Release Summary
Hello again! Today we're bringing you the third of our four releases planned for May! Most of these changes aim to improve the user experience with minor changes.
Apart from that, we are also introducing two new settings! In preparation for our Employee Mobile App (you will hear more about this soon), you will now find new timesheet settings available. These will allow you to set up the permissions for employees to clock in via the app.
Moreover, we have added an account archival feature. This will allow users, particularly advisors, to deactivate and archive a company account while retaining access to historical data.
Our team hopes that with the above changes, you and your team will continue to have a better experience while using Buddy! We recommend that you read the below list of all changes.
Release Notes
Timesheet Settings
In preparation for the launch of our Buddy Employee App, the Timesheet settings now have added more options for control on how employees can input timesheets.
- New: A new option, Enable Mobile Clock In, has been added.
- Once enabled, users can choose two further settings requiring employees to include their Location and/or photo when clocking in using the App.
- Once enabled, users can choose two further settings requiring employees to include their Location and/or photo when clocking in using the App.
People Changes
It's all about People! This update includes minor improvements and fixes to ensure a smooth process when adding new employees.
- Update: Updated the navigation bar in the Add New Employee pop-up modal box to disallow the skipping of tabs by choosing later tabs.
- Fix: When adding new employees using the Grades feature, the Role will now be selectable again from the drop-down.
- Fix: Resolved an issue where pre-filled Salary Details were not loading if the employee was not yet saved.
This impacted only users who added new employees using grades or when syncing Salary Details for new imports using BambooHR integration, released last week.
Payroll Changes
We are introducing small yet important improvements to ensure all users have a more efficient and accurate experience.
- Update: The tax calculation was updated to ignore non-saved payslips from prior payrolls. If employees have drafted payslips that were never concluded, these will now be ignored completely.
- Update: When uploading allowances, users will receive a warning of failed import if the employee is an external contractor and therefore does not have payslips in the Payroll module.
- Fix: The tax calculation for offset companies (which run 14 payrolls in a given year) has been fixed to be more accurate as per the number of weeks that have passed rather than the pay period number.
Leave Changes
- Update: The Leave Situation Report has been updated to ensure increased consistency with any leave changes implemented. From now on, all calculation updates will automatically be implemented in the report.
- Fix: Fixed an issue where uploading attachments to paid leave made it appear in multiple payslips.
- Fix: Fixed a minor visual issue in which if a user edits a leave entry, adds more days to the leave, and then edits that leave again, the total number of hours was not showing correctly.
Manager Mode (Employee Portal) Changes
Managers, with restricted permissions, have similar functionality to admins for timesheets and leave, but it is sometimes too limiting. This update includes a few changes that will help managers use Buddy more easily by increasing its consistency and similarity to the admin portal.
- Update: The timesheet statuses have been updated to be more consistent in naming with the names available for the admin users
- Update: Regardless of balance restrictions, managers can cancel or delete a leave application.
- Update: Introduced an upgraded breakdown of leave balance for managers to make it easier to determine the balance, including and excluding the current leave application that is being added or edited.
Other Changes
Below are other changes that did not fit previous categories. This includes the new Archival feature, as well as improvements to the localisation of our software.
- New: Added option to Archive an account. This will deactivate any company, allowing you to view historical data without being charged, as the company will no longer be active.
One can no longer edit employee, leave or payslip data, amongst others, unless the company is unarchived. - New: When starting a new chat with a live agent, a tag based on your company's jurisdiction is noted to improve the assignment of agents.
- Update: Removed two settings that were not relevant for Maltese users and were sometimes interfering with the saving of company settings