USPS Process Guide –
Appendix I – Leave Accounting

Optional Holidays

An optional holiday is a state-defined holiday that an employee may take in lieu of a regular state or federal holiday. Currently the state observes only the following optional holidays: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Cesar Chavez Day and Good Friday. The USPS Leave Accounting system can track the optional holidays an employee takes. An employee should work on a regular state/national holiday to restore his or her optional holiday balance to zero. If an employee does not work on a regular holiday, the agency may dock either the employee’s pay or the employee’s compensatory time, vacation or holiday compensatory time balances.

The system maintains two holiday balances:

Holiday Compensatory Time: This term refers to the balance of hours an employee has worked on standard state or national holidays. You may apply these hours against optional holidays or take them like regular compensatory time.
Optional Holiday: If negative, this balance refers to the number of hours of optional holiday leave an employee has taken and has not yet made up. This balance should always be negative or zero.

The balance will display on HM8U2 (Leave Balance Inquiry). Changes are entered on HM9U1 (Employee Leave Request).

Use the following two leave activity codes to enter holiday activity:

HCE (Holiday Compensatory Time Earned): Use this code to increase the holiday compensatory time balance when an employee works on a state or national holiday.
HCT (Holiday Compensatory Time Taken): Use this code to decrease the holiday compensatory time balance when an employee takes an optional holiday or elects to use his or her compensatory time.

Entering an Employee’s Optional Holiday Taken Before Working a Standard State Holiday

When an employee takes an optional holiday and he or she does not have a Holiday Compensatory Time balance, enter HCT in the ACTY field and OHOL in the REASN field on HM9U1. (See Optional Holiday Activity in Chapter 12 – Leave Accounting for more detailed information on completing HM9U1.) Entering OHOL causes the system to adjust the optional holiday balance without changing the holiday compensatory time balance.

Entering an Optional Holiday Taken After Working a Standard State Holiday

When an employee takes an optional holiday and has already worked on a standard state holiday (that is, the employee’s holiday compensatory time balance has at least as many hours as optional holiday hours the employee takes), you do not need to change the optional holiday balance. Decrease the holiday compensatory time balance by entering HCT in the ACTY field on HM9U1 and leave the REASN field blank.

Entering a Standard State Holiday Worked Before Taking an Optional Holiday

When an employee works on a standard state holiday before taking an optional holiday, increase the holiday compensatory time balance by entering only HCE in the ACTY field on HM9U1. The optional holiday balance will remain unchanged.

Entering a Standard State Holiday Worked After Taking an Optional Holiday

When an employee works a standard state holiday to make up for an optional holiday already taken, enter HCE in the ACTY field and OHOL in the REASN field on HM9U1. (See Optional Holiday Activity in Chapter 12 – Leave Accounting for more detailed information on completing HM9U1.) Entering OHOL causes the system to increase the (negative) optional holiday balance and leave the holiday compensatory time balance unchanged.

Docking the Employee

When an employee does not work a standard state holiday to compensate for an optional holiday taken, you have the option of entering OHOL in the REASN field and entering one of the following codes in the ACTY field to dock the employee at the end of the fiscal year:

CTL (Compensatory Time Lost): Use this code to reduce the compensatory time balance and adjust the optional holiday balance by the specified amount.
VCL (Vacation Lost): Use this code to reduce the vacation balance and adjust the optional holiday balance by the specified amount.
HCL (Holiday Compensatory Time Lost): Use this code to reduce the holiday compensatory time balance and adjust the optional holiday balance by the specified amount. One example of this situation would be when an employee worked a state or national holiday but the time was never properly applied toward an optional holiday taken.
LWD (Leave Without Pay Dock): Use this code to adjust the optional holiday taken balance and automatically dock the employee’s pay if you use the Payroll Transactions Generated Report (Report 594) and the Leave Payment Audit Report (Report 557). (See Chapter 12 – Leave Accounting for information on when to use these reports.) If you do not use these reports, you will need to contact payroll staff and request that they manually dock the employee’s pay.

Family Medical, Parental and Military Caregiver Leave

The USPS Leave Accounting system allows an agency’s leave administrator flexibility when giving family medical, parental and military caregiver leave. All the information is entered on HO8U1 (Employee FMLA Authorization) and HM9U1 (Employee Leave Request), except for the FMLA system flag, which is found on HNKLA (Leave Accounting Report Requests and Flags).

HO8U1 (Employee FMLA Authorization)

This screen has two main purposes:

Verifies the eligibility of an employee to receive family medical leave.
Tracks the number of hours of parental, family medical and military caregiver leave that an employee has taken.

In order for an employee to take family medical, parental or military caregiver leave, you must first create a record on this screen. Create a separate record for each event that causes an employee to take leave.

When you create a record to track family medical leave, the system checks the H0B database to see if the employee has 12 months of service. In the case of an employee who has no prior state service and has not taken leave without pay (LWOP), the system checks the hire date; otherwise, it checks the effective service begin date. If the employee does not have 12 months of service, the system will not create a record.

If the employee meets this requirement, the system checks to see if the employee has worked 1,250 hours within the last 12 months (it adds the regular and overtime hours found on the H0H database and subtracts the leave taken found on the HM9 database). Since the system does not track hours worked at any previous agencies, it is possible that the employee worked more hours than the system shows at the current agency. Therefore, if the employee does not meet the 1,250 hours requirement, only a warning error displays, allowing you to investigate the matter. After passing these edits, the system creates a record.

You can also enter the spouse’s Social Security number if the spouse works at the same agency and has taken (or is taking) family medical leave for a corresponding event. (An HO8U1 record must already have been created for the spouse.) If you enter the spouse’s Social Security number, the number of hours taken by the spouse for the event you indicate will be subtracted from the employee’s available balance.

If you create a record to track parental leave, there are no edits to determine eligibility. However, if the system finds that the employee has 12 months of service and 1,250 work hours, it will display a warning message stating that it is better to give the employee family medical leave. This is because any event causing an employee to take parental leave can also serve as an event to take family medical leave, and under family medical leave the state continues to pay its portion of the employee’s benefits.

HM9U1 (Employee Leave Request)

Once you have created a record on HO8U1, you can start using the FMLA reason code in conjunction with the employee leave on HM9U1. You can use up to 480 hours for family medical and 1,040 hours for military caregiver, which are the federal limits.

Family medical, parental and military caregiver leave are not leave types in and of themselves. For the employee to take any of them, you must enter a request for one of the following:

ALT	Administrative leave taken
CDT	Compensatory disaster taken
CET	Compensatory emergency taken
CTT	Compensatory time taken
DBT	Donate blood taken
DMT	Donate marrow taken
DOT	Donate organ taken
DST	Donor sick taken
EFT	Emergency fitness taken
EST	Extended sick leave taken
EOT	Emergency other taken
EWT	Employee wellness taken
HCT	Holiday comp taken
FLT	Family leave taken
FPT	Foster parent leave taken
LDT	Line of duty taken
LWD	Leave without pay dock
LWT	Leave without pay (LWOP) taken
OTT	Overtime taken
PFT	Paid FMLA leave taken for COVID-19
SET	Assistance dog training
SAT	Sick leave awarded from the sick leave pool taken
SLT	Sick leave taken
VCT	Vacation taken

Note: Family leave taken (FLT) and paid FMLA leave taken for COVID-19 (PFT) only decrements the HO8U1 balance. This value is used to record a holiday that falls within any FMLA/PL/MC leave taken.

Then, on the same record, enter a code in the REASN field to indicate the event for which the employee is taking leave. The two parts of this code come from the HO8U1 record which will track the leave the employee is taking. The first two characters will be FM if the employee is taking family medical leave, PL if the employee is taking parental leave or MC if the employee is taking military caregiver leave. This value must be the same as the one in the LEAVE CATEGORY field on the HO8U1 record. The second two characters must be the same as the value in the EVENT NUMBER field on the HO8U1 record.

If an employee has used the allotted hours of leave allowed, but the agency is granting additional leave, you can still enter any of the above leave requests for the employee, without the reason code. It is up to the leave administrator to track any family medical, parental or military caregiver leave beyond this federally mandated limit.

HNKLA (Leave Accounting Report Requests and Flags)

The FMLA SYSTEM FLAG field is the only field on this screen related to family medical, parental or military caregiver leave. An employee has one year to use the maximum hours of family medical, parental and military caregiver leave, but an agency may decide what type of year is used:

A 1 in this field indicates that all leave must be used by the end of the current calendar year. The LV EXPIR DATE field on HO8U1 will display 12/31/XXXX for the current calendar year; the leave hours granted to the employee must be used by this date or they will be lost.
A 2 in this field indicates that all leave must be used by the end of the current fiscal year. The LV EXPIR DATE field on HO8U1 will display 08/31/XXXX for the current fiscal year.
A 3 in this field indicates that the system should use a rolling year. An employee’s available balance of FMLA will decrease by the number of hours taken each time the employee takes leave that includes the FMLA reason code. Then, one year later on the day before the event date on the HO8 record, the FMLA available balance will be increased by the number of hours used during the same month of the previous year.
For example, if an employee takes 40 hours of family medical leave starting on 08/01/2020, the employee’s available balance decreases from 480 hours to 440 hours. If the employee then takes another 80 hours starting on 10/01/2020, the available balance decreases to 360 hours. On 07/31/2021, the employee’s available balance increases by 40 hours, bringing it to 400 hours. On 09/30/2021, the employee’s available balance increases by 80 hours, bringing it back to the original 480 hours.

Note: Once you set this field for your agency, it should not be changed except with the help of USPS Support.

Hires, Transfers, and Terminations

When employees are hired, transferred and terminated at your agency, you must communicate closely with the personnel staff to coordinate the dates when this will occur. This appendix covers the most common scenarios encountered.

New Hires

When an agency hires an employee, the leave administrators must manually perform accruals of vacation and sick leave, or run the Vacation & Sick Leave Accrual Exceptions Report (Report 156) again if accruals have already been given to the other employees for the month (unless the new hire is a transfer from another agency and accruals were posted at the transferring agency).

Rehires

When an employee is rehired at an agency after being terminated, none of the leave balances need to be restored except in the following cases:

If an employee retires from a state agency under ERS and is reemployed by the state, the employee will not have their sick leave balance restored. Reemployed retirees consumed their sick leave balances when they received additional state service credit for sick leave during the application for retirement process with ERS.
If an employee was terminated due to a reduction in force (RIF) and is rehired within 12 months of being terminated, all the sick leave balance which was zeroed out at termination may be restored. To restore the sick leave, simply cancel the SLL entry with Term in the REASN field on HM9U1.
If an employee was terminated for any other reason and is rehired more than one month but less than 12 months after the termination, all the sick leave balance which was zeroed out at termination must be restored. To restore the sick leave, simply cancel the SLL with Term in the REASN field on HM9U1.

Transfers

When an employee transfers from one agency to another, both the losing agency and the receiving agency must enter information about the leave being transferred. Since there is no policy that outlines when and how this should take place, the leave administrators of both agencies must coordinate completion of the transfer.

All of the activity listed below can be entered on HM9U1 unless otherwise noted.

The Losing Agency

To avoid an employee receiving accruals at both agencies, one agency should perform accruals while the other agency suppresses accruals for the same month. The agency that employs the individual on the first working day of the month is responsible for accruals.

Note: If Report 156 is run at both agencies, the employee will receive twice the proper accruals.

Make sure that HMAU1 (Agency Leave Rules) is set up to allow the leave listed below to be transferred.

If the transferring employee has taken an optional holiday and not made it up, you may dock his or her leave balances or pay as outlined in Optional Holidays.
Make an SLO entry to transfer out the balance of personally accrued sick leave.
If the employee is eligible to have sick leave awarded from the sick leave pool transferred, make an SAO entry to transfer out the balance.
If the employee is eligible to have personally accrued sick leave which was donated to the sick leave pool transferred, make an SCO entry to transfer out the balance.
Make a VCO entry to transfer out the balance of vacation leave.
Additional actions may be required in special cases, such as when an agency splits into two agencies or when an employee transfers from one legislative agency to another:
- Make a CTO entry to transfer out the balance of compensatory time.
- Make an HCO entry to transfer out the balance of holiday compensatory time.
- Make an OTO entry to transfer out the balance of overtime.
If the employee does not qualify to have overtime transferred, pay the employee for the outstanding balance. You can do this either by making an OTP (overtime paid) entry on HM9U1 and then running the Payroll Transactions Generated Report (Report 594) and the Leave Payment Audit Report (Report 557), or by having payroll staff enter the overtime payment directly onto HUAU1 (Standard Time Reporting) and then running Report 557.
If the employee does not qualify to have compensatory time transferred, pay the employee for the outstanding balance if your agency has the authority to do so. You can do this either by making a CTP (overtime paid) entry on HM9U1 and then running Reports 594 and 557, or by having payroll staff enter the compensatory time payment directly onto HUAU1 (Standard Time Reporting) and then running Report 557.

Receiving Agency

To avoid an employee receiving accruals at both agencies, one agency should perform accruals while the other agency suppresses accruals for the same month. The agency that employs the individual on the first working day of the month is responsible for accruals.

Note: If Report 156 is run at both agencies, the employee will receive twice the proper accruals.

The leave administrators at the receiving agency will perform the following:

Make an SLI entry to transfer in the balance of personally accrued sick leave that was transferred out at the losing agency.
If the losing agency transferred out any sick leave awarded from the sick leave pool, make an SAI entry to transfer in the balance.
If the losing agency transferred out any personally accrued sick leave donated to the sick leave pool, make an SCI entry to transfer in the balance.
Make a VCI entry to transfer in the balance of vacation leave that was transferred out at the losing agency.
If the losing agency transferred out any compensatory time, make a CTI entry to transfer in the balance.
If the losing agency transferred out any holiday compensatory time, make an HCI entry to transfer in the balance.
If the losing agency transferred out any overtime, make an OTI entry to transfer in the balance.
If the employee took any military leave at the losing agency, make an MLT entry (with a start date of the employee’s first work day at the receiving agency), taking the same number of hours that the employee took at the losing agency during the current federal fiscal year (October 1 through September 30). If you wish to show that the leave was taken at another agency and then transferred in, you may enter SUM (Summary Entry) in the REASN field.
If the employee took any emergency leave for reasons other than a death in the family (that is, the employee has at least one EOT entry at the losing agency), make an EOT entry (with a start date of the employee’s first work day at the receiving agency), taking the same number of hours as the employee took at the losing agency during the current fiscal year. If you wish to show that the leave was taken at another agency and then transferred in, you may enter SUM (Summary Entry) in the REASN field.
If the employee took any leave for volunteer fire fighting training (that is, the employee has at least one FFT entry at the losing agency), make an FFT entry (with a start date of the employee’s first work day at the receiving agency), taking the same number of hours that the employee took at the losing agency during the current fiscal year. If you wish to show that the leave was taken at another agency and then transferred in, you may enter SUM (Summary Entry) in the REASN field.
If the employee took any leave to work as a volunteer for the Red Cross during a disaster (that is, the employee has at least one RCT entry at the losing agency), make an RCT entry (with a start date of the employee’s first work day), taking the same number of hours that the employee took at the losing agency during the current fiscal year. If you wish to show that the leave was taken at another agency and then transferred in, you may enter SUM (Summary Entry) in the REASN field.

Terminations

Step	Action
1	If it is your agency’s policy, zero out the optional holiday taken balance. Refer to Optional Holidays earlier in this appendix for information on how to do this.
2	Enter a lump sum payment for the vacation balance on HUZU1 (Payroll Lump Sum Special Payments). This screen will automatically collect vacation and, in the case of a death, sick leave balance information. When payroll has been processed, HM9U1 will have VCP and SLP entries.
3	If applicable, pay the employee for any overtime and/or compensatory time. You can do this by making OTP and CTP entries on HM9U1 and then running Reports 594 and 557. Or contact payroll and have them enter the payments directly and then run Report 557.
4	Zero out the employee’s sick leave balance on HM9U1. A retiring employee may convert blocks of 160 hours of sick leave into one month’s worth of ERS retirement credit. In addition, any positive remainder of hours can be converted into one month of ERS retirement credit. To convert hours, make an entry on HM9U1: enter SLL (sick leave lost) in the `ACTY` field, the termination date in both the `START DATE` and `END DATE` fields, the number of hours being converted in the `LV HRS` field, and ERS in the `REASN` field. For employees who are not retiring, zero out the sick leave balance by making an entry on HM9U1: enter SLL (sick leave lost) in the `ACTY` field, the termination date in both the `START DATE` and `END DATE` fields, the number of hours in the sick leave balance in the `LV HRS` field, and TERM in the `REASN` field. For employees terminated because of death, zero out any hours not paid off.

Burnout

Each agency decides whether or not to allow an employee to burnout leave. Some agencies do not offer burnout because it requires extensive calculation.

For a termination with burnout, follow the same steps as for a standard termination, but instead of Steps 2 and 3 substitute the following:

Calculate the total balance of leave which the employee can take, and convert the leave to days. For example, if the employee works 8 hours a day and has a balance of 16 hours vacation and/or holiday leave, that converts to two days of leave. Add the number of days to the employee’s last day of work. This determines the termination date.
Personnel staff must now terminate the employee as of the calculated termination date instead of the last work date.

The payroll and leave accounting staff must be sure to generate a payroll entry so that the employee receives a warrant.

For auto-paid employees:
If the termination has been entered, payroll does not need to make any special entries to pay the employee. The leave administrator will, however, need to make entries on HM9U1 showing that leave is being taken or paid.
For timecard-required employees:
Payroll staff continue to enter hours worked on HUAU1 until all leave has been exhausted. The leave administrator will make entries on HM9U1 to show that leave is being taken. For overtime and compensatory time, the leave administrator, rather than the payroll staff, may update the payroll system.

Leave Combinations

This section lists all of the valid leave combinations you can enter into the USPS Leave Accounting system. USPS uses a three-character code composed of two fields to show leave activity. The first field is two characters long and indicates the leave type. The second field is one character long and indicates the leave activity.

While this section does not list official definitions, it includes general information indicating when to use each leave combination. Unless otherwise indicated, the following codes can only be used on HM9U1 (Employee Leave Request).

Any REASN field entries mentioned are optional; the system does not use these entries during edits except when tracking optional holiday taken (see Optional Holidays), family medical/parental/military caregiver leave (see Family Medical/Parental Leave), or sick leave conversion at retirement (see reason code ERS in Hires, Transfers, and Terminations earlier in this appendix). The purpose of the REASN field is to provide additional information about the leave entry. Place the cursor on this field and press F2 twice to see all valid reason codes. (Decode Table 898 – valid leave combinations.)

AHT (Agency Holiday Leave Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee receives paid leave because the agency has allowed employees time off for a holiday observed by the agency.

ALA (Administrative Leave Awarded)

Use this leave combination when an employee has been awarded administrative leave by the agency head for outstanding performance. No more than 32 hours of this leave type may be granted in a fiscal year.

ALL (Administrative Leave Lost)

Use this leave combination when an employee loses administrative leave.

ALT (Administrative Leave Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee takes administrative leave.

CAT (Court Advocate Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee is granted leave (not to exceed five hours each month) to participate in mandatory training or perform voluntary services for Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA).

Note: This leave was authorized beginning Sept. 1, 2009.

CDE (Compensatory Disaster Time Earned)

Use this leave combination when an employee works during a disaster or emergency declared by the appropriate state or federal government. To use this combination, you must first provide your USPS representative with a copy of your agency policy for this type of leave.

CDI (Compensatory Disaster Time Transferred In)

Use this leave combination to transfer compensatory disaster time in from another agency. This combination is used only in special cases, such as when an agency splits into two agencies for legislative reasons. To use this combination, you must have a Y in the XFER field on the HMAU1 (Agency Leave Rules) screen for leave type CD.

CDL (Compensatory Disaster Time Lost)

Use this leave combination when compensatory disaster time earned by an employee must be forfeited. Generally, CDL will be system generated when the Actual/Forecasted Time Forfeitures Report (Report 597) is run, but it can also be entered manually to zero out an employee’s balances at termination.

CDO (Compensatory Disaster Time Transferred Out)

Use this leave combination to transfer compensatory disaster time out of your agency. This combination is used only in special cases, such as when an agency splits into two agencies for legislative reasons. Using CDO zeroes out a transferring employee’s balance at the losing agency and leaves an audit trail showing why the balance is zero. To use this combination, you must have a Y in the XFER field on the HMAU1 screen for the leave type CD.

CDP (Compensatory Disaster Time Paid)

Use this leave combination to pay an employee for compensatory disaster time earned previously (that is, if a CDE or CDI entry for the leave has already been made). The Payroll Transactions Generated Report (Report 594) can generate an entry in payroll on the HUEU1 (Special Payments) screen for this leave combination. To use this combination, you must have a Y in the PAY field on the HMAU1 screen for the leave type CD.

CDT (Compensatory Disaster Time Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee takes compensatory disaster time earned previously (that is, if a CDE or CDI entry for the leave has already been made).

CEE (Compensatory Emergency Time Earned)

Use this leave combination when an employee works in the capacity of “emergency services personnel,” which is defined as firefighters, police officers and other peace officers, emergency medical technicians, emergency management personnel and other individuals who are required, in the course and scope of their employment, to provide services for the benefit of the public during emergency situations. To use this combination, you must first provide your USPS representative with a copy of your agency policy for this type of leave.

CEI (Compensatory Emergency Time Transferred In)

Use this leave combination to transfer compensatory emergency time in from another agency. This combination is used only in special cases, such as when an agency splits into two agencies for legislative reasons. To use this combination, you must have a Y in the XFER field on the HMAU1 (Agency Leave Rules) screen for leave type CE.

CEL (Compensatory Emergency Time Lost)

Use this leave combination when compensatory emergency time earned by an employee must be forfeited. Generally, CEL will be system generated when the Actual/Forecasted Time Forfeitures Report (Report 597) is run, but it can also be entered manually to zero out an employee’s balances at termination. This leave type is forfeited after 18 months.

CEO (Compensatory Emergency Time Transferred Out)

Use this leave combination to transfer compensatory emergency time out of your agency. This combination is used only in special cases, such as when an agency splits into two agencies for legislative reasons. Using CEO zeroes out a transferring employee’s balance at the losing agency and leaves an audit trail showing why the balance is zero. To use this combination, you must have a Y in the XFER field on the HMAU1 screen for the leave type CE.

CEP (Compensatory Emergency Time Paid)

Use this leave combination to pay an employee for compensatory emergency time earned previously (that is, if a CEE or CEI entry for the leave has already been made). The Payroll Transactions Generated Report (Report 594) can generate an entry in payroll on the HUEU1 (Special Payments) screen for this leave combination. To use this combination, you must have a Y in the PAY field on the HMAU1 screen for the leave type CE.

CET (Compensatory Emergency Time Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee takes compensatory emergency time earned previously (that is, if a CEE or CEI entry for the leave has already been made).

CTE (Compensatory [Comp] Time Earned)

Use this leave combination when an employee works more than his or her assigned FTE, and the excess time is not considered overtime. If your agency does not use the leave type HC to track compensatory time earned on a holiday, you may use this combination instead. An employee working a nonstandard schedule should receive compensatory time if he or she was not scheduled to work on a holiday guaranteed to all employees. You may enter SHFT in the REASN field to indicate the leave earned is due to an irregular shift pattern.

CTI (Compensatory [Comp] Time Transferred In)

Use this leave combination to transfer compensatory time in from another agency. This combination is used only in special cases, such as when an agency splits into two agencies for legislative reasons. To use this combination, you must have a Y in the XFER field on HMAU1 (Agency Leave Rules) for leave type CT.

CTL (Compensatory [Comp] Time Lost)

Use this leave combination when compensatory time earned by an employee must be forfeited. Generally CTL will be system generated when the Actual/Forecasted Time Forfeitures Report (Report 597) is run, but it can be used at other times, such as when zeroing out an employee’s optional holiday taken balance (see Optional Holidays) or manually forfeiting aged leave (leave not used within the required time period as set in the LOSTMO field on HMAU1).

CTO (Compensatory [Comp] Time Transferred Out)

Use this leave combination to transfer compensatory time out of your agency in special cases only, such as when an agency splits into two agencies for legislative reasons. This code does not increase the employee’s balance at the receiving agency; to do this, the receiving agency must manually enter the balance using CTI. Using CTO zeroes out a transferring employee’s balance at the losing agency and leaves an audit trail showing why the balance is zero. To use this combination, you must have a Y in the XFER field on HMAU1 for the leave type CT.

CTP (Compensatory [Comp] Time Paid)

If your agency has authority to pay an employee for compensatory time, use this leave combination to pay an employee for compensatory time earned previously (that is, if a CTE or CTI entry for the leave has already been made). The Payroll Transactions Generated Report (Report 594) can generate an entry in payroll on HUAU1 (Standard Time Reporting) for this leave combination. To use this combination, you must have a Y in the PAY field on HMAU1 for the leave type CT.

CTT (Compensatory [Comp] Time Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee takes compensatory time earned previously (that is, if a CTE or CTI entry for the leave has already been made).

DBT (Donate Blood Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee takes leave to donate blood. There are no maximum amounts for this leave type, only that the employee should be allowed a reasonable amount of time off and not more than four times per fiscal year. The employee must provide proof of donating blood or the time will be charged to accrued leave.

DMT (Donate Marrow Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee takes leave to donate bone marrow. The employee may take up to five days of this leave type per fiscal year.

DOT (Donate Organ Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee takes leave to donate an organ. The employee may take up to 30 days of this leave type per fiscal year.

DSA (Donor Sick Awarded)

Use this leave combination when an employee has been given donor sick leave.

DSG (Donor Sick Given)

Use this leave combination only on HQ9U1 to give a recipient donor sick hours. An LOA is needed to change or delete this activity.

DSL (Donor Sick Lost)

Use this leave combination when an employee has terminated and donor sick leave hours remain unused.

DST (Donor Sick Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee takes donor sick leave. Donor sick hours must be available and accrued sick leave, sick leave pool and extended sick leave exhausted.

EAT (Emergency Active Leave Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee takes federal emergency active leave to provide assistance to civil authorities in a declared emergency or training for that purpose. An employee may not be paid emergency active leave of more than 22 days in a federal fiscal year (Oct. 1 through Sept. 30).

ECT (Emergency COVID-19 Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee takes emergency leave related to COVID-19. This is paid leave an agency provides an employee in lieu of other accrued paid leave and should only be used if the agency deems it appropriate to grant paid leave without a reduction to the employee’s existing accrued leave. Use of this emergency leave is at the agency’s discretion.

EDE (Education Leave Earned)

Use this leave combination to show that an employee has a balance of time available which may be used for educational purposes (as defined by the agency). Leave type EDE is used only when an agency wants to track the amount of time being given to employees for education.

EDT (Education Leave Taken)

Use this leave combination to show that an employee has taken leave for educational purposes (as defined by the agency). Leave type EDT is used only when an agency wants to track the amount of time being taken by employees for education.

EFA (Emergency Fitness Awarded)

Use this leave combination when an employee has been awarded emergency fitness leave for fulfilling the requirements of an agency-wide wellness activity. A maximum of 16 hours may be awarded to any employee each fiscal year.

EFL (Emergency Fitness Lost)

Use this leave combination when emergency fitness time awarded to an employee must be forfeited. Generally, an employee will only lose fitness leave at termination.

EFT (Emergency Fitness Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee takes emergency fitness time awarded previously (that is, if an EFA entry for the leave has already been made).

EMT (Emergency Death Leave Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee takes emergency leave because one of the following persons has died: the spouse, the employee’s parents or grandparents, the spouse’s parents or grandparents, children, the employee’s brothers or sisters, or the spouse’s brothers or sisters.

EOT (Emergency Other Leave Taken)

Use this leave combination when either:

An administrative head of a state agency determines an emergency leave reason other than a death in the employee’s family.
–OR–
An employee takes state emergency other leave as a member of the state military forces. This type of emergency other leave is usually when the employee is called into active duty by the governor and has no limits.

Emergency other leave taken (EOT) must be entered on HM9CM. This leave type requires comments.

ESG (Extended Sick Given)

Use this leave combination only on HP9U2 to record hours the employee has been given by the agency. It will display on HM9U1 and will be reduced by EST transactions. It may be helpful to enter a reason code such as WKCP for worker’s compensation, FAM to indicate a family member’s illness, SICK for personal sickness, etc.

EST (Extended Sick Taken)

Use this leave combination to track extended sick leave granted beyond the employee’s personally accrued balance.

EWA (Employee Wellness Awarded)

Use this leave combination when an employee has been awarded wellness leave for receiving a physical exam and completing an agency designated health risk assessment. A maximum of eight hours may be awarded to any employee once during any 12-month period.

EWL (Employee Wellness Lost)

Use this leave combination when employee wellness time awarded to an employee must be forfeited. Generally, EWL will be system generated when the Actual/Forecasted Time Forfeiture Report (Report 597) is run, but it can also be entered manually to zero out an employee’s balances at termination.

EWT (Employee Wellness Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee takes wellness time awarded previously (that is, if an EWA entry for the leave has already been made).

FCT (Facility Closure Leave Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee receives paid leave because the employee cannot report to work due to the mandatory closure of the building or work facility.

FFT (Volunteer Fire Fighter Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee who is a volunteer fire fighter takes leave to attend training. The employee may take up to five days per fiscal year. When an employee transfers to another agency, the losing agency does not need to zero out the balance of volunteer fire fighter (FF) leave. The receiving agency must make a leave entry (with a start date of the employee’s first work day at the receiving agency), taking the same number of hours as the employee took at the losing agency during the current fiscal year. The receiving agency may indicate that the training was taken at another agency and transferred in by entering SUM (Summary Entry) in the REASN field.

FPT (Foster Parent Taken)

Use this leave combination when employees who are foster parents take leave in order to attend staffing meetings held by the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services or to attend the Admission, Review and Dismissal (ARD) meeting held by a school district. These meetings must concern the child under the foster care of the employee.

HCE (Holiday Compensatory [Comp] Time Earned)

Use this leave combination when an employee has earned compensatory time by working on a state or national holiday (excluding optional holidays). You may also use this combination when an employee has already observed an optional holiday. Enter OHOL in the REASN field to adjust the optional holiday taken balance. Use this combination also when an employee has a nonstandard work pattern and does not work on a guaranteed holiday and therefore must be compensated by receiving compensatory time. (You may enter SHFT in the REASN field to show that the reason for the leave is an irregular shift pattern.) If you do not wish to track holiday compensatory time separately from standard compensatory time, you do not need to use this leave combination. (Use CTE.)

HCI (Holiday Compensatory [Comp] Time Transferred In)

Use this leave combination to transfer holiday compensatory time in from another agency. Use this value only in special cases, such as when an agency splits into two agencies for legislative reasons. To use this combination, you must have a Y in the XFER field on HMAU1 for leave type HC.

HCL (Holiday Compensatory [Comp] Time Lost)

Use this leave combination when an employee does not take or is not paid for holiday compensatory time within the required time period (usually 12 months). Generally, HCL is system generated when Report 597 is run, but it can be used at other times, such as when zeroing out an employee’s Optional Holiday Taken balance (see Optional Holidays) or when forfeiting aged leave (leave not used within the required time period as set in the LOSTMO field on HMAU1).

HCO (Holiday Compensatory [Comp] Time Transferred Out)

Use this leave combination to transfer holiday compensatory time out of your agency in special cases only, such as when an agency splits into two agencies for legislative reasons. To use this combination, you must have a Y in the XFER field on HMAU1 for leave type HC. This code does not increase the employee’s balance at the receiving agency; to do this, the receiving agency must manually enter the balance using HCI. Using HCO zeroes out a transferring employee’s balance at the losing agency and leaves an audit trail showing why the balance is zero.

HCT (Holiday Compensatory [Comp] Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee takes holiday compensatory time previously earned, or when an employee elects to observe an optional holiday (enter OHOL in the REASN field). If you do not wish to track holiday compensatory time separately from standard compensatory time, use CTT instead of HCT.

INT (Leave During Agency Investigation)

Use this leave combination when the administrative head of an agency grants leave to an employee who is either the subject of an investigation being conducted by the agency, OR a victim of or witness to an act or event that is the subject of an investigation being conducted by the agency.

JST (Jury Service Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee must serve jury duty.

LDA (Line of Duty Awarded)

Use this leave combination when a commissioned peace officer has been awarded line of duty leave for an injury sustained on the job. The maximum amount of leave allowed for all injuries occurring at a single time is one year of paid leave.

LDT (Line of Duty Taken)

Use this leave combination when a commissioned peace officer takes line of duty leave. Authorized agencies must monitor the occurrences and ensure that no employee takes more than one year per event.

LET (Legislative Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee who is a certified peace officer takes leave to serve in, appear before or petition the state legislature or federal Congress.

LWD (Leave Without Pay [LWOP] Pay Dock)

Use this leave combination when you need to dock an employee’s pay, such as when docking an employee’s pay for taking an optional holiday without working on a state or national holiday to make it up. Report 594 can generate an entry in payroll on HUEU1 (Special Payments) for this leave combination. The employee does not need to be on LWOP for you to use this combination. You may wish to enter a reason code such as DISP (disciplinary action), PERS (personal reasons), SBAT (sabbatical leave), SICK (employee sick), FMXX (family leave), PMXX (parental leave) or UNAU (unauthorized leave) to show why the employee is on LWOP.

LWT (Leave Without Pay [LWOP] Taken)

Use this leave combination to track an employee who is on leave without pay. This code does not change the employee’s status on H0BUS (Employee Status) (maintained by personnel staff). If the employee is paid automatically (auto pay) by USPS, using this code will not prevent payment. This leave combination serves only as an audit trail and can be used, for example, when tracking family medical or parental leave hours taken. You may wish to enter a reason code such as DISP (disciplinary action), PERS (personal reasons), SBAT (sabbatical leave), SICK (employee sick) or UNAU (unauthorized leave) to show why the employee was absent.

MLA (Military Leave Awarded)

Use this leave combination when an employee has been awarded military leave. An example of military leave is when an employee takes part in authorized training or duty for the state’s military forces or a reserved branch of the U.S. armed forces. An employee can be awarded up to 15 days of military leave in a federal fiscal year (Oct. 1 through Sept. 30), and up to a maximum of 45 days can be carried forward.

MLL (Military Leave Lost)

Use this leave combination when military leave awarded was not taken or must be forfeited. An employee can carry forward up to a maximum of 45 days per federal fiscal year (Oct. 1 through Sept. 30). Report 597 will display an informational message regarding forecasted time forfeitures. Report 598 will roll over military leave and close out the federal fiscal year.

MLT (Military Leave Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee has taken military leave. Military leave must be awarded before it can be taken. An employee can use up to 15 days of military leave in a federal fiscal year (Oct. 1 through Sept. 30) and up to a maximum of 45 days of unused military leave can be carried forward.

OTE (Overtime Earned)

Use this leave combination when an employee works overtime. The number of hours entered is added to the overtime balance found on HM9U1 and HN9U3 (Leave Balance Detail by Leave Type) and to the year-to-date earned balance on HM8U2 (and the month-to-date earned balance if the start date is in the current leave accounting month). The system then multiplies this amount by 1.5 and adds it to the overtime available balances on HM9U1, HN9U3 and HM8U2.

OTI (Overtime Transferred In)

Use this leave combination to transfer overtime in from another agency. Use this combination only in special cases, such as when an agency splits into two agencies for legislative purposes. To use this combination, you must have a Y in the XFER field on HMAU1 for the leave type OT. The number of hours entered is added to the overtime balance found on HM9U1 and HN9U3 and to the year-to-date earned balance on HM8U2 (and the month-to-date earned balance if the start date is in the current leave accounting month). The system then multiplies this amount by 1.5 and adds it to the overtime available balances whenever HM9U1, HN9U3, and HM8U2 are called up.

OTP (Overtime Paid)

Use this leave combination if your agency allows an employee to be paid for overtime earned previously (that is, if an OTE or OTI entry has already been made). The number of hours entered is subtracted from the overtime balance found on HM9U1 and HN9U3 and added to the year-to-date paid balance on HM8U2 (and the month-to-date paid balance if the start date is in the current leave accounting month). The system then multiplies this amount by 1.5 and subtracts it from the overtime available balance on HM9U1, HN9U3, and HM8U2. To use this combination, you must have a Y in the PAY field on HMAU1 for the leave type OT. Report 594 can generate an entry in payroll on HUAU1 for this leave combination.

OTT (Overtime Time Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee wants to take overtime from his or her available balance. The system will take the number of hours entered and subtract this from the overtime available balance on HM9U1, HN9U3 and HM8U2. The system will then multiply the amount by two-thirds (2/3 or 0.6667), subtract the result from the overtime balance on HM9U1 and HN9U3 and add it to the year-to-date taken balance (and month-to-date taken balance if the start date of the leave is in the current leave accounting month) on HM8U2.

PFT (Paid FMLA COVID-19 Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee takes paid FMLA leave related to COVID-19. Effective April 1, 2021, this leave is available to an employee for up to 12 weeks for COVID-19 absences between April 1, 2021, and Sept. 30, 2021. Leave taken in this combination is part of, and will be deducted from, the 12 weeks allowed for standard FMLA absences.

RCT (Red Cross Leave Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee certified as a disaster service volunteer of the American Red Cross (or in training to become one) takes leave to participate in specialized disaster relief services. He or she may take up to 10 days per fiscal year. When an employee transfers to another agency, the losing agency does not need to zero out the balance of Red Cross (RC) leave. The receiving agency must make a leave entry (with a start date of the employee’s first work day at the receiving agency), taking the same number of hours as the employee took at the losing agency during the current fiscal year. The receiving agency may indicate that the emergency leave was taken at another agency and transferred in by entering SUM (Summary Entry) in the REASN field.

ROT (Radio Operator Leave Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee who holds an amateur radio station license issued by the FCC participates in specialized disaster relief services. The employee may be allowed leave not to exceed 10 days each fiscal year. No more than 350 state employees may be eligible for this leave at any one time during the fiscal year, and the Texas Division of Emergency Management will maintain and coordinate the list of eligible state employees.

RTT (Reserve Law Enforcement Officer Leave Taken)

Use this leave combination when a reserve law enforcement officer takes time off for required training. The employee is entitled to a leave of absence without deduction in pay for up to five working days every fiscal biennium. The leave taken balance can be viewed on HM8U2.

SAA (Sick Leave Awarded From the Sick Leave Pool to an Employee)

If employee is eligible, use this leave combination only on HP9U2 (Sick Leave Pool Activity). Use it to give an employee sick leave for personal use from the sick leave pool.

Note: After using this combination, the employee’s balance of personally accrued leave will not be changed. Instead, the employee will have a separate balance of awarded sick leave (SA) which can be viewed only on HP9U2 or HM8U2.

SAB (Sick Leave [Awarded From the Sick Leave Pool to an Employee] Returned Back to the Sick Leave Pool)

Use this leave combination only on HP9U2. The employee must first have been awarded sick leave from the sick leave pool with the leave combination SAA or SAI. If the awarded sick leave is not used, you can return the leave back to the sick leave pool.

SAI (Sick Leave Awarded From the Sick Leave Pool to an Employee Transferred In)

If employee is eligible, use this leave combination to transfer in from another agency sick leave awarded from the sick leave pool to an employee. The employee must have first been awarded sick leave from the sick leave pool with the leave combination SAA at the losing agency. To use this combination, you must have a Y in the XFER field on HMAU1 for the leave type SA.

SAO (Sick Leave Awarded From the Sick Leave Pool to an Employee Transferred Out)

If employee is eligible, use this leave combination to transfer out of your agency sick leave from the sick leave pool awarded to an employee. The employee must first have been awarded sick leave from the sick leave pool with the leave combination SAA. The leave combination SAO does not increase the employee’s balance at the receiving agency. To do this, the receiving agency must manually enter the balance using SAI. Using SAO zeroes out a transferring employee’s balance at the losing agency and leaves an audit trail showing why the balance is zero. To use this combination, you must have a Y in the XFER field on HMAU1 for the leave type SA.

SAT (Sick Leave [Awarded From the Sick Leave Pool to an Employee] Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee takes sick leave awarded from the sick leave pool. The employee must have first been awarded sick leave from the sick leave pool with the leave combination SAA.

SCI (Sick Leave Contributed to the Sick Leave Pool Transferred In)

If employee is eligible, use this leave combination to transfer in from another agency sick leave donated by an employee to the pool with the leave combination SLG at the losing agency. To use this combination, you must have Y in the XFER field on HMAU1 for leave type SC.

It is important to realize that the SC balance does not represent a leave separate from other types. Instead, it shows how much leave an employee can reclaim back from the sick leave pool and add back to his or her balance of personally accrued leave. This is tracked so that if an employee uses all of his or her personally accrued sick leave and needs more, he or she can reclaim any donated sick leave (according to agency policy) rather than be awarded sick leave from the pool.

When an SC balance is transferred from one agency to another, it only shows that instead of being able to reclaim sick leave from the old agency (where it was donated), the employee can now reclaim sick leave from the new agency (where no sick leave has been donated by the employee). SCI and SCO, in other words, transfer the right to reclaim, but no actual sick leave hours are transferred. The sick leave pool balances at the losing and receiving agencies are not changed. If the losing agency wants to decrease the number of hours in its sick leave pool and the receiving agency wants to increase the number of hours in its pool (in essence transferring the leave from one pool to another), LOAs must be submitted to your USPS representative. Therefore, it is a decision among the agencies whether or not to transfer the SC balance.

SCO (Sick Leave Contributed to the Sick Leave Pool Transferred Out)

If employee is eligible, use this leave combination to transfer out of your agency sick leave donated by an employee to the sick leave pool. The employee must first have donated sick leave to the sick leave pool using the leave combination SLG. This code does not increase the balance of donated sick leave at the receiving agency; to do this, the receiving agency must manually enter the transfer using SCI. Using SCO zeroes out a transferring employee’s balance at the losing agency and leaves an audit trail showing why the balance is zero. To use this combination, you must have a Y in the XFER field on HMAU1 for leave type SC. See leave combination SCI for an explanation of transferring an SC balance.

SET (Assistance Dog Training)

Use this leave combination when an employee attends training to get acquainted with a seeing-eye dog to be used by the employee. The employee can take up to 10 days per fiscal year.

When an employee transfers to another agency, the losing agency does not need to zero out the balance of seeing-eye dog (SE) leave. The receiving agency must make a leave entry (with a start date of the employee’s first work day at the receiving agency), taking the same number of hours as the employee took at the losing agency during the current fiscal year. The receiving agency may indicate that the seeing-eye dog leave was taken at another agency and transferred in by entering SUM (Summary Entry) in the REASN field.

SLC (Sick Leave Converted)

This combination will only be used by the system when the Leave Rollover Exception Listing (Report 158) is run. This leave combination increases an employee’s sick leave balance when, at the end of the fiscal year, the employee has more vacation leave than can be carried forward from one fiscal year to the next. Using this combination does not decrease the vacation leave balance; it only increases the sick leave balance. Therefore, SLC is used in conjunction with VCC.

SLG (Sick Leave Given to the Sick Leave Pool)

Use this leave combination only on HP9U2. It allows an employee to donate sick leave to the sick leave pool from the employee’s personally accrued balance.

SLI (Sick Leave Transferred In)

Use this leave combination to transfer personally accrued sick leave in from another agency. To use this combination, you must have Y in the XFER field on HMAU1 for the leave type SL.

SLL (Sick Leave Lost)

Use this leave combination to reduce an employee’s balance of personally accrued sick leave. This code is generally used when an employee is terminated. This leave combination will auto-generate on HM9U1 when an employee donates accrued sick leave to another employee on HQ9U1.

Note: This will always be generated automatically for audit purposes when a lump sum payment is entered on HUZU1 (Payroll Lump Sum Special Payments). This will only be used for deceased employees who were paid a portion of their sick leave balance.

SLO (Sick Leave Transferred Out)

Use this leave combination to transfer out of your agency sick leave personally accrued by an employee. This code does not increase the employee’s balance at the receiving agency. To do this, the receiving agency must manually enter the balance using SLI. Using SLO zeroes out a transferring employee’s balance at the losing agency and leaves an audit trail showing why the balance is zero. To use this combination, you must have a Y in the XFER field on HMAU1 for the leave type SL.

SLP (Sick Leave Paid)

This combination cannot be entered manually in the USPS system; it will always be generated automatically for audit purposes when a lump sum payment is entered on HUZU1 (Payroll Lump Sum Special Payments). This will only be used for deceased employees who are entitled to be paid for a portion of their sick leave balance. This leave combination pays an employee for personally accrued sick leave.

SLR (Sick Leave Reclaimed)

Use this leave combination only on HP9U2. The employee must first have donated sick leave to the sick leave pool with the leave combination SLG. Using SLR allows an employee to reclaim donated sick leave. This is important if an employee uses all of his or her available sick leave and needs more; it is easier to reclaim sick leave donated by the employee rather than award sick leave from the pool, which must be approved. Use this combination only in accordance with agency policy.

SLT (Sick Leave Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee takes personally accrued sick leave.

SPA (Paid Sick Leave COVID-19 Awarded)

Use this leave combination to enter the number of paid sick leave hours being made available to eligible employees for specified reasons related to COVID-19. A maximum of 80 hours may be awarded to the employee. This leave combination is valid between April 1, 2021, and Sept. 30, 2021.

SPT (Paid Sick Leave COVID-19 Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee uses paid sick leave for specified reasons related to COVID-19. A maximum of 80 hours will be available, which includes leave taken for the employee’s own use and/or leave taken to care for someone impacted by COVID-19. Both scenarios will use the same time reporting code. This leave combination is valid between April 1, 2021, and Sept. 30, 2021.

VCC (Vacation Converted)

The system will use this combination only when Report 158 is run. This leave combination decreases an employee’s vacation balance when, at the end of the fiscal year, the employee has more vacation leave than can be carried forward from one fiscal year to the next. Using this combination does not increase the sick leave balance; it only decreases the vacation balance. Therefore, SLC must be used in conjunction with VCC.

VCI (Vacation Transferred In)

Use this leave combination to transfer in from another agency vacation leave accrued by an employee. To use this combination, you must have a Y in the XFER field on HMAU1 for the leave type VC.

VCL (Vacation Lost)

Use this leave combination to reduce an employee’s balance of vacation leave. This combination is generally used when a newly hired employee is terminated before he or she is eligible to take or be paid for vacation leave.

VCO (Vacation Transferred Out)

Use this leave combination to transfer out of your agency vacation leave accrued by an employee. This code does not increase the employee’s balance at the receiving agency. To do this, the receiving agency must manually enter the balance using VCI. Using VCO zeroes out a transferring employee’s balance at the losing agency and leaves an audit trail showing why the balance is zero. To use this combination, you must have a Y in the XFER field on HMAU1 for the leave type VC.

VCP (Vacation Paid)

This combination cannot be entered manually in the USPS system; it will always be generated automatically for audit purposes when a lump sum payment is entered on HUZU1. This leave combination pays an employee for vacation leave. This is only used for terminated employees who are being paid for their vacation balance.

VCT (Vacation Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee takes vacation leave.

VLT (Voter Leave Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee receives paid leave to vote in a national, state or local election.

VMT (Veterans Medical/Mental Health Care Leave Taken)

Use this leave combination when an eligible veteran employee receives medical and/or mental health care administered by the Veterans Health Administration. The administrative agency head has the authority to grant up to 15 days each fiscal year or additional days at their discretion.

WCT (Weather Closure Leave Taken)

Use this leave combination when an employee receives paid leave because the employee cannot report to work due to weather-related issues.

Automated Leave Processes

Automated Leave Posting

When you enter a leave request on HM9U1 (Employee Leave Request), the system attempts to post the leave immediately. Future-dated leave will not post, however, because the start date comes after the current leave accounting month. The current leave accounting date is the most recent month in which an accrual has taken place (or been suppressed) on HMCU1 (Employee Leave Accrual).

If you request future-dated leave for an employee, the system records the request but does not post the leave activity. The ST field will contain an R (request) instead of a P (post).

Once Report 156 has been run or manual accruals completed for the month in which the leave started, you can run the Posting Report (Report 196) to make the system post the leave. This will also generate an exceptions report showing all leave that posted and all leave that could not post due to an error (for example, not enough leave balance to take the leave, etc.).

The Post Pending Leave Process and Posting Report (Report 196)

Run Report 196 to post requested leave with a start date in or before the current leave accounting month. Run this report at least one day after running Report 156. Be sure not to run the Payroll Transactions Generated Report or the Time Forfeiture Report (Reports 594 and 597) until after running Report 196.

Use HNKLA (Leave Accounting Report Requests and Flags) to set the LA process date to the last day of the leave accounting month and to set the current fiscal year date if necessary.

Automatic Leave Payment Processes

The USPS Leave Accounting system can automate payment or pay dock for the following types of leave:

Overtime Paid (OTP)
Compensatory Time Paid (CTP)
Compensatory Disaster Paid (CDP)
Compensatory Emergency Paid (CEP)
Leave Without Pay Dock (LWD)

To pay any other type of leave, inform payroll personnel. Generally, any type of leave other than the three above will not require special procedures unless the leave activity increases or decreases the employee’s pay. For example, if an employee must serve on a jury, enter the leave on HM9U1 (Employee Leave Requests) for audit purposes; payroll will not do anything different for this employee. If the employee was auto-paid, he or she will continue to be auto-paid. If the employee requires a timecard, payroll will enter the timecard as normal.

You can use two methods to pay leave:

You can enter leave into the leave accounting screens, which then update payroll automatically.
Payroll can enter the leave payments directly and then update leave accounting automatically.

The steps for each method follow below.

Using Leave Accounting to Update Payroll of Leave Payments/Docks

Step	Action
1	Enter the payments/docks on HM9U1.
2	Request the Payroll Transactions Generated Report (Report 594). This report scans HM9U1 for all OTP, CTP, CDP, CEP or LWD entries with a status of P and creates transactions on HUAU1 (Standard Time Reporting) for payments or HUEU1 (Special Payments) for docks or compensatory payments (disaster or emergency). The system will then change the status of the HM9U1 entries from P (posted) to G (generated) and will create a printed list of all the batches created. You must inform payroll that the batches can be balanced and released. There are three cases in which the transactions created by Report 594 may need to be altered: The system assumes that all employees are assigned to only one (primary) position. If a payment/dock is associated with a secondary assignment, payroll staff must change the transactions created. Report 594 only uses the primary labor code. If leave is to be paid/docked using more than one labor code or assigned to a different labor code, payroll staff must change or add additional transactions. If an employee’s pay changes during the month (for example, the employee is promoted or receives a merit increase), the system pays or docks at the rate of the new, current assignment, even if the start date of the payment/dock on HM9U1 was before the change.
3	Payroll staff releases the batches containing the payments/docks. Note: It is not necessary to release the batches immediately. They can be held or even changed if you do not want the employee paid/docked on the next payroll.
4	Run the Leave Payment Audit (Report 557). This report scans all warrants within the date range specified to find the sum of overtime hours paid. The system then scans HM9U1 for all OTP, CTP, CDP, CEP or LWD entries with a status of G and totals the hours involved. If the number of hours paid in payroll matches the number of hours paid in leave accounting, the status of the OTP, CTP, CDP, CEP or LWD entries is changed from G to $ (paid) and the Report 557 enters PBAL in the `REASN` field. If the number of hours do not match, the system creates a new entry on HM9U1 with a start date of the first day in the pay period for the earliest warrant scanned, a status of $, and PAID displayed in the `REASN` field. This new entry decreases the employee’s balance. The system then repeats the same process for compensatory time payments and pay docks.
5	Run the Leave Payroll Reconciliation (Report 595) to verify that all leave was properly paid/docked. This is necessary to determine whether payroll staff changed the payment/dock transactions originally created by Report 594. There are two types of changes which would cause improper reconciliation between payroll and leave accounting: Payroll staff might change the number of hours paid/docked, in which case Report 557 would no longer be able to match the leave accounting system with the payroll system. Payroll staff might divide payments/docks out among multiple PCA/indices. (For example, an employee works 10 hours of overtime. The payment is entered on HM9U1 and Report 594 generates a transaction on HUAU1 to pay the employee. Report 594 only uses the employee’s primary labor code, however, so payroll staff alters the transaction to pay for only five hours of overtime and then manually enters a second transaction to pay the employee for the other five hours out of a second labor code. A separate payroll history is maintained for each labor code, so Report 557 would first try to match the five hours paid out of the primary labor code with the 10-hour entry on HM9U1. Since this cannot be done, a new entry for five hours would be made on HM9U1. The system would then make a new entry for the five hours paid out of the second labor code. The result would be the original entry on HM9U1 paying the employee for 10 hours and two new entries paying the employee for five hours each.) Report 595 shows all leave entries on HM9U1 that have just had their status changed to $ and all entries with a status of G. Investigate why the entries with a G status have not been changed to $. If there are any cases where two or more entries exist for the same payment/dock, manually cancel the entry with a G status, leaving the entry with a $ status.

Using Payroll to Update Leave Accounting of Leave Payments/Docks

Step	Action
1	Payroll staff must manually enter all overtime/compensatory time payments on HUAU1 and pay docks on HUEU1.
2	Payroll staff releases the batches containing the payments/docks. Note: It is not necessary to release the batches immediately. They can be held or even changed if you do not want the employee paid on the next payroll.
3	Run the Leave Payment Audit Report (Report 557). This report scans all warrants within the date range specified to find the sum of overtime hours paid. The system then creates a new entry on HM9U1 with a start date of the first day in the pay period for the earliest warrant scanned, a status of $, and PAID displayed in the `REASN` field. This new entry decreases the employee’s balance. The system then repeats the same process for compensatory time payments and pay docks.

The Payroll Transactions Generated Report (Report 594)

Use HNKLA (Leave Accounting Report Requests and Flags) to request Report 594. Request this report at least one night before running a trial payroll if you need to pay an employee automatically for overtime and compensatory time or if you need to dock an employee’s pay. This report takes information from HM9U1 and interfaces it with the payroll system in order to generate payments (or dock pay). Be sure Report 196 has been run before you request Report 594.

The type of leave being paid (or docked), the employee type, and your agency’s payroll schedule determine what entries the system generates in payroll. The following chart shows on which screen and with which batch number the system creates payroll entries:

Batch No.	Employee Type	Leave Type	Payroll Schedule	Screen
9000	Full-time	Compensatory time (CTP)	Monthly	HUAU1 (Standard Time Reporting)
9001	Full-time	Compensatory time (CTP)	Semi-monthly	HUAU1
9002	Full-time	Leave without pay (dock) (LWD)	Monthly	HUEU1 (Special Payments)
9003	Full-time	Leave without pay (dock) (LWD)	Semi-monthly	HUEU1
9004	Full-time	Overtime (OTP)	Monthly	HUAU1
9005	Full-time	Overtime (OTP)	Semi-monthly	HUAU1
9006	Part-time	Compensatory time (CTP)	Monthly	HUAU1
9007	Part-time	Compensatory time (CTP)	Semi-monthly	HUAU1
9008	Part-time	Leave without pay (dock) (LWD)	Monthly	HUEU1
9009	Part-time	Leave without pay (dock) (LWD)	Semi-monthly	HUEU1
9010	Part-time	Overtime (OTP)	Monthly	HUAU1
9011	Part-time	Overtime (OTP)	Semi-monthly	HUAU1
9012	Full or part-time	Compensatory disaster time (CDP) Compensatory emergency time (CEP)	Monthly	HUEU1
9013	Full or part-time	Compensatory disaster time (CDP) Compensatory emergency time (CEP)	Semi-monthly	HUEU1

When creating batches, only the primary labor code from HNHU1 is used. There are two options for employees with multiple labor codes:

Allow Report 594 to create the entries and then have payroll staff enter any missing labor codes.

–OR–
Do not use Report 594 and have payroll manually enter all leave payments and docks.

Once the payroll entries have been generated, the system updates the status (ST field) on HM9U1 from P (posted) to G (generated) for all the leave that Report 594 entered into payroll. The payment has not yet been processed at this point; payroll personnel must balance and release or hold the payment as with all other batches.

The Leave Payment Audit Report (Report 557)

Use HNKLA (Leave Accounting Report Requests and Flags) to request the Leave Payment Audit Report (Report 557). Run this report at least one day after a final payroll in which overtime or compensatory time was paid, or in which an employee’s pay was docked using special pay 12 – LWOP, whether or not the payment or dock was entered using Report 594.

Report 557 audits payroll history from H0HHP (Employee Payment History) and H0MSP (Employee Special Payment History) for information about the payments and docks that were made, and compares the results to HM9U1. You will see two changes after the comparison. The status (ST field) of the leave entry is changed to $ and PBAL (paid balance) is entered in the REASN field on HM9U1 if the following requirements are met:

The leave type (HM9U1) matches the type of leave paid or docked.
The leave start date (HM9U1) is within the pay period when the payment/dock occurred.
The number of hours (HM9U1) matches the hours paid or docked.

If no matching HM9U1 entry is found to match payroll history, a new entry is created with a status of $, a REASN field of PAID, and a start date of the first day of the pay period.

The Leave Payroll Reconciliation Report (Report 595)

Use HNKLA to request the Leave Payroll Reconciliation Report (Report 595). Run this report at the same time you run Report 557. This report lists all entries on HM9U1 with a status of G. It also lists all entries on HM9U1 where the status changed from G to $ within the current leave accounting month.

Use this report to find any discrepancies between payroll history and leave accounting. Discrepancies arise when the payroll staff changes an entry from leave accounting using Report 594.

For example, Report 594 creates an entry in payroll to pay for overtime. Since that report only uses the primary labor code, the payroll staff changes the entry to split it among two labor codes. Report 557 would not recognize the two entries in payroll as coming from the same HM9U1 entry in leave accounting, so it would create two new entries on HM9U1 to match history, both with a status of $. The original HM9U1 entry would be left with a status of G. Thus, the employee’s overtime balance would be decreased by twice the number of hours needed. Use Report 595 to find any entries with a status of G that should have been changed to $, then look to see if any new entries were added. If so, you must cancel the original entry (with a status of G).

USPS Process Guide – Appendix I – Leave Accounting

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