5.11 RELEASE NOTES 3/7/2016

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1 5.11 RELEASE NOTES SmartLinx is pleased to announce the availability of SmartLinx Version update on 2/10/2015. This is a suite-wide update with enhancements, and bug fixes. The changes included in this release are covered under the Release Notes attached to this notice. There is no scheduled downtime with this release. 3/7/ SmartLinx Solutions, LLC.

2 Table of Contents Release Instructions... 2 Release Notes Summary... 2 ACA Enhancements Added... 2 Affordable Care Act 1095-C/1094-C Reporting... 2 Affordable Care Act CMS PBJ Reporting... 2 Additional ACA Enhancements... 2 Time and Attendance Enhancements... 3 Feature Details... 4 Affordable Care Act 1095-C/1094-C Reporting... 4 New Not Confirmed Tab C Address Page for Mailing... 4 Affordable Care Act CMS PBJ Reporting... 5 CMS PBJ Exception Configuration... 5 CMS PBJ User Friendly View of Reporting Data... 6 Error Log Tab... 7 Additional ACA Enhancements... 8 Exception Code Configuration for ACA Director... 8 Agency/Contractor Employee Identification... 9 Time and Attendance Enhancements... 9 Direct Editing of Employee Absences for a Pay Period... 9 Timecard Approvals with Missing Punches Alternate Punch Time Views Defects Fixed Highlights Support Release Instructions Page 1 of 16

3 Release Instructions For users using Internet Explorer and earlier that are having issues experiencing the new enhancements please follow the instructions located here. Release Notes Summary ACA Enhancements Added With the 5.9 release, SmartLinx enhanced ACA Director to help prepare our customers to comply with both mandates, specifically the 1094-C and 1095-C reporting as well as PBJ data submission. In this 5.11 Release we have included additional features to improve processing and reviewing the information before it goes out the door. Affordable Care Act 1095-C/1094-C Reporting A new tab has been added to the ACA 1095C/1094C Reporting page that easily identifies records that have not been confirmed for printing. A fourth page has been included to the printed form that includes the employee s address and return address. The placement of the addresses will facilitate enclosure in a standard #10 double window envelope eliminating the need to print labels and matching them up to the 1095C form. Affordable Care Act CMS PBJ Reporting Direct exception code configuration has been added for PBJ greatly improving the accuracy of the hours reported. Performance improvements on the XML file creation process. User-friendly view of the PBJ data aggregated during the reporting process for all three sections in the file export (Employee, Staffing Hours, and Census). Error logging and reporting alerting the user to actual or potential problems with the XML file creation process. Additional ACA Enhancements Direct exception code configuration, similar to the newly added PBJ feature, allowing for more accurate accounting of hours for ACA measurement period calculations. Page 2 of 16

4 Specific indicators for Agency employees that identify them as contractors to be used in ACA Director and CMS PBJ. Time and Attendance Enhancements Editing employee absences for a pay period at the department timecard level. Allow for timecard approvals in scenarios where there are missing punches. Alternate punch time views is now available for certain TA screens where you can view punches in HH:MM mode vs. decimals. Page 3 of 16

5 Feature Details Affordable Care Act 1095-C/1094-C Reporting New Not Confirmed Tab There is now a new tab on the 1095C Reporting page [ACA Directory > File > 1095C/1094C Reporting]. The tab will filter display an employee's records were 1 or more months are not confirmed for the selected year (Figure 1). Figure 1 - New Not Confirmed Tab 1095C Address Page for Mailing A fourth page has been included to the printed form that includes the employee s address and return address. The page prints with fold markers that guide the tri-fold page to match address information with a standard #10 window envelope. It also allows for printing the forms double sided using two pages instead of three. Page 4 of 16

6 Affordable Care Act CMS PBJ Reporting CMS PBJ Exception Configuration The hours aggregated for PBJ are now based on the direct tagging of exceptions through the newly added checkbox in the exception configuration page [TA > View > Configuration > Exceptions]. Key points to be aware of when configuring exceptions are: All codes assigned to the "Absence" group are automatically excluded - these codes will have the PBJ check box unchecked and disabled. All codes assigned to the Allocation Type 'Money' are automatically excluded - these codes will have the PBJ check box unchecked and disabled. All codes assigned to the Allocation Type 'Allocation of Hours' are automatically excluded - these codes will have the PBJ check box unchecked and disabled. All codes with the Paid Indicator marked unchecked (unpaid codes) are automatically excluded - these codes will have the PBJ check box unchecked and disabled. All other codes will have the PBJ check box marked checked by default and the configuration user will need to carefully adjust by selecting or deselecting codes. Regular hours will always be included and will not appear on the list of Exceptions for mapping. An example is provided in Figure 2 below. Page 5 of 16

7 Figure 2 - Exception Page with PBJ Configuration Column CMS PBJ User Friendly View of Reporting Data SmartLinx now provides a user friendly view of the CMS PBJ data that is selected for reporting. Previously the feature provided just the XML file and opening the file did not provide an easy to read experience in confirming the data. Now each export request includes a detailed view into the results of the reporting request (Figure 3). Figure 3 - CMS PBJ Audit Window with new Details column Page 6 of 16

8 The Details column values display any an error count that is hyperlinked. When you click on it a new window is opened from where you can view the results for any of the sections (Employee, Staffing Hours, or Census) that are included in that file (Figure 4). Each of the sections can be exported to Excel. The XML File creation has also been moved to this page. Figure 4 - CMS PBJ Export Data page Error Log Tab In addition to the new user friendly reporting details there is a new Error Log included with CMS PBJ to show any errors that would prevent the file submission to CMS to fail (Figure 5). In the instance where an error is found the Export XML File button that creates the submission file for CMS is disabled. Page 7 of 16

9 Figure 5 - CMS PBJ Error Details page Additional ACA Enhancements Exception Code Configuration for ACA Director Similar to the CMS PBJ configuration options provided for assigning which exceptions are included in reporting, ACA Director now allows for the same configuration options designation using the checkboxes at the exception level to choose which items should be included in an employee s measurement period for calculating PT/FT status (Figure 6). Figure 6 - Exception Configuration for ACA Director Page 8 of 16

10 Agency/Contractor Employee Identification Agency or Contractor designations have been added to the employee type dropdown for identification of agency employees (Figure 7). This information will be used in the application in ACA Director where PBJ and 1095C reporting requirements are different for the same employee class. Figure 7 - New Agency Employee Types Time and Attendance Enhancements Direct Editing of Employee Absences for a Pay Period Edits to employee s absence records over a pay period can now be done without having to update each day s timesheet. When viewing the department timecard there is a new option on the right mouse click short cut menu ( Edit Absences ) that will bring up a new screen where the edits can be made (Figure 8). Page 9 of 16

11 Figure 8 - Department Timecard Short Cut Menu Once on the Edit Absences screen changes can be directly made to the hours and absence type in the grid (Figures 9 & 10). Figure 9 - Edit Absence (hours) Figure 10 - Edit Absence (absence type) After all the changes are made and saved the timecards will be recalculated to reflect the changes. Page 10 of 16

12 Timecard Approvals with Missing Punches Individual facilities can be configured to allow timecard approvals with missing punches unresolved. A new misc_data configuration record (Id # 456: Max Count of Missing Punches Allowed on Timecard Approval) has been added where you can configure the organization and how many missing punches (threshold) are allowed in using this feature. The default value will be zero ( 0 ), thereby, not allowing approvals unless all missing punches are resolved. The system will present a message with the number of missing punches requesting approval with a Save or Close button (Figure 11). Closing the window without clicking Save will not approve the timecards. Figure 11 - Approve Timecards with Missing Punches Alternate Punch Time Views Various Time & Attendance screens have been modified to allow for either the standard time display of hours with the decimal representation of the minutes or to a true hours and minute format. The screens that have been changed are: Timecards Individual Timecard Daily Timecard Daily Schedule Add Pay Code / Exception Add Absence The feature is implemented via a toggle switch at the bottom status bar (Figure 12 & 13). The options are Decimal or HH:MM. Page 11 of 16

13 Figure 12 - Time View toggle (Decimal option) Figure 13 - Time View toggle (HH:MM option) Page 12 of 16

14 Defects Fixed Highlights Various improvements on CMS PBJ performance and reporting results are included in this release. ACA 1095C defects related to suggestions, transferred employees to different companies and performance enhancements while printing. Correction on SO Console related to sorting records. Correction of an issue in HRMS reminders. Timecard lockdown issue resolution. Various other minor defects. Page 13 of 16

15 Support As always, if you are experiencing any issues, please contact our Support Team by using any of the following. Telephone SmartLinx Technical Support is available by calling (Monday Friday, 8:00 a.m. 8:00 p.m. EST) For urgent system issues, our expertly trained personnel are standing by during all hours of the day and night. Online Helpdesk The SmartLinx Support Center is available for customer access at all times. Providing clients the ability to input issues of ask questions, as well as granting them access to an extensive knowledge base ( A prompt and timely response will be provided. Contact all members of our support team at your convenience by sending an (support@smartlinxsolutions.com). A prompt and timely response will be provided. Page 14 of 16

16 Release Instructions In order to be able to experience all of the new functionality that has been added to your environment, you may need to clear your browser cache. Please follow the instructions listed below to clear your browser cache and then re-start your browser. It may not be necessary for you to do this if you have automatically downloaded the latest version. You can quickly check this by looking at the version number at the bottom left corner of your login screen (Figure 1). If it is 5.8.0, then you do not need to follow these next steps. If you do need to clear your cache, in Internet Explorer 9 and 10, go to FileInternet Options, then click on Settings under Browser History (Figure 2). Figure 2: Internet Options Page 15 of 16

17 You should now see the following window (Figure 3). Figure 3: Website Data Settings Click on View Files, you will see another window with all the temporary files. You can select all the files in this folder and click on Delete on your keyboard to delete all the files. Close all the Internet Explorer windows that were open by clicking the OK button. Now close all the instances of Internet Explorer you have open on your computer. Restart Internet Explorer and go to your SmartLinx URL. The updated version of the application should now load. Optional Step: To ensure you always get the latest release moving forward, set the radio button option to Every time I visit the webpage on the Website Data Settings screen (Figure 3). The application will take longer to load initially, as it will need to store all new files into the cache. If you performed the optional step, the application will typically take longer to load. Page 16 of 16