Bid Rounds

Once a Vacation Bid Package is saved and appears on the Enhanced Vacation Bids page, the user can create an associated Bid Round by selecting the Package from the list and clicking the Bid Rounds link.

Clicking the + Add New button opens the Add Bid Round page. In this page fill in the required fields (marked by a red asterisk),

Name - provide a name for the new Bid Round
Description - provide a description for the new Bid Round
Bid round number - select a number.  If not selected, system will auto-assign one.
Accrual account - select the account where time-off will be deducted
Effective date range - select the dates which the employee can bid on during the Bid Round

In the Vacation Bids section, the following settings are available:

Bids conducted for each employee based on - Select Weeks or Days (currently on Weeks are supported)
Week selection method - when weeks is selected, this setting determines what days are marked as PTO.  Currently the only option available is "Only those days that fall within award work week".
Employees can only request vacation time off from days they are scheduled to work - select this option if you wish to restrict the days/weeks that employees can bid on.
Maximum number of weeks to award for this round - enter a numeric value
Allow an employee to set their own maximum number of weeks awarded - select this option if you wish to allow the employee to restrict how many days/weeks they can be awarded during this Bid Round.

In the Rebid Options section, the following settings are available:

Exchanges Permitted - By enabling this option, Location Administrators are allowing employees to exchange previously awarded vacations if they choose to do so. When awarded, only new Awards will appear and the exchanged preferences will be removed.

• Effective date range - this specifies the dates for which exchanges are allowed

• Max number of days/weeks that can be exchanged cannot exceed number of days/weeks in preference: Employees can select previously published days/weeks to exchange on multiple preferences within the Bid Round, however they are not able to select more days/weeks to exchange than what is in the preference when this option is enabled.

• Allow Domino Awards: When running awards for multiple employees, this option can be enabled to make preferences that have been exchanged for newly awarded preferences, available to be awarded to other employees who have the exchanged preference higher in their list of preferences.
  For Example:
  Employee 1 has Week A listed as their first preference (awarded to Employee 2) but awarded their second preference, Week B.
  Employee 2 exchanges Week A for Week C.
  The system will automatically award Employee 1 Week A (now available because of the exchange), unaward Week B, and check for other employees who have the newly available Week B listed in their preferences, etc.

Freeze Slots - When enabled, slot availability for the award process will be as of the Bid Window Open Date and cannot change during the bid round.  This ensures that employees are always aware of slots being available when they are submitting their vacation preferences.

• All slots - selecting this option indicates that all liability slots will be frozen, no matter the number which are available.
• Slots with no availability - selecting this option will only freeze liability slots that have zero slots available.

NOTE: The Domino Awards setting is not available for selection when Freeze Slots is enabled.

NOTE: Both Rebid options, Exchanges Permitted and Freeze Slots, are only available to toggle on and off prior to an employee adding a Bid Preference to their cart. At which point both will be locked in whatever state they were in until the preferences are deleted.

Determine if Multiple Bids must be consecutive and if so select an option:

• Consecutive weeks are considered the number of weeks all in a row
• Consecutive weeks are considered the number of scheduled weeks all in a row

In the Bid Preferences section the user can determine if they want to set a minimum or maximum number of days/weeks the employee can opt for in their Bid Preference.

Enter the Maximum number of Preferences Awarded per round in the available field.

Enable the Allow employees to select days/weeks that have no slots available option when allowing Exchanges Permitted and Domino Awards. when checked, unavailable slots will then appear on the employee's calendars and allow for selection and bidding in the event of an exchange.  This would used in the case where slots are not being frozen.

The Bid Window Date range is the dates that bidding will be open for employees to submit their vacation preferences.  The Start date can only occur from the current day forward as indicated in the calendar pop-ups. Unlike shift Bid Packages , there is no requirement to end the bid round prior to the Vacation Bid Package start date.

Once saved, all Bid Rounds are displayed within the Bid Rounds page.

Clicking the Edit button () allows the user to view the details and make edits to the Bid Round setup.  

Clicking the Bid Round name takes the user into the screens where they can further setup the bid round and run/publish awards (described elsewhere in this help documentation).  

Clicking the Publish button () takes the user directly to the Publish page where they are able to publish awarded preferences.

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*Note: Not all companies have all of the items described in the Online Help.

*Please note, the ARCOS online documentation is a living document that is always under review. If you see information that is inconsistent with the behavior in the application, or you do not see a page covering an ARCOS feature you would like to know more about, please contact the ARCOS Support Center.