Workforce Management FAQs

Imported data doesn't appear when the import file contains formatting errors.

To import correctly:

1. Go to ACD Historical Data > Import Historical Data.

2. Click Download Template.

3. Ensure the ACD data is in UTC before adding it to the template.

4. Fill in the template following the format requirements above.

5. Save as .csv and verify the formatting in a text editor before uploading.

6. To verify: Go to Forecasting > Generate Forecast > Step 2: Historical Data and confirm the data appears.

No. You cannot selectively delete individual files. When you clear historical data, it removes all historical data, including both manually uploaded files and ACD feed data. Do not clear historical data unless explicitly directed by NiCE Support. Clearing historical data erases all existing data, requiring up to 13 weeks of data to be rebuilt.

If you need to correct data from a specific file:

Re-upload the correct files. Upload only the files that contain accurate data overwriting the existing data matching dates and Skill names which will replace the previous data, retaining all the ACD skill names.

Before you click Clear Historical Data, review the following information:

1. All historical data is deleted. This includes both manually uploaded files and call volume from the ACD feed.

2. This action is permanent. Once cleared, the data cannot be retrieved. You need to re-upload the data.

3. File names remain visible. After clearing, the manually uploaded file names still appear in the list, but the data within them is removed.

4. All ACD history is deleted and would need to be manually uploaded to restore the data.

Certain standard ACD activity codes — such as CallbackPending and ConsultPending — don't appear on the Mapping ACD to Activities page by default. This is a known product limitation.

Resolution:

Method 1 — Map from Real-Time Adherence:

1. Go to Real-Time Adherence (RTA).

2. Wait for an agent to enter the unmapped state. The activity displays as Unmapped with a yellow warning icon.

3. Click the yellow warning icon. The system opens the mapping page with the code pre-selected.

4. Map the code to the appropriate WFM activity code and save.

Method 2 — Create a matching unavailable code in ACD:

1. Go to ACD > Unavailable Codes and create a new code with the same name as the standard code.

2. Save the new code.

3. Go to WFM > Admin > Mapping ACD to Activities.

4. The code now appears. Map it and save.

WFM uses two types of activity codes:

When an agent requests time off for a full shift, the PTO duration on the schedule doesn't always match the total shift length. The Work Hours setting on the activity code controls this behavior.

The Work Hours checkbox on each activity code determines whether that activity counts toward the agent's working hours. When an activity code (such as Lunch) isn't marked as Work Hours, the system excludes that activity's duration from the PTO calculation.

Example:

To verify or change this setting:

1. Click the app selector and select WFM.

2. Go to Admin > Activity Codes.

3. Open the activity code (for example, Lunch).

4. Check the Work Hours setting:

   • If the checkbox is cleared, the system excludes this activity from PTO calculations. The agent's PTO covers only the remaining working hours.

   • If the checkbox is selected, the system includes this activity in PTO calculations. The agent's PTO covers the full shift, including this activity.

5. Adjust the setting based on your organization's policy and click Save.

The Scheduled Activity column displays "Unscheduled" when you haven't published the agent's schedule from Schedule Manager. Even if the schedule exists in Schedule Manager, the system requires a published schedule to populate Real-Time Adherence and the Adherence report.

The Scheduled Activity column displays a different activity code than what appears in Schedule Manager if you modified the schedule but didn't republish it.

To resolve this, publish or republish the schedules:

1. Click the app selector and select WFM.

2. Go to Scheduling > Schedule Manager.

3. Select the scheduling unit and date range for the affected agents.

4. Verify that the correct schedules exist for the agents.

5. Click Publish.

The Adherence report uses the following statuses to describe agent activity records:

Troubleshoot Unmapped status

Records display as Unmapped when an ACD activity code has no corresponding WFM activity code. To resolve this:

1. Click the app selector and select WFM.

2. Go to Admin > Mapping ACD to Activities.

3. Verify that every ACD activity code has a mapped WFM activity code.

4. If an ACD activity code is missing a mapping, add the mapping and save.

5. If the mapping already exists but the status still displays as Unmapped:

   • Remove the activity mapping.

   • Re-add the same mapping and save.

6. Wait for the next data refresh cycle, then check the Adherence report to confirm the status updates.

Troubleshoot Unknown status

Records display as Unknown when no ACD activity data exists for the agent during the reported interval. Common causes:

• Agent not logged in: If the agent wasn't logged in during the interval, Unknown is the expected status. No action is required.

• Stuck agent session: The agent's session didn't update to the next state (including logout). The agent appears as active in the system even though they're no longer working.

To identify and resolve a stuck agent session:

1. Go to the agent's timecard or recent activity view and confirm whether the agent shows as logged out.

2. Check Real-Time Adherence (RTA) and other dashboards. If the agent displays as Unknown, LoggedOut, or Other, the session may be stuck.

3. Log in to the agent's profile and start a new session to generate a fresh login event.

4. Log the agent out and observe whether the status updates correctly.

5. If the issue persists — for example, a force-logged-out agent still displays as Active or Unknown in the Adherence report — open a support case. Include:

   • Agent name and ID

   • Date and time range of the issue (before and after the corrective action)

   • Screenshots from the Adherence report and RTA

The daily allotment in Approval Rules applies per scheduling unit and per time-off code — not as a shared total.

To review:

1. Go to Admin > Approval Rules.

2. Open the rule and review the assigned scheduling units and time-off codes.

3. Verify that the Balance for custom days value reflects the intended total per scheduling unit per time-off code.

Before you deactivate an agent, complete the following cleanup steps to prevent stale data in Time Off Manager, Schedule Manager, and Intraday Manager.

Before deactivation

1. Go to Time Off Manager and review all pending time-off requests for the agent.

2. Approve or cancel each pending request.

   Time Off Manager displays requests within a 90-day window only. Verify that no requests exist beyond the visible window by checking adjacent date ranges.

3. Go to Admin > Employees and open the agent's profile.

4. Remove the agent from all WFM entities:

   • WEM Skills

   • Scheduling units

   • Weekly rules

   • Daily rules

   • Rotation rules

5. Confirm the agent no longer appears in any active scheduling unit.

6. Deactivate the agent.

After deactivation

1. Go to Forecasting > Generate Forecast and generate a new forecast for each affected scheduling unit.

2. Go to Scheduling > Schedule Manager and generate a new schedule using the forecast from step 1.

3. Publish the new schedule.

Scenario-specific Troubleshooting

If you didn't complete the cleanup steps before deactivation, use the following procedures:

Pending time-off request count displays but no requests are visible

Time Off Manager shows a pending request count that includes requests from deactivated agents. Because deactivated agents are hidden from the interface, the requests aren't visible but still contribute to the count.

To resolve this:

1. Go to Admin > Employees and locate the deactivated agent.

2. Temporarily reactivate the agent.

3. Go to Time Off Manager and cancel or approve all pending requests for the agent.

4. Return to Admin > Employees and remove the agent from all WFM entities (WEM Skills, scheduling units, weekly rules, daily rules, rotation rules).

5. Deactivate the agent again.

6. Generate a new forecast and schedule for the affected scheduling unit, then publish the schedule.

Deactivated agents appear in published schedules

Published schedules retain agent data from the time the schedule was generated. If the agent was assigned to a scheduling unit and had a published schedule at the time of deactivation, the agent continues to appear.

To resolve this:

1. Go to Admin > Employees and open the deactivated agent's profile.

2. If the agent doesn't appear in the WEM Skill or Scheduling Unit assignment views (deactivated agents are hidden), temporarily reactivate the agent to access the assignments.

3. Remove the agent from all WEM Skills and scheduling units.

4. If you reactivated the agent in step 1, deactivate the agent again.

5. Go to Forecasting > Generate Forecast and generate a new forecast for the affected scheduling unit.

6. Go to Scheduling > Schedule Manager, generate a new schedule, and publish it.

7. Verify that the deactivated agent no longer appears in the published schedule.

This happens when no forecast profile is linked during schedule generation. Without forecast data, the scheduler has no call volume patterns to use when staggering breaks and lunches, so it assigns the same times to all agents.

To fix this:

• Link a forecast profile. When you generate the schedule, select a forecast profile in the generation settings.

• Regenerate the schedule. The breaks and lunches are now staggered based on the forecast volume patterns and your scheduling parameters.

Verify that a forecast profile is selected before you generate a schedule. This ensures the optimizer distributes breaks and lunches to maintain adequate staffing coverage throughout the day.

Intraday Manager displays forecast data only when all the following conditions are met:

• A completed forecast job exists for the date range you're viewing.

• Step 5: Staffing of the forecast job includes allocation for the scheduling unit used in the schedule.

• A schedule was generated using that forecast job.

• The schedule was published for the date you're viewing.

If any of these conditions isn't met, the Forecast column in Intraday Manager remains empty for the affected dates.

To resolve this:

1. Go to Forecasting > Generate Forecast.

2. Open the forecast job and go to Step 5: Staffing.

3. Confirm that the scheduling unit has an allocation for the required date range.

   • To verify, export the staffing data from Step 5 and check that the scheduling unit appears with non-zero values.

4. Go to Scheduling > Generate Schedule.

5. Generate a new schedule using the forecast job from Step 3. Select dates that fall within the forecast date range.(or Schedule Manager) and generate a schedule using this forecast job.

6. Click Publish.

7. Return to Intraday Manager and verify that the Forecast column now displays data.

If adherence and forecasting data populate correctly but Intraday displays no data when you use the Cisco UCCX Connector, the reports.json configuration file might not include the Intraday report parameters.

To resolve this:

1. Verify that the server is running the latest version of the UCCX Connector Service.

2. On the server that hosts the UCCX Connector Service, locate the reports.json file.

3. Add the following Intraday report parameters to the file:

   var(--codeSnippetCopyLabel)

   {
     "realTime": true,
     "name": "CISCO_UCCXIntradayReport",
     "version": 0,
     "status": "LOADED",
     "reportUtcTime": null,
     "description": "This is a CISCO_UCCX ACD Intraday report",
     "interval": 15,
     "acdType": "CISCO_UCCX",
     "reportType": "Intraday"
   }

The activity is present but displays in a lighter color shade that's difficult to distinguish from the background.

MyZone uses two color shades:

To confirm the activity is present:

1. Hover over the time block in MyZone to view the activity code tooltip.

2. Alternatively, open the agent's schedule in Schedule Manager to verify the assigned activity code.

An agent's schedule appears in MyZone only after it has been both generated and published. If an agent reports that their schedule isn't visible, verify the following:

1. Confirm the schedule exists. Go to WFM > Schedule Manager, search for the agent by name, and check that a schedule has been generated for the relevant date range.

2. Confirm the schedule is published. A generated schedule isn't visible to agents until you publish it. In Schedule Manager, verify the publish status for the date range in question. If the schedule hasn't been published, publish it so that the agent can view it in MyZone.

No. Agents cannot see the exact number of available time-off slots in MyZone. However, they can see which colleagues already have time off for a given day.

To get an idea of availability before submitting a request:

1. Check the schedule view in MyZone. Look at the day you want to request off.

2. Review who already has time off. The schedule displays other agents who have approved time off for that day.

Use this information as a general indicator of how many slots may still be open. If many agents already have time off for that day, fewer slots are likely available.

If actual activities appear as Unknown in the RTA table, the exported Adherence report, or Prebuilt Reports > Adherence for agents connected through the Avaya CMS Data Connector, Agent Trace may not be enabled on the Avaya side.

To resolve this, contact your Avaya administrator and enable Agent Trace for the affected agents at Avaya Main Menu > Agent Administration > Activate Agent Trace.

An internal server error can occur when you access Real-Time Adherence, even if you have WFM RTA permissions enabled. This typically means the assigned role is missing additional required permissions.

To resolve this:

1. Go to Admin > Roles & Permissions.

2. Select the affected role.

3. Verify the following permissions:

   • Under Admin: Set WEM Skills to at least View.

   • Under WFM: Set Activity Codes and Mapping to at least View.

4. Click Save.

5. Clear the browser cache and log in again for the updated permissions to take effect.

The agent receives this error when a schedule change occurs after the time-off request was approved. The system blocks cancellation to prevent conflicts with the updated schedule.

Resolution:

A manager or scheduler must remove the time off manually:

1. Go to Scheduling > Schedule Manager.

2. Select the scheduling unit and go to the date of the approved time off.

3. Remove the time-off entry from the agent's schedule.

4. Republish the schedule.

This message appears due to a backend error during schedule generation, which prevents requirements from being saved.

To resolve this, regenerate the schedule:

1. Go to Scheduling > Generate Schedule.

2. Click Generate New Schedules.

3. Select the scheduling unit and date range.

4. Click Generate.

If the issue persists, contact NiCE CXone Support.

These three features serve different purposes and operate independently:

1. Holidays (Admin tab) — Controls whether agents can request time off on company-recognized holidays in Time Off Manager. It has no impact on forecasting or scheduling.

2. Special Days (Forecasting tab) — Lets you override forecasted call volume for specific dates, such as holidays or promotions. It affects the forecast only and has no impact on Time Off Manager or scheduling.

3. Future Activities (Scheduling tab) — Schedules activities for future dates, such as assigning a holiday activity code so agents aren't scheduled to work. It affects schedules only and has no impact on Time Off Manager or forecasting.

To manage holidays across all three areas, you must configure each feature separately.

Decimal balances appear when time-off allotments or requests (calculated in HH:MM) are converted into days and produce a non-whole number.

WFM determines the length of one working day for time-off calculations based on the Shift Length for Time Off Calculations setting in your Time Off Rules:

• Max Daily Rule: Uses the agent's configured maximum daily work hours.

• Custom Shift Length: Uses a fixed value specified in the rule (between 1.0 and 24.0 hours, for example, 7.5 hours).

• Default: Uses 8 hours (08:00) if no custom length or Max Daily rule is configured.

All calculations are processed internally in HH:MM and dynamically converted to days based on the active daily shift length configuration.

This is expected behavior. No action is required.

WEM skills mapping relies on the name of the ACD skill. If you rename an ACD skill, the existing mapping breaks, and historical data doesn't appear when you generate a forecast.

To fix this:

1. Open the WEM skill. Go to Admin > WEM Skills and open the WEM skill that was mapped to the ACD skill.

2. Re-map the renamed skill. In the Map to ACD Skills section, find the newly renamed skill and select its checkbox.

3. Click Save.

4. Generate a forecast to confirm that historical data is no longer missing.

Don't remove the existing mapping. Removing it prevents this fix from working, and the only alternative is to request a data reload from R&D.

This error occurs when the agent is inactive and no other active users are assigned to the same WEM skill. The system cannot process the removal if it would leave the skill with no assigned users.

To resolve this:

1. Add an active user to the WEM skill. Go to Admin > WEM Skills, open the affected skill, and assign at least one active user.

2. Remove the inactive agent. Go to Admin > Employees, search for the inactive agent, open the WEM Skills tab, and delete the WEM skill assignment. Click Save.

3. Remove the temporary active user. Go back to the WEM skill and remove the active user you added in step 1.

You must add an active user first. The system requires at least one assigned user on the skill to process the removal without errors.