USPS Process Guide –
Chapter 12: Leave Accounting –
HO8U1, HOCRT, HM9U1 – Family Medical and Parental Leave – Tracking by Physician Certified Hours

Access HO8U1.

Note: If this screen is already set up for the selected event, and all leave time certified by the physician is entered, go to Step 5. Only one HO8U1 record is created for each event.

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

Note: Certified leave fields are not used when entering military caregiver leave.

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 480 hours minus the amount of FMLA and PLLA leave taken over the eligible period from all 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 FMLA and PLLA leave taken during the current accrual month and the prior 11 months from the limit of 480 hours (for all 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 FMLA and PLLA leave taken from the 480 hours (for all events) during that fiscal or calendar year in which the leave event occurs.

CERTIFIED APPRV FOR EVENT (Display)

The sum of the hours the employee’s physician has certified for this event including any hours (+/-) entered in the ADJ HRS field.

CERTIFIED AVAIL FOR EVENT (Display)

The total number of certified hours the employee has available for this event. The balance is calculated based on the amount of certified leave approved minus any certified leave taken for this event.

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.

Note: The first line of entry for the next six fields is to be used for adding new records. All remaining lines are “Display” only except for the ADJ HRS and the ADJ DATE fields which are used for adjusting the HOURS information if needed. The displayed lines on this screen show previously entered records in descending date order. If more than five lines of history exist for this event, the user should go to HOCRT “Physician Certified Hours History” to view more data.

Note: The following certified leave fields are not used when entering military caregiver leave.

CERT DT (Required)

Enter the date the physician certified the employee’s leave for this event.

Note: The physician may provide multiple certifications. Enter a row for each certification or correct the current row, whatever applicable.

FROM DATE (Required)

Enter the date the physician certified that the employee may begin using leave under this event.

Note: This date must be equal to or greater than the LV START DT and equal to or less than the LV EXPIR DT for the corresponding event number on HO8U1. Related HM9U1 entries cannot have start dates prior to this date.

TO DATE (Required)

Enter the date the physician certified that the employee should conclude using leave under this event.

Note: This date must be equal to or greater than the LV START DT and equal to or less than the LV EXPIR DT for the corresponding event number on HO8U1. It must also be equal to or greater than the FROM DT. Related HM9U1 entries cannot have end dates that are later than this date.

HOURS (Required)

Enter the number of hours and minutes certified by the employee’s physician not to exceed 480 hours. If this field is left blank, the system automatically calculates the total hours between the FROM DATE and the TO DATE.

ADJ HRS (Optional)

Enter the number of hours needed to adjust the original amount entered in the HOURS field.

Note: If the H0CRT row originally inserted has invalid information, it can be deleted provided no leave entry for this event exists on HM9U1. If leave information does exist on HM9, then these entries must be deleted or the hours can be adjusted. When reducing the amount in the HOURS field, enter the number of hours needed to reduce the original amount and a minus (-) to the right of the ADJ HRS field. If increasing, simply load the number of hours that should be added to the original amount.

ADJ DATE (Optional)

Enter the date the physician recertified or the date the agency adjusted the employee’s original number of leave hours.

Press Enter to process the transaction.

Proceed to the next step to enter an employee's request for family medical or parental leave.

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.

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 documents the HO8U1 balance. This value is used to record a holiday that falls within any PL/FMLA leave taken.

ST (Optional)

The status of the leave activity. If this field is left blank, the value 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 (Optional)

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 and parental 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.

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/FMLA reasons can be added/removed to an existing transaction as long as the hours are not changed.

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.