OnlineZ

Business Purpose

Overview

A simple application to facilitate submission and reporting of both bi-weekly and monthly faculty Z payments.

Online Z is a tool to manage faculty compensation "Z" payments. These "Z" payments are for incentive pay - paid on an ad-hoc basis (these are not supposed to be regular payments). Anyone who is in the compensation plan is eligible for "Z" pay ( Managers and Senior Professionals (MSPs) are excluded). Programs for measuring and implementing these incentives are set by department. These are paid (can be debit or credit) on the Monthly or Bi-weekly payroll cycle - determined by the department (entered in batches - chosen upon the department opening the application). The majority of these are paid monthly (on average there are roughly 200 - 400 monthly payments and about 15 bi-weekly).

The application is designed to cut off biweekly entries at 1pm the day before the deadline, and cut-off the monthly entries the day of the deadline, which is typically 2 days after the date indicated on the UCSD Payroll calendar. If a user misses a monthly deadline, they can enter them on the following bi-weekly schedule.

Schedule

• The current Z-payment calendar should be posted on this page.
• The current payroll calendar should be posted on this page

Users

The primary business stakeholder for this application is the Faculty Compensation Unit of the Dean's Office. On scheduled payroll dates, they are responsible for verifying (index number) and uploading a validated file via ftp to Administrative Computing Telecommunications (ACT) Production Control so the incentive award payments will be processed by Payroll.

The primary users of the application are typically Human Resource or individuals in each department who are responsible for entering their departments Z payments.

Application

There are two components, which while part of the same business process, are not part of the same coded application. The payment portion of the application is a JNLP application (which is downloaded from the link and runs on the user's local computer), while the report part is a separate web based reporting tool:

• Onlinez: The application interface where users enter the payroll values ( http://som.ucsd.edu/applications )
• Onlinez Reports: The reporting tool used to view reports.( http://som.ucsd.edu/faculty-compensation/z-payments )

Note that the reports in the application in Tools - > Reports do not work. All reporting is done via another page.

User Documentation

How to access the Application

1. 1. From the School of Medicine's main website, located here: http://som.ucsd.edu
      1. Click on Departments_ under the Quick Links section on the right side of the page.
      2. Then, click on the Applications link listed on the left side of the page
      3. Then, click on the Pay Online Z-Payments link under Faculty Compensation near the top of the page.
      4. You should get a pop-up window titled, "Opening OnlineZ.jnlp" which has two buttons 1) Ok and 2) Cancel. Make sure the radio button is selected next to the option, "Open with [Java(TM) Web Start Launcher (default)] ". If the Ok button is not active, try clicking in the title bar at the top of the window with your mouse.
      5. Click on the [ Ok ] button. You should see a pop-up window indicating the application is downloading. If you do not, it may be that your computer needs to have the Java software updated (see the next section for further information on how to update your java software).
   2. How to check and update your Windows computer Java software
      1. It is important to understand that updating software on your computer usually requires you to have an account with Administrative privileges. Not everyone will have those privileges, so if you encounter any messages, while trying to follow these instructions, that indicate you do not have sufficient privileges, then you will need to contact your IT department to have someone perform this update for you.
      2. The application uses a software package named, Java Web Start. Generally, this software should already be configured on your machine. In some cases, you may be using a computer with an older version of the software which causes problems.
         1. To check whether you have the necessary software follow the instructions on this page: http://www.java.com/en/download/help/javafx_install.xml.
         2. To update or install Java Web Start you have to do two thing 1) Download the software file 2) Install the software by running the setup utility
         3. It is wise to first print out the instructions for how to do the installation, which you can find here: http://www.java.com/en/download/help/windows_manual_download.xml
         4. You can click on and download the file on this page http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp by clicking on the "Windows XP/Vista/2000/2003/2008 Online" link
         5. Select [ Save File ] (remember where you save this file)... or (if you forget), you can do a search for a file named, jre-6u16-windows-i586-iftw.exe
         6. Once you find the downloaded file on your local computer, double click on the filename to start the setup process.
         7. After you setup the software, you will need to restart your computer before the new software will go into effect.

How to start the OnlineZ application

1. 1. After you click on the application's link located on the School of Medicine's web page, you are prompted whether you want to open OnlineZ.jnlp with Open with: Java(TM) Web Start Launcher (default) already selected. You do want to open the application, so, click on OK.
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   3. You should be presented with a Login screen where you will need to enter your username and password. If you have a username and password to access this application, you should be able to successfully log in. If you encounter an error logging in, it may be that you have a valid username and password, but that you do not have the correct role. If you encounter an error logging in, contact the Business Application Development group.
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Understanding the applications user interface

1. 1. After you log in, the application loads all of the employee data for your department. Loading may take some time, after which, you will be prompted for the type of payments you want to make. You may select either Monthly or Biweekly depending on which type of payments you need to enter. You may later change your payment type in the application, if you need to enter both types.
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   3. The main application user interface page looks like the screen displayed below. The top portion of the screen contains Department, Division, Payment, Index, and A-Z selection boxes, which allow you to quickly and easily find things. The middle portion of the screen, which may not be visible when the application first starts but will be once an faculty has been selected, shows the Year-to-Date (YTD) values for the selected employee. The lower third of the screen contains a list of employees on the left, under the Employees section, and a payment work form under the Employee Payment Details. Selecting a faculty on the left brings up their work form on the right.
      
      
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   5. To be clear on what constitutes a Section, below the YTD Payment Summary section, Employees section, and Employee Payment Details sections are circled in red.
      
      
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Finding what you need using the Filters

1. 1. Most users will only have access to one department. However, if you are a power user with access to multiple departments, you can select the data for a single department by click on that department under the Department filter box.
   2. To select all data for a specific Division select the division under the Division filter box.
   3. To select data for a specific type of payment, select the payment type under the Payments filter box.
   4. To select data related to a specific index, select the index under the Index filter box.
   5. To narrow the list of users by last name, select the alphabet portion which contains their last name (e.g. M-P ) under the A-Z filter box.
   6. To reset the selections, set all of the pointers back to All in each section starting on the left and moving to the right. Then repeat the selection process for your new selections.
   7. One warning about these filters - After you have used a filter, it has sometimes been necessary to reset all filter boxes, by clicking on the "All" at the top of each filter box moving from left to right. This sometimes helps for additional searches.
   8. For example, to display all employees, whose z pay type is Bonus, paid by Index ANSMSC1, and whose last name starts with A-D, you would make the following selections.
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How to enter payment values

1. 1. Be aware that typically payments have to be into the system before 1 PM on the day of the deadline.
   2. Select an employee in the list of employees under the Employees section. If they have a prior payment history, it will show up in the YTD Payment Summaries section.
   3. Enter the required values under the Employee Payment Details section of the interface for the current period you are entering. If this is a standard payment type which is not likely to change much, you can check the Preload box on the right. This tells the application to remember this payment. In the future, if you click the Preload button, all of the past payments for which you selected Preload will be automatically loaded before you begin. This feature was designed to save you time and effort. The Z payment type for furlough adjustments is called, Salary Maintenance.
   4. If the entered values are wrong, the application highlights the value in RED, but does not produce any error message.
      
      
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   6. To delete a row, select the row by clicking in it with your mouse, then click on the Delete button on the bottom of the Employee Payment Details section.
   7. After you make an entry, if you check the 'Pre-Load' box. The following period, you can use the Pre-Load feature to load the values with or without amounts. You can 'Pre-Load' with amounts or with zero amounts, though the application does not process a zero amount. You may enter negative amounts. The VA agreements often require additional amounts, and certain departments use the negative amounts to provide adjustments for record keeping. While the total BYZ payment should be positive, it can be negative. If the Preload button was check for an employee, when you select that employee from the list, you will find a preload button in the Employee Payment Details section. On clicking that button, the prior pay period values gets populated. First you will be prompted for Yes No Cancel
      Yes -> To preload with values
      No -> To preload without values
      Cancel -> To cancel the preload action
      
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   9. It is highly recommended that you print out a report of the payments you entered to confirm that your payments were entered correctly. However, be aware that the payments you enter today will not be available in the report until the next day.

Using other Menu Options

The menu options are selected from the toolbar at the top of the application interface.

1. 1. View -> Pay Periods -> To change the type of payment between monthly and bi-weekly.
   2. Tools -> Reports -> This requires special configurations and does not work for most normal users. Use another option(mentioned below) instead.
   3. Tools -> Preload All Payments -> To preload all the employees who have their preload checkbox checked the prior month.
   4. Tools -> Validate Payments -> This is visible only for the departmental users. This will validate all the payments. Checks for any wrong payments, indexes or amounts. If any value is wrong, it prompts the user with the wrong entries as well as the error statement.
      If there are no validation errors, it prompts - saying "No validation errors". (See F below).
   5. Tools -> Process Payments -> This is visible only for the Faculty Compensation Unit of the Dean's Office. This will validate the payments and prompt same as below if there are any errors, but once all are fixed, it will display the text file that is to be uploaded to ACT by Faculty Compensation Unit.
      
      
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Reports

1. 1. Users can access Z payment reports by logging into: http://som-prod2.ucsd.edu/portal/mods/olzReportsMenu/index.jsp.
   2. You may sometimes have to wait a day, before your changes will appear in the reports.

Help

1. Problem starting application
   1. Description: Often times a user will encounter trouble when trying to start the application. One of the most obvious signs will be an error message such as "Unable to launch installer". This occurs when the Java software version on the user's PC is old and outdated. The solution usually involves updating the software on the user's computer.
   2. Solution: Update the software on the user's computer or ask them to do it by following the instructions below.
      • How to check if you have JavaFX installed on your computer.
      • Download to your computer a recent Windows version of Java from here.
      • Follow these instructions to install Java on a computer running Windows.
2. Problem
   1. Description A faculty member is not showing up for a user of the onlinez application.
   2. Solution: Before a faculty will show up for a user check the following:
      • The faculty member must have a BYZ block in Personnel Payroll System (PPS) with an active index corresponding to the home department of the user.
      • The user must have access to the home department for which the BYZ block index.
   3. The easiest way to check this out is to log into EmployeeLink and check the person's history, if you have those privileges.
3. Problem
   1. Description A faculty member shows up that the user isn't expecting in the onlinez application.
   2. Solution: A faculty will show up for a user if:
      • The faculty member has a BYZ block in Personnel Payroll System (PPS) with an active index corresponding to the home department of the user.
      • The user has access to a Department that contains a division to which the faculty member belongs.

1. Problem
   1. Description Sometimes, the reports - pdfs - do not open in Internet Explorer. Opening PDF's in IE works only sometimes. Instead of opening, it prompts for save as.
   2. Solution:
      • Update your acrobat (current is adobe acrobat 9 pro)i.e. Start -> Run -> acrobat -> Help -> Check for updates -> Update
      • Check for different acrobat versions and uninstall older acrobat or reader versions.
      • Repair installations from Help -> Repair and do reinstall if need be from adobe site.
      • Checkout the document OlzPDFinIE? .docx in the attachments if all above doesn;t work. A restart may be needed after updates for changes in registry.

1. Problem
   1. Description Sometimes, when you enter weird values, you may get a pop up - indicating an ERROR.
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   2. Solution:
      • To report the error select the error, copy and paste it into a file which you can send via email.
      • The application abruptly stops by itself when it encounters an error to stop corrupting the data.
      • You can try to restart the application. Generally, the application goes back to the last best value.
        But check if any of the values entered are weird for the payee mentioned in the error. If they are modify the value, performing the same operation as earlier.
      • If the problem still persists, send the following details to Business Application Development team:
        1. Error message
        2. User - email id
        3. When the error occurred - steps to get the error.
           
           
2. Problem
   1. Description You have proper login credentials to access OnlineZ? but when you login, the page just stops and does nothing, no error, no exit, nothing.
   2. Solution:
      • You're probably having a connection/proxy issue.
      • Here are the steps one by one, you'll have to open the 'Java Control Panel', here is how:
        1. Close the application if it is open.
        2. Click your Start menu button
        3. Click the Run menu item
        4. Enter/type cmd in the text box
        5. In the black command window that popped up, type javaws -viewer
        6. Two new windows will pop up. (maybe just one)
        7. If the Java cache viewer window pops up, just close it by clicking the Close button, or, the [X] box in the upper right corner.
        8. You now should only have the 'Java Control Panel' window open.
        9. Click the General tab, if you are not already on that tab, then click the Network Settings button.
        10. The default setting of Use Browser settings needs to be switched to Direct Connection
        11. Make sure the Direct connection option is selected, then click the OK button to save this setting.
        12. Click the Apply button on the Java Control Panel to set your machine to use these settings in the future.
        13. Then the OK button on the Java Control Panel to save your session settings.
        14. You should now be able to restart and run the OnlineZ? application.

For more issues contact Glenn Strout or John C. Gunvaldson.