job ranks when selecting an employee to assign to an open shift. The Shift Requests screen includes the following:

• For single employee selection requests, the employee job rank appears in the Employee Selection pane.

• For grouped employee selection requests, the employees' job ranks appear in the Grouped Requests pane.

Note: For each employee, the job rank corresponds to the job rank configured in the Jobs tab of Employee Maintenance.

Adding reasons when approving grouped open shift pickup requests

Managers can now enter reasons when approving grouped open shift pickup requests. In the Shift Requests screen, the Assign Multiple Requests section of the Grouped Requests pane now includes a field for adding a comment.

Adding reasons when denying single open shift pickup requests

Managers can now enter reasons when denying single open shift pickup requests. In the Shift Requests screen, the Deny Request to [Employee Name] section of the Employee Selection pane now includes a field for adding a comment.

Survey Solutions improvements and fixed issues

Improvements:

• Loyalty User Administration

• Support STAFFScope

• STAFFScope - Activity Report

Fixed issue:

• Q2 GUESTScope display issue

For more information, see Survey Release Document S30 2024-05-15.

Screen text corrections in the Mobile App

In some instances of previous Mobile App releases, employees encountered screen text that displayed underscores between words.

The software has been undated so that words appear separated by spaces rather than underscores, as expected.

Warning for missing periods in Budgeting

In previous Budgeting releases, the software did not provide a warning message when there were KBIs related to financial periods that were not yet configured.

In this release, the Budgeting software provides the following message:

System cannot calculate KBIs for non-existent financial periods. Please add missing financial periods and re-attempt.

Budgeting performance improvements

This release features Budgeting performance improvements that reduce load time while switching working datasets in the Budget Tree screen.

Choosing not to include shift notes while copying schedules

In previous releases of Employee Schedules, shift notes were automatically included while copying schedules.

In this release, you can choose not to include shift notes while you are copying schedules. The Copy Schedules dialog box in Employee Schedules features a new check box for copying the shift notes. By default, the checkbox is selected. Clear the checkbox to exclude shift notes from the copied schedules.

Adding reasons when denying grouped open shift pickup requests

Managers can now enter reasons when denying grouped open shift pickup requests. In the Shift Requests screen, the Deny Multiple Requests section of the Grouped Requests pane now includes a field for adding a comment.

Employee Class field is no longer required in the Earning Detail report

In previous releases, the Employee Class field was required when running the Earnings Detail report for an employee.

In this release, the Employee Class field is no longer required when running the Earnings Detail report for an employee.

Survey Solutions improvements

Improvements include:

• User Administration feedback

• GUESTScope - Enhancement

For more information, see Survey Release Document S29 2024-05-01.

Additional time card details are available to all users

In a previous release, Unifocus introduced the following buttons on the Review Time Card screen:

• View Employee Details—Selecting this button displays additional details about the selected employee.

• View Effective Work Rules—Selecting this button displays all work rules associated with the selected employee.

These improvements, which allow managers to stay on the employee's time card and view critical information without going to other screens, were available by request only.

In this release, these buttons are available to all Time & Attendance users.

Exporting payroll files in Corporate Export Payroll screen

In some instances of previous releases, an error occurred when you attempted to export payroll files from the Corporate Export Payroll screen.

The software has been updated so that you can successfully export payroll files from the Corporate Export Payroll screen.

Preferences screen

Unifocus workforce management software now includes a new Preferences screen that allows you to configure general settings for a property. In the first release, you can use the Preferences screen to set the birthday format for the Review Time Card screen.

You can access the new Preferences screen from the Setup > Property menu.

Order of weekdays in Labor Standards

In Labor Standards, the order of weekdays that appears in the Add Shift dialog box and in the shift section of the Labor Standards screen is now determined by the day entered in the Week Ending Day field in the Scheduling section of Property Labor/Scheduler. For example, if you set the Week Ending Day as Friday in the Property Labor/Scheduler screen, the order of weekdays in Labor Standards is as follows: Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

Click here to see the various orders of weekdays:

Week Ending Day:

Monday: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday

Tuesday: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday

Wednesday: Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

Thursday: Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

Friday: Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

Saturday: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday

Sunday: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday

Editing multiple open shifts simultaneously

This release of Employee Schedules includes new functionality that allows you to edit multiple open shifts simultaneously.

Rather than edit multiple shifts one-by-one, you can select a group and edit all at once. This functionality is especially useful when multiple open shifts are associated with an event. For example, a banquet schedule might require 30 open shifts to be sent to banquet staff. If the banquet schedule is extended by an hour, rather than regenerating schedules and labor projections just to change the end times on a batch of shifts, you can use the new functionality to multi-select the 30 open shifts and change the end time with a only few clicks, rather than individually editing the 30 shifts.

For grouped shifts, the Open Shifts pane in Employee Schedules now includes a Multi-Select toggle. If you turn on Multi-Select and select a job to edit, the list is filtered to include only the selected job. From the filtered list, select the multiple shifts that you want to edit.

The Edit Open Shifts dialog box includes a new Keep Existing Assignments toggle that you can select to ensure that the multiple shifts maintain their current assignments.

Note: You cannot edit open shifts that have different jobs. Shifts with different jobs will be filtered out of the list.

For more information, see Working with open shifts in Employee Schedules.

Column preferences in the Assign Open Shift to Employee dialog box

When assigning an open shift to an employee in Employee Schedules, the Assign Open Shift to Employee dialog box now includes an option to show or hide columns. Your column selections are saved so that the table view will be the same the next time you access the dialog box.

Employee icons appear in Grouped Request pane

In this release of Employee Requests, managers can now see which employees have not responded to a shift request send to employee groups. On the Shift Requests screen, the Grouped Requests pane now displays icons for employees who received the request but have not responded. These icons appear under the No response section.

Entering environments for statistical KBIs

In some instances of previous releases, you were unable to enter environments for statistical KBIs on the Edit Revenue Center screen. Entering environments resulted in an exception error.

The software has been updated so that you can enter environments for statistical KBIs on the Edit Revenue Center screen, as expected.

Unapproved Shifts report displays information for selected date range

In some instances of previous releases, the Unapproved Shifts report displayed information for weeks that occurred before the specified date range. The header of the report also showed dates for multiple weeks.

The software has been updated so that the Unapproved Shifts report displays information only for the specified date range, as expected. Also, the header of the report displays the correct dates.

Viewing accrual types for time off requests

When adding, editing, or approving time off requests in Employee Schedules or Employee Requests, the associated accrual type is now automatically highlighted in the Accrual Type table of the Time Off Request pane.

Shift pickup requests with no remaining respondents are canceled

In this release, shift pickup requests that have no remaining employees available to assign are now automatically canceled.

New parameter in the Minimum Daily Hours work rule

The Minimum Daily Hours Shift Adjustment work rule includes a new Minimum Hours Worked to Qualify parameter that allows you to set a minimum hours threshold for the rule to apply.

Note: This functionality is not enabled by default. To enable, contact your Unifocus Client Success Manager (CSM)

Changes to assigned job will trigger the Shift Modification Penalty work rule

The Schedule Change Validation work rules are used to warn managers when they attempt to change a schedule in a way that violates a fair workweek law. In previous releases, only changing an employee's shift to a different day triggered the warning message (based on configured thresholds in the Shift Modification Penalty rule).

This release introduces an additional trigger for the work rule: changing an employee's assigned job for the shift. As with changing the shift to a different day, changing the assigned job will trigger the work rule and resulting warning message.

Allowing a lump sum of time off request hours

A new backend setting allows the software to combine all hours of a time off request (TOR) into the first day of the request.

Earning Types correctly saving Min. and Max. Costs

In some instances of previous releases, if Min. Cost and Max. Cost fields were left empty on the Earning Types screen, the screen incorrectly saved the costs as zero dollars.

The software has been updated so that empty Min. Cost and Max. Cost fields on the Earning Types screen are not calculated as zero costs, as expected.

Users cannot approve their own time off requests in the Mobile App

In some instances of previous releases, users were able to approve their own time off requests in the Approve Time Off Requests screen of the Mobile App.

The software has been updated so that users cannot approve their own time off requests.

Max Days Worked Per Week work rule

This release includes a new Max Days Worked Per Week Schedule Restriction work rule that you can use to configure the maximum number of days, including consecutive days, allowed to be scheduled in a week.

For more information, see Schedule Restriction.

Configuring excuses for the Schedule Change Validation work rule

You can now create custom excusable or non-excusable reasons for Schedule Change Validation work rules. The work rule configuration screen features a new Configure Excuses button that opens a dialog box where you can enter the reason, specify whether the excuse reason in excusable, and determine whether the excuse reason requires notes.

Search field in the Choose KBIs to View pane of Employee Schedules

In this release, the Choose KBIs to View pane in the Employee Schedules screen now features a Search field that allows you to more quickly find specific KBIs.

Note: The Choose KBIs to View pane appears when you select Show Selected KBI Data at the bottom of the Employee Schedules screen.

Column preferences in the New/Edit Open Shift - Select Employees dialog box

When creating or editing an open shift in Employee Schedules, the Select Employees screen of the New Open Shift and Edit Open Shift dialog boxes now includes an option to show or hide columns. Your column selections are saved so that the table view will be the same the next time you access the dialog box.

Note: The Select Employees screen of the New/Edit Open Shift dialog box is only available if Make Shift(s) Available for Employee Selection is ON (). This feature is only available to managers whose employee records are mapped to a username in Employee User Maps. If you do not see this feature, contact your System Administrator for assistance.

Grouped Requests pane displays approving/canceling managers

For approved or canceled grouped employee requests, the Grouped Request pane of the Shift Requests screen now displays the name of the manager who either approved or canceled the shift request and the time stamp showing when the approval or cancellation occurred.

Correct jobs added to new employees in Employee Maintenance

In some instances of previous Employee Maintenance releases, when you consecutively created new employee records, the software added the wrong job to the second employee record.

For example, if you added John Doe as a server at an hourly rate of $15.00 and then Jane Smith as a cook at an hourly rate of $17.00, the software created the second user record for Jane Smith with the job of server at an hourly rate of $17.00.

The software has been updated so that when you consecutively create new employees in Employee Maintenance, the software adds the correct jobs.

Permission to view costs in Earnings Detail report

In some instances of previous releases, the Earnings Detail report displayed costs for users who did not have permission to view costs.

The software has been updated so that the Earnings Detail report will not display costs for users who do not have permission to view costs.

Planning menu opens

In some instances of previous releases, users without Open New Period permission were unable to open the Planning menu at properties where the planning period was set to Weekly. Users received an error message.

The software has been updated so that users without Open New Period permission can open the Planning menu, as expected.

Report Builder

Report Builder is a module that enables the setup and customization of certain financial reports. Though previously part of RMS version 9, Report Builder was not available in version 10 of the software.

In this release, Report Builder is now available to financial report users in version 10. You can access this module in Setup > Financial > Report Builder. The module will open in a separate window.

For more information, see Budgeting Report Builder.

Note: This module is not available by default. To activate Report Builder, contact your Unifocus Client Success Manager (CSM).

Reassigned scheduled shifts

When a shift from an employee's previously published schedule is reassigned to a different employee, the original employee will receive a message detailing the change.

For example, Employee A has a current assigned shift. If their manager reassigns Employee A's shift to Employee B, the following results occur:

• The reassigned scheduled shift is published and assigned to Employee B.

• The schedule is marked as complete in Manage Schedules.

• Employee A receives a Mobile App message that their manager has reassigned the shift.

Note: The message will not be sent unless the schedule for the job in the planning period has been marked as complete and published.

Pick Up Shift Request pane displays approving/denying manager and assigned employee

For approved open shift pickup requests, the Pick Up Shift Request pane of the Shift Requests screen now displays the name of the manager who approved or denied the shift request, the time stamp showing when the approval or denial occurred, and the initials of the assigned employee.

Drop Request pane displays approving/denying managers

For approved or denied drop shift requests, the Drop Request pane of the Shift Requests screen now displays the name of the manager who either approved or denied the shift request and the time stamp showing when the approval or denial occurred.

Give Away Request pane displays approving/denying managers

For approved or denied giveway shift requests, the Give Away Request pane of the Shift Requests screen now displays the name of the manager who either approved or denied the shift request and the time stamp showing when the approval or denial occurred.

Swap Request pane displays approving/denying managers

For approved or denied swap shift requests, the Swap Request pane of the Shift Requests screen now displays the name of the manager who either approved or denied the shift request and the time stamp showing when the approval or denial occurred.

Employee Selection pane displays approving/canceling managers

For approved or canceled single employee requests, the Employee Selection pane of the Shift Requests screen now displays the name of the manager who either approved or canceled the shift request and the time stamp showing when the approval or cancellation occurred.

Corrected overtime rate rounding

In some instances of previous releases, properties that used the FLSA Weighted OT Rate Overtime Rate work rule experienced inaccuracies in overtime rate calculations for small overtime amounts. This issue was caused by rate rounding in the work rule calculation.

The software has been updated so that the work rule provides more accurate and consistent rate rounding.

KBI suppression in Labor Standards

This release includes the ability to suppress KBI values in a labor standard calculation. When adding a shift related standard in the Labor Standards screen, the Add/Edit Shift Related dialog box now includes a Suppress Value field where you can specify the amount of the selected KBI that should not apply to the variable labor standard calculation. When configuring a standard, this feature allows you to start the standard at a volume above 1, without adding the additional labor for the volume below the starting point.

Click here to see an example

The labor standard for check-ins at your hotel is 5 minutes per check-in. Along with a front desk clerk, your hotel always has a manager on duty. Although you might have configured the manager to have a fixed 8-hour shift (not variable by volume), you know that managers can typically handle 50 arrivals by themselves. When you set up the labor standard for front desk clerk, you will need to account for that fact that the manager can cover the first 50 check-ins.

When configuring the shift related standard, you might enter "50" in the From Volume to account for the manager's work and allow the standard to take effect after the 50^th check-in. However, when the standard calculates the labor the 51^st check-in, it will still associate 51 check-ins to the front desk clerk at 5 minutes per check-in, totaling 255 minutes. In actually, the front desk clerk required only 5 minutes for the 51^st check-in because the first 50 check-ins have already been handled by the manager. By entering "50" in the Suppress Value field, you specify the number to subtract from the KBI value—which, in this example, is the 50 check-ins handled by the manager. Therefore, in the case of the 51st check-in, the labor calculation is 5 minutes per check-in x (51 - 50 check-ins) = 5 x 1 = 5 minutes.

Note: The KBI volume ranges are unaffected by this field. Only the amount of labor calculated in each range is affected.

Formula tooltips in Forecast Structure

In the Forecast Structure screen, the Related KBIs tab of the KBI Set Config section now features tooltips that display formulas for Calculated usage types. For KBIs with a Relationship type of Used by Selected KBI, the tooltip displays a preview of the selected KBI formula. For KBIs with a Relationship type of Uses Selected KBI, the tooltip displays a preview of the related KBI formula.

Show In: Budgeting Only option does not appear on the Revenue Centers view of Forecast Structure

In previous releases of the Unifocus workforce management software, the Show In: drop-down list on the Revenue Centers view of the Forecast Structure screen contained a Budgeting Only option. Because revenue centers are intended to be used for labor purposes, the Budgeting Only option was not necessary.

In this release, the Budgeting Only option has been removed from the Show In drop-down list to improve usage and workflow on the Revenue Centers view of Forecast Structure.

Default Non Flowed Distribution Method changed to Simple Non-Flowed Distribution Method

In this release, the "Default Non Flowed Distribution Method" setting in the Planner Settings & Shifts pane in Labor Standards has been changed to "Simple Non-Flowed Distribution Method". The revised label offers a clearer and more accurate description of the distribution method. This change is reflected in the Labor Standards report.

Denying single and grouped open pickup requests

In this release of Employee Requests, managers can now do the following:

• Deny a single open pickup request—In the Shift Requests screen, the Employee Selection pane includes a Deny Selected button that managers use to deny the request.

• Deny grouped open pickup requests—In the Shift Requests screen, the Grouped Requests pane includes a Deny Selected button that managers use to deny the grouped requests.

Improved validation checks for time off requests (TORs)

This release includes improved validation checks when entering time off requests. When distributing paid hours while entering a TOR in Employee Requests or Employee Schedules, the software validates the number of hours entered and compares the entries to the dates. You cannot enter more than the number of hours available in the requested date range.

Note: Validation also applies to hours for partial days, based on the start and end times entered.

Validation failures result in the following error message:

There are more paid hours than Requested time off. Please correct the Paid Time.

Deleted paid time off (PTO) requests when home job is changed.

Future PTO requests are deleted when an employee's home job is changed. The manager is presented with a warning message when changing the home job.

Planning periods ending on February 29

In some instances of previous releases, the View/Edit Rooms Forecast and Edit Revenue Center screens failed to load when the planning periods ended on February 29 (leap day).

The software has been updated so that the View/Edit Rooms Forecast and Edit Revenue Center screens load when the planning periods end on February 29, as expected.

Shift Difference OT work rule

This release includes a Shift Difference OT work rule type, which currently includes a single Shift Difference OT work rule. This new rule adjusts payment for consecutively worked shifts within a 10-hour time frame. If employees work two consecutive shifts within 10 hours of each other, this work rule counts the portion of the shift worked within 10 hours of a previous shift and applies the rate of pay defined during configuration.

For example, an employee has just finished working an 8-hour shift but will start a new 8-hour shift within the next 5 hours. Because the first 5 hours of the upcoming shift fall within 10 hours of the end of the previous shift, all hours will be paid at the rate specified in the configured work rule.

Note: The exception is if the rate is already in overtime due to previously worked hours within the workweek. In this case, the previous premium rate takes priority.

Forecast Structure detects duplicate KBIs and cyclical errors

In this release of Forecast Structure, when you enter a new calculated KBI formula in the Formula tabs of the KBI Set Config section in Forecast Structure, a warning message appears if the software detects a duplicated KBI or a cyclical error in the formula.

Selecting a KBI code while adding a revenue center period

In this release, the Add Revenue Center Period dialog box of the Forecast Structure screen now features a new KBI Code field where you can enter a code while adding a revenue center period.

Shift pickups apply to similar shifts

Shift pickups now apply to all similar shifts (for example, shifts with the same start time, end time, and job). Employees can now select a single shift to pick up and their request will be applied to all similar shifts.

Resizing columns in the Employee Time Off screen

You can now resize columns in the Employee Time Off screen.

Warnings for pending time off requests (TORs)

In this release, the Review Pay Period screen displays alerts for pending TORs for the current open pay period.

Resolved issue with Job column in Employee Maintenance

In some instances of previous Employee Maintenance releases, when scrolling horizontally across the Jobs For Effective Date table in the Jobs tab, the Jobs column contracted and could not be expanded. This issue prevented users from viewing data in the column.

The software has been updated so that users can scroll horizontally within the Jobs for Effective Date table without permanently contracting the Jobs column.

Employee Import Auto-Recalculation ignores locked pay periods

Users encountered errors during the employee import (employee reconcile) process if the process was unable to recalculate because the selected set included locked pay periods. A change has been made to remove this error. Now the recalculate process should ignore any pay periods that are locked, only recalculating unlocked pay periods.

Date Range fields are validated when deleting hours and rates adjustments

In this release of Budgeting, the Date Range fields in the Delete Adjustment dialog box now validate the entered dates. You can delete an adjustment only if the dates entered are valid. This improvement ensures that users are entering the correct dates when deleting adjustments.

Manage Schedules button on the Employee Schedules screen

The Employee Schedules screen now features a Manage Schedules button that takes you directly to the Manage Schedules screen. This improvement allows you to quickly access the screen without first going to the Labor Planning menu.