Fast formulas in Absence Management
ConceptadvancedThe user-written formula layer that adds absence-specific rules beyond the delivered ones on the Absence Types and Absence Plans pages. Each absence rule that accepts a formula requires its own Global Absence formula type, the formula is created and compiled on the Fast Formulas page, and failures split into compilation errors (syntax, at compile time) and execution errors (data, at runtime).
What people get wrong
The confusions are the difficulty. Each one is a belief that sounds right and is not.
- That a formula replaces the delivered rules on the plan or type pages. The pages apply the delivered rules; a formula adds special rules on top.
- That any formula can be attached to any rule. Each rule names its formula type — a Global Absence Ceiling formula will not serve as a validation rule.
- That the Accrual Event formula is attached like the others. It cannot be attached at all; its name must equal the plan name, which links it automatically.
- That compilation and execution errors are the same failure. Compilation errors appear at compile time on the Fast Formulas page with a line number; execution errors appear while the formula runs and are usually data problems.
Recall it
Which absence rules take a fast formula, what decides whether a formula can serve a rule, and how do compilation errors differ from execution errors?
Absence types take conversion (Global Absence Type Duration, work days/hours only) and validation (Global Absence Entry Validation); accrual plans take Global Absence types for enrollment start/end, duration, anniversary event, accrual event, vesting, proration, ceiling, carryover, accrual definition and matrix, partial period, payment/disbursement/liability rates and the disbursement rule; qualification and donation plans add their own types. Each rule names its one formula type — that type gates the formula. The Accrual Event formula is never attached: its name must equal the plan name. Formulas are created on the Fast Formulas page (name, type, description, effective date, text, Compile, Save) and bulk-compiled via the Compile Formula process. Compilation errors are syntax errors caught at compile time with a line number; execution errors are data problems raised at runtime (divide by zero, no data found, called formula missing, recursion, depth over 10).
Memory hook: Type gates the rule; name links the accrual event. Compile checks syntax, execution meets data.
Rests on ABS-FORM-003, ABS-FORM-004, ABS-FORM-006, ABS-FORM-011, ABS-FORM-012, ABS-FORM-013, ABS-FORM-014.
Taught in
Related
- Terminology glossary — what a term means, and what people get wrong when they use it