Ascender

org.manager reads position, occupancy and employee data out of Ascender so your org charts reflect what your system of record holds rather than a spreadsheet someone exported last quarter. Reporting lines, the Clevel hierarchy, vacant positions, higher duties and concurrent occupancies, leave balances and salary data all come across.

This article lists the standard Ascender fields and where each one sits, and is helpful for building the extracts to feed into org.manager.

See it working first

Our live demo environment runs on fictional sample data and needs no login. It is the quickest way to see the kind of chart Ascender data produces.

Open the org.manager demo chart

Where the data comes from

Data is exported from the Ascender database into a flat files (csv or txt), which org.manager then uses as its data source. Scheduled procedures keep the data updated, so your charts reflect Ascender without anyone manually exporting anything.

How that data reaches your org.manager environment depends on where Ascender and org.manager each sit. Your Navigo Solutions Architect works the arrangement through with your team during implementation. For more information on transferring data securely refer this page.

Extracts are always of current data. org.manager charts reflect the position and occupancy records that are current at the time of the extract. Effective-dated history is not required.

Extract	What it holds
Position	Position numbers, titles, reporting lines, FTE, hours, classification, location and Clevel
Employee	Names, gender, date of birth, contact details, start date
Occupancy	Substantive, concurrent and higher duties occupancies, with their own dates, hours and classification
Salary	Annual salary at position and at occupancy level
Position Account	Cost account numbers and percentage splits against a position
Occupancy Account	Cost account numbers and percentage splits against an occupancy
Leave Accruals	Current leave, plus recreation, sick and long service leave balances
Allowances	Annualised allowance values
Clevel	The organisational hierarchy, with each Clevel and the Clevel it reports to

Coded values. Many Ascender fields hold a short code rather than text. Each of those has a matching description field, shown below as description.codes, which is resolved from the Ascender codes table so your charts read properly rather than showing raw codes.

Which positions and occupancies appear in your charts

The chart structure is built from positions, and occupants are then attached to them. The two are filtered separately, which is why a position with nobody in it still appears.

Positions

A position is included when both of the following are true:

The position start date is earlier than today
The position end date is later than today

If either fails, the position is not visible in the org chart.

Occupancies

Ascender holds three kinds of occupancy, and all three should be included in the extract:

Substantive (SUB), the position a person holds permanently
Concurrent (CON), a second position held at the same time
Higher duties (HDA), a position a person is acting in

An occupancy is current when its commence date is earlier than today and its end date is later than today. Where a person holds more than one at once, higher duties takes precedence over concurrent, and concurrent takes precedence over substantive, so each person shows in the role they are actually performing today.

Positions with no current occupancy are displayed as Vacant rather than being dropped, which is what makes establishment and vacancy reporting possible.

The Clevel hierarchy

Ascender holds your organisational structure as a Clevel code. Alongside the position reporting line, org.manager reads a Clevel view that pairs each Clevel with the Clevel it reports to, which gives a true parent and child hierarchy rather than a flat set of levels.

That means your chart can be built from the organisational structure itself rather than from reporting lines between individual positions, and some organisations prefer it that way. Your Navigo Solutions Architect will work through which hierarchy suits you during requirements gathering, so include the reports-to Clevel in your extract even if you expect to chart on positions.

Two shortened forms are also derived from the Clevel code, a division and a group, so you can group and filter at a coarser level without building anything extra.

Charts you can build

Our chart portfolio is listed on the Getting started page, with an article for each chart covering what it shows and who it is intended for.

Which of them you can run depends on what your Ascender data holds. Read through the field list below and tell us which fields you want on your charts, and we will confirm what that supports.

Photos

Employee photos are supplied separately and matched to people using a unique identifier from your data, usually the employee number (employee#).

Naming, file format and transfer requirements are covered on the Data Source Requirements page.

Standard Ascender fields

Grouped by extract. The left column is the label you will recognise, the right column is the Ascender field name. Fields marked derived are calculated during the extract rather than read from an Ascender column.

This list is for reference. It shows what a standard Ascender extract typically carries, so your team can find the right field quickly. Extract the fields you are planning to visualise or use in org.manager, and tell us about anything else you need that is not listed here.

Position

Field	Ascender field name
Position Number	position#
Manager's Position Number	manager_pos#
Position Title	pos_title
Start Date	start_date
End Date	end_date
Employment Status	emp_status
Employment Status Description	description.codes
Award	award
Award Description	description.codes
Classification	classification
Classification Description	description.codes
FTE	derived
FTE Fraction	fraction
Clevel	clevel
Clevel Description	description.codes
Short Clevel	derived
Location	location
Location Description	description.codes
Administrative Location	admin_location
Administrative Location Description	description.codes
Sub Location	sub_location
Sub Location Description	description.codes
Category	pos_category
Category Description	description.codes
Work Function	work_fun
Work Function Description	description.codes
Occupancy Reason	pos_occ_reas
Occupancy Reason Description	description.codes
Function	pos_function
Function Description	description.codes
Statistical Classification	stats_class
Statistical Classification Description	description.codes
Standard Hours per Week	std_hours_wk
Average Hours	avg_hours
Funding Source	funding
Is Manager Flag	derived
Is Assistant Flag	derived
Gender Equality Category	wgea_category
Geographical Location	geo_location
Affirmative Action	affirm_action

Derived: FTE is the fraction divided by 100. Is Manager is 1 where the position has people reporting to it and 0 otherwise. Is Assistant is 1 where the position is an assistant position. Short Clevel is built from two segments of the Clevel code.

Employee

Field	Ascender field name
Employee ID	employee#
Surname	surname
First Name	first_name
Preferred Name	preferred_name
Report Name	name_report
Full Name	derived
Initials	initials
Work Phone Number	work_phone#
Mobile Phone Number	mobile_phone#
Gender	gender
Date of Birth	date_of_birth
Age	derived
Title	title
Email Address	email_address
Start Date	first_commence
Probation Date	probation_date
Confirmed Flag	confirmed
Payslip Destination	payslip_dest
Payment Summary Destination	paymt_sum_dest
Permanent Resident	perm_resident
Disability	disability
Citizenship	citizenship
Citizenship Description	description.codes

Derived: Full Name is preferred name plus surname, or "Vacant" where the position has no occupant. Age is today's date less date of birth.

Occupancy

The same field set applies to substantive, concurrent and higher duties occupancies. The occupancy type tells you which is which.

Field	Ascender field name
Occupancy Type, SUB, CON or HDA	derived
Start Date	commence_date
End Date	occup_term_date
Position Title	occup_pos_title
Job ID	job#
Award	award
Award Description	description.codes
Classification	classification
Classification Description	description.codes
Position Fraction	pos_fraction
Commencement Reason	occup_com_reason
Commencement Reason Description	description.codes
Employment Status	emp_status
Employment Status Description	description.codes
Location	location
Location Description	description.codes
Position Category	occup_pos_cat
Position Category Description	description.codes
Work Function	work_fun
Work Function Description	description.codes
Funding Source	funding
Funding Source Description	description.codes
Statistical Classification	stats_class
Statistical Classification Description	description.codes
Review Type	review_type
Review Type Description	description.codes
Review Date	review_date
Total Hours	total_hours
Average Hours	avg_hours
Roster	roster
Roster Description	description.codes
Oncost Pattern	oncost_pattern
Oncost Pattern Description	description.codes
Administrative Location	admin_location
Administrative Location Description	description.codes
Standard Hours per Week	std_hours_wk
Position Occupancy Reason	pos_occ_reason
Position Occupancy Reason Description	description.codes
Clevel	clevel
Clevel Description	description.codes
Short Clevel	derived
Sub Clevel	derived
Division	derived
Division Description	derived
Group	derived
Group Description	derived
Sub Location	sub_location
Sub Location Description	description.codes
ATO Income Type	ato_income_type
ATO Income Type Description	description.codes

Derived: Occupancy Type carries SUB, CON or HDA. Sub Clevel, Division and Group are built from segments of the Clevel code.

Salary

Field	Ascender field name
Occupancy Annual Salary	salary_year
Position Annual Salary	salary_year

Drives: Compensation, Budget and Compa Ratio charts, and the remuneration components of WGEA reporting. Both figures come from the same Ascender column, read once against the occupancy and once against the position. Position salary is what lets you cost vacant positions, not only filled ones.

Position Account and Occupancy Account

Field	Ascender field name
Account Number, one to nine	account#
Account Percentage, one to nine	account_pc

Up to nine cost accounts and their percentage splits are carried, at both position and occupancy level, so a position funded across several accounts is costed correctly.

Leave Accruals

Field	Ascender field name
Current Leave Code	lv_code
Current Leave Code Description	description
Current Leave Start Date	start_date
Current Leave End Date	end_date
Current Leave Amount	lv_amt
Current Leave Unit	lv_unit
Recreation Leave Balance	balance_actual_full
Recreation Leave Balance, pro rata	balance_prorata_full
Sick Leave Balance	balance_actual_full
Sick Leave Balance, pro rata	balance_prorata_full
Long Service Leave Balance	balance_actual_full
Long Service Leave Balance, pro rata	balance_prorata_full

Drives: Leave Liability, and the on leave indicator on a chart box. The balance fields use the same Ascender columns for every leave type, with the leave code distinguishing recreation, sick and long service leave.

Allowances

Field	Ascender field name
Annual Allowance Value	value_year

Allowance values are summed per occupancy and annualised. Which allowance codes count is agreed during implementation rather than being every allowance on the record, so tell us which ones should contribute to remuneration reporting.

Clevel

Field	Ascender field name
Clevel ID	clevel_id
Clevel Description	clevel_desc
Reports-to Clevel ID	clevel_id
Reports-to Clevel Description	clevel_desc

Drives: the organisational hierarchy, and grouping and filtering by division and group. Each row pairs a Clevel with its parent, so the same two Ascender columns appear twice, once for the Clevel itself and once for the Clevel it reports to.

Next steps

If Ascender is your system of record and you want to see what your own structure looks like in org.manager, get in touch with your Navigo Solutions Architect. We will walk through which of the fields above you already hold, which charts they unlock and what the extract looks like in practice.