INFORMS General FAQs (2024)

An employee on parental leave is trying to enter six hours PF and two hours Comp Leave, but the system won’t allow partial time. What should they do?
Parental Leave in INFORMS is configured to automatically split depending on the parental leave percentage employee has reached and the leave they elected to supplement it with on their Parental Leave Form. Parental Leave requests are always for full days, not partial days. The system will automatically pay the first two weeks at 100 percent, second two weeks at 75 percent, third two weeks at 50 percent and the fourth two weeks at 25 percent.

Where do I upload FMLA, Parental or Military leave documents?
Please continue following the existing process of submitting the documents to Central HR.

Where in INFORMS can we view Special Leave Donations and Departmental Leave Pool information?
Employees will only have access to ESS – refer to Job Aid. DPRs and Central HR will be able to see the Information and Transactions in the following pages:

• • Main Menu > Miami - Dade County > Absence Management > Extensions > View Transaction History
  • Main Menu > Miami - Dade County > Absence Management > Extensions > Leave Pool

If I have an employee using donated time, what is the code?
Special Leave Pool Used or Sick Pool Used are in Request Absence Page. Before requesting or using it, you need to coordinate with Central HR to give or transfer the hours to the employee in question so that they can use it. See Central HR Administrators Job Aid to walk them through the steps how to provide the hours to the employee that will be using the pool hours.

How does DPR view the absence balances?
DPRs can view the employee's last finalized balances in several place.

• • Main Menu > Manager Self Service > Time Reporting > Report Time > Timesheet. Then click on Absence tab to see the balances or
  • Main Menu > Global Payroll & Absence Mgmt. > Payee Data > Maintain Absences > Review Absence Balances

Sick Leave Conversion Payout Requests. Should we submit in INFORMS or use the paper request and send to Central HR?
The existing process will remain as is per your department business process. Once the paper request is reviewed and signed off on by the appropriate Dept Personnel/DPR, the form should be sent to Central HR for processing in INFORMS.

An employee is within her first six months of county service and must take a couple of days off this week. This time is logged as "Unauthorized - Call In" (NEW TRC UNATH) however the employee does not see that code in the drop down. What is the correct TRC to us in this scenario?
Because this is time off, all leaves reside in Absence Management, not as a TRC in the timesheet. The user should go to Request Absence tile and choose "Unauthorized Leave Called In" from the drop down and complete request.

When attempting to attach Military orders for deployed employees, managers get an error message. What should they do?
Military Orders/Documentation still need to be provided to Central HR. Once reviewed, Central HR will enable the Military elements in Absence Management for the employee to submit Military leave without receiving an eligibility error when requesting.

How do employees request Administrative Leave?

Administrative Leave needs to be requested electronically in INFORMS as an Absence Request. This leave requires Absence Reason at the time of the request.

Are there any notifications before losing Administrative Leave time?

Administrative Leave balances are not maintained in INFORMS. It is the Manager's and department's responsibility to track employee's Administrative Leave usage.

We have an FF Recruit class that is eligible to enroll into benefits by June 30, 2022. When attempting to access the Benefits Enrollment page through INFORMS, it gives them a message that they do not have an open benefits enrollment. How do we address this?

Since the EEs are already in INFORMS, please send a list to Central Benefits so they can open their new hire benefits enrollments.

What selection should we make under Time Reporter Data - Benefit Program?
Leave Benefit Program blank in Time Reporter data. This is only required in Job Data - Benefit Program Participation page. Please refer to Benefit Program job aid for guidance on how to populate.

If employees decide to change their request for time off, can they edit the request in the system?

Yes, the same functionality available today will be available in the future. You can manage absences under Absence Management.

Can the supervisor initiate a retroactive change or does the employee have to initiate it?

Both the employee or supervisor can make retroactive changes to employee time and absence entries which will automatically trigger retroactive calculations.

What happens if an employee's leave request is denied or pushed back?

The employee will have the ability cancel the original request and then submit a new request via self-service.

I am trying to clear exceptions and have deleted the submitted time. However, the exceptions are still showing. What should I do?
If you already made the update on timesheet, the exception will not clear until Time Administration runs. Time Admin is run nightly, so the following morning the exception should no longer appear.

How to correct exceptions?

What are the changes introduced by Rollout 2 INFORMS?

Key enhancements brought by INFORMS are:

• Time and absence reporting – every employee will be able to submit their time off request electronically in INFORMS. Their supervisors will be able to approve those requests in INFORMS which will automatically update employee’s time sheet. This will replace past manual requests.
• Payroll processing – employees will stop using “Time and Leave” system and will start entering their time and expenses in INFORMS.
• Payroll documentation – employees will have digital access to their paycheck and tax forms, such as W-2 through INFORMS. Employees will also be able to electronically sign up for direct deposit without the need for the bank’s signature.
• Application integration - key applications, such as Human Resources, Recruiting, and Position Management, will now be integrated so information will automatically flow through those business areas when updated in one place.
• New self-service capabilities - employees will be able to electronically update their personal information such as an address, contacts, veteran status, licenses and certifications, education, and more.

Many processes will not be changing and will continue like you are used to doing today – those processes include performance evaluations, outside employment, and medical scheduling.

Will we be trained on the new INFORMS system?
Yes. All users of INFORMS will receive training on both the system and business processes. Training will be based on the role your department assigned to you. The full list of training courses for Rollout 2 is viewable here.

What do I need to do in preparation for INFORMS Go Live?
The data cutover to INFORMS may impact some of the tasks you perform, depending on your role. Review the Cutover Task Calendar to see what actions you may need to take so your entries are automatically converted from legacy systems (Time and Leave and 9.1) to INFORMS, to minimize delays in HR activities, and avoid double entry.

Where can we get more information about INFORMS?
To learn more about INFORMS, visit our INFORMS website.

How can an employee request a Birthday Holiday absence within the 6 month window to use that benefit? The employee didn't find B'day Holiday in the absence name drop down list, they only found "B'day Holiday Used."
"Birthday Holiday - Used" code is the correct code in this instance and can be used within the 6 months.

Police Captains were able to get paid for the Holidays adding the code HO to their timesheets. What is the process in INFORMS? There is not HO code to add.
The Holiday Fiscal Payout (HO) for Police will be entered as an Absence request in INFORMS. Users would need to select "PBA Holiday Fiscal Pay" in the Absence Name list and they will be required to enter the amount of payout hours desired. System will only allow the user to request the payout on the last pay period of the fiscal year (that contains Oct 1st).

Holidays are not auto populated in INFORMS - employees need to add it, what TRC do we use? My employees are getting an exception when adding.

• If it is Holiday Observed, the employee does not need to enter anything. HOLDY (Holiday Observed) will generate automatically in Payable time once Time Administration process runs.
• If employee worked the holiday and it's a scheduled day to work they should enter HOLEA or HOLPD.
• If holiday is a day off, employee can enter HEOFF or HPOFF.
• If they do not enter either HEOFF or HPOFF, then INFORMS will automatically generate HEOFF in Payable time.

See the below Job aid for more information:
https://www.miamidade.gov/technology/library/informs/job-aid/holiday-time-entry-job-aid.pdf

Does Holiday posting no longer require extra rows as done in the past? Regardless of their schedule, one row with the appropriate code identifies pay or earn?
Holiday Observed will no longer be needed on timesheet as it will be generated in payable. However if the holiday is a scheduled day and the employee worked, they will report HOLEA or HOLPD. If the holiday is on an unscheduled day, HEOFF will be generated in payable time if no TRC is reported. The employee can report HPOFF.

For HJ - using holiday banked hours - what should we use? I am getting many high exceptions due to using the wrong one.
HJ is now "Holiday Leave Used" in Request Absence, will pull from the holiday leave balance accrued.

On 6/15 Employee had manually added HOLDY for 6/20. That generated an exception overnight. On 6/16, the DPR manually deleted the HOLDY line and the exception was cleared. On 6/17, employee's time still for the pay period shows as 72 of 80 hours submitted and no HOLDY line was added overnight. Is this correct? How is this supposed to look and how can we confirm employee has 80 hours of payable time?
When HOLDY is generated after the Time Administration runs, it will not be seen on the timesheet - it will continue to show 72 of 80 hours reported.

Navigate to Payable Time to confirm that the HOLDY code was generated:

• Employee Self-Service > Time and Absence > Payable Time
• Manager Self Service > Team Time > Payable Time

How do I update marital status?
If there is a new Marital event that requires a benefit change, and the event occurred in the last 45 days, employees need to complete a life event. If more than 45 days have passed:

• To add the spouse to benefits, contact Benefits Unit for further instructions.
• If no benefit change, contact DPR so it can be updated in "Modify a Person".

Same applies to Divorce.

Where do I submit late changes for dates prior to 6/13/2022?
You cannot do changes to ePAR transactions for dates prior to 6/13/2022 on PeopleSoft 9.1. All late transactions must be done using the forms below and submit them to Central HR for processing.

• ePAR Form - For late changes on or before 6/12/2022.
• Subject Line: ePAR- Old Dept ID-Employee ID-Last Name, First Name
• Enter only change(s) for the date(s) on the form, use one form per pay period
• ePCD Form - For late personnel (PCD) transactions on or before 6/12/2022
• Subject Line: ePCD-Old Dept ID-Employee ID-Last Name, First Name
• Job Data Form - For “Manage Hire” transactions if job data information needs to be updated in INFORMS. Subject Line: Job Data-Business Unit-Employee ID-Last Name, First Name

To view historical time and attendance transactions, please use the Time and Leave system (HPAR).+

If an employee is retiring, what should be the effective date in INFORMS?
Terminations and Separation effective dates should be the day after the last day worked.

Will INFORMS reports have real time data?
Most reports provide real time data, with some potentially with a few minutes lag.

Will there be HR reports available like COGNOS? For example, the OT bi-weekly report.
Reports in INFORMS will meet reporting requirements previously provided via COGNOS.

Example reports are:

• TRC(PAR) Code - Un-Scheduled Leave - Prompted by EmplId & TRC(PAR) Date for Central HR,
• TRC(PAR) Code - Scheduled Leave - Prompted by BU, Dept, & TRC(PAR) Date for Central HR,
• TRC Code OT Report - Prompted by Department Name & TRC Date Range for Central HR and DPR.

How do employees request Leave of Absence such as FMLA?
The employee will be able to request Leave of Absence using INFORMS self-service functionality.

How is FMLA usage tracked?
INFORMS will track usage and balance of FMLA. DPRs will have access to view the request, balance, and usage.

Can an employee upload their resignation letter?

No, there is no attachment option to submit a resignation letter. However, there is a comments box where employee can enter their comments on the reason of resignation.

How do we process lateral transfers with INFORMS?
Use the Lateral Transfer Tile found within the DPR self-service menu to move employees within the department.

How does a DPR search the step by position?
For a DPR to view the salary range for an employee, they will need to look up the employee’s job code and then view the corresponding salary plan for the job code. To view the employee’s job code, they can find it in the employee’s job record.

When should a DPR set the “Update Incumbents" switch to On vs Off in the Position Modification Approval business process?
DPRs are to always switch “Update Incumbents” to “On” since the intention is to fill the position. This will cause a soft warning to appear, but this will not prevent the submission from flowing through the approval process and will not prevent approval delays downstream.

When trying to create a JO with a previous incumbent, 9.2 does not populate the incumbent to input it on the JO. Should we add the incumbent details on the notes portion of the JO?
Until there is enough historical data, it is recommended to add to the notes section.

What reporting is available to DPRs in reported time, absence, and exceptions areas?
Access reports through Reporting Tools > Query > Query Viewer in INFORMS for the following information:

• Reported time by TRC for selected date range (report name MD_TL_RPTD_TIME)
• No time reported for selected date range (report name MD_TL_NO_TIME_OR_ABS)
• Reported Time that has yet to be approved (report name MD_TL_RPTD_TIME_NA)
• Absence requests that have yet to be approved (report name MD_AB_UNAPPROVED_ABS)
• Time and Labor Exceptions (reports names MD_TL_SRCH_EXCEPTIONS_H, MD_TL_SRCH_EXCPETIONS_L)

Why are my department taskgroup values not in the drop down?
Departments not using Project costing will not see department specific taskgroup values in the taskgroup lookup. When updating the taskgroup field on Maintain time reporter data page non project costing departments will use a value of PSNONCATSK. If the taskgroup field in 9.1 was previously used as a search value the department field can be used.

Does INFORMS have functionality to build reports?
Yes, you will be able to build reports in INFORMS. Sample reports are:

• Employees with Selected Pay Exceptions (Rate Code) for Central HR,
• Employees Leave Balances - Prompted by PPE Dt and Department Name for Central HR and DPR,
• Retirement - Employees Eligible to Retire - Prompted by Dept Name & Years for Central HR,
• Active and LOA Employees - Employee Counts by Business Unit for Central HR and DPR.

Will DPRs be able to submit terminations on behalf of the employee?
Managers will submit terminations on behalf of the employee. DPRs are the final approvers but will not have the capability to initiate termination on behalf of employee.

Will the system give a warning if less than two weeks notice is given on termination?
No warnings are triggered regarding less than two weeks termination notice.

How do I process schedule changes? How about schedule changes before 6/13/22? Which system should I process this in?
Schedule changes BEFORE 6/13/22 need to be done on a paper form and Time and Leave will make the updates.

For schedule updates STARTING 6/13/22, use the following:

a) For permanent schedule changes, go through this navigation: Main Menu (top right corner) HCM > Time and Labor > Enroll Time Reporter > Assign Work Schedule to create a new personal schedule.

b) For ad hoc changes within a pay period, navigate to: Main Menu (top right corner) HCM > Manage Self Service > Time Management > Manage Schedules > Manage Schedules to update the specific day(s) in the pay period.

What TRC replaces SI and DA I see: DISAB, WCOMP. How about WCWElections/Poll Worker? How about AD- Elections Support Staff in absence request?
Elections/Poll Worker - No TRC for pool workers. Enter REG on timesheet and use Assignment field value of PL (Poll Worker).

SI = Sick Injury in Absence Request page, and DA will be Administrative Leave with Reason of "Day of Accident".

Please refer to the Time Reporting Code List Job Aid: https://www.miamidade.gov/technology/library/informs/job-aid/time-reporting-code-list.xlsx

Where do I view Payable time?
DPR has access through HCM > Manager Self Service > Time Management > Report Time > Timesheet. There is a tab named “Payable Time”.

You also have the option through HCM > Manager Self Service > Time Management > View Time > Payable Time Detail.

Payable Time no longer requires approval, only Reported Time. Payable Time is generated once entry has been approved and processed via Time Administration (nightly batch). Once Time Admin runs, it may generate exceptions or payable time.

How can I enter absences for employees who are not my direct reports as a DPR?
As a DPR you can complete the absence transaction via Main Menu Navigation bar (top right corner) HCM > Manager self service > Time Management > Report Time > Timesheet. Once you search the employee and are on the timesheet there will be a tab called "Absence" below. Select Add Absence Event.

Regarding legacy TRC 77 used by BU K & M when working OT - what should we use now? I saw ADMKM for when they use it but what do we use to track the accrual of it.
Par code 77 is now TRC = JBXHR - excess hours. Use JBXHR - Job Basis Excess Hours.