Product Updates

Roadmap
7 months ago

New Release! Humanforce Cloud - Version 6.0.25

In this release, we’re excited to bring you more improvements to Roster Manager, Template Manager, Timesheets and more.  Read on for all the details!

All Humanforce Cloud accounts and UAT environments will be automatically updated to bring you the items below, overnight on Wednesday 1st May 2024.

Roster Manager

Management > Rostering > Roster Manager

You now have easy access to employee profiles via the hyperlink added to employee name on People view.

We've fixed an issue when applying both the Assigned and Unassigned filters.  Any Roles or Employee rows (depending on which view you are in) will be hidden from the grid if they do not have any shifts. This has also been resolved in Template Manager.

Template Manager

Management > Rostering > Template Manager

The Minimum Period hours warning has been added.  When the alert is set up within Clock in settings, you will now see the warning within your template.

The Employee Shift Definition Qualification warning has been added. When the alert is set up within Clock in settings, you will now see the warning within your template.

We've fixed an issue when applying both the Assigned and Unassigned filters.  Any Roles or Employee rows (depending on which view you are in) will be hidden from the grid if they do not have any shifts. This has also been resolved in Roster Manager.

Timesheets

Management > Timesheets > Timesheets

To enhance the user interface and streamline functionality, the redundant 'Authorise' and 'Authorise to roster time' buttons have been removed from the 'Authorised' status view. These buttons are still available in the other status views where they were previously displayed.

Department Rostering

Management > Rostering > Department Rostering

Any new template saved from the department roster will now automatically be set to Active.

We have fixed an issue where shifts were imported into the department roster incorrectly if the location setting "Override week start day," was set to a different day than the system wide setting “Department Roster Week Start Day”.

Workforce Analytics

Management > Advanced > Workforce Analytics

 The External ID field for employees is now available as a column for reporting in the following data sources:

  • Timesheet Data
  • Payroll Data
  • Payroll Data with cost code

Employee Management

Management > Employee > Employee Management

We have broadened email validation to allow for successful validation of email addresses that contain the specific special character ".-" when saving personal details.

Pay Comparison Report

Reports > Payroll > Pay Comparison Report

We have fixed an issue where pay comparison report produces incorrect award interpretation when using period rules that applies across multiple pay period. This is only applicable when the pay run comparison report is used to compare the award interpretation between two award profiles.

Work App

Messages > Chat (beta) 

We have released Chat Beta functionality for mobile to mobile chat.  This is turned on via a feature flag, so will require a support ticket to enable this in the Work app. 

7 months ago

New Release! Humanforce Cloud - Version 6.0.24

In this release, we’re excited to bring you more improvements to Timesheets, Roster Manager, Template Manager and more.  Read on for all the details!

All Humanforce Cloud accounts and UAT environments will be automatically updated to bring you the items below, overnight on Wednesday 17th April 2024.

Timesheets

Management > Timesheets > Timesheets

Start Date now includes the day of the week, making it easier to identify the day for each record without referring to a calendar.

Roster Manager

Management > Rostering > Roster Manager

We’ve strengthened data protection, so that users with limited location access will only see departments associated with the locations they have permission to view.

We’ve also added the Employee Role Restriction warning to the alerts shown in Roster Manager, so you can make informed decisions about who to roster more easily. To set up or edit this alert visit Admin > System Config > Clock-in Settings.

Template Manager

Management > Rostering > Template Manager

We’ve added an alerts panel in the Template Editor for quick visibility and easy access to shifts with errors and warnings in the template you’re working on.

Employee Role Qualification Roster Alert

Admin > System Config > Clock-in Settings

We have resolved an issue so that Employee Role Qualification alerts will trigger successfully in Employee Roster and Roster Manager when the alert conditions are met. 

Workforce Analytics

Management > Advanced > Workforce Analytics

Area column is now available in the Demand Plan With Roster Timesheet data source allowing you to report by Area. Any reports utilising this data source will have the Area data available, including the AN-ACC dashboard reports. 

Employee Management

Management > Employee > Employee Management

We’ve fixed an issue that was preventing users from saving employee profiles, when a profile already had a leave accrual start date, but the user attempting to save the profile did not have the Edit leave accrual start date permission enabled.

Payroll

Management > Timesheets > Payroll

The Name filter in pay run screen now correctly displays the timesheets for the employee name entered in the filter.

Employee Rostering

Management > Rostering > Employee Rostering

We have fixed an issue that was preventing managers from selecting an SMS Gateway when offering shifts if they did not have the SMS Gateway Servers permission enabled.

SMS Gateway

Admin > Admin Config > SMS Gateway Server

SMS Gateway Server, which is used for sending text messages when offering shifts, can now be configured in Humanforce Cloud. This will replace the existing Back Office configuration functionality, which will be removed soon. 

SMTP Server

Admin > Admin Config > SMTP Server

SMTP Server, which is used for sending alert updates when set up under alerts config, can now be configured in Humanforce Cloud. This will replace the existing Back Office configuration functionality, which will be removed soon. 

7 months ago

New Service – Humanforce NZ and Datapay Professional Services and Support!

We are excited to announce our new Humanforce NZ and Datapay Professional Services and Support offering to our Humanforce and Datapay customers.

Now you can complement your robust API integration between Humanforce Workforce Management and Datapay payroll, with industry-leading support, training, resources, and unified implementation processes to help you accelerate integration time to value.

Let’s dive in...



🔥 What’s New?  

Our comprehensive Humanforce NZ and Datapay professional services and support offering ensures proper integration and configuration between Humanforce Workforce Management and Datapay payroll, through a best practice implementation methodology.

Our unified implementation and support team, follows important project milestones such as, discovery and planning, design and configuration, enablement and validation, deployment and operational handover.  

Customers receive fit-for-purpose services through customised Scope of Works (SOW) agreements, all under a set fixed price.


⭐️ Why it matters 

Gain the support and confidence your organisation needs when implementing a robust, powerful and seamlessly integrated Humanforce Workforce Management and Datapay payroll solution. 

Unified: One project team, one methodology.  Customers can experience a seamless and streamlined set of operations that fast tracks a successful, efficient and fit-for-purpose implementation process and implementation peace of mind.  

End-to-end: Customers can benefit from integrated project planning, template design, and support from a single team of Humanforce and Datapay implementation experts through crucial stages of testing and going live. Customers can breathe easy when it matters most with our additional pay run post-go-live support, Hypercare, reinforcing our commitment to support you every step of the way. 

Robust testing: Benefit from rigorous industry best practices testing procedures through critical phases such as integration setup, data alignment, early payroll and Time & Attendance setup, and even holiday pay period testing. Our testing processes go even further by conducting testing in custom-tailored scenarios to meet your specific requirements. Gain additional confidence with unit testing for Datapay and Humanforce that validates configuration and data alignment between systems. 

Parallel Run assurance: We support parallel runs with a robust checks and balances system, focusing on validation at each system's responsibility. This not only improves efficiency in issue identification at every stage but also considers the complexity of deploying two solutions simultaneously, and factors in different pay cycles, ensuring a smooth transition and business continuity with minimal disruption. 

 

🏁 Getting Started   

For inquiries, reach out to your Humanforce representative. 

8 months ago

New Release! Humanforce Cloud - Version 6.0.23

In this release, we’re excited to bring you the Pay Period feature on top of several improvements to Timesheets, Bid Managers, Rosters, Payroll and added a new data source in Workforce Analytics!  Read on for all the details!

All Humanforce Cloud accounts and UAT environments will be automatically updated to bring you the items below, overnight on Wednesday 3rd April 2024.

Pay Period Configuration

Admin > Award Config > Pay Periods

Pay Periods can now be configured in HF Cloud!  

Pay Periods are used when configuring Payroll Companies when defining an employee's employing entity. This will replace the existing Backoffice functionality, which will shortly be removed. Pay periods are generated in Humanforce to define pay cycles, support allocation to pay companies, and establish cycles such as weekly or fortnightly with designated start days, facilitating efficient payroll processing. 

For more details on Pay Period, visit Humanforce Help:

Visit Humanforce Help


Timesheets

Management > Timesheets > Timesheets 

We have rectified the issue where breaks are dropping off when using the bulk “Generate Timesheets” function. All paid and unpaid breaks associated with no-show records are now being retained when using the bulk 'Generate Timesheets' function.

The Hourly Rate column on the main table now displays the effective hourly rate for that timesheet, not just the hourly rate that is currently active.

We have also improved the pagination display to ensure that when navigating to different dates or date ranges, the user is taken to page 1 of the results rather than having the previous pagination retained.

When Authorising to Roster Times, the correct Start Date is now being populated in the event the employee has clocked in on the day previous (or the day after) to the actual shift start date, so the clocked-in date differs from the rostered start time date. Before this change when 'Authorising to Roster Times' the clock-in date was used instead of the actual shift start date. This change improves the accuracy of award interpretations.

Roster Manager

Management > Rostering > Roster Manager > People View

You will now see the employee's Minimum and Maximum hours as defined within the employee's profile, next to their name.

Shifts within the Unassigned section are now sorted by shift start time.

Template Manager

Management > Rostering > Template Manager

Shifts are now updated to be sorted first by shift start time and then by employee name as default.

Department Roster

Management > Rostering > Department Roster

In circumstances where shifts were added to some templates via Template Manager, not all shifts would successfully import to the Department Roster. 

Payroll Company

Admin > Award Config > Payroll Companies

We have fixed an issue that was preventing users from adding new Payroll companies in Humanforce cloud.

Payroll

Management > Timesheets > Payroll

Under the settings cog, there is now a filter option to exclude data for non-exporting employees. When selected, the Simple Format report will exclude non-exporting employees. This filter will also be applied to other report types in later releases. We have also improved the report performance to export all of the data into a CSV file without timing out.

Workforce Analytics

Management > Advanced > Workforce Analytics

New fields have been added to the timesheet data source, you can now select Employee_State, Employee_Gender and Location Group in the timesheet data source.

Bid Manager

Management > Shift > Bid Manager

We have fixed a few issues in the Bid Manager as per below: 

  • The Offer/Assign checkboxes on overlapping shifts are now behaving as expected.
  • An enhancement has been made to improve the performance when performing actions in Bid Manager.
  • An indicator is now visible after submitting bid offers or assigning shifts, to let the user know the submission is in progress

Employee Roster Alert

Fixed an issue for "Roster min period hrs" to not trigger an alert if the employee has been rostered for minimum hours.

Employee Management

Employees on a lower authorisation level without the "View employees above authorisation level" permission are not able to view profiles of employees on higher authorisation levels. 

8 months ago

New Feature – Pay Period Configuration!

Ensuring pay periods are properly configured and ease to modify are essential to maintaining payroll accuracy.  

Pay Period Configuration in Humanforce Cloud is now here, and it will soon replace existing functionality within Humanforce Backoffice. 

A screenshot of a computer Description automatically generated
 

🔥 What’s New? 

Pay Periods can now be configured in Humanforce Cloud. Pay periods are generated in Humanforce Cloud to define pay cycles, support allocation to pay companies, and establish cycles such as weekly or fortnightly with designated start days, facilitating efficient payroll processing. 

  

⭐️ Why it matters 

Configuring Pay periods in Humanforce Cloud benefits organisations, workforce managers and payroll related teams. These include: 

Greater payroll confidence and accuracy: Many jurisdictions have specific legal requirements regarding payroll, including the frequency of payments (e.g., weekly, bi-weekly, monthly), minimum wage laws, overtime calculations, and record-keeping. Proper configuration of payroll periods helps ensure compliance with these regulations, reducing the risk of legal issues or penalties. 

Greater payroll management control and flexibility: Effective payroll period configuration streamlines payroll processing by establishing a consistent schedule. This consistency helps in automating payroll calculations, reducing the administrative burden on HR and payroll departments, and minimising errors. 

Improved financial Management: As payroll is often one of the largest expenses for an organisation, setting payroll period can significantly aid organisations in their management of cash flow and ability to set better budgets. In addition to this, Payroll period configuration also affects the calculation of taxes withheld from employee wages and the organisation's payroll tax obligations. Accurate configuration helps ensure the correct amount of taxes is collected and reported, minimising the risk of errors in tax filings and potential fines. 

  

🏁 Getting Started   

For more information on pay periods, how to enable access, locate pay period selections and either activate or deactivate a pay period, check out this Help article.  

8 months ago

New Release! Humanforce Cloud - Version 6.0.22

In this release, we’re excited to bring you further improvements to Roster Manager and Bid Manager, as part of our powerful, intelligent and seamless rostering solution, as well as a number of other improvements.  Read on for all the details!

All Humanforce Cloud accounts and UAT environments will be automatically updated to bring you the items below, overnight on Wednesday 20th March 2024.

Roster Manager

Management > Rostering > Roster Manager

 Improvements

  1. When importing a template into Roster Manager, you can now search by Template name.
  2. Fill shift now includes a select all check box.
  3. You are now able to update shifts to a Read only status and also re-set to normal via the Actions menu.
  4. There is now a prompt shown if you are editing a shift that has been offered to one or more employees so that you will know the offer will be revoked from employees.

Bid Manager

Management > Shift > Bid Manager

Exchange bids will not be visible in Bid Manager where the bidder does not have the required permission to view or bid on exchange shifts. This resolves a rare scenario where a worker submits a standard (non-exchange) bid and is later rostered for a different shift that overlaps with the shift they’ve bid on, causing the original bid to become an exchange bid. In this scenario, the exchange bid will no longer be visible in Bid Manager (as the worker does not have the required permission to submit exchange bids).

Alerts

The 'break not started' shift notification has been improved so that it only triggers when the employee has clocked-in for the shift and hasn't taken the scheduled break.

Event Manager

Management > Rostering > Event Manager

Fixed an issue that was preventing employees from being assigned to shifts within a labour group.

We’ve also increased the filter options in Event Manager to include Event Export Code, Event Name and Function Name. Function Export Code will remain selected by default in the filter options.

Employee Roster & Department Roster

Management > Rostering > Employee Rostering 

For Employee Roster, we resolved an issue where the Hours Required alert was not triggered if the shift had a duration of 0.00 net hours.

We also made improvements to the interaction between Department Roster and Employee Roster, to ensure shifts are not mixed-up on the Department Roster when an additional shift is added for the same location and department via Employee Roster.

8 months ago

🎉 Exciting Announcement - Roster Manager is here! 🎉

We are thrilled to announce that Roster Manager is now available for you to activate and enjoy. 

We have reimagined the rostering experience so that you can experience a simpler, easier and smarter way to view and schedule your workforce. 

Click the button below to activate Roster Manager. 


🔥  What’s New?  

Redesigned to bring together the capabilities of Department Roster and Employee Roster into a single intuitive, consistent and modern looking interface, Roster Manager is the same system and rostering information you know, but now with a new, optimised rostering experience. 

Check out our Summary Product Tour

Roster Alerts 

Generated rosters will clearly highlight any compliance warning to observe or action. Surface working hour exceptions, overtime warnings and qualification limitations to optimise your roster and maintain better rostering compliance. 

Shift fill 

Directly fill shifts and offer vacant shifts to casual workforce. Utilise several ways to fill shifts with your most optimal employees or easily access the data required to fill shifts based on operational needs (e.g., specific qualifications or costs). 

Filtering and Grouping 

Surface the desired rostering information and navigate directly into the detail you need with a range of viewing and grouping options such as Area, Shift Definition, Employment Type, Event, Location, Department, and more. 

Roster Confidence 

Although Roster Manager delivers a new and optimised rostering experience, we are not changing your pre-existing data, nor does it require any migration. As a self-activated module, Roster Manager is designed to only improve your rostering experience. 


⭐️  Why it matters 

Our new and optimised rostering experience provides greater consistency, streamlines roster processes by eliminating multiple rostering screens, and delivers a truly intuitive rostering experience. 

Here are some additional reasons how we’ve enhanced the rostering experience. 

Rostering simplicity: Experience a new rostering navigation experience that streamlines the rostering view, creation and publishing process. 

Surface important details instantly: Rostering Managers can quickly and easily navigate to specific shifts from easy to view summaries. 

Compliance confidence: Surface qualified and shift appropriate employees with a click of a button ensuring legislated standards and award compliance is met. 

Effortlessly manage alerts: Immediately assess and action important roster compliance alerts in the flow. 

Cost control: Contain scheduling costs with easy to view Award calculations per shift and across additional rostering dimensions.  

Built to scale: Manage high volume workforces with the ability to view and group along complex rostering dimensions. 

 

🏁  Getting Started    

Roster Manager is now ready for all HF Cloud customers to activate and experience. 

To get started, follow the simple step-by-step set-up guide in the following Help article.  

Visit Humanforce Help

 

🤲   Here to Help 

We know changing the way Rostering is traditionally done might be at first uncomfortable or tricky to navigate.

This is why we are committed to helping you make the most of our exciting new Roster Manager experience and experiencing first-hand the improvements we’ve designed for you.

Simply reach out to us to learn more about our training material and Roster Manager services. 

8 months ago

New Release! Humanforce Cloud - Version 6.0.21

In this release, we’re excited to bring you Roster Manager, a powerful, intelligent and seamless rostering experience, designed to fast track and simplify the way your workforce comes together. 

Visit Humanforce Help to see how you can view rosters with greater clarity, perform key rostering tasks more efficiently and register for our upcoming webinar.

Visit Humanforce Help

This release also includes improvements to Bid Manager, Template Manager and Attendance Summary (and more) to help you work efficiently and stay compliant. See the details below! 

All Humanforce Cloud accounts and UAT environments will be automatically updated to bring you the items below, overnight on Wednesday 6th March 2024.

Bid Manager

Management > Shift > Bid Manager

To improve the visibility of valid bids, where an employee's bid has been applied to multiple duplicate shifts, and that employee is offered and accepts (or has been directly assigned to) one of those shifts, the employee's bids for the other duplicate shifts will be removed. 

Template Manager

Management > Rostering > Template Manager 

We’ve resolved three minor issues in Template Manager:

  1. The Actions now work as expected when the All Shifts option is selected.
  2. The shift conflict warning is now showing on all shifts where it is expected.
  3. The filter by Area option now correctly filters shifts for the area selected.

Attendance

Management > Availability > Attendance

We’ve made improvements to the filter options for Region and Location so that the Location options displayed reflect the Region selected. The placement of the Region filter has also been updated to align with the Location filter. 

Employee Roster

Management > Rostering > Employee Rostering 

Unassigned shifts are now included when saving the roster as a template.

Employee Change Approvals  

Management > Employee > Employee Change Approvals

Improvements have been made to the employee change approval workflow to ensure employee’s Emergency Contacts are retained (rather than removed) when updating Contact Type and Emergency Contact fields.

Payroll

Management > Timesheets > Payroll

Adjustment payruns will now be grouped under Advance Payruns when processed in Humanforce Cloud, as expected (and in alignment with how Payruns are grouped in Back Office). This change also includes minor UI improvements.   

9 months ago

New Feature – Bulk Generate Timesheets from No-Shows

Although shift absentees are to a large part inevitable, inaccurate, inefficient, and inflexible record management need not also be.

We are excited to introduce an easier and better way to improve the process of handling No-Shows by converting them into Timesheets, ensuring accurate recording and payment for employees' work. 


🔥 What’s New?  

This feature allows users to convert multiple No-Show records into Timesheets simultaneously. It utilises the data from the No-Show records, setting default values for certain fields. 

  

Please note, Single Generation of Timesheets from No-Shows is a pre-existing function which can also be performed (read below). 

 

⭐️ Why it matters  

Accurate Payroll Processing: Generating timesheets from No-Shows ensures employees are paid correctly, whether they worked and forgot to clock in or were absent. 

Efficiency in Record Management: The bulk generation feature significantly streamlines the process, especially for multiple No-Show cases, saving time and reducing administrative workload. 

Flexibility and Detailed Recording: The single record conversion option allows for detailed customisation of each timesheet, ensuring precise and comprehensive record-keeping. 

Improved Leave Management: For absences, the system updates leave balances appropriately, ensuring accurate leave tracking and reporting. 

  

🏁 Getting Started   

 For Bulk Generation: 

  • Go to Timesheets screen, select 'No-Shows' view, and use checkboxes to select records for conversion. 
  • Click 'Generate Timesheets' and confirm to convert selected No-Shows into Timesheets. 

For Single Record Conversion: 

  • On the Timesheets screen, choose a view displaying No-Shows and click 'Generate Timesheet' for the desired record. 
  • Edit necessary fields in the popup window and save to generate the Timesheet. 

 For more information, and a detailed step-by-step guide on this new feature, see this Help article. 

Keep an eye out for upcoming features such as the ability to Edit Timesheets in Bulk. 

9 months ago

New Functionality - AN-ACC real-time dashboard is here!

We are excited to introduce our new AN-ACC real-time dashboard for Australian Aged Care providers. For the first time Aged Care professionals can unleash their business intelligence to help achieve compliance confidence through powerful workforce analytics.

Let’s dive in... 


🔥 ️ What's New

Enjoy a clear and complete view of important datapoints within Humanforce Workforce Analytics to achieve the following requirements under the AN-ACC reforms:

  • Real-time visibility of adherence to Care Minute Targets, based on time rostered and time worked.
  • The ability to nominate which Roles contribute to care minutes, nominate the extent to which each Role contributes to care, through percentage allocations and exclude.
  • Self-service file uploads for care minute targets and occupancy.
  • Report on resident care minutes and RN care minutes against schedule in a single report.
  • Easily identify excessive and insufficient resourcing to ensure cost-effective compliance.
  • Flexibility to utilise API and integrate per residence per day (PRPD) data from external sources.
  • Care and Registered Nurse (RN) minutes compliance reporting to maintain star rating for facilities.
  • Ability to exclude leave time and training hours.



⭐️ Why it matters

For managers:

The Australian National Aged Care Classification (AN-ACC) funding model provides subsidies to approved aged care providers based on service type and each residents' care needs. AN-ACC provides a clinically meaningful description of the residents living in care homes, linking funding to the actual costs of providing care.

With greater compliance and operational complexity, coupled with longstanding staff shortages, high quality care standards to meet, as well more economical challenges than ever before, compliance teams need an intelligent and robust system to ensure the right employees are rostered, labour costs are minimised, and compliance requirements legislated by the Australian National Aged Care Classification (AN-ACC) are consistently and confidently adhered to.

For Employees:

Care workers will also benefit from ensuring adequate rostering arrangements are made for future shifts, thereby improving their ability to deliver high quality care in an adequately labour resourced environment.


🏁 Getting started

Dive into our AN-ACC real-time dashboard through Workforce Analytics today.

For guidance through the process of setting up demand plan feeds, uploading demand input feed data, and configuring labour group allocation see our Help article here.