Absence Management
How an absence becomes a number of hours
The schedule search order that converts two calendar days of absence into a quantity of leave, the start point on the absence type that decides where the search begins, and the 8:30a to 5:00p default that fires when nothing is found.
Learning objectives
- 1.State the schedule search order and name the fallback when no schedule is found
- 2.Explain how the start point on an absence type changes where the search begins
- 3.State the condition under which the schedule is used to determine duration at all
- 4.Diagnose a wrong absence duration by locating which of the four search levels produced it
Why this matters
Two days off is not two days of leave. A worker on a four-hour schedule who takes two days of absence has an absence duration of eight hours, and a worker on a 7.5-hour schedule has fifteen. Every "the leave is wrong" ticket is a question about which schedule was used, and the answer is decided by a four-level search that ends in a default nobody sees.
If you skip this: A wrong duration is not a rounding error. It moves the accrual balance, the entitlement and the payment, and it is wrong for every worker in the population the search landed on.
What it is, why it exists, what breaks
What it is
A four-level search: published schedule, employment work week, primary work schedule, standard working hours. The process that identifies a person’s official schedule for a selected period also considers applicable calendar events, work schedule resource exceptions and absence entries. If nothing is found, it uses the default hours 8:30a to 5:00p.
Why it exists
Because a person can be described by several schedules at once, and only one of them is authoritative for a given period. The search resolves that by trying the most specific first and stopping at the first answer.
What breaks without it
The fallback is silent. A worker with no schedule at all is not left without one — they are given 8:30a to 5:00p, which is a plausible-looking number that nobody would question. The symptom is a duration that is confidently wrong rather than a missing value.
Source: ABS-SCHED-001, ABS-SCHED-002, ABS-SCHED-003, ABS-SCHED-009
Four levels, then a default nobody sees
A search that stops at the first answer, not four descriptions of one schedule. The last box is the fallback, not a fifth kind of schedule. Listed in order: 1. Published schedule, then 2. Employment work week, then 3. Primary work schedule, then 4. Standard working hours, then Default hours 8:30a to 5:00p.
The process that identifies an individual's official schedule for a selected time period searches in a fixed order and stops at the first answer. First, published schedule, built from the employment work week, the primary work schedule or the standard working hours for each person, or from published schedules in other scheduling applications, and showing applicable calendar events and absences. Second, the employment work week held on the person's employment record, whose schedules also show applicable calendar events and absences. Third, the primary work schedule, which can be associated with the primary assignment of the person at position, job, department, location, legal employer or enterprise level, and which also shows assigned calendar events and resource exceptions and applicable absences. The process moves through the hierarchy in the specified order and stops as soon as it finds a primary schedule. Fourth, standard working hours, included in the person's primary assignment. If the process does not find a schedule, it uses the default hours 8:30a to 5:00p, and that fallback is silent: no error is raised, and the resulting duration is a plausible number that nobody would query. Calendar events and resource exceptions that exist in the primary work schedule affect everyone's schedules regardless of level. The work schedule determines the duration of the absence, so an employee who takes 2 days of absence while on a 4-hour schedule has an absence duration of 8 hours - the schedule, not the calendar, is what converts days into leave. The absence type can move where the search begins, with its Schedule Hierarchy Start Point field under the Type Attributes tab choosing published schedule, work schedule, assignment hours details or work pattern, and the application then continues down until it finds the schedule or the relevant work hours.
What to take from this: Read the diagram as a search that stops at the first answer, not as four descriptions of one schedule. The teaching point that matters is the last box: when all four levels are exhausted the search does not fail, it answers 8:30a to 5:00p. A learner who has drawn this as a fall-through to an error will diagnose the wrong ticket, because the number they are given looks computed rather than defaulted.
Source: ABS-SCHED-002, ABS-SCHED-003, ABS-SCHED-004
Two days off, six hours of leave
A worker books two days of annual leave. The absence appears correctly on the calendar for two days. The balance, however, is reduced by six hours — and by a different number for every worker in the same department, with no two matching.
- 1.The absence type is checked, and its unit of measure is Days with no conversion formula, so the schedule is used to determine the duration.
- 2.The work schedule for the worker is found, and it is a four-hour schedule: two days at four hours is eight hours, which is not six.
- 3.The search is then run level by level. The published schedule, the employment work week and the primary work schedule are checked, and the answer comes from the one the start point on the absence type selected.
- 4.The start point on the absence type is set below the level at which the workers’ schedules actually live, so the search never reaches the schedule that applies and lands on a different answer for each worker.
Takeaway: A duration that differs per worker inside one department is a start-point problem. The start point decides where the search begins, and the search stops at the first schedule it finds.
Source: ABS-SCHED-006, ABS-SCHED-007
Configuration model
Navigation paths
Absences work area > Absence Type setup page > Type Attributes tab > Schedule Hierarchy Start Point fieldABS-SCHED-006
Objects
Published schedule
A schedule built from the employment work week, the primary work schedule or the standard working hours for each person, or from published schedules in other scheduling applications. It shows applicable calendar events and absences.
Risk if wrong: It is the first level of the search, so a published schedule that exists but is stale will win over the schedule the business believes applies.
Employment work week
The setup held on the person’s employment record. Schedules built from the work week also show applicable calendar events and absences.
Risk if wrong: It sits above the primary work schedule in the search, so a work week that disagrees with the schedule hierarchy wins without anybody comparing them.
Primary work schedule
The schedule attached to the primary assignment of the person, at position, job, department, location, legal employer or enterprise level. The process moves through the hierarchy in the specified order and stops as soon as it finds a primary schedule.
Risk if wrong: Calendar events and resource exceptions that exist in the primary work schedule affect everyone’s schedules regardless of level, so an error here is not contained to one person.
Standard working hours
The standard working hours included in the person’s primary assignment. Schedules built with these hours also show applicable calendar events and absences.
Risk if wrong: It is the last level before the default, so a worker with no schedule of their own lands here — and then on the fallback.
Schedule Hierarchy Start Point
The absence type setting that selects which level the application starts searching for a schedule: published schedule, work schedule, assignment hours details or work pattern. The application then continues down until it finds the schedule or the relevant work hours.
Risk if wrong: It changes the answer, not just the route to it, and it is per absence type, so two types on the same worker can produce different durations.
Constraints
- The process searches for someone's schedule in this order, before applying the result to the assignment: published schedule, employment work week, primary work schedule, standard working hours.
- If the process doesn't find a schedule, it uses the default hours 8:30a to 5:00p.
- The process moves through the schedule hierarchy in the specified order and stops as soon as it finds a primary schedule.
- The primary work schedule can be associated with the primary assignment of the person at position, job, department, location, legal employer or enterprise level.
- The calendar events and resource exceptions that exist in the primary work schedule affect everyone’s schedules, regardless of level.
- You select the Schedule Hierarchy Start Point on the Absence Type setup page, in the Schedule Hierarchy Start Point field under the Type Attributes tab.
- Absences uses the schedule to determine the duration only if the absence type unit of measure is hours or days and there is no conversion formula defined. The schedule is not used for other units of measure.
- If the absence type is linked to an absence plan that has an Alternate Schedule Category field defined, the duration is generated using the plan schedule.
Source: ABS-SCHED-001, ABS-SCHED-002, ABS-SCHED-003, ABS-SCHED-004, ABS-SCHED-005, ABS-SCHED-006, ABS-SCHED-007, ABS-SCHED-008
Common mistakes
Wrong: Assuming the absence duration is the number of calendar days requested.
Symptom: A worker on a four-hour schedule has two days off and eight hours of leave deducted, and the request is escalated to payroll.
Fix: The work schedule determines the duration. Two days on a four-hour schedule is eight hours, which is the documented example.
Wrong: Treating a missing schedule as a configuration error that raises an error.
Symptom: No error is raised anywhere. The duration is simply computed from 8:30a to 5:00p, and the number looks reasonable enough that nobody asks where it came from.
Fix: The fallback is the default hours 8:30a to 5:00p. A duration that matches an eight-and-a-half-hour day for a part-time worker is the symptom.
Wrong: Assuming the schedule is always used to determine the duration.
Symptom: A type measured in weeks still has its duration derived from hours, and the conversion is nonsense.
Fix: The schedule is used only when the absence type unit of measure is hours or days and no conversion formula is defined. For other units of measure it is not used.
Wrong: Changing the schedule and expecting the absence to change with it.
Symptom: The schedule was updated in the workforce structure, but the absence retains its old duration.
Fix: The schedule affects the duration, and an absence that was already evaluated keeps the duration it was evaluated with. The absence has to be re-evaluated for the new schedule to be applied.
Diagnosing it
Symptom: An absence has been given the wrong number of hours or days.
Category: configuration
- 1.
Is the absence type measured in hours or days, with no conversion formula?
If no: The schedule should not have been used at all, and the fault is in the unit of measure or the formula rather than in the schedule.
Evidence to capture: The absence type unit of measure and any conversion formula on the type
- 2.
Is the absence type linked to a plan with an Alternate Schedule Category defined?
If no: Then the duration is generated from the plan schedule rather than the type search, and the plan is where the answer lives.
Evidence to capture: The Alternate Schedule Category field on the linked absence plan
- 3.
What is the Schedule Hierarchy Start Point on the absence type?
If no: The start point decides where the search begins, and a start point below the level holding the real schedules produces a different answer per worker.
Evidence to capture: The Schedule Hierarchy Start Point on the absence type
- 4.
Does the computed duration match 8:30a to 5:00p for a worker who has no schedule?
If no: The fallback is the default hours, so a duration matching that pattern for a worker with no schedule means the search exhausted all four levels.
Evidence to capture: The worker's schedule at each of the four search levels
Confirm: Confirm which of the four levels produced the schedule, and whether the search exhausted them and reached the default. Those two answers account for most wrong durations.
Recall
State the schedule search order, name the fallback when nothing is found, and say the condition under which the schedule is used to determine an absence duration at all.
Answer shape: Published schedule, employment work week, primary work schedule, standard working hours. The process stops as soon as it finds a primary schedule, moving through the hierarchy in that order; the primary work schedule can be attached at position, job, department, location, legal employer or enterprise level. If the process does not find a schedule, it uses the default hours 8:30a to 5:00p. The schedule determines the duration only when the absence type unit of measure is hours or days and there is no conversion formula defined. If the type is linked to a plan with an Alternate Schedule Category defined, the duration is generated using the plan schedule.
Memory hook: Published, Week, Schedule, Hours — then the default shift nobody sees. Hours or days, and no formula, or the schedule is not consulted.
Source evidence
The search order, the default hours, the hierarchy levels, the start point options and the conditions on using the schedule were read on 2026-10-20 from the How an Individual’s Schedule Is Identified and Schedule Hierarchy Start Point Options pages of the Implementing Absence Management book.
Release scope: FA Latest
Recorded gaps
- The start point page names the four options — published schedule, work schedule, assignment hours details and work pattern — and the search order page names four different levels. The pages do not state how the two lists correspond, and this lesson does not claim a mapping between them.
- The start point page refers to an Alternate Schedule Category field on the absence plan without describing what the field contains or which values it holds, and this lesson does not claim what the field selects.
- Neither page states whether an already-evaluated absence is recomputed when a schedule changes. The Evaluate Absences process description elsewhere in the book names a work schedule change as a condition for recalculating duration and plan deductions, but that page has not been read here, so this lesson states the re-evaluation requirement as the academy’s diagnosis advice rather than as a quoted rule.
Related concepts
- Absence typedepends on
The unit of measure, the conversion formula and the start point all live on the absence type, and they decide whether the schedule is consulted at all.
- Absence planextends
A plan with an Alternate Schedule Category defined overrides the type search and generates the duration from the plan schedule.
Self-check
An auto-graded assessment is attached to this lesson: assessment-absence-schedule-identification
Lesson progress
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