An assignment connects an employee to a position for a dated period and shows how much of the position the employee fills. Position FTE and assignment FTE remain separate.

Before you begin

You need the Manage employees permission for the employee’s department and every affected position department. Reviewing employee details without changing assignments requires the View employees permission. Actual compensation is maintained separately and requires the View actual compensation or Manage actual compensation permission for the employee’s department.

Create an assignment

Before creating an assignment, confirm the employee, position, assignment FTE, start date, optional end date, assignment type, and actual work schedule. Review other assignments that overlap the same period.

  1. Open the employee or position and select Create assignment.
  2. Choose the related position or employee.
  3. Enter assignment FTE and the start date.
  4. Choose the assignment type and work schedule when requested.
  5. Review and save.

An end date is the first date on which the assignment no longer counts. Same-day handoffs are possible when one assignment ends on the date the next begins.

Your organization can hide the external assignment ID, allow it, or require it. When FTE Tree manages the ID, enter the exact source-system value if the field is shown and complete it when required. When an HRIS integration manages it, the field is read-only and corrections come from the selected connection. Do not substitute an employee or position external ID because each identifier belongs to a different record.

Example: same-day handoff

Alex fills position A through June 30 and position B beginning July 1. End the first assignment on July 1 and start the second on July 1.

On June 30, position A is staffed. On July 1, the first assignment no longer counts and the second begins. The periods do not overlap.

Example: split assignment

Morgan has a 0.6000 FTE assignment to position A and a 0.4000 FTE assignment to position B. The two assignments describe how Morgan’s work is allocated. Each position’s staffing calculation uses only the FTE assigned to that position.

Understand assignment types

Assignment type describes the reason or context, such as regular, shared, backfill, overlap, or acting. It does not calculate staffing or override assignment rules.

Use a type only for its established organization meaning. If Acting means temporary responsibility, dates still determine when it starts and stops. The type does not automatically end the assignment.

Understand assignment rules

Your organization can allow:

  • flexible assignments;
  • one position per employee;
  • one employee per position; or
  • one-to-one assignments, which applies both limits.

The selected rule checks overlapping assignment dates from its start date forward. Assignment type and assignment FTE do not bypass it.

Example: one position per employee

An employee already has an active assignment through September 30. A new assignment can begin October 1 because the earlier one stops counting that day. A new assignment beginning September 30 would overlap and is not allowed under this rule.

Example: one employee per position

A position has an active 1.0000 FTE assignment. Adding a second employee for the same period conflicts even if the combined FTE would not exceed 1.0000. The rule limits the number of overlapping employees, not only the FTE total.

Change or end an assignment

Use Update to change allowed information, End when the assignment should stop on a known date, and Cancel or Void only when the page explains that those actions match what happened. The end date is the first date the assignment no longer counts. Review the effective date and activity history after the change.

Use a later business change when the original assignment was valid and something changed. Correct or remove the earlier record only when it was wrong.

Situation Action to choose
Employee leaves the position on a known date End the assignment on the first date it no longer counts
Assignment FTE changes while the relationship continues Record the dated change offered by the page
Start date or FTE was entered incorrectly Correct the recorded information
Assignment was created for the wrong employee or position Remove or void it when the page confirms it should never have existed

Review labor budget, actual compensation, and forecasts after an assignment change when those areas use the affected staffing.

Assignment imports use the external assignment ID as the stable row identifier. External assignment IDs must be enabled before an assignment file can be validated. Create imports cannot supply an integration-managed ID; update imports can identify an existing integration-managed assignment without changing its ID.

Review staffing

Add active assignment FTE and compare it with approved position FTE. See FTE, assignments, and vacancy for the resulting staffed, vacant, and overassigned amounts.

Verify the assignment

  1. Select the assignment start date.
  2. Confirm the employee and position are active and available.
  3. Confirm the assignment FTE and actual schedule.
  4. Add all active assignment FTE on the position.
  5. Compare the total with approved position FTE.
  6. Check the day before an end date and the end date itself.
  7. Review Issues for any remaining staffing condition.
  8. Open Activity when you need to see who recorded the change.

Does assignment FTE have to equal employee FTE?

Not necessarily. Assignment FTE describes one employee-to-position relationship. Review all assignments and your organization policy.