In this article:
About
The backfill feature allows HR Managers and the ability to submit leave or sickness on behalf of another employee. The request will be added in the approved status, as it bypasses the approval process. Backfilled requests do not necessarily have to be in the past, however it's useful when setting up the system.
The backfill feature is useful for one-off occasions or requests for one person, however becomes cumbersome if you have a lot of requests to populate so we have created the backfill from CSV tool, which allows you to import multiple requests for your employees in one go.
A CSV file is a type of file which is used to store tabular data. To use this tool, it's best if you have a spreadsheet software such as Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel to fill out the template.
Using the tool
The process for backfilling from CSV is as follows:
- Download Template (exports as CSV file)
- Add data in your spreadsheet software
- Save as .csv file
- Upload
- Complete
To initiate the process, go to Leave > Admin & Config > Backfill from CSV.
Click 'Download Template CSV' to start the process.
Open the file in your spreadsheet software and fill in out the template as follows, mandatory fields are marked with an asterisk:
Email* - add the employees email addresses as they are within the Appogee Leave system (you can export a list of these by going to Leave Reporting > Data Export and selecting 'Employees' from the Data set).
Start Date* - add the start date of the request
End Date* - add the end date of the request
Morning Request? - Y/N if the request is morning only (half day)
For requests which are longer than a day, you can also add a Y here to mark the last day of the request as a half day
Afternoon Request? - Y/N if the request is afternoon only (half day)
For requests which are longer than a day, you can also add a Y here to mark the first day of the request as a half day
Request Type - leave or sick (ensure this is lower case)
Leave/Sick Type - as defined in your Leave and Sickness Types (Process Config > Leave Types/Sickness Types). e.g. Annual Leave/Maternity Leave etc
Reason - Add a reason for the Leave/Sick request
Override hours - if you want to override the computed hours for the request, enter the number of hours here. For example, a medical appointment for 2 hours, add '2'. Leave blank to use the pre-configured working hours
Deduct from Allowance? - You can leave this blank and the system will respect the configuration of your Leave/Sickness types as per the settings (Process Config > Leave Types/Sickness Types). To override whether the request deducts or not, add a Y or N as appropriate
When filled out, your file will look something like this:
Save the file as .csv and then upload using the browse button. Click Upload & Continue.
The system will then validate the upload and identify any errors, for example, if a user does not exist, or if there is a request already on the days you have added.
You will need to fix the errors in the sheet first, and then reupload.
You will be able to see what the errors are by checking the note in the 'Validation Errors' column. Common errors include:
- Allowance not found for the Request period
Check the Active Leave Years and Leave Year Start Month under System Config, Leave to ensure they cover the period of the records you are importing.
- Category contains invalid data
The leave or sick type you are importing does not exist under Process Config, Leave Types. Add them and retry the import.
- Request is clashing with another request in the csv file [Row:n]
Dates of the requests you are importing overlap with either the dates flagged in the specified row. Note that the row number specified excludes the header row.
- Override Hours contains invalid data
This must be a numeric value.
- The specified date range does not result in any working hours
For example this could be due to weekends, public holidays or a specific working rote for the work profile.
Once you have made the necessary changes to the spreadsheet, re-save it as a .csv file and then upload again.
Once you have a successful upload, you will be shown the Allowance Review page. It is important to check allowances here, because the upload will still continue even if the employee's allowance will be reduced below zero.
If the import means an employee's allowance is due to go below the zero, it will show in red rather than black.
When you're happy with the upload, click Continue with Import.
Once complete, you will be able to go to the request history page.
