Self Attempt 01

ERP HR Employee-Lifecycle and Policy-Operations Skill

Overview

This skill covers five related HRMS operations:

1. Onboarding closeout — verifying leave and payroll setup before approving close
2. Remote-work policy case review — folder readiness and formal notice quality
3. Recruitment reconciliation — candidate outcomes, offer verification, notice follow-up, and payroll handoff
4. Leave source precedence — determining the authoritative leave policy when sources conflict
5. Payroll assignment and accrual readiness — verifying submitted salary assignment and accrual batch status

API Usage Workflow

Endpoint Reference

All endpoints are under the base URL. Useful public endpoints:

Recommended Investigation Order

1. Start with /api/manifest to understand the environment shape and record counts.
2. Locate the subject entity — employee via /api/employees, case via /api/cases, or recruitment opening via /api/recruitment.
3. Pull authoritative records from /api/payroll-ledgers filtered by employee_id. Never treat the employee profile summary as authoritative for leave or payroll; it may be stale.
4. Retrieve case detail via /api/cases/<case_id> which embeds approvals, attachments, audit events, and comments.
5. Check folder readiness via /api/documents — compare actual files and tags against required lists.
6. Inspect notices via /api/messages or the notice_packets inside /api/recruitment.
7. Verify with audit events — /api/audit or embedded in case detail.
8. Consult policy via /api/policies/<policy_id> for the governing business rule.
9. For recruitment, pull /api/recruitment for the full opening packet: candidates, offer register, cost ledger, notice packets, and payroll precheck records.

Core Business Rules

1. Leave Source Precedence (Policy LEAVE-SRC-001)

Rule: The latest approved or submitted leave assignment record for the period controls. Draft, voided/superseded, and obsolete records are always excluded, even when the employee profile summary shows different values.

Authoritative record type: Leave assignment (in /api/payroll-ledgers filtered by record_type).

Precedence order:

1. Approved leave assignment (highest authority)
2. Submitted leave assignment
3. Employee profile summary (stale, low trust — use only when no assignment records exist)
4. Case summary only (lowest trust)

Other record types (People Ops adjustment, HRMS leave ledger, Payroll worksheet) are supporting records only — they do not determine the authoritative leave policy or balance.

When to ignore the profile summary: An approved or submitted leave assignment overrides the leave_balance_days and policy shown in /api/employees. The profile is an approximation; the ledger assignment is the source of truth.

2. Payroll Assignment Source (Policy PAY-SRC-001 §3.4)

Rule: Use the current submitted salary assignment. Draft planning assignments do not affect payroll readiness or accrual checks. Superseded records are obsolete.

Authoritative record type: Salary assignment with status Submitted.

Precedence order:

1. Submitted salary assignment (authoritative)
2. Draft — excluded
3. Superseded — excluded

Effective date comes from the updated_at field of the submitted assignment.

3. Folder Readiness (Policy POL-DOCS-2026 §5.1)

Rule: A folder is not ready unless ALL required files AND ALL required tags are present.

• ready: true only when: required_files ⊆ actual files AND required_tags ⊆ actual tags
• If any required file is missing → ready: false
• If any required tag is missing → ready: false
• The ready field in /api/documents is pre-computed and authoritative.

4. Formal Notice Quality

Required elements for a valid formal notice:

• Acknowledgement deadline
• Appeal instructions
• Correct policy reference
• Waitlist status (for waitlist notices specifically)

Recognized defect codes:

• missing_ack_deadline — no acknowledgement deadline in the notice
• missing_appeal_instructions — no appeal instructions
• missing_waitlist_status — waitlist notice omits waitlist status
• missing_correct_policy — references wrong/legacy policy

Quality determination:

• valid — no defects
• defective — one or more defects present

Evidence sources (in priority order):

1. notice_packet_inspection — notice packets from /api/recruitment or /api/messages with explicit defects and quality fields
2. message_notice_inspection — message records with defects arrays
3. case_summary_only — fallback; lowest reliability

Notice quality in messages vs notifications: Messages and notifications typically contain the same data. Use the first source that has explicit quality and defects fields. When both exist and differ, prefer messages.

5. Recruitment Handoff Gate (Policy PAY-SRC-001 §4.2)

Rule: Payroll handoff is created only after a selected candidate has an accepted offer. The handoff assignment must be submitted; draft prechecks do not satisfy the assignment gate.

Candidate outcome source precedence:

1. Committee decision + offer register confirmation (highest authority)
2. Case summary only
3. Message-only status (lowest)

Payroll handoff actions:

• create_submitted_assignment_after_acceptance — selected candidate accepted; create and submit handoff
• create_payroll_precheck — preliminary check only, insufficient for gate
• no_payroll_handoff — no accepted candidate

Draft payroll precheck records (in /api/recruitment → payroll_precheck_records) are never acceptable for the handoff gate — only a submitted assignment satisfies the requirement.

Payroll handoff gate scoping:

• accepted_offer_only — only the accepted candidate matters for payroll
• accepted_offer_and_submitted_assignment — require both offer acceptance and submitted assignment
• all_interviewed_candidates — broader scope (rare)

6. Audit Scope Rules

Three mutually exclusive audit scopes:

Audit inclusion/exclusion rules:

• When scoped to one domain (e.g., leave), exclude audit events from adjacent domains (e.g., document/notice findings, payroll events).
• The audit event that directly addresses the domain question is the primary audit event.
• Supporting audit events are those whose event field matches the domain being reviewed.
• Events with mismatched domains (e.g., folder.tag_missing when doing leave precedence) must be in excluded_audit_event_ids.

Audit event types and their domains:

• leave.profile_mismatch → leave scope
• payroll.ready, payroll.draft_excluded → payroll scope
• notice.defect, folder.tag_missing, case.close_blocked → document/notice scope
• cross_module.escalation_package → cross-module (references related events; review each before assigning)

7. Closeout Gate Logic

Gate determination:

• approval_sufficient_when_records_clean → All required records present, no defective notices, no missing files/tags, drafts properly excluded
• approval_not_sufficient_when_folder_or_notice_defective → At least one of: missing required files, missing required tags, defective formal notice

Final control results:

• approve_closeout — all records clean, closeout can proceed
• hold_for_folder_and_notice_defects — blocking issues found in folder or notice
• ready_with_monitoring — records are clean but the audit recommends ongoing monitoring (e.g., payroll.ready with "ready_with_monitoring" detail)

8. Closeout Actions

• approve_onboarding_close — records clean; proceed with close
• block_close_and_reissue_notice — defective notice; reissue required before close
• open_records_remediation — missing files/tags; open remediation workflow

Blockers:

• missing_required_files — at least one required file absent from folder
• missing_required_tags — at least one required tag absent from folder
• defective_formal_notice — notice has one or more quality defects

Record Statuses and Their Meaning

Output Field Conventions

Normalized Enum Labels

Always use the exact enum values from the answer template — never free-text descriptions. Key enums:

Source/gate labels:

• approved_assignment_over_profile — precedence when an approved assignment beats the profile summary
• approved_assignment_current_period — leave source is the approved assignment
• profile_summary_current_period — leave source is the profile (only when no assignment exists)
• case_summary_only — fallback when nothing better is available

Control results:

• approve_closeout / hold_for_folder_and_notice_defects / ready_with_monitoring

Status values:

• submitted / draft / superseded

Notice quality:

• valid / defective

Folder required tag action:

• no_tag_action — tag is present, no action needed
• add_required_tag — tag is missing, must be added

Remediation owners:

• Records — missing files/tags in the document folder
• People Ops Compliance — policy violations or cross-module issues
• Payroll QA — payroll-specific issues

Escalation actions:

• block_close_and_reissue_notice / open_records_remediation / no_action

Calculation Rules

Recruitment Cost Total

Sum all amount values from the recruitment opening's cost_ledger array. Do not filter by label or line type — every ledger line item counts.

Leave Balance Days

Take approved_leave_days from the authoritative leave assignment record (not the employee profile and not from supporting ledger entries).

Accrual Readiness

Accrual is ready: true when:

1. A submitted salary assignment exists for the employee
2. The assignment references an accrual batch ID
3. The audit confirms payroll.ready status

Date and Sorting Rules

Period Format

• Annual periods: "2026"
• Monthly periods: "2026-03", "2026-04", etc.

Record Sorting (for same employee, same record_type)

When multiple records exist, sort by status precedence:

1. Approved/Submitted (tie-break by most recent updated_at)
2. Superseded (excluded from authority)
3. Draft (excluded from authority)

Within the same status, pick the most recently updated record (updated_at descending).

Policy Effective Date

All policies in this environment have effective_date: "2026-01-01".

Evidence Source Order

For case reviews, the evidence source order indicates which sources were consulted and in what priority:

• approval_history_folder_notice_audit — full chain: approvals → folder checklist → notice inspection → audit detail
• folder_notice_audit — folder, notice, and audit only (no approvals)
• audit_only — audit events only

Common Pitfalls

1. Trusting the employee profile summary. The leave_balance_days and policy in /api/employees can be stale. Always verify against /api/payroll-ledgers for the employee's leave and salary assignments.

2. Including draft records. Draft assignments (leave or payroll) must always be excluded from the authoritative determination, even if they have a newer date or higher values than approved/submitted records.

3. Including superseded records. "Superseded" means the record was replaced. It is not authoritative and must be excluded. Use the superseding (newer approved/submitted) record instead.

4. Confusing record types. Only Leave assignment record types determine leave policy. People Ops adjustment, HRMS leave ledger, and Payroll worksheet entries are supporting records — their values do not override the assignment record.

5. Assuming folder is ready when some files/tags exist. All required files AND all required tags must be present. Partial completeness = not ready.

6. Mixing audit scopes. When determining leave source precedence, exclude document/notice audit events. When reviewing folder/notice quality, exclude leave and payroll audit events. Audit events from the wrong domain will mislead the conclusion.

7. Assuming notice is valid because it was sent. A sent notice can still be defective. Always check the quality field and defects array in the message or notification record.

8. Handoff for non-selected candidates. Only the accepted candidate triggers payroll handoff. Waitlisted and rejected candidates need notice follow-up, not payroll setup.

9. Draft payroll prechecks. Draft precheck records in recruitment data do NOT satisfy the payroll handoff gate. A submitted assignment is required.

10. Cost ledger filtering. Sum ALL cost ledger line items — do not filter by label or exclude any line.

11. Off-by-one in evidence precedence. When the audit event explicitly names the controlling record (e.g., "Approved assignment LA-118-APP-02 controls leave policy"), that audit finding is binding. Don't override it with your own record comparison.

12. Notice quality from wrong source. When /api/messages has explicit quality and defects fields, use those rather than inferring quality from the case summary alone. If notice packets in /api/recruitment are available for the candidate, those take priority.