One of the most important aspects of an officer's record is their service time. It's critical for an officer's adjusted service date and length of service to be accurate. Service time impacts a variety of allowance data and other service markers. OMS users manage service time by applying credits or frozen time to records.
Service Credits
Users will leverage service credits to manage the adjusted service date to account for gaps in service.
Frozen Time
Users can turn on frozen time to manage the length of service for active records.
Step-by-step guide
The following examples demonstrate how users can manage a record's service time.
Service Credits
Credits allow users to change the adjusted service date in OMS which helps address historical gaps in service. The adjusted service date is what OMS uses to calculate the length of service (not the commissioning date). There are many occasions in which a user would need to change the calculated length of service by adding a service credit to a record. One of the most common credits would be "broken service". For more information on how to add service credits or debits review this related article.
Length of Service = Today's Date - Commission Date - Service Credits
Example: Officer John Smith had a period of time when he was out for personal reasons. A user will need to add a "broken service" credit so his adjusted service date reflects his actual time served.
Credits have a service credit multiplier applied to the amount of time entered. These multipliers help OMS understand whether to add or deduct time. The can be managed under Settings>Service Credits.
The IPS base service date (BSD) will update when the ASD changes if those two dates matched exactly. So, if ASD = BSD and
the commissioning date changes, which changes the ASD, the BSD will be updated automatically, or
service credits are added, which affects the ASD, the BSD will be updated automatically
Frozen Time
Frozen time will stop the length of service from continuing to accrue time by putting an "artificial" end date on the officer's service. It does not change the commissioning or adjusted service dates. It only places a date cap on the length of service. It can be removed at any time and the difference can be saved as a service credit.
Length of Service = Frozen Date - Commission Date - Service Credits
Example: It was decided that a person's time should NOT continue to accrue for a period of time. A user will need to freeze their time so that their service does not increase during active time served. When the period of time has transpired, the frozen time can be removed. When this happens the user can choose to apply the time as a service penalty (for the time served) and the length of service will begin accruing again.
Frozen time can be a temporary measure that results in a service credit or remain on the person's record.