It is useful to gather and have at hand the information needed to develop a particular EPAF. This might include internal authorizations or requests along with information on the dates and other specifics that will be included in the EPAF. Preliminary questions to ask include (1) what is it that needs to be accomplished with regard to the particular employee at hand; (2) what are the parameters important to this transaction (for example, effective date(s), salary amounts, termination reasons, etc.). It will contribute to the efficiency of the EPAF process if all information is available before opening the Banner HR EPAF form.

When sufficient information is assembled, open the Banner HR desktop on your PC. From the opening screen of the Banner HR desktop, locate the field in the upper right quarter labeled Direct Access. Into the Direct Access window type NOAEPAF. This is the Banner HR form name for the Electronic Personnel Action Form (EPAF).

The information below will guide you as user in completing and submitting the EPAF. Please review and consult the image next below. Relevant fields on the EPAF form are annotated with an alphabetic letter. The information below the image will refer to particular fields on the EPAF by letter.

A - PROXY FOR: This field can generally be ignored in the initial creation of an EPAF.  Additional information on proxies can be viewed by clicking HERE.

B - ID: This field represents the ID of the person for whom the employee is being created.  By clicking the Search button for this field, Banner will display a option to search from the Person Search Form (SOAIDEN) and the Employee Search Form (POIIDEN).  The user will not have the ability to generate an ID from this field. If a user is unable to view ID information in the searchable forms, please contact Jim Stephens at 304.696.3983 or by e-mail to jstephen@marshall.edu. It may be due to inadvertent omission of form privileges or it may mean that the person whose ID information will not display may not be in a Banner HR "org" authorized for that EPAF user. In either case, the problem can be corrected through the contact identified above.

C - Trans No.: This is a Banner HR system generated number. It is a counter that assigns the next available transaction number to the EPAF when it is submitted to the approval queue.  The EPAF originator cannot enter this number themselves, although they can scroll through previously submitted transactions to get back to an EPAF that requires correction.   IT IS IMPORTANT TO WRITE DOWN THE TRANSACTION NUMBER THAT THE SYSTEM ADDS TO THIS FIELD AS THE EPAF IS COMPLETED.  IT MAY BE BENEFICIAL TO KNOW THIS NUMBER AND RETURN TO THIS EPAF LATER.

D - Query Date: The EPAF Query Date is HIGHLY important. Records in Banner HR are generally effective dated, meaning that various actions and statuses have a determined beginning and ending date. With the passage of time a number of employment records may accumulate in the system for a particular employee. The query date determines which effective dated records are made available for review and change. IN GENERAL, THE QUERY DATE SHOULD BE THE EFFECTIVE DATE FOR THE DESIRED EPAF ACTION. If an employee is to be terminated effective June 30, 1999, for example, the Query Date entered on the EPAF should be 30-JUN-1999. This ensures that the correct effective dated records are made available for review and change. For more info on Effective Dates, click HERE.

E - Transaction Status: The user originating an EPAF does not need to enter anything in this field. The system adds the appropriate Transaction Status as the EPAF moves through the Banner HR system.

F - Approval Cat: In this field the user selects the EPAF Category appropriate for the desired personnel action. To view a list of approved Categories, double click in the Approver Category field.  Each EPAF Category carries a short description of its purpose. If the user cannot determine for sure if a particular EPAF Category is the correct one to use additional information on the purposes of the EPAF Categories can be found by clicking HERE.   Whenever possible, an entire personnel action can be accomplished with one EPAF Category. In certain circumstances, however, it may be necessary to process several successive EPAF Categories in order to accomplish all the elements of the desired personnel action. If multiple EPAF Categories are necessary for a desired personnel action with regard to one individual, then process the first Category first and follow it with the second Category. For example, if a job is terminated on June 30, 1999, and a new job is started on July 1, 1999, then terminate the first job effective 30-JUN-1999 using the appropriate EPAF Category to terminate a job, and then appoint the individual to the new job effective 01-JUL-1999 using the appropriate EPAF Category to appoint to a new job.

G - Approval Type: THese will automatically default by Banner.  The appropriate EPAF approval Types are bundled together under a particular EPAF Category. After information has been entered for all required fields for a particular Approval Type, click SAVE and then click NEXT ACTION (See letter "M" in graphic).  This will bring up the next Approval Type bundled under the EPAF that requires the user to input information.

H - Position: The user may not be able to immediately place the cursor in the Position field.  When Banner needs the position number, it will prompt the user to enter it before continuing. It is usually required with the Jobs form of the EPAF.  The user should enter here the position number of the job involved in the desired EPAF when an Approval Type is opened that affects the Jobs Form.

I - Suffix: This field should default to "01". This field will have to be changed each time an employee gets a lump sum payment for the same position.  For example,  A Part-time teacher with a Summer School position will start out with a suffix of "01".  The next summer, he will use the same position, so the suffix will have to go to "02".  If you have any questions, please contact Human Resource Services. 

J, K, L: After the upper portion of form NOAEPAF has been completed properly, the user should either press Control and PgDn simultaneously or place the cursor in the field of the "Field Names" listed in the lower portion of the form and click the Enter key.  Please note this will be fields associated with the first of potentially several Types bundled under that EPAF. The system will ask for your Banner password for security.

Once in the lower portion of the form, a list of the fields See image, marker J available/required for entry should be viewed. Since the number of involved fields will likely be taller than the four fields that are viewable on the screen, the user may have to scroll up and down to review and take action on all involved fields.

The field in the middle of this portion of the form, captioned "Current Value," See image, marker K will typically reflect the current value in the Banner HR database for that particular field. For an EPAF that creates a new jobs record, NBAJOBS, the Current Value fields will likely be empty.  Remember the stress placed on the choice of the correct Query Date as discussed above. The correct Query Date will ensure that information from the correct record is submitted on screen. If the Query Date that defaults into date fields is not correct, it must be overridden by the user to the correct value.

The field to the right of the bottom portion of form NOAEPAF, "New Value," See image, marker L is used to enter the new value for each field identified in the form. Two situations might exist with regard to information defaulting into the "New Value" field. It may have been set to default from the original "current" value and may or may not be eligible for overwriting, or it may allow the entry of one of a list of values approved for that field. If the cursor is placed in the field captioned "New Value" in the correct row on the form, then clicking the gray "LIST" button at the top of the stack of "New Value" fields will display a list of acceptable values. The user selects the appropriate value by clicking it and clicking OK. The selected value will populate the "New Value" field.  Remember the stress placed on the choice of the correct Query Date as discussed above. The correct Query Date will ensure that information from the correct record is submitted on screen. If the Query Date that defaults into date fields is not correct, it must be overridden by the user to the correct value.  

Field-by-field, the list of fields is completed as appropriate for the desired personnel action. It cannot be stressed enough that the user should carefully review the values that have been added. While certain types of errors can be corrected later at the system level, there is no substitute for the time and effort saved up front by entering correct information. If uncertainty exists about what value to enter in a field, do not hesitate to consult a knowledgeable associate or call Human Resource Services or the Payroll Office.

M - Next Action: This option allows you to navigate to other subsequent windows such as the (PEAEMPL) the employee form, (NBAJOBS) the Employee Jobs Form and the Job Labor Distribution window if they are defined as part of the approval type tied to the Approval Category.  Before this option can be used it is required to SAVE each form as it is completed. The EPAF will  not be submitted until information in all TYPES has been added as necessary.

N - Submit Transaction: When the user has thoroughly reviewed the list of proposed values for the particular EPAF, he/she should SAVE the EPAF information by clicking the disk icon in the tool bar or by clicking FILE from the menu bar and then clicking SAVE.  After the EPAF originator has systematically worked through all the Types bundled under that particular EPAF and all Types have been saved, then the user should click "Submit Transaction" in the left-hand column.  This places the EPAF in the approval queue for review and approval, as appropriate, by the correct approvers designated for that organization.

O - Routing Information:  This window contains the approval queue (See Below).  The levels can be defined by clicking in the User ID field and double clicking.  This will create a list of available persons for the mandatory approver level.  After adding the desired approver in the field, follow the same sequence for every following level that is required.  Once completed with all, save the form.  

After saving and submitting the EPAF, the originator may get on-screen messages about either EPAF "warnings" or "errors."  A warning describes a situation that may be a problem but that will not prevent the EPAF from being circulated for approval.  An error, on the other hand, is a serious problem condition that prevents the EPAF from going forward.  If the originator needs help they may contact Human Resource Services.  If the originator gets an error message, please contact Human Resource Services for assistance in remedying the problem.

After the EPAF is created, saved, and submitted, the user may migrate to another form or exit from the Banner HR system. A subsequent EPAF to be created in the same session may be started by clicking the "exit" button on the tool bar or by clicking FILE from the menu bar and then clicking EXIT.  The EPAF form NOAEPAF can then be called for a subsequent personnel action.