During my time at ADVANSA I was asked to develop an application to allow recording of employee absence, benefit time worked and holidays. The system required role-based access to allow line managers (FLMs) to add records only for shifts allocated to them and for administrators to have control over record edit and deletion, as well as user management. The latter included online management of new starters, movers and leavers, as well as the control of line manager status and their allocation of shifts.

The system incorporated a variety of reports, some for administrators (HR) and others for all users. The main backbone of the reporting system allowed for seamless drill-down through 3 logical tiers. Aggregated data was presented at shift level, employee level, and finally down to individual records for selected employees. These reporting tools also allowed drill-across functionality allowing users to move between different plants and shifts for the date range selected. Visibility of plants and shifts (and ultimately of employee records) depended upon user permissions to ensure an acceptable policy on data distribution.