Track Your Time Off on the Web

Beginning August 1, monthly-paid employees at Duke University will be required to track and submit their time off electronically through Duke@Work, the self-service website. 

The new time tracking and reporting tool, which is part of the broader paperless payroll initiative at Duke, will promote consistency in the application of time-off policies and eliminate the various manual processes used by departments to track time off for vacation, sick leave and holidays. (This system does not affect employees of Duke University Health System, which has a separate time tracking and reporting tool already in place.)

Over the years, University departments have created a variety of spreadsheets and other documents to track accrual and use of time off by exempt staff, said Tim Walsh, vice president for Finance.

"Many of these departmental systems are quite advanced, but they can be time-consuming to maintain and difficult to double-check for accuracy and consistency," he said. 

With the new system, employees can use the "MyTime" link on the "MyInfo" tab on the Duke@Work website to record hours taken off from work each month. As an employee records time, the system automatically recalculates and displays the balances for hours remaining in vacation, sick and discretionary time. Because not all exempt staff work a standard eight-hour day, the system records time off in hours, rather than days. Balances are also recorded in hours, rather than days. 

Employees can record their time during the course of the month, saving it along the way, and must submit the time by the fifth day of each month. Once the report is submitted, a supervisor will review and approve the report electronically. After the monthly report is approved, the system updates an employee's record with time accrued over the month. 

Judy Moore, a financial analyst in Financial Services, started using the new online tracking system in June as part of a pilot program for central administration offices. For several years, she has used a computer program specifically written for Auxiliary Services to track her time off. She said transitioning to the new system was easy.

"I really like having this new program as part of the Duke@Work site because it is one less login and password to remember," she said. "I just have to get used to tracking my time in hours instead of days." 

The new process automatically calculates the appropriate accruals and limits for each person according to Duke's time-off policies and reminds employees by email of the deadlines for submitting and approving time off each month.

Jeanna Drake, project specialist in Duke Human Resources, helped train 11 departments in the pilot program launched in June. 

"The new tool is great because all of an employee's data and his or her approval status are available online," she said. "You can access it anytime, anywhere."

For more information about how to track exempt time off using the new online system, watch this how-to video.