Locations

When setting up Locations, it's worth planning your approach first. They're a powerful tool that can be used in a range of ways, and businesses often overuse or underuse them.

A Location plays an important role in your platform, as it links several things together:

• Links an employee's position to the roster(s) they work against, so you can control which employees can work which rosters.
• Links a roster to a specific Operation's rates book.
• The Location's state also sets the default timezone for any rosters assigned to it.
   

With this in mind, here's what you need to consider when setting up Locations in your platform:

• Locations are set per state, like rates books. If you operate across multiple states, you'll need a Location for each one. You can add new states if needed, but you'll need to set up matching rates books for that state.
• Employees can have multiple Locations on their position, and different positions can have the same or different Locations.
• Rosters can only have one Location each, though different rosters can share the same or different Locations.

  Please note: Before you set up your Locations, check that each Location's state matches the state set on its rates book. If it doesn't, hours won't flow through to payroll correctly.

Use cases

To help you understand how Locations can be used in your platform and decide how best to use them, please explore some of the everyday use cases outlined in the tabs below. 

  Hot tip: It's a good idea to communicate with other departments to understand their needs before making changes.

Setting up Locations is part of your platform configuration and is worth planning in advance. Before adding or editing Locations, consider how you want to structure them, as this will determine how employees and rosters are grouped and filtered throughout your platform. 

  Hot tip: It's a good idea to communicate with other departments to understand their needs before making changes.

Add a new location

As your business expands, you can add new or edit existing Locations within your platform at any time. However, before doing so, we recommend reviewing and auditing your platform for existing Locations and where they are currently assigned.

You may want to add new Locations when:

• A new venue or Operation has opened
• Business practices have changed, you're scaling up
• A platform review has identified a need for restructuring
• You're separating combined rosters into more specific areas for finer reporting or rostering

  Hot tip: Before creating a new Location, review and audit your platform for existing Locations and where they're currently assigned, to avoid creating unnecessary duplicates. Also check for any archived Locations that may already suit your needs.

To add a new Location:

1. First, navigate to your main menu > Platform Settings > Locations and select Create.

   

2. Select the State for the Location.
3. Enter the Location label (the name of your Location).
4. To add more than one Location under the same State at once, select Add location. You can remove any of these by using the delete (bin) icons.
5. Select Save.

  Please note: The list of States is a fixed list of Australian states and territories, as set in your Operation's Payroll Tax State Card > Financial.

Edit a location

Editing a Location updates its details everywhere it's currently used, including on employee positions and rosters. You might edit a Location's name or State if your business needs change, or to correct a data-entry error made when you first set up the Location.

To edit an existing Location:

1. Select the ellipsis beside the Location you want to update, and select Edit.

    

2. Apply the required updates:
   • Label - Editing the Location's name updates it everywhere across the platform.
   • State - Update the state associated with the Location. This must still match the state in relevant Operation's rate books. 
3. To apply your changes, select Save.

  Please note: If the location is currently used for an operation, you might need to update the Operation's financial details. Not doing so could cause errors during rostering or payroll. 

If you need to add several new Locations at once, doing so in bulk will be much faster than creating them individually. This is especially useful if you're transitioning from another system into foundU and need to bring across your existing Locations.

  Permission Reminder: To import Locations, you must have both Manage Locations and Access CSV Import enabled in your user permissions.

Import Locations

There are two routes you can take when importing Locations:

• From the Locations page, navigate to the main menu > Platform Settings > Locations, then select the drop-down and choose Create via import; this takes you to the CSV Import page.

  

• From the CSV Import page, go to the main menu > Import/Export > CSV Import.

  

To add Locations in bulk:

1. On the CSV Import page, select Locations from the drop-down.

2. Download Blank File and fill in the required fields before saving. Put each new Location on its own line.

   

     Hot tip: Each Location needs the state it's associated with; you can find the state ID and an example of what the file should look like by selecting Download Sample.
    

3. Back in foundU, select Choose file > Select your CSV file > Open.
4. Import CSV to upload and create your new Locations.

Data validation

When importing data into your platform, the information you add must be correct and properly formatted. 

Below is all the information required for the Locations Import.

  Please note: All items in bold are mandatory fields.

As your business grows, your list of Locations can become cluttered with entries you no longer need. To remove a Location you no longer need, archive it to keep your Location list accurate and easy to navigate while retaining its historical records.
 
You may want to archive a Location when: 

• A venue or Operation has closed, and its Location is no longer required.
• Duplicate or test Locations were created during setup and are cluttering your list.
• A platform review has identified Locations that are no longer being used.

Archive a Location

Archiving a Location stops it from being applied to future rosters and positions. Existing rosters and positions that already use it will remain unchanged, and you can restore the Location at any time.

What happens after a Location is archived:

• Archived Locations can no longer be assigned to new rosters or employee positions
• Existing rosters and positions that already use the Location are not affected
• When filtering employees on the People page, archived Locations will appear in the Position Locations filter

  Permission Reminder: To archive or restore Locations, you must have Manage Locations enabled in your user permissions.

To archive a Location:

1. Navigate to the main menu > Platform Settings > Locations.
2. Select the ellipsis beside the Location you want to archive, then select Archive.
3. Review the details and confirm you want to archive that Location.
4. The Location will show a dark grey A icon to the left.

Restore an archived Location

If you need to use a previously archived Location again, you can restore it at any time.

To restore an archived Location:

1. Navigate to your main menu > Platform Settings > Locations.
2. Select Archived at the top of the list and deselect Active. This filters the list to show only archived Locations.
3. Select the Restore icon next to the Location(s) you want to bring back.

Employees can have multiple Locations assigned to a single position, allowing them to work the same position across various rosters. For employees with multiple positions, the Locations can differ across them, allowing for only certain positions to work on certain rosters. 

To add or remove locations from an employee position:

1. Navigate to the Employee profile > Employee card > Employment Type.
2. Edit the position for which you'd like to update Locations.
3. Add or remove Locations:

   • To add, select into the Locations section and select the new location(s) required.

      

   • To remove, select the x against the location(s) that are no longer required. 

      

   • If the location you'd like to remove is the primary location of a permanent employee, please assign a new primary location. This will remove the initial location.

     

4. Select Continue to navigate through the position edit menu until complete.

If you need to add a location to multiple employees, doing so in bulk will be much faster than individually for each position. You can do this by using our Employee Additional Locations CSV Import.

Below, we will cover some of the key items to consider before using this CSV Import, the steps to use it, and the Data Validation used. 

Before you begin

Before using this import to add additional locations, there are a few key items to consider. 

• This import does not allow you to remove any existing Locations currently assigned to employee positions.
• This import allows you to add additional locations for both your casual and permanent employees.
  • Casual employees can have an infinite number of primary locations, and using this import will allow you to add to those.
  • Permanent employees can only have 1 Primary Location, which is used for some reporting purposes. However, this import allows you to add infinite Additional Locations.
• You'll need to have certain information on hand to fill in the CSV File to import.

  • You can gather this information from the CSV Import page by navigating to your main menu > Import/ Export > CSV Import > from the drop-down menu, select Employee Additional Locations > select Export Current Employee Locations and Export Location IDs to download the necessary information.

    • Employee Full Name
    • Employee ID number
    • Employment Type - Casual, Full, Part, and Secondary
    • Position ID number
    • Position Start Date
    • Location ID numbers

      Hot tip: Any additional positions for full-time or part-time employees will appear with the employment type 'Secondary'. 

Bulk assigning additional locations

If you'd like to use the import to speed up adding additional locations, you can do so for both your casuals and permanent employees in a single import.

To add Locations in bulk:

1. Navigate to the main menu > Import/ Export > CSV Import.
2. Select Employee Additional Locations from the drop-down menu.
3. Download Sample to see how the CSV file should be filled and formatted.
   • Leave the headings in this file, and clear the data to save for future use.
4. Using the information you have gathered from the steps above, fill in the CSV File.
5. Save your CSV, but do not close it.
6. Back in foundU, select Choose file > Select your CSV file > Open.
7. Import CSV to upload and update your employee Locations.

Data Validation

When importing data into your platform, the information you add must be correct and properly formatted. 

Below is all the information required for the Employee Additional Locations Import.

  Please note: All items in bold are mandatory fields.

Every roster has a Location assigned during roster creation. The Location specified on the roster is one way employees are allowed to (or restricted from) working there. 

  Please note: Rosters can only have one Location. Changing a roster's Location may affect which employees can be rostered there, so plan ahead to make sure the employees you need have the new Location on their position before you make this change.

To change the location set against a roster:

1. Navigate to Work > Rosters
2. Expand the operation to see all rosters within.

3. Select the ellipsis > Edit next to the roster you wish to edit.

   

4. From the Location drop-down, select the new Location for this roster.

    

5. Select Save roster to save your changes. 

You can use Locations in reports to answer 2 different questions. Those are:

• People - What Locations are assigned to which employees?
• Rosters - What Location is assigned to each active roster?

In these situations, you may want access to quickly export and see which locations your employees can currently work at or confirm which Location is assigned to each of your rosters.

People

There are 2 ways to report which Locations are assigned to your employees.

• CSV Import/ Export - Export information for approved employees only.
• People page Export - Export information for approved, pending, declined and terminated employees. 

Depending on your circumstances, you may need to audit and add additional locations to your existing active employees. You can export the information on currently assigned locations directly from the CSV Import page, where you can then apply those updates in bulk. 

To export current employee Locations from the CSV Import/Export:

1. Navigate to the main menu > Import/ Export > CSV Import.
2. From the drop-down, select Employee Additional Locations.

3. Select Export Current Employee Locations.

   

4. The CSV will list each employee position on a separate line and identify each location assigned to that position.

Depending on your permissions, you may not have access to the CSV Import page in your platform. However, you can gather details for your current and past employees' Locations directly from your People pages. 

To export employee Locations from the People page:

1. Navigate to the People tab and select the relevant page (Pending, Approved, Declined or Archived).

2. Use filters to expand your page size or filter down your view to a select group of employees.

   

3. Select Bulk Actions > Export All Filtered or Export All Selected.

   

4. From the Export CSV menu, select the following information.
   • Employee ID
   • Full Name
   • Position
   • Additional Position
   • Location
5. The CSV produced will list each employee position, additional position, and assigned Location(s) on a single line.

  Please note: Casual employees with multiple positions will appear within the same column.

Rosters

If your platform has many rosters, you may lose track of which Location you assigned to each. Using the export available from the CSV Import page lets you quickly gather that information in one easy-to-view file.

To export the Locations assigned to your Rosters:

1. Navigate to the main menu > Import/ Export > CSV Import.
2. From the drop-down, select Shifts.

3. Select Export Rosters.

   

4. The CSV will list all non-archived rosters in your platform, the operation they belong to, and the location assigned to them.

Does my Location need to be a physical location?

It does not. Locations can be used for anything you like! Some other examples are departments (Sales, Marketing, Admin, etc) or areas inside a venue (Bar, Kitchen, Floor, Gaming, etc).

What happens if the incorrect state is assigned to a Location?

The employee can still be rostered and have shifts approved without issue. The errors will appear on the draft payslip page. Without having a Payroll Tax State configured for the Operation that  matches the location, the hours will not flow through to payroll.

To fix this, either change the state on the location or add the Payroll Tax State to the operation. Whichever is most appropriate.

I've added a new Location to an employee, but they're still not visible on the roster. Why can't I roster them?

Check that the Location on the roster is matching what's on the employee position you're trying to roster. If it is, refer to this help article which deals with all of the things to check when employees don't appear on your roster. 

How can I remove Locations that I no longer need?

If you need to tidy up locations, you can archive any Location them. Archived Locations are removed from selection on employee positions and rosters, but their history is retained, and they can be restored at any time.

Can I import new Locations and add them to employee positions at the same time?

No. The Locations import only creates the new Locations themselves. To assign a Location to an employee position, use the Employee Additional Locations import or update the position directly.