General Settings for FTE Tree

The following general settings allow you to configure how positions are displayed and calculated across your organization.

  • Job Code Label: The job code label is configurable for your organization. Updating the label here will be reflected throughout the application.

  • Headcount FTE Amount: This setting allows you to change the definition of an FTE. For example, if a position is 0.00 FTEs and you want to include it in headcount totals, change the value to 0.01. All FTE amounts entered into FTE Tree require two decimal places.

  • Padding Digits for Position Number: All positions within FTE Tree have an auto-incrementing number across your organization. New positions receive the next incremental number. This setting pads the position number with zeros at the beginning. For example, the 132nd position with padding digits set to four would be displayed as: 0132. Set to 0 for no padding digits. If the number of positions exceeds your setting, this value will be automatically updated unless set to 0.

  • Prefix for Position Label: This setting adds a prefix string to the position number and defaults to "P". For example, with padding digits of 4, the position would be displayed as 'P0132' across the application. You can change this to a meaningful prefix for your organization or leave it blank to exclude.

Calculating Annual Hours per FTE

FTE Tree's primary function is to calculate FTEs, so it's crucial that we calculate your FTEs correctly. The annual hours per FTE help us achieve this.

There are two typical ways you may wish to enter positions into FTE Tree, and we are well-prepared to handle both scenarios. FTE Tree reports annual totals for positions, as would be used in a typical budget cycle. To obtain those annual costs for your position control, you may enter the data as follows:

When configuring FTE Tree to calculate annual position costs based on an hourly wage rate, the system needs to know how many hours to multiply the base hourly wage by to arrive at an annual total.

Typically, this value is 2,080 hours, which represents 40 hours per week for 52 weeks in a standard year. In a leap year, you may choose to use 2,088 hours to reflect the additional day. You may enter any value you wish, with up to two decimal places, to match your organization’s compensation or budgeting methodology.

Option 2: Entering Annual Base Rates (Less Common)

If you prefer to enter an annual rate for the position, you may input a base wage rate for the entire year and enter an annual hours per FTE of 1. This method effectively uses the annual wage rate for your calculations.

When choosing this method, please be aware of the impact on position adjustments and how you enter them. Our flexible wage and FTE adjustments methodology can fully support this, but please note that the adjustments must also be entered accordingly, as the base values will effectively be the same as entering an annual differential amount.

Other Considerations

If your organization chooses to use any combination of time periods, such as a month or quarter, although we don't envy you, we can fully support that as well. Simply enter the number of annual hours in each period of time you wish to use, and FTE Tree will multiply the base rates to get an annual total.

If you have a different number of annual hours per FTE each year, you can enter as many history records as you need. FTE Tree will use the appropriate value when calculating the point-in-time cost, whether it is the current time, already past, or in the future.

For example, if you want to use 2,088 hours for the 2024 calendar year (a leap year), enter 01/01/2024 with a value of 2,088. If you then switch to 2,080 hours for the 2025 calendar year, enter 01/01/2025 with a value of 2,080.

Department Filters

Department filters control which department assignments grant a user visibility to a position. When a user has department-scoped permissions, these settings determine which types of department assignments are used to match positions to the user's permitted departments. All four filters are enabled by default.

  • Department Filter - Current Approved: Show positions based on the currently approved department as of today. This is the primary filter and matches positions to departments based on the most recent approved department assignment with an effective date on or before today.

  • Department Filter - Future Approved: Show positions assigned to a future approved department. This matches positions that have an approved department assignment with an effective date after today, making upcoming transfers visible before they take effect.

  • Department Filter - Current Draft: Show positions based on the currently draft department as of today. This matches positions that have an unapproved (draft) department assignment with an effective date on or before today, allowing users to see pending department changes while they await approval.

  • Department Filter - Future Draft: Show positions assigned to a future draft department. This matches positions that have an unapproved department assignment with a future effective date. This is useful when new positions are created with a future start date, ensuring users can see the position while it is still in draft.

These filters combine with OR logic. If a position matches any enabled filter for a department the user has access to, the position is visible to that user. Disabling a filter removes that category of department assignment from consideration when determining visibility.

Example: Position Department Transfer

When a position is transferred from one department to another, these filters determine when each department's users gain or lose visibility:

  1. A draft is created to move the position to a new department. Users in the new department can see the position if the appropriate draft filter is enabled. Users in the original department retain visibility through the approved current filter.
  2. The draft is approved. Users in the new department can see the position through the approved current or approved future filter, depending on the effective date.
  3. When the effective date arrives, the position's current approved department updates automatically, completing the transfer.

Funding Source Configuration

Funding sources allow you to track how position costs are allocated across different budgets, grants, or accounts. The funding source attribute uses a choice group to define the available sources for your organization.

Managing Funding Source Values

Funding source values are managed through the choice group named "Position Attribute: Funding Source" in the Settings page under the Position row's Choice Groups link. By default, three values are provided: General Fund, Grant, and Self-Funded. You can add, rename, or deactivate values to match your organization's funding structure.

To add a new funding source value, navigate to the choice group and create a new choice value. To remove a funding source from future use, deactivate the choice value rather than deleting it, so that historical records remain intact.

Approval Level

Like other position attributes, the funding source attribute can be assigned an approval level. When an approval level is set, changes to a position's funding source allocation will require approval before taking effect. See Working with Approval Requests for details.

Position Comments

Each position detail page includes a Comments tab where your users can have conversations about the position. Comments support threaded replies and user mentions with email and in-app notifications. Commenting on positions requires the position update permission. For more details, see Messages and Notifications.

Need Help?

If you have any questions about configuring your position settings, please contact us or email us at support@ftetree.com.