Absence Management
Who may enroll: eligibility profiles and derived factors
How an eligibility profile decides who can enroll in an absence plan and who can schedule its absences: create derived factors first, build the profile with include/exclude criteria, and remember that absence plans accept several profiles while an absence type accepts exactly one.
Learning objectives
- 1.Associate an eligibility profile with an absence plan and state what the profile decides (enrollment and scheduling)
- 2.Create a derived factor before referencing it, and name the six factor types
- 3.Apply the combination rules: OR within one criteria type, AND across different types
- 4.Use include and exclude criteria correctly, and keep excluded criteria in a separate profile when mixing
- 5.State how many profiles an absence plan accepts versus an absence type
Why this matters
"Who may take this leave" is a policy question, and the plan is the wrong place to answer it inline — the answer has to be reusable across plans, types and other objects. Eligibility profiles exist so the answer is one object, created once, attached where needed. Getting the combination rules wrong does not produce an error; it produces a population that is quietly larger or smaller than the policy intended.
If you skip this: A profile with the wrong combination semantics enrolls workers the policy excludes (or excludes workers it includes), and because eligibility is evaluated silently at enrollment and scheduling, the first symptom is a worker who cannot book leave they are entitled to — or one who can book leave they are not.
What it is, why it exists, what breaks
What it is
An eligibility profile holds criteria — personal (gender, marital status), employment (grade, department, assignment category, work location), derived factors (age, length of service, FTE), and related-coverage criteria — each marked include or exclude, each with a sequence number within its criteria type. Derived factors are separate objects created first in Manage Derived Factors.
Why it exists
Because eligibility criteria change over time (age, length of service) or are computed (FTE across assignments), they cannot be static values on the plan; they have to be calculated objects referenced by a reusable profile.
What breaks without it
Referencing a derived factor that was never created (the profile saves, the criterion matches nobody), and assuming AND everywhere: two postal code ranges are OR-ed, but gender plus age is AND-ed. Absence plans accept several profiles; absence types accept only one, so a type’s whole criteria set must fit in a single profile.
Source: ABS-ELIG-004, ABS-ELIG-009, ABS-ELIG-003
Eligibility as a pipeline
Factor first, profile second, attach third. Same criteria type OR-ed, different types AND-ed, each criterion include or exclude. Listed in order: Derived factors (create first), then Eligibility profile, then Attach to the restricting object, then Evaluation.
Eligibility in Absence Management read as a pipeline. Worker attributes feed derived factors, computed first in Manage Derived Factors: six types — age, length of service, age+length of service, compensation, hours worked, full-time equivalent — each with determination rules such as evaluating age as of the first of the calendar year; length of service can start from adjusted service date, date of hire, original hire date or seniority date. Criteria — personal, employment, derived factors, related coverage — are assembled into an eligibility profile named for the criteria it defines (Age20-25+NonSmoker), each criterion with an include or exclude flag and a sequence number within its criteria type. Values within one criteria type are OR-ed; different criteria types are AND-ed; excluding a band includes all bands not excluded and vice versa; when mixing includes and excludes, keep exclusions in a separate profile. The profile attaches to the restricting object: an absence plan via the Eligibility section of the Participation tab, deciding who can enroll and who can schedule absences. Absence plans accept one or more profiles; absence types accept exactly one. A criterion referencing a factor that was never created matches nobody, silently.
What to take from this: Read the map as a pipeline from raw worker attributes to a decision: derived factors are computed first (age as of first of year, length of service from the hire date), criteria are assembled into a named reusable profile with include/exclude flags, and the profile is then attached to the object that restricts eligibility — an absence plan (one or more profiles) or an absence type (exactly one). The include/exclude flag inverts the criterion’s meaning, which is why mixed profiles are split.
Source: ABS-ELIG-010, ABS-ELIG-003
The maternity plan that enrolled everyone
A maternity qualification plan is created and an eligibility profile is meant to restrict it to female employees. The profile is created with a Gender criterion but the derived factor it also needs is never created. After go-live, every employee — male and female — can schedule the maternity absence type.
- 1.The plan’s Participation tab Eligibility section is checked: a profile is associated, but one criterion references a derived factor that does not exist.
- 2.The rule is that derived factors must be created before a profile can use them; the dangling reference matches nobody, which silently defeats that criterion.
- 3.The remaining criteria evaluate normally, so the plan appears configured while the restrictive criterion does nothing.
- 4.The fix: create the derived factor in Manage Derived Factors first, then reference it from the profile, and re-run enrollment so the population is recalculated.
Takeaway: Eligibility criteria fail silently, not loudly. A profile that references something not yet created is not an error state — it is a criterion that matches nobody, and the plan looks fine until a worker is wrongly enrolled or wrongly refused.
Source: ABS-ELIG-004, ABS-ELIG-002
Configuration model
Navigation paths
Absences work area > Eligibility Profiles task (also Manage Eligibility Profiles in Setup and Maintenance / Plan Configuration)ABS-ELIG-002Absences work area > Manage Derived Factors task — create the factor before the profile references itABS-ELIG-004Absences work area > Absence Plans task > Participation tab > Eligibility section — associate the profile with the planABS-ELIG-002
Objects
Derived factor
A computed eligibility criterion that changes over time: age, length of service, age+service, compensation, hours worked or FTE, with determination rules (e.g. age as of first of the year), unit, rounding and min/max.
Risk if wrong: Referencing it before creating it makes the criterion match nobody silently; choosing the wrong period start rule (hire vs seniority date) shifts every length-of-service band.
Eligibility profile
The reusable named criteria set (named for the criteria, e.g. Age20-25+NonSmoker, not the object), holding criteria with include/exclude flags and sequence numbers.
Risk if wrong: Mixing include and exclude in one profile complicates sequencing — the guidance is to keep exclusions in a separate profile; naming it after the object makes it non-reusable.
Profile association
Attaching the profile to the restricting object: an absence plan (Eligibility section, Participation tab) decides enrollment and scheduling; absence plans take one or more profiles, absence types take exactly one.
Risk if wrong: Attaching two profiles to an absence type is impossible — its criteria must all live in one profile; attaching none leaves the plan open to everyone.
Constraints
- An eligibility profile associated with an absence plan decides both who can enroll in the plan and who can schedule absences.
- Create the profile with the Eligibility Profiles task in the Absences work area; associate it with the plan via the Absence Plans task (Eligibility section of the Participation tab).
- Derived factors, user-defined formulas and user-defined criteria must exist before a profile can use them.
- Absence plans accept one or more eligibility profiles; absence types accept only one.
- Multiple values of the same criteria type are OR-ed; multiple criteria of different types are AND-ed.
- Each criterion can include or exclude; excluding a band includes all bands not excluded, and including a band excludes all not included.
- When mixing inclusive and exclusive criteria, keep the excluded criteria in a separate profile.
- Name profiles for the criteria they define, not the object they attach to — profiles are reusable.
Source: ABS-ELIG-001, ABS-ELIG-002, ABS-ELIG-003, ABS-ELIG-004, ABS-ELIG-009, ABS-ELIG-010, ABS-ELIG-011, ABS-ELIG-012
Common mistakes
Wrong: Referencing a derived factor in a profile before creating it.
Symptom: The profile saves and the plan looks configured, but the criterion matches nobody, so the restriction silently does not apply.
Fix: Create derived factors, formulas and user-defined criteria in Manage Derived Factors (or the formula tasks) first; only predefined criteria like gender have built-in values.
Wrong: Combining two postal code ranges and expecting AND.
Symptom: Workers in either range qualify; the policy wanted both (or the reverse, with gender and age swapped).
Fix: Values within one criteria type are OR-ed; different criteria types are AND-ed.
Wrong: Mixing an exclude (age 65+) with includes in one profile.
Symptom: Sequencing becomes hard to reason about and the population drifts from the policy.
Fix: The documented guidance: keep excluded criteria in a separate eligibility profile.
Wrong: Attaching criteria to an absence type expecting several profiles.
Symptom: The type accepts exactly one profile; extra profiles are not attachable and the criteria that did not fit are silently dropped from the design.
Fix: Absence types take one profile — put all the type’s criteria in it. Absence plans take one or more.
Wrong: Naming the profile after the plan (e.g. "Supplemental Life-Minimum Rate").
Symptom: The profile cannot be reused for the next object with the same criteria, so criteria get duplicated and drift.
Fix: Name profiles for the criteria: Age20-25+NonSmoker.
Diagnosing it
Symptom: A worker cannot enroll in a plan (or can enroll when the policy says they should not), and the plan’s eligibility section shows a profile is associated.
Category: configuration
- 1.
Does every derived factor or user-defined criterion the profile references actually exist?
If no: A dangling reference matches nobody, silently defeating that criterion — create the factor first, then re-reference it.
Evidence to capture: The profile’s criteria list versus the Manage Derived Factors and formula registries
- 2.
Are the combination rules what the policy intended — OR within a criteria type, AND across types?
If no: The population is larger or smaller than intended because the boolean structure differs from the policy sentence.
Evidence to capture: The profile’s criteria grouped by criteria type
- 3.
Is each criterion’s include/exclude flag the right way round?
If no: An exclude flag on an age band includes everyone not in it; an include flag excludes everyone not in it.
Evidence to capture: The Exclude check box on each criterion row
- 4.
For an absence type, is all the criteria in the single profile the type accepts?
If no: Absence types accept exactly one profile; criteria split across a second profile are not applied.
Evidence to capture: The type’s single eligibility profile association
Confirm: Check for dangling references first — they fail silently — then the OR/AND structure, then the include/exclude flags, then the one-profile limit for absence types.
Recall
How does an eligibility profile decide who may enroll in an absence plan, what must exist before a profile can use a criterion, and how do criteria combine?
Answer shape: A profile attached to the plan (Eligibility section, Participation tab) decides who can enroll and who can schedule absences. Derived factors (age, length of service, age+service, compensation, hours worked, FTE), user-defined formulas and user-defined criteria must be created first. Criteria of the same type are OR-ed, different types are AND-ed, each criterion includes or excludes. Absence plans accept one or more profiles; absence types accept exactly one. Name profiles for their criteria, and keep excluded criteria in a separate profile when mixing.
Memory hook: Factor first, profile second, attach third. Same type OR, different types AND. Plans take many profiles, types take one.
Source evidence
Chapter 5 of the Implementing Absence Management book (faiam) was read directly on 2026-11-06: how eligibility attaches to an absence plan, how profiles relate to other objects, the profile model (criteria, include/exclude, sequencing, OR/AND), derived factors and their worked bands, the worked profile examples, and the single-versus-multiple profile rules.
- source-faiam-eligibility-how
- source-faiam-eligibility-objects
- source-faiam-eligibility-profiles
- source-faiam-derived-factors
- source-faiam-derived-factor-examples
- source-faiam-eligibility-examples
- source-faiam-single-multiple-profiles
Release scope: FA Latest
Recorded gaps
- The criteria list published on the Eligibility Profiles page is the benefits-oriented list; the absence-relevant subset (employment, derived factors, work location) is named here, but whether every listed category is offered for absence-plan usage specifically is not stated per category on the pages read.
- The pages show derived factor determination rules by example (first of year, end of year) but do not enumerate the full determination-rule list; this lesson names the rules the examples use.
- How eligibility profiles interact with concurrent entitlement or plan prioritization on an absence type is covered by chapter 13 pages, not the pages read here, and is not asserted.
Related concepts
- The accrual plan, configureddepends on
The accrual plan’s Plan Eligibility rule area is exactly this lesson: an eligibility profile decides the set of workers who can enroll.
- Absence planextends
The plan-types lesson lists eligibility as one of the plan’s rule areas; this lesson is what that area contains.
Self-check
An auto-graded assessment is attached to this lesson: assessment-absence-eligibility
Lesson progress
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