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Denying ESS Changes While Payroll is Running

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TBonney
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2/9/2011 12:51 PM
What is the concensus on the preferred approach to deny employees the ability to make changes (address change, direct deposit change, etc.) in ESS while payroll is being run? One suggestion we had was to remove the group that has access to the bookmarks for these tasks. (We have one global group, to which all portal users belong.) This would be done as one of the "pre-payroll tasks" and then the group would be added back to the task once payroll was completed. Our thought was to just run a simple batch job that swapped out the bookmark file which grants access to the tasks for that group with one that denies access to the tasks for the group. However, we have been unable to find where the bookmark files that store these access setttings are stored. Must these Bookmark changes be made through the Portal only? Or, is there a more effective and/or efficient way that others prevent these changes? Thank you.
Ashby Judy
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2/9/2011 7:00 PM
I have to lock and unlock the bookmarks each payroll thru the portal.
mark.cook
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2/9/2011 8:07 PM
What we did is set up a bogus pay code called payroll processing. The payroll department flips the Active /Inactive flag at the start of the payroll cycle. We have rules around address change, direct deposit, etc that are inquire only when the flag is inactive. That keeps us from having to swap out bookmarks or do any manual intervention. We also created a an Image loaded on LBI that is a stop light, it turns red when payroll is running (the flag is inactive) and green when active. This stop light tells the employee what cannot be completed during payroll procecssing.
Joe O'Toole
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2/10/2011 4:40 PM
We developed an automated process that updates the Lobookmark(sp?) table to prevent EMSS users from updating PR sensitive date while payroll is running. A screen indicating that those menu options are not available is displayed when the parent menu item is selected.
Deleted User
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2/10/2011 4:58 PM
We had a process that payroll could just click a button to disable a set of bookmarks. Unfortunetly when we went to 9.0 the clearing the bookmark cache now requires some admin rights so IS staff now have to click the button. Our payroll cycle is not especially easy to schedule as it depends on where the 15th and 30th of the month falls the dates are moved around for: Saturday Sunday, hollidays and etc.
TBonney
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2/11/2011 5:27 PM
Joe and/or Jay, Thank you for your replies. Would either of you be willing to share any additional details on how you accomplished this? If so, please contact me at tbonney@mvnhealth.com to discuss in more detail. Thank you.
Deleted User
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2/11/2011 6:11 PM
The table to update is in logan and is called LOBKMARK. The column you need to change is URL.
Joe O'Toole
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2/11/2011 7:18 PM
Correct, heres a sample of how I manipulate the entries. We have it scripted on a fixed weekly schedule, but you could run it on demand if needed. The unavailable screen is just something we created ourselves and we mark some entries that normally open in new windows not to do so. As a side note, you will need to do an IOSCACHEREFRESH to make these changes kick in immediately. UPDATE LOBKMARK SET URL = '/lawson/unavailable.htm' where BOOK_MARK in (360, 361, etc.) UPDATE LOBKMARK SET NEW_WINDOW = 'N' where BOOK_MARK in (410, 568, etc.) UPDATE LOBKMARK SET URL = '/lawson/hrnet/lesplash.htm' where BOOK_MARK in(360, 518, etc.)
Deleted User
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2/11/2011 7:44 PM
Calling the IOSCACHEREFRESH is where we ran into an issue as it now requires some admin rights in lawson 9.0... So for now IS pushes the one button to have the bookmarks switched. If our payroll schedule was more predictable it would be easy to schedule. Another thing that we have done is we have created a shared folders on the Lawson server that Payroll/HR has access to. Only the documents we want the business to have access to edit are placed in the folders. We put very basic html documents out there so that IS doesn't have to get involved if say the business wants to change the verbiage on say 'payroll_unavailable.htm'. Microsoft Word handels editing of basic html pages quite nicely.
Greg Moeller
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2/18/2011 7:07 PM
I'll put my 2 cents in here, too. We are on a bi-weekly cycle, and a Unix shop.. I have identified the html pages that we wish to block and wrote a script around it. We substitute a static html page that says basically "Function not allowed while Payroll is being processed." And I give them the timeframe to expect such behavior. 6 AM Mondays until noon on Wed every other week. I wrote the script so that it uses a config file containing the web pages to block, so if/when people require different pages to block, they just need to add the page(s) to the config file, and it will be taken care of. I'd be happy to share the script and config file with you if you'd like.
TBonney
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2/18/2011 8:24 PM
Thanks everyone! I'm still working on the ioscacherefresh piece, but pretty much went the route that Joe O'Toole suggested above. What I ended up doing was to write a batch job that does a sql call to redirect the urls in the lobkmark files, pointing them to a custom portal page I designed in design studio with a message about payroll processing being in progress. I have it scheduled as a Windows task, to run at 6AM on payroll Mondays to redirect to this custom portal page and then again at 6AM on payroll Wednesdays to change them back to the original urls. Thanks for all your input and suggestions!
Layne
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12/2/2011 8:27 PM
Anyone know how to refresh this cache by using webrun in the process flow designer? We are having the same problem, but would like to totally automate this without having to refresh the cache.
xxxxxttysfh
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3/24/2017 10:19 PM

If you have the script , can you please share it to me 

DeannaP
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4/5/2019 2:43 PM

Greg Moeller,

I would also be interested in your script for switching html pages during payroll processing.  deanna.plant@blessinghealthsystem.org

 

Thank you

thekboose
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4/5/2019 4:27 PM
HS18 is for turning off Tax, Address, and ACH changes during the payroll cycle. The date and time can be entered right before the cycle starts by the payroll processor.