Gradience Pro / Enterprise - Global Settings – Gradience Support

Setting up your Global Settings

Global Preferences allow you to control your default program settings, such as Company Info, Report Options and specific program options.

Click Settings > Global Settings to access your global preferences.

--NOTE-- Not required if already done through another software title.

See below for detailed information on each tab.

Company Info Tab

The Company Information screen allows you to enter your company name, address and logo. We recommend entering the company name and logo because these will print out on Reports.

Feature	Description
Company Name	(Recommended) This will display on the report heading.
Address, City, State, ZIP and County	(Optional)
Remove Current Logo	This allows you to unselect the current logo.
Assign New Logo	This allows you to select a new logo. This logo will display on the top left of reports.
Save Logo to disk	This allows you to save the current logo to disk or to your hard drive.

Saving Logo to Disk

You may save the logo to a directory on a disk or hard drive. When you add a logo within Gradience, the logo is actually saved within the database file.

General Settings Tab

The General Settings screen allows you to enter the default hours in a day that employees will be assigned, and allows use of the Forgotten Password Utility. This screen also allows settings for Forced Writes to Firebird and prompting to backup on exit.

Feature	Description
Epoch Setting	We strongly recommend keeping the default Epoch settings. This setting will allow the Gradience program to appropriately interpret any two-digit year entered that is between 1920 and 2019. For example, with the default Epoch setting of 1920: If you enter a date (such as in the Hire Date field) of 03/05/01, the program will interpret this as 03/05/2001. Note: If you need to enter a year before 1920 or after 2019 in a date field within the program, you may enter the year as a four-digit number.
Default Hours in a Day	These are the default hours that will be assigned when creating a new employee. The Day Hours on the Employee Detail screen will be filled in automatically with these default hours when a new employee is created.
National ID Number Format /Label	Selecting one of these options will allow you to set the mask for the National ID Number Format. The default mask is set to the USA SSN format. With this selected, whenever you enter a new employee, the dashes automatically will come up in the xxx-xx-xxxx format. The label is the title that will appear on the Employee Detail screen.

Feature	Description
Allow use of Forgotten Password Utility	This option allows access to a utility that can be used, only with assistance from Technical Support, to gain access into the Gradience program.
Forced Writes for Interbase	If running the Gradience database on a Standalone computer, this option will help to keep the database more stable. A Workstation is more prone to lock up or crash than a Server. If the Gradience database is installed on a Workstation and the program is open at the time the computer locks up or crashes, the database is prone to becoming corrupt and possibly irreparable. A computer lockup or crash can be attributed to several things, including having too many programs open at the same time than what your computer memory can handle. If the database is installed on a Workstation or Standalone computer, we recommend keeping this option checked. The performance may lag a little, but unless you have more than 800 employees, you may not even notice it. We also recommend having a current backup, created within Gradience or DB Monitor, available. If the database is installed on a Server, normally a backup of the whole Server is created on a daily or regular basis. We still recommend setting up Scheduled backups within DB Monitor, but having this option checked is not as important on a Server.
Prompt for backup on Exit	This option allows you to turn on or off the message prompting for backup when you close out of the program. Backups are very important. We recommend that you turn this feature off only if you have scheduled backups within the DB Monitor.

Report Options Tab

The Report Options settings affect how reports will appear by default.

Feature	Description
Print Preview	Toggles (turns on and off) showing preview first before printing
Header Bold	Toggles bolding for Header Title
Header Line	Toggles putting a line under the Header Title
Header Shade	Toggles shading for Location or Department title row
Data Line	Toggles lines to separate data information
Print SSN	Toggles ability to show Social Security Numbers
Print Picture	Toggles ability to print Picture on printout
Print Totals	Toggles whether Totals show up on reports

Attendance Settings Tab

Feature	Description
Fiscal Date	Fiscal date is only important if you plan to accrue Time-Off according to a fiscal year.
Last Accrual Date	Last accrual date should be just prior to the date on which you want the program to begin accruing.
Accrual Schedule	Do not allow time-off to accrue prevents accruals from happening automatically. Remind causes the program to remind you to run accruals each time you open the program. Tip: We recommend that you select Accrue Time-Off automatically and check all seven days of the week.

TimeClock Settings Tab

Feature	Description
Time Format	Time Format allows for regular 12-hour or military time.
In/Out Board Settings	When enabled; allows the user to view the In/Out Board from the main screen.
Attendance Code Sharing	Allows Absence Codes from Gradience Attendance to be shared with Gradience TimeClock. Codes selected to be shared will work in both programs when entered into either program. Enable Hours Worked Entries with Attendance; allows the "W" (Hours Worked) in Gradience Attendance to be entered manually in Gradience TimeClock. Note: Reason Codes and Payroll Code Descriptions must be set up before assigning Reported Payroll Description Columns.
Sync with the server every...	Indicates how often the program synchronizes with the main clock on the server.
User must login/punch within...	X amount of seconds after the first character is entered, the screen will reset.
Enable Swipe Card Usage	Allows for swipe cards to be used for clocking in/out.
Require Password when Swiping...	The program will require a password after swiping a card.
Enable Auto Clocking	Activates "Smart Clocking". If 13 or more hours pass after an "IN" punch, the next punch will also be "IN".

FMLA Settings Tab

Feature

Description

Leave to care for injured service members

The following explains how an employer should calculate an employee's entitlement to military caregiver leave when the employer uses a calendar-year method for other FMLA-qualifying reasons. Remember, an employee is only entitled to a total of 26 workweeks of leave during a single 12-month period.

EXAMPLE:

The employer uses the calendar-year method (January 2009-December 2009) for determining an employee's leave balance for FMLA leave taken for all qualifying reasons other than military caregiver leave.

An employee first takes military caregiver leave in June 2009. Between June 2009 and June 2010 (the "single 12-month period'' for military caregiver leave), the employee may take a combined total of 26 workweeks of leave, including up to 12 weeks for any other FMLA-qualifying reason if he has not yet taken any FMLA leave in 2009.

If, however, the employee already had taken five weeks of FMLA leave for his own serious health condition when he began taking military caregiver leave in June 2009, he then would be entitled to no more than seven weeks of FMLA leave for reasons other than to care for a covered service member during the remainder of the 2009 calendar year (i.e., the 12 weeks yearly entitlement minus the five weeks already taken). Although his entitlement to FMLA leave for reasons other than military caregiver leave is limited by his use of FMLA leave during the calendar year, the employee still is entitled to take up to 26 weeks of FMLA leave to care for a covered service member from June to December 2009.

Beginning in January 2010, the employee is entitled to an additional 12 weeks of FMLA leave for reasons other than to care for a covered service member. If the employee takes four weeks of FMLA leave for his own serious health condition in January 2010, this would reduce both the number of available weeks of FMLA leave remaining in calendar year 2010 (i.e., the 12 weeks yearly entitlement minus the four weeks already taken) and the number of weeks of FMLA leave available for either military caregiver leave or other FMLA-qualifying reasons during the "single 12-month period'' of June 2009-June 2010.

Once the employee exhausts his or her 26-workweek entitlement, he or she may not take any additional FMLA leave for any reason until the “single 12-month period'' ends. Thus, for example, if the employee took 20 workweeks of military caregiver leave from June to December 2009, four workweeks of leave in January 2010 for his or her own serious health condition, and another two workweeks of military caregiver leave in March 2010, the employee will have exhausted his or her 26-workweek entitlement for the “single 12-month period'' of June 2009-June 2010. The employee still would have eight weeks of FMLA leave available in calendar year 2010, but the employee could not take such leave until after June 2010, when the “single 12-month period'' ends.