Entitlement Policies

Configuring entitlements in Activate involves:

1. Adding a new Entitlement policy.
2. Adding entitlements to the Entitlement policy.

   When adding the entitlement, select from a preconfigured template that you can tweak or click Build Your Own.

3. Answering questions that configure the underlying elements that make up an entitlement policy in Dayforce.

You can use Entitlement policies to group related entitlements. For example, you can define an Entitlement policy for salaried employees and a second Entitlement policy for hourly employees.

The levels of an entitlement control the rate at which employees at different levels of seniority earn their balances.

Note: You can only copy an entitlement policy that hasn’t been installed yet.

1. On the Entitlements Summary page, click the Copy Policy button to the right of the entitlement policy name.
2. Select the entitlements to copy.
3. Click Done.

This wizard updates the Entitlements page in Dayforce (Pay Setup > Entitlements and Pay Setup > Balances).

Creates the balance and pay code tied to the balance that shows in the time off request in Dayforce. If you select Other, enter the balance name that you want to configure.

Options include:

• Vacation

  If you click Vacation for this question and:

  For this question...	You select...	Activate installs...
  Is this balance tracked in currency-based units or time-based units?	Currency	The pay codes for this entitlement with the pay category “Vacation” (inclusive of the “Vacation” pay code, “Vacation pay out” pay code.
  When using the balance, are employees paid or unpaid for the time used?	Paid

• Sick

  If you click Sick for this question and:

  For this question...	You select...	Activate installs...
  Is this balance tracked in currency-based units or time-based units?	Currency	The pay codes for this entitlement with the pay category “Sick” (inclusive of the “Sick” pay code, “Sick pay out” pay code.
  When using the balance, are employees paid or unpaid for the time used?	Paid

• Personal
• Floating
• Paid Time Off
• Other

A description of the entitlement. Make the description detailed enough to identify the major entitlement rules, like: recurrence, accrual rate, roll over rules, and entitlement limits. This field expands, so you can enter as much text as needed to describe the entitlement adequately. The description is informational only and won’t be configured in Dayforce.

• Yes: Active and inactive employees accrue this balance. Activate installs all Dayforce Entitlements with the “Include Inactive Employee” option set to enabled. Activate also installs an Employee Qualifier to each Award/Grant/Prorate rule in the Entitlements (for example, all Carry Over/transfer/pay out rules continue to accumulate when an employee becomes inactive.)
• No: Only active employees accrue this balance. Activate installs all Dayforce Entitlements with the “Include Inactive Employee” option set to enabled and also installs an Employee Qualifier to each Award/Grant/Prorate rule in the Entitlements. (When an employee becomes inactive, all Carry Over/transfer/pay out rules continue to accumulate.)

Note: In Flight Entitlements default to “No” for this question. This option is cleared for entitlements with only the “Employment Status” option selected on the Qualifiers page and the answer to “Do specific employee attributes drive employee eligibility for this entitlement?” is set to “No.”

Indicate whether the units assigned to the balance are set to currency-based or time-based.

• Currency-based: The balance is tracked based on the employees' regional currency unit. When employees use the balance, Dayforce converts the currency amount into minutes by using the employees' base rate in their status records. When you select this option, employees earn a balance based on actual hours paid using the Prorate Payroll Earning rule.

  If you click Currency-based for this question and:

  For this question...	You select...	Activate installs...
  What type of balance does this entitlement apply to	Vacation	The pay codes for this entitlement with the pay category “Vacation” (inclusive of the “Vacation” pay code, “Vacation pay out” pay code.
  	Sick	The pay codes for this entitlement with the pay category “Sick” (inclusive of the “Sick” pay code, “Sick pay out” pay code.

• Time-based: The balance is tracked in either hours or days. Activate collects the specific time unit of this balance on the next page. This option is the default.

This question shows if you selected Currency-based for the question Is this balance tracked in currency-based units or time-based units?.

If employees are paid at a rate other than their normal Base Rate for their time off, Dayforce can store a separate Vacation Rate to accommodate this requirement. This Vacation Rate is used to calculate pay for the time off taken and the amount to decrement the currency-based balance when the time off is taken. This parameter controls the rate token (EMP_VAC_RATE vs EMP_BASE_RATE) used for the conversion formulas in the balance unit. You’ll need to configure separate pay policy rules if the time off rate of pay is set to Vacation Rate.

This question shows if you selected Unpaid for the “When using the balance, are employees paid or unpaid for the time used?”

The question controls whether the minimum value of zero is set on the entitlement ruleset levels or not.

• Yes: Activate sets the minimum value on all levels for each entitlement that it installs into Dayforce as follows:
  • NULL for the accrual, carry over, and any associated “init” entitlements.
  • 0 for restricted/probation, prior year, annual usage limit entitlements, and termination entitlements (and any others not covered).
• No: The behavior remains the same. Activate continues to set the minimum value to zero.

Indicate whether the employee should be paid when the balance is used. This question controls whether the pay code tied to the balance is associated with the unpaid pay category or not.

Unpaid balances don’t show on the Earning Statement by default. The display can be enabled in Pay Setup > Balances after installation, if required.

• Paid: Activate associates a pay code with a category of PTO to the balance.

  If you click Paid for this question and:

  For this question...	Youselect...	Activate installs...
  What type of balance does this entitlement apply to	Vacation	The pay codes for this entitlement with the pay category “Vacation” (inclusive of the “Vacation” pay code, “Vacation pay out” pay code.
  	Sick	The pay codes for this entitlement with the pay category “Sick” (inclusive of the “Sick” pay code, “Sick pay out” pay code.

• Unpaid: Activate associates a pay code with a category of UNPAID to the balance.

Indicate if the employee has access to the full benefit before it’s earned. For example, the employee is given access to 80 hours on January 1 but accrues at a rate of 6.667 hrs. per month during the year (80/12 = 6.667). If you selected Currency-based as the method for tacking the balance, this question doesn’t show and defaults to No.

• Yes: The employee has access to the full annual benefit balance at the beginning of the balance year.
• No: To gain access, the employee must accrue the benefit balance during the year.

Note: Activate installs the First Year Grant Configuration for Additional Time Intervals if:
- The answer to this question is Yes, and
- The answer to the question “Which time interval do you use to define an employee's length of service when determining the amount of balance they should accrue with this entitlement?” is one of the following: Months of Service, Weeks of Service, Days of Service, or Calendar Years.

Indicate the annual start date for balance accruals.

Indicate when accrual balances are awarded.

Indicate if employees receive an amount different than normal their first year.

Indicate when the first-year award is given.

Select the pay cycle to use to calculate the accrual. If you selected Currency-based as the method for tracking the balance, this field doesn’t show. Prorated accruals are available only on Weekly and Bi-Weekly (Every 2 Weeks) pay periods.

Note: Prorated accruals are available only on weekly and Bi-Weekly (Every 2 Weeks) pay periods.

• Every Week (Weekly) next starting on Month XX, YYYY
• Every 2 Weeks (Bi-Weekly) next starting on Month XX, YYYY
• Every Month (Monthly) next starting on Month XX, YYYY
• Twice per Month (Semi-Monthly) next starting on Month XX, YYYY

This option controls whether the Award Balance Amount rule or the Prorate Worked Minutes/Prorate Earning rule is used. If you selected Currency-based as the method for tacking the balance, this question doesn’t show and defaults to Based on actual hours paid.

• Fixed Amount: The employee is awarded a predefined amount/balance amount. The amount is fixed based on the frequency of the recurrence. It can be accrued each period, or awarded as a lump amount at the start of the balance period.
• Based on actual hours paid: The employee earns a balance amount that is calculated based on an employee's hours. This option uses one of the two prorated rules in the entitlement setup in Dayforce, when appropriate.

Note: Entitlements can be configured with Daily Recurrences for both Fixed Awards and Prorated Accruals. Employees accrue and are awarded their balance amounts daily. Prorated values look back on the current day and are awarded based on the hours worked and the rate specified on the Levels page. Fixed awards award the value specified on the Levels page.

Define how often an entitlement is awarded/accrued.

The pay cycle used to calculate the accrual.

The days of the week that are considered part of your employees' work cycle when employees work.

Indicate if you’ll set a limit to stop the entitlement accrual when a specified balance amount is reached. If you selected Currency-based as the method for tacking the balance, this question doesn’t show and defaults to No.

• Yes:Employees who earn the balance multiple times throughout the year, or are eligible to rollover their prior year balance, are only able to earn or rollover up to a maximum amount. The maximum balance limit values are defined on one of the following pages.

Controls whether a maximum amount can be set. When set, Activate installs the maximum on the Balance Carry Over rule that applies to the rollover. This question defaults to Yes and doesn’t show. Roll over is selected for the question “What happens to an employee's remaining balance at the end of the year or annual period?”

• Yes:
• No: Activate collects the maximum rollover amount on the following pages of questions.

• Yes: Employees aren’t allowed to accrue more than a certain amount in a year.
• No: Employees can accrue up to the limit of the balance. Then, they must use some of the balance before they can accrue more.

This question only shows if you selected Yes for the question “Is there an additional restriction on how much can be accrued within a calendar year?.”

Note: If you click Yes to this question, the entitlement will be configured to rollover unused balance amounts into the next balance year.

• Current year accrual only:
• Combined previous year unused and new accrual: This option is the default for Colorado.

Indicate if the entitlement's balance carries over (if at all) from one rollover recurrence to the next. These options can potentially impact rehires.

The entitlement balance can be set to:

• Roll over: Carry the balance over for the employee to use in the next year or annual pay period. For currency- based balances, when you select this option, the question “Is the entire balance rolled over?” doesn’t show and defaults to Yes.
• Transfer: Transfer the balance into another balance for the employee to use in the next year or annual pay period. If you select this option, Activate creates a separate Prior Year balance. For currency-based balances, when you select this option, the question “Is the entire balanced transferred?” doesn’t show and defaults to Yes.
• Pay out: Pay out the balance to the employee based on the employee's rate at the time of the pay-out.
• Resets: The balance is lost and the entitlement balance resets to zero at the end of the balance period.

• Reset Immediately: The current year's balance is lost and set to zero upon the employee's termination.
• Reset After a Number of Days: After a given number of days following the employee's termination date, the current year's balance is lost and set to zero unless the employee is rehired within that time. When you select this option, the question “How many days can pass between the termination and rehire data for an employee to be eligible to keep their previous balance?” shows.
• Payout: The current year's balance is paid out to the employee using their base rate at the time of termination.
• Do Nothing: The balance amount remains unchanged upon the employee's termination.

This question shows if you selected “Reset After a Number of Days” for the question “What happens to an employee's current year balance upon termination?” The value you enter in this field creates a new entitlement in Dayforce called “One Time - Reset after <Number of Days> from Termination.”

Activate installs a Balance Carry Over rule to clear the balance after the number of days set in this question when the employee is still terminated.

Set the employee's prior year balance to one of the following.

• Reset Immediately: The current year's balance is lost and set to zero upon the employee's termination.
• Reset After a Number of Days: Following the employee's termination date, the current year's balance is lost and set to zero after a given number of days, unless the employee is rehired within that time. When you select this option, the question “How many days can pass between the termination and rehire data for an employee to be eligible to keep their previous balance?” shows.
• Pay out: Activate configures the entitlement to pay out the employee's balance, similar to the pay-out method based on the employee's base rate at the time of pay-out upon the employee’s termination. A new balance period starts with the balance set to zero effective 1 day after the employee's termination date.
• Do Nothing: The remaining balance amount remains as is at the time of the employee termination.

This question shows if you selected “Reset After a Number of Days” for the question “What happens to an employee's current year balance upon termination?”

The value you enter in this field creates a new entitlement in Dayforce called “…One Time - Reset after <Number of Days> days from Termination.”

Activate installs a Balance Carry Over rule to clear the balance after the number of days set in this question when the employee is still terminated.

Indicate the start date for the next balance year.

Indicate whether the entire balance is transferred at each transfer recurrence. If you selected “Currency-based” as the method for tacking the balance and “Transfer” for the question “What happens to an employee’s remaining balance at the end of the year or annual period?”, this question defaults to “Yes” and doesn’t show.

• Yes: The entire balance is transferred at each transfer recurrence.
• No: The entire balance isn’t transferred at each transfer recurrence.

Indicate when and if the transferred balance expires.

• Yes: The employee can accrue up to the limit of the balance.
• No: There is no limit.

• Resets: The current year's balance is lost and set to zero upon the employee's termination. Restricted probationary or transferred prior year balances won’ be reset by default.
• Pay out: The current year's balance is paid out to the employee using their base rate at the time of termination. The balance is set to zero one day after the termination.

  Note: Restricted probationary or transferred prior year balances won’t be paid out by default.

• Do Nothing: The balance amount remains unchanged at the employee’s termination.

• Hours: Accrue entitlement balances in hours.
• Days: Accrue entitlement balances in hours.

Note: This question defaults to Hours and doesn’t show if you selected “Currency-based” as the method for tacking the balance.

• Yes: When you select this option, the question “Do rehired employees also have to complete a probation period as part of the entitlement?” shows.
• No

Controls whether Dayforce uses the employee's Original Hire Date or the Most Recent Hire Date as a reference to the start of the probation period.

This question shows if “Yes” was selected for the question “Do newly hired or rehired employees have to complete a probation period as part of this entitlement?”

• Yes: Enforces the probation period when the employee is rehired.
• No: Defaults to No if the question “Do newly hired employees have to complete a probation period as part of the entitlement?” is set to Yes. Activate does the following:

  If employees can...	Activate updates the installation for the following probation components in the Entitlement...
  Earn a balance during the probation and it’s restricted	Field Change Probation Restricted Award Entitlement's Probation Period Qualifier Start Date = original Hire Date (instead of Employee Hire Date) Recurrence assigned to the Transfer Restricted Entitlement Start Date Type = Original Hire Date (instead or Hire Date) Shortname = “One Time - <Days> Day After Original Hire.” Transfer Restricted Entitlement has its recurrence “One Time - <Days> Day After Original Hire” recurrence.
  Earn a balance during the probation and it’s NOT restricted	Field Change The Probation Level in the Award Entitlement Period Qualifier Start Date = Original Hire Date (instead of Employee Hire Date).
  Not earn a balance	The “First Level After Probation” level in the Award Entitlement has the Probation Qualifier set with the Start Date = Original Hire Date (instead of Employee Hire Date).

Indicate how the entitlement balance will be awarded. If you want to award x number of weeks for an employee's awards, you can track it in their balances as hours accrued. This method uses a built-in conversion formula. For example, an employee can earn 4 weeks of vacation annually and, as they accrue, it shows as x hours accrued on their Balances page.

Indicate how the entitlement hours are accrued when the unit is used to track the balance in hours.

Determines if employee entitlements are driven by seniority.

• Yes: Enables you to add more rows on the following Levels page.
• No: Hides questions related to seniority levels that don’t apply when employees don’t earn different rates based on their seniority.

• Years of Service: An accurate count of years by date. For example, an employee hired on March 16, 2018 completes their two years of service on March 16, 2020.
• Months of Service: An accurate count of month by date. For example, an employee hired on June 24, 2020 completes their 2 months of service on August 24, 2020.
• Weeks of Service: An accurate count of weeks by date. For example, an employee hired on July 8, 2020 completes their 2 weeks of service on July 22, 2020.
• Days of Service: An accurate count of days by date. For example, an employee hired on April 4, 2020 completes their 2 days of service on April 6, 2020.
• Calendar Years: The count of years is based on the calendar year. For example, an employee hired on February 10, 2020 starts their second year of service on January 1, 2020.

Note: Activate installs First Year Grant Configuration for Additional Time Intervals if the answer to this question is one of the following: Months of Service, Weeks of Service, Days of Service, or Calendar Years and the answer to the question “Does an employee have access to the FULL annual amount at the beginning of the balance year and accrue it back throughout the remainder of the year?” is Yes.

The probation period applicable to the entitlement.

Options include:

• 30 days
• 60 days
• 90 days
• Other (in days):
• Worked Hours
• Other (please describe) - Enter a description.

Control whether the entitlement balance accruals are awarded during the probation period.

• Yes: The employee begins accruing the entitlement balance immediately according to the entitlement setup. However, usage of the balance might be restricted. If the accrual balance is restricted, the accrued entitlement balance is released to the employee at the end of the probation period.
• No: The employee doesn’t accrue any entitlement balance during the probation period.

• Yes: The employee can accrue the entitlement balance during their probationary period but can’t use it. After the probation period, any accrued values will become immediately available.
• No: The employee doesn’t accrue any balance during the probation period. SelectNo if the employee should have access to a probationary accrual amount.

• Reset Immediately: The balance is lost and the entitlement is set to start a new balance period for the balance effective 1 day after the employee's termination date.
• Reset after a Number of Days: When you select this option, the question “How many days can pass between the termination and rehire date for an employee to be eligible to keep their previous probationary balance?” shows.
• Pay out: Activate configures the entitlement to pay out the employee's balance similar to the payout method based on the employee's base rate at the time of pay out upon termination of the employee. A new balance period starts with the balance set to zero effective 1 day after the employee's termination date.
• Do Nothing: The remaining balance amount remains as it is at the employee termination.

This question shows if you selected Reset After a Number of Days for the question “What happens to an employee's previous probationary year balance upon termination?”

The value you enter in this field creates a new entitlement in Dayforce called “...One Time - Reset after <Number of Days> days from Termination.”

Activate installs a Balance Carry Over rule to clear the balance after the number of days set in this question when the employee is still terminated.

• Original Hire Date: The employee’s original hire date.
• Most Recent Hire Date: The most recent date that the employee was rehired by the organization.
• Employee Seniority Date: An optional, additional field assigned to the employee's status record for tracking seniority based on a date other than the Original Hire Date or Most Recent Hire Date.
• Entitlement Seniority Date: The Entitlement Seniority Date is assigned to employees in the Additional Properties section of the employees' records. When you select this option, Activate sets the Start Date parameter in all of the Seniority Qualifiers to “Entitlement Seniority Date” during installation.

This question defaults to No Usage Limit and doesn’t show if you selected Currency-based as the method for tacking the balance.

• Annual Usage Limit: There’s a limit on how much can be used in a year, even if the employee has a balance available.
• No Usage Limit: The employee is free to use whatever balance they have.

• Hours: If you want to award x number of weeks for an employee's awards, you can track it in their balances as hours accrued. For example, an employee can earn 4 weeks of vacation annually and as they accrue, it shows as x hours accrued on their Balances page. If you want to award x number of days for an employee's accrual, it’s now possible and can be tracked in their balances as hours accrued. For example, an employee can earn 15 days of vacation annually and as they accrue, it shows as x hours accrued on their Balances page.
• Days

• Days: You can set the number of days you want employees to accrue on the Levels page.
• Weeks: You can set the number of weeks you want to accrue on the Levels page.
• Hours

• Yes: Enables you to select attributes that employees must meet to qualify for this entitlement.
• No: This option is the default for all predefined Entitlement templates.

Note: Entitlements with only the “Employment Status” option selected on the Qualifiers page default to No.

If Yes is selected, Activate adds the employee qualifiers to every level of the entitlements installed for the balance.

Select the employee attributes that will determine whether an employee is eligible for this entitlement. After you select the attribute, Activate shows the corresponding questions.

Options include:

• Pay Class: Examples include Part-Time and Full-Time
• Pay Type: Examples include Hourly and Salary
• Job
• Work State/Province
• Employee Group
• Primary Work Zip/Postal Code: The primary work assignment Zip/Postal Code
• Weekly Hours: Weekly Hours assigned on the employee record
• Hire Date: Employee Hire Date

Note: This question won’t be shown for entitlements with “Employment Status” selected along with any other attributes on the Qualifiers page.

Select the employment statuses to be used to determine employee eligibility for the entitlement.

Note: By default, Dayforce awards entitlements only to Active employees. Therefore, there’s no need to create a qualifier just to ensure that the entitlement awards only to Active employees. When you select one or more status values in this question to apply to this entitlement, Activate does not install the status qualifier on the rules that reset/payout upon termination. This functionality makes sure that the employee is paid without issue upon termination in Dayforce.

For the employee attributes you selected in the previous question, do one of the following:

Note: Any installed Termination Reset/Pay-Out DF entitlements have the Include Inactive Employees checkbox selected regardless of the qualifier setup. The Include Inactive Employees checkbox is always enabled for the pay out and reset rules that get configured for terminations.

Select the pay classes to use to determine employee eligibility for the entitlement.

For the employee attributes you selected in the previous question, do one of the following:

Select the pay type(es) that will be used to determine employee eligibility for the entitlement.

For the employee attributes you selected in the previous question, do one of the following:

For the employee attributes you selected in the previous question, do one of the following:

Select the work states/provinces to use to determine employee eligibility for the entitlement.

For the employee attributes you selected in the previous question, do one of the following:

Select the employee group(s) that will be used to determine employee eligibility for the entitlement.

For the employee attributes you selected in the previous question, do one of the following:

Type the primary work zip/postal codes in the field and select Add. If you want to enter more than one primary work zip/postal code, enter a comma to separate the values.

Shows any previously selected zip/postal codes.

For the employee attributes you selected in the previous question, do one of the following:

Enter the minimum and maximum number of hours that an employee is expected to work in their normal work week to be eligible for this entitlement. Employees qualify for this balance when their Normal Weekly Hours on their employee profile falls within this range. You must enter a value in one or both fields.

Enter or select a date range in which the employees' most recent hire date must fall. You must complete one of the fields, and can complete both fields, if desired.