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USPS Process Guide –
Chapter 12: Leave Accounting –
HO8U1, HM9U1 – Family Medical, Parental and Military Caregiver Leave

Screen: HO8U1, HM9U1
Prerequisites: An HO8U1 record must be created for the employee before any FMLA activity can be entered on HM9U1.
Key Fields:

HO8U1 – AGENCY, SSN, EVENT NUMBER

HM9U1 – AGENCY, SSN, LEAVE TYPE, LEAVE ACTY, START DATE, START TIME

Note: For detailed information about family medical and parental leave, see Appendix I – Leave Accounting.

Step Action
1

Access HO8U1.

Note: If this screen is already set up for the selected event, go to Step 5. Only one HO8U1 record is created for each event.
2 Enter I in the SUBCOMMAND field.
3 Enter the following fields as required:
AGENCY (Key)
SSN (Key)
EVENT NUMBER (Required)
Enter a unique sequence number for each event.
NAME (Display)
The employee’s full name.
LEAVE CATEGORY (Required)
Enter a value indicating the type of leave being tracked.
FM Family medical leave
PL Parental leave
MC Military caregiver
RSN CODE (Required)
05 (Workers comp) Work-related injury
07 (FMLA) Birth/maternity/adopt/foster care
08 (FMLA) Other
09 (FMLA) Serious health condition – relative
1A (FMLA) Military exigency (Federal)
10 (FMLA) Serious health condition – personal
19 (FMLA) Public health emergency – COVID-19
LEAVE TAKEN FOR EVENT (Display)
The number of hours the employee has taken for this event.
TOTAL AVAIL BAL (Display)

The remaining balance of leave available to the employee. The balance is calculated based on the limit of the leave category minus the amount of leave taken over the eligible period from all applicable events, depending on the FMLA system flag (i.e., calendar year, fiscal year, rolling 12 months). The balance has also been reduced by the total hours used for all spouse events.

Note: For the rolling 12-month option, the system subtracts the amount of leave taken during the current accrual month and the prior 11 months from the limit, based on leave category (for all applicable events). Agencies are cautioned to avoid accruing leave for months in advance of the current leave accounting month. Because the fiscal year and calendar year options have distinct begin and end dates, the system subtracts the amount of leave taken from limit (for all applicable events) during that fiscal or calendar year in which the leave event occurs.

LEAVE ALLOWED FOR EVENT (Display)
Indicates the number of FMLA hours an employee is entitled to receive for an event. This field is autopopulated with 480 hours for family medical and 1,040 hours for military caregiver, but should be adjusted proportionately based on the employee's FTE as of the event date.
LEAVE AVAIL FOR EVENT (Display)

Indicates the remaining balance of leave available to the employee. This balance is calculated based on the amount in the LEAVE ALLOWED FOR EVENT field minus any leave taken for event.

Note: LEAVE ALLOWED FOR EVENT and LEAVE AVAIL FOR EVENT will only display:

  1. Upon initial entry on HO8U1.
  2. When no leave hours have been taken against the event.
    –OR–
  3. When leave allowed contains less than the maximum based on the leave category.
EVENT DT (Required)
Enter the date of the event that required the employee to take leave.
LV START DT (Required)
Enter the first day the employee took or is expected to take leave for this event.
LV EXPIR DT (Display)
Indicates the last date the employee may use the balance of leave hours shown in the TOTAL AVAIL BAL field. This field displays one of three values, depending on the entry in the FMLA SYSTEM FLAG field on HNKLA. If the flag is 1, the date in this field is the last date of the calendar year (Dec. 31). If the flag is 2, the date in this field is the last date of the fiscal year (Aug. 31). If the flag is 3, the system automatically takes the event date and increases the year by one, then subtracts one day (i.e, an event date of Dec. 1, 2004, will have a LV EXPIR DT of Nov. 30, 2005). Parental leave will not have an expiration date.
SPOUSE SSN (Optional)

The SSN of the employee’s spouse (not allowed if entering parental leave). Use this field only if you want the number of FMLA hours available to be reduced by the number of hours the employee has already taken (for all events) and the number of hours taken by the spouse (for corresponding event). Entering this field enables you to enter an event number from the spouse’s HO8U1 record into the SPOUSE EVENT field.

The hours taken by the spouse for that event are subtracted from the employee’s available balance. This field can be used only if all of the following are true:

  • The employee is taking family medical leave.
  • The employee’s spouse works at the same agency.
  • The spouse is taking family medical leave for a corresponding event (an HO8U1 record must have been entered for the spouse).
  • The leave reason is not for child illness.
SPOUSE EVENT (Optional)
The number in the EVENT NUMBER field on the spouse’s corresponding HO8U1 record. Use this field only if you entered the spouse’s SSN in the SPOUSE SSN field.
SPOUSE HOURS TKN (Display)
Indicates whether or not the spouse has taken any hours for the event that occurred on the date in the EVENT DATE field.
4

Press Enter to process the transaction.

Proceed to the next step to enter an employee’s request for family medical, parental or military caregiver leave.
5 Access HM9U1.
6

Enter I in the SUBCOMMAND field.

Note: You may enter over an existing detail line. Be aware that any information not deleted may be cloned to the new record.
7 Enter the following fields as required:
AGENCY (Required)
SSN (Required)
ACTY (Required)
Enter a value indicating the leave activity.
SLT Sick leave taken
SPT Paid sick leave for COVID-19 taken
DST Donor sick taken
SAT Sick leave awarded from the sick leave pool taken
VCT Vacation taken
LWT Leave without pay (LWOP) taken
LWD Leave without pay (LWOP) dock
EST Extended sick leave taken
CTT Compensatory time taken
OTT Overtime taken
FLT Family leave taken
PFT Paid FMLA for COVID-19 taken
FPT Foster parent leave taken
SET Assistance dog training taken
ALT Administrative leave taken
ECT Emergency leave for COVID-19 taken
EOT Emergency other taken
HCT Holiday comp taken
DOT Donate organ taken
DMT Donate marrow taken
DBT Donate blood taken
LDT Line of duty taken

Note: Family leave taken (FLT) and paid FMLA for COVID-19 (PFT) only decrements the HO8U1 balance. This value is used to record a holiday that falls within any PL/FMLA leave taken. When entering FLT, the transaction start date must fall on a state or national holiday and an FMLA reason code (FMxx, PLxx or MCxx) must be entered in the REASN field.

ST (Optional)
The status of the leave activity. If left blank, this field defaults to P if the transaction is in or prior to the current accrual month, or R if later than the current accrual month.
START DATE (Key)
Enter the date the employee’s leave begins.
START TIME (Key)
The specific time the leave starts, based on a 24-hour clock (for example, 13:30 for 1:30 p.m.) This field is required if more than one leave activity is entered on the same leave start date.
LV HRS (Required)

Enter the number of hours and minutes of leave the employee is taking. Use either a colon (:) or a period (.) to separate hours and minutes. If neither is used, the number entered represents hours. For example, enter one hour and five minutes as 1.5 or 1:5. Enter one hour and fifty minutes as 1.50 or 1:50.

Note: If the employee’s scheduled pattern code (on HMCU1) is 10, you do not need to enter both the LV HRS field and the END DATE field. The system calculates the one you leave blank using a standard 40-hour week. (One of the fields must be blank for the system to do this.) You can, however, enter both fields to override system calculations.

END DATE (Optional)

The date the leave ended. This date must be in the same month as the leave start date. There must be multiple entries for leave spanning more than one calendar month.

Note: If the employee works a normal schedule (HMC pattern code = 10), this field may be left blank and will be calculated based on the start date, the holiday schedule and the leave hours entered. If the employee does not work a normal schedule (HMC pattern code = 99), then this field is required.

END TIME (Optional)
The time the employee returned or will return from leave.
REASN (Optional)

A four-character code indicating which HO8U1 tracking record is to be used. (A tracking record must be created for every event for which an employee takes family medical, parental and military caregiver leave.) This code has two parts:

For the first two characters, enter one of the following (this value must correspond to the value in the LEAVE CATEGORY field from the HO8U1 record):

FM The employee is taking family medical leave
PL The employee is taking parental leave
MC Military caregiver

For the second two characters, enter the value from the EVENT NUMBER field on the HO8U1 record. (An example of four-character code is FM01.)

Note: PL/MC/FMLA reasons can be added/removed to an existing transaction as long as the hours are not changed.
8

Press Enter to process the transaction.

Note: Each time a detail record is entered with a reason code of FMXX, PLXX or MCXX (where XX is the FMLA EVENT number), the TOTAL AVAIL BAL field on HO8U1 will decrease by the number of hours entered on HM9U1. The LEAVE TAKEN FOR EVENT on HO8U1 will increase by the number of hours entered on HM9U1.