PAYROLL

INTRODUCTION
Processing payroll is a very typical and fundamental business requirement
across enterprises. If we have human resource, we will have to pay them.
This sounds pretty simple. When we have 10 odd employees working in
our firm, and we write checks for them; this can be done with the help of a
spreadsheet and it won’t take a lot of time or resource to get something of
this sort to be done. But let's think about a big enterprise. Processing
payroll for a big enterprise is a gigantic task to do. It takes a lot of
preparation just for the payroll processing and again a lot of post
execution steps to make sure all the data are accurate and stored for
further usage.

Do we simply write checks? What exactly do we do in the entire payroll

process?

We do a lot of stuff, like calculating an employee's salary, calculating the

amount to be paid per pay period. Determining how to pay, by check or by
direct deposit into a bank? Figuring out if he had worked for the entire
period, or was he on leave; if so, does that entail cutting off some portion
of his salary? OK, Once we know, how much to pay. What next? Taxes,
what are his incomes/ earnings? What should we deduct? Calculating the
taxes based on that, again processing the payroll, getting the checks /
direct deposits in place. After all that we should let our bank know, to debit
that salary into his account. Will have to let my ledger books know; out of
which budget, how much has been given as pay checks. So there are a lot
of things.

Imagine doing all these by ourselves, without any software in place. Won’t
we have to run another enterprise, just to process pay checks for our firm?
Yes it might take those many numbers of people, just to do that job right.
We are here to avoid that. We will use Oracle Payroll for our firm.

Let’s take two minutes, and imagine Oracle Payroll has been successfully
implemented in our firm. Now we are trying to run our Payroll. For that
 Processing portion of it, Oracle payroll, divides the entire payroll process in
to three broad divisions:
 Pre-Processing
 Capturing salary
 Capturing time cards
 Running BEE process
 Processing
 PYU_GEN Process
 Retry and Rollback
 Quick pays
 Post-Processing
 Running Payroll Registers
 Tax remittance
 Gross to Net Calculation
 Determining Payment Methods
 Check writers / BACS / NACHA/ ACS / Garnishments / Manual Payments
 Payment Register
 Retro-Pay
 Reversals
 Advance Payments
 Archivers
 Costing
 Transfer to GL

A lot of words here sound like a foreign planet language, don’t they? We
will go through each and every step of it to understand what exactly
happens in the entire course of payroll processing. However we will have
to first get Oracle Payroll Implemented and running.

OVERVIEW
This chapter talks about:
 Oracle Payroll as a module
 Components of payroll: Earnings, Deductions, Taxes, Elements, Input
values, Balances
 Different Payment Methods and Payment Frequencies
 Setting up payroll for an Enterprise
 Pre-Processing Steps: Pre-Payments to Transfer to GL
 Payroll run validation and correction methodologies
 Retro Pays
 Case Studies

LEARNING OUTCOMES
After going through this Chapter, you should be able to:
 Understand the basic components of payroll and relate them to a real time
pay check
 Set up Oracle payroll for an Enterprise
 Process the payroll for an Enterprise
 Process and validate the payroll processes and supporting reports
 Run a retro pay

DICTIONARY
DICTIONARY
Before getting started, we must know the terms that are going to be used
in this chapter. We must know the processes and taxonomy in order to
understand the basics easily, so here we go.
 Elements
An element is the building block of payroll. It is a place holder to contain
values, which will be used for a Payroll processing. The primary usage is to
embed a type of income or deduction into an element, so that the entries
can be made on the Employee's record related to the element. Later with
the entries, we can calculate the payroll.

For an example, if we were to give Bonus to 5 employees in our

organization. We will create an element for Bonus. The Bonus element can
be attached to the 5 employees. While processing Payroll, the Payroll
engine will give the bonus, only if there is the Bonus element attached. So
that only the chosen five employees get the bonus, and others don't.

An element can be of two types: Recurring and Non-recurring. Recurring

are the ones that are processed for each and every pay period, and the
ones that are paid once in a while are called non-recurring. From the
bonus example above, Bonus is a non-recurring one. So Regular Salary will
be a recurring element and Bonus will be a non Recurring one.

In a real world, Elements serve a lot of purposes. Like,

 Earnings and Deductions: Salary, Allowances, Bonus, Loans
 Taxes: State taxes, Country level taxes
 Benefits: Vacations, Sick pays, Paid Absences, Pension plans, Employee
Stock options, Insurance premiums / rates
 Supplementary: Mobile Phones, Computers, Uniforms provided by the
company, Expense reimbursements
 Information: Leave adjustments, Loan Amount, Accruals etc.
Element Links
Element links are like qualifiers. They determine if the element is linkable
to an employee or not. So it gives us an extra handle, where we can specify
who all can be eligible to get this element attached. To take our Bonus
example further, if we define a criteria on the Bonus element, so that only
those 5 employees can get the Bonus element, then it will be easy for us to
maintain. The Criteria can be defined in the element links. There is a lot to
it, rather just defining criteria, we will learn more about it in Configuration
section.

Earnings
An earning is a type of element which is as simple as what it means in
English. This is a type of element which actually Debits the amount value
attached to it. For an example, Regular salary/ Bonus will be an earning. In
Oracle Payroll prospective, Earning is a template form. We will learn more
about it when we start configuring Payroll.

Deductions
This is a type of element as well; however it credits the amount value.
These are used to deduct some amount from our payroll. For an example,
our Medical Insurance amount (Rate) is a deduction that gets credited
from our gross income. Our Tax amount, Provident fund etc are
deductions. To generalize, anything that gets deducted from your Salary is
known as a deduction. This is exactly opposite to Earnings.
 Balances
A Balance is an aggregate of one or more elements that have a numerical
value attached to it. These are created for tracking purpose; to track the
aggregated values with different dimensions.

OK, let’s discuss that a little more with an example. Let's take an example
of Bonus again. We will create a balance with name BONUS_BAL. We will
attach my Bonus element to it. We would expect the BONUS_BAL to
answer the following questions for me.
 How much Bonus did we pay in the fiscal year of 2010?
 How much Bonus did we pay in 3rd Quarter of 2010?
 How much Bonus did Jean receive in her entire length of service?

So these parameters Fiscal Year, Quarter, Length of service, these are all
Dimensions, based on which we can get a value. If we draw Bonus as X
axis, Time in Y axis, and plot a graph, it will give us a point for the Quarter
of 2010, Right? So the axis here is one dimension. Similarly we can put
dimensions of many types. So bonus is usually a Multi-Dimensional
architecture of a collection of data; where Data being the numbers
attached to the elements.

So to rephrase Balance, we will say, it’s a collection / summation of one or

more elements, which can be used to retrieve data with multiple
dimensions.

Why would we need that? In our pay slip, there is something called as
Income Tax deduction, and something called as YTD (Year To Date)
Deduction. Where is that YTD Deduction coming from? It’s coming from
the balance attached to the Income Tax element, and the dimension we
are using is Year to date, that is for the fiscal year being evaluated. Clear?
Nice. This is just a simple example of balance usages; there are actually a
lot of usages of balances, and we will discuss them while discussing about
the Payroll implementation steps.
 Payment Methods
An employee gets options related to the way he wants to get paid. Those
options can be:
 Check Payment
 Direct Deposits (Bank Account credits)
 Garnishments (Third Party Payments; for an example, a court order to pay
$200 every month to someone / charity)
 Cash, although paying by cash is not a very standard practice, few of the
countries allow paying your employees by cash.

Again based on the localization of the payroll, we need to use automatic

money transfer via a certain Media, like NACHA / BACS / ACB. These are
needed for direct deposits. The other two (Check Payment and
Garnishments) are clearly driven through the checks, however the
recipient changes. An employee can also have liberty to divide his salary in
two different accounts.

For an Example, If Joe has two accounts, one checking and one savings,
and then he might request his salary like this:
 Give me a check for $300.
 Then $500 should go as a garnishment to pay out my ex-spouse, as per
court order.
 Rest of the money should go to my Savings account.

Here Joe uses three different payment methods.

Payroll Frequency
Every enterprise runs on a schedule of payroll frequencies. These are the
frequencies on which the payroll is processed and payments are made.
 The Frequency again depends upon the type of payroll a particular
employee is on. Examples are:
 Monthly
 Semi-Monthly
 Bi-weekly
 Weekly

So if Joe is entitled to the Monthly payroll, he will get paid every month. So
his payroll frequency is monthly.

Consolidation Sets
If an enterprise has three payroll cycles; Monthly, Semi Monthly and
weekly; it means, it has employees who are paid every week / once in a
fortnight / once a month. This also means it will have to process at least
one payroll every week (weekly). Every alternate weeks, it will have to
process two payrolls (one weekly and one semi-monthly), and all three on
the last week of the month. Its not just about the payroll process, the
enterprise must process post processing steps for each one of them.

To summarize, the payroll processing team of the enterprise will have to

repeat a set of task multiple times for each payroll. To solve problems like
this, Oracle E-Biz uses a methodology called Consolidation set. A set of
payrolls can be combined and grouped together through a consolidation
set and different processes can be run on the consolidation set, rather
running it individually on each payroll. It will pick the payrolls processed
between the provided date range and will execute the rest of the
processes for all of them at once. So payrolls with similar timelines can be
clubbed together in a group called Consolidation set.

Note: Every Payroll must have a Consolidation set attached to it.

Costing
The Process with which the Pay check amounts are segregated among the
various departments and cost centers in any Enterprise is known as
Costing.

Let's take an example of Mr. Joe, who is working in our enterprise since
last 7 years. Now he is a Project Manager, and his billing (his pay check)
should be paid by the department for which he is working. Similarly Ms.
Jean, who is a contractor, and has been hired to do some market research,
should get paid by the department of Sales.

We know that after the payroll is run, we are going to send these reports
to General Ledger aka GL, so that the books/accounts are updated
accordingly. However how do we specify, which pay check is paid by which
department? There will be situations where we want the cost to be paid by
the Admin cost centre, as the job was department independent. So to
cater all these requirements, we have a concept called Costing.

We define a cost allocation flex field just for the same purpose. It will have
different segments where we can attach my cost; like, Project, Product.
Cost centre, Account Code etc. These are highly based on my enterprise
hierarchy / design. With that in hand, we can start assigning costing to the
payrolls. We will also have places where we will be able to override costing.
We will learn more about it while configuring those.

The General Ledger has a Flex field called: Accounting Flex field. In a best
case design, the accounting Flex field and the cost allocation flex field
should match. However for all cases, we need to map these two flex fields
in order to link the accounts from HR end to the GL end. There is a form in
HRMS, where the Accounting flex field is mapped to the Cost Allocation
Flex Field via segments. That process is known as the GL Mapping.
Electronic payments
In case of direct deposits, when the payroll processing is done, the bank
must be informed to transfer the amounts to the respective accounts. So
how do we do it?

In most countries, all banks have an association through which they

manage electronic transfers, like NACHA (National Automated Clearing
House Association) in US and BACS (Bankers' automated clearing services) in
UK. The association determines a format and an electronic data transfer
methodology with which one can communicate to the bank to fill in money
into the employee accounts.

As part of Post Processing of payroll, we usually run a report that prints

the Account number and the Amount in a desired format, based on the
localization (either for NACHA or BACS). That report is then sent to the
bank using a preferred media, which is again specific to localization. That
report is then used by the bank to credit the Money in to the mentioned
accounts. The entire process of generating a Payment report and sending
it to bank is called the Electronic Payment data Transfer.

Element Classifications
There are a set of predefined classifications available with Oracle Payroll,
which can be used to represent the characteristics of a particular element.
Each and every element must have a classification attached to it. The
Classification in turn depicts the way the element behaves. For an
example, an Element of classification type ‘earning’, tells us that it’s an
Earning, and the money accumulated in it will be added to the pay check.
An element with Classification as "Information", tells us it’s just for the
information purpose only, and will not be holding any money.
Let's say, we have a primary classification that has 10 elements associated
to it. Out of those 10 elements, 5 elements are very similar. They belong to
the same payroll entity/ they have similar usage. In this case, we can define
a secondary classification that will help us group the similar elements
together. Although Secondary classifications are not mandatory they are
very useful in Balance configuration. As an example, a Travel Allowance,
House Rent Allowance, uniform allowance are of type Earning (Primary
Classification) and are type Paid Allowance (secondary classification).

SETTING KFFS
There is a swim lane procedure for the configuration of Oracle Payroll, and
w are going to follow the same. We will start with defining the KFFs.

SETTING UP MANDATORY KFFS

There are two very important Key Flex Fields for a successful, up and
running system with Oracle Payroll. They are Cost Allocation KFF and
People Group KFF. While cost allocation KFF deals with the way the costing
is managed, the people group KFF provides an additional set of columns to
identify different population in Oracle HRMS.

Cost allocation KFF

As we had discussed, the Cost allocation Flex Field defines a structure to
the various accounts under which costing can be incurred. This KFF runs in
parallel with the Accounting flex field in Oracle General Ledger. Costing is
important in order to credit the appropriate accounts based on the labour
costs paid as part of pay checks.

Responsibility: Application Developer

Navigation: Flex Field -> Key -> Segments

 Steps:
 Click on Title.
 Query for the string "Cost Allocation Flex field".
 Define a new structure with the following data. See Figure 5.1 – Cost
Allocation KFF

Figure 1 Cost Allocation KFF

(Figure 5.1 – Cost Allocation KFF)

To define the segments, we will have to click on the segments button.

However, let's first finalize the levels where the cost can be added. We will
have to decide the valid levels from the structure of our enterprise. In case
we are implementing the ERP for our client, we need to discuss these
requirements in details. Usually, the levels in which the costs are allocated
are: Company, Cost centre, account Code, Project and Product. However, if
we have the GL implemented for our client, it’s advised to create the
segments in parallel with our accounting flex field.

OK, once we know the levels, let's configure them. See Figure 5.2 – Cost
Allocation Segments.
Figure 2 Cost Allocation Segments

(Figure 5.2 – Cost Allocation Segments)

As the segments are added now, the next task is to set the details for that
segment. To do so, click on the first segment and press open. See Figure
5.3 – Cost Allocation Segment Description.

Figure 3 Cost Allocation Segment Description

(Figure 5.3 – Cost Allocation Segment Description)

 Sometimes we would like to add an extra set of eyes to the segments,
where we want the segment value to be dependent on another. The best
example in this case is the start date and the end date, where we’d always
want the start date to be smaller than the end date, which logically makes
sense, as we cannot end a record in the past that is created in future.

In cases like this, we can make use of the range. A segment with high range
must always be bigger than the segment with the low range. To solve the
dates issue here, we can define the end date to be in High and the start
date as low.

Laws of Range:
 We should have the Low segment appear before the High segment
 We cannot just assign one segment as High and not assign any as low, or
Vice versa. If we have a low segment, we must have a high segment too.

As the ranges are set, let's talk about qualifiers. Remember we talked
about these while talking about the KFFs in the core HR and AOL section?
OK here it is; Qualifiers define the segments that can be updated at one
given level. Talking about the Cost Allocation KFF, we have the Following
places where a segment can be updated:
 Payroll
 Element link
 Organization
 Assignment
 Element Entries

In these levels, the cost can be attained or assigned, with precedence from
payroll to element entries with increasing order. So it means, the cost
associated to an element entry has the highest precedence, hence it can
be overridden by anything we enter at any upper level.

So what's the role of the qualifiers here? The qualifiers define the
segments that can be updated in the above given levels. For an example, if
we have an Overtime element attached to an employee's record. The
costing is allocated to the HR department at the payroll (highest) level. On
Monday, the employee worked for 4 extra hours to support the Admin
Department. Now, the account Department wants the cost for those 4
hours to be added to the Admin department, not to the Payroll
 department. We can then come down to the Element links (Lowest) level,
and override the costing to the Admin dept.

This configuration was possible, just because we made the Project code
(for an example) available to be updated at the element links level. If we
won’t make the project code segment available at the element links level,
we will have to choose any other segment code to override the cost. So we
have the autonomy to enable or disable any particular segment at any
level. This is done through qualifiers.
 Click on the qualifiers tab on any segment.
 Choose the places where we want the segment to be visible.
 Close the window and repeat the same for the rest of the segments.

People Group KFF

The people group flex field enables us to create and track another set of
criteria for the employees. Although Oracle HRMS gives us a lot of such
criteria types, like job, position, grades, locations but this one is another
grouping that can be used for anything like, a stock option or may be a
union or sometime just leave accruals. HRMS also has things like, Benefit
Group and Bargaining units to group employees. This is a mandatory KFF
in Payroll implementation. In case our Enterprise does not need an
additional grouping, we can still create a dummy one for the future usage.

One of the most important reasons to have People Groups is the element
Link. In element links, there are various criteria based on which we can set
eligibility of an employee to have the element attached to him. However
the eligibility options are limited. In a case where the user cannot separate
the employees using the given eligibility options, he always has the liberty
to use people groups. We will discuss more about the usage of people
Groups while discussing Element links.

Responsibility: Application Developer

Navigation: Flex Field -> Key -> Segments

Steps:
 Click on Title
 Query for the string "People Group Flex field"
 Define a new structure with the following data. See Figure 5.4 – People
Group Segments.

Figure 4 People Group Segments

(Figure 5.4 – People Group Segments)

Now, on to the segments:
Now, once the segments are added, click on the first one and press open
to get started with the value sets if any.
So this completes our KFF set up.

PAYROLL
ESSENTIALS
SETTING UP PAYROLL
 As per Core – HR Design, every employee assignment must have a payroll
attached to it. The entity payroll, tells the system about the payroll
frequency/ cycles, the valid payment methods, the check dates to which
the assignment is entitled. Employees in a same payroll share the same
payroll frequency and pay dates.

Payment Methods
Every organization has rules for its payment methods. Some organizations
pay by Check, some by direct deposits to banks, and some even pay by
cash. These methods of payments that an organization follows to pay its
employees, is known as the Organizational Payment method.

Each employee of the organization may get to select the method with
which s/he liked to be paid every pay period. These are the valid options
that an employee can choose in order to get his salary. Some people like it
on their bank account, some might like a check, and for some it could be
both.

Each and every payroll clubs together a set of valid payment methods in it.
So the available options can be specific to each payroll. For an example, an
enterprise can define payment methods like this:
 Weekly : Check only
 Biweekly and Semi monthly : Check and Bank account (Automatic Transfer)
 Monthly: Bank account only (Automatic Transfer).

The payment methods vary with the types of banks as well. For an
example, if the enterprise deals with 4 different banks, like A, B, C and D. It
will need four different payment methods defined for each of the banks it
deals with, even though all of the payment methods will be of type
‘Automatic Transfer’.

Responsibility: HRMS Manager

Navigation: Total Compensation -> Basics -> Payment Methods

Steps: Create a new record and start filling in the details. See Figure 5.15 –
Payment Methods.

Figure 15 Payment Methods

(Figure 5.15 – Payment Methods)

Consolidation Set
A consolidation set is a methodology that is used, to group payrolls with
similar timelines together. This makes payroll process and post processes
easy to manage and run. Although a lot of payrolls can be part of one
consolidation set; every payroll must have one, and only one consolidation
set attached to it.

Responsibility: HRMS Manager

Navigation: Payroll -> Consolidation

Steps: Create a new row with the name of the consolidation set. We can
create as many as we want, based on our requirement. See Figure 5.16 –
Consolidation Sets.

Figure 16 Consolidation Sets

 (Figure 5.16 – Consolidation Sets)

Payroll Definition
Once the payment methods and consolidation sets are defined they can
now be associated with the payroll definition, along with the time period
and the costing information. So payroll definition is the screen where
payment dates, check dates, consolidation set, a default payment method
etc are assigned to a particular payroll.

Responsibility: HRMS Manager

Navigation: Payroll -> Description

Steps: Create a new record and fill in the details. See Figure 5.17 – Define
Payroll.

Figure 17 Define Payroll

 (Figure 5.17 – Define Payroll)

GL FLEXFIELD MAPPING
Payroll is all about paying salaries to employees. And the salary must be
heaved from an account in the enterprise. Usually the labour cost is
distributed based on different organizations that get benefited by the
work. The distribution system is known as costing.

As discussed earlier, the costing information must be passed to the

finance department in order to keep an account of labour cost. GL (Oracle
General Ledger, a module in Oracle Financials) owns a key flex field known
as Accounting flex field. Oracle financials uses the Accounting flex field to
identify different accounts linked to the enterprise.

The GL Flex field mapping helps the system link different accounts setup in
the HRMS system with the accounts available in GL (accounting flex field).
In other words, with the GL Mapping we are going to establish a
relationship between the Cost allocations KFF with the Accounting KFF.
With this mapping in place, when the costing process (A post processing
process) is run, it helps the system to carry the costing information to GL.

Responsibility: HRMS Manager

Navigation: Payroll -> GL flex field Map

 Steps: Query the payroll and fill in the details. See Figure 5.18 – GL Flex
Field Mapping.

Figure 18 GL Flex Field Mapping

(Figure 5.18 – GL Flex Field Mapping)

ELEMENT SETS
There will be many situations in payroll processing, where we need some
kind of grouping to keep things in order and to keep them easy. Tools like,
Element sets, or Assignment sets help us processing things easily on a
group of elements / assignments, without any hassle of re-entering the
Element Names and Assignment Numbers repeatedly.

To start with element sets, these are of three types:

 Customization Set: A Customization set is used, to restrict the elements
that can be entered or viewed on a configured version of the Element
Entries window. It can also be selected for element entry purposes, using
BEE in the Batch Assignment Entry window.
 Run Set: In a situation where an Oracle Payroll user wants to run payroll
for a given set of elements, rather running it on all elements; s/he can use
a Run set to specify the elements to be processed in the run.
 Distribution Set: An Oracle Payroll user can use a Distribution set to define
the elements over which the costs of other elements are to be distributed.
Let’s look at the steps to configure an element set.

Responsibility: HRMS Manager

Navigation: Payroll -> Element Set

Steps: Create a new record and start entering the details. See Figure 5.19 –
Element Sets.

Figure 19 Element Sets

(Figure 5.19 – Element Sets)

ASSIGNMENT SETS
Assignment sets enable us to group a number of assignments together,
and then run any process on them. Examples of its usage are, running
payroll for a set of assignments, Loading Element entries for a set of
assignments etc.

To create an assignment set:

Figure 20 Assignment Sets

 (Figure 5.20 – Assignment Sets)

Responsibility: HRMS Manager

Navigation: Payroll -> Assignment Set

Steps: Create a new record and start entering the details. See Figure 5.20 –
Assignment Sets.

ELEMENTS AND
LINKS
DEFINING ELEMENTS
We have talked a little about elements before. It’s a placeholder to hold the
values that can be assigned to store an entity of payroll; like an earning, a
deduction, a life insurance premium etc. Elements are the building block of
the payroll. If we look at a payslip, we will see different types of pay, like
the basic, travel allowance, Medical allowance, deductions etc. Those are
all elements.

Before going ahead and creating elements, we must make sure we list
down all the elements that we need, along with their names, reporting
names (that will appear on the pay slip), type of the element etc.
There are two ways to create an element.
 Use the traditional Element screen
 Use a template
Let's learn about the traditional way first.

Using Traditional Way

Before creating anything related to a date tracked table, we must date
track to a date that will be able to catch all our historic information. What's
that date? May be 01-JAN-1951, or 01-JAN-1980? We can use any date
which is well enough in past that all our transactions could be recorded on
or after that date. The most popularly used date is, 01-JAN-1951. We must
date track to that date we have decided to go with; before entering any
information.

Now, let’s open the elements screen.

Responsibility: HRMS Manager

Navigation: Total Compensation -> Basics -> Element Description

Steps: Create a new record and start filling in the details.

Figure 5 Define Elements

 (Figure 5.5 – Define Elements)
Now, Lets save the changes and move to buttons.

Input Values
We know that the elements store values. However the actual places where
the values are stored / recorded by the elements are known as Input
Values. These are the place holders that keep the values that can be used
for calculations related to payroll. One element can have one or more
input values attached to it. The input values store the different values that
are used for the calculation of the final value of the element. In some cases
one Input value for an element might feed values to another element for
its calculations. Those are called indirect results.

Let's play an example; we are storing the Overtime with an element. So

what are the things we should track? One Input Value storing the number
of hours we have worked, and another to store the hourly overtime rate of
the employee. That will give us the money to be credited to the employee's
payroll. So will need another Input value to store the final amount.

The one input value that stores the final amount must be stored in an
Input value with name "Pay Value".
Let's navigate through the form. See Figure 5.6 – Input Values.

Figure 6 Input Values

(Figure 5.6 – Input Values)

Classifications
Choosing a correct primary and secondary classification is very important
in order to ensure the elements behave the way they are designed to. The
primary classification is a seeded functionality, however the secondary
classification is customizable, and we can add new secondary
classifications based on our business needs. Here is the list of Primary
classifications, the categories and their meanings.

Formula Results
Fast Formulas can be used for various purposes like, Calculating Pay
values, validating entries, Skipping a payroll etc. There are precise places
where we can use a particular FF. We will concentrate on the most widely
used one; the payroll calculation formula.

Let's see the form, and discuss about the various possibilities. See Figure
5.7 – Formula Results.

Responsibility: HRMS Manager

Navigation: Total Compensation -> Basics -> Formula Results

Steps: Query for the Element in concern

Figure 7 Formula Results

 (Figure 5.7 – Formula Results)

Formula Result Types

A payroll calculation formula is capable of returning many values. And
based on the need, the return values are used, either in the element it is
called from or passed on to another element for further calculations.
There are cases, where we would need one element to pass a value to
another element, based on which the calculation of the later will take
place. For an example, the bonus can be calculated as 15% of Regular
Salary, and the final amount (pay value) of Regular Salary can be calculated
by the fast formula attached to the basic and then fed into the Bonus
element for its calculation. Let’s look at the different ways we can use a
return value of a fast formula.

Direct Result: This is used when we are updating the pay value of the
element being evaluated.
 Indirect Result: This is used when the calculation result of one of the
Input Value of the element being evaluated needs to be fed to another
element's input value. The later then takes it as an Input and processes its
calculation. Continuing with our example, If Bonus needs to be 15% of the
regular Salary. Regular Salary might have an Indirect result to feed the
value to the Bonus element. Bonus element can then take the value and
calculate 15% of the value and use that amount as pay value. So to pass
the value from Regular salary to Bonus element, we can use the Indirect
Results.

Order Incorrect: This result updates the sub priority of the element
selected in element field.

Stop: This formula result uses the effective date of the payroll run to put
an end date on a recurring entry of this or another element (which must
be defined with multiple entries not allowed.)

Update Recurring Entry: This result updates recurring entries of this or

another element. The receiving element must be defined with multiple
entries not allowed unless we are passing a recurring element's entries to
itself, which is updating another entry of the same element.

Message: Sometimes, we want a simple message to be displayed based on

the calculation. That can be done using a Message type.

6.7.6 Laws of Elements

 We can make an element standard, only if it’s recurring and multiple
entries are not allowed.
 A category type field must be entered in the DFF for all elements. The LOV
is populated from the look up types: "US_EARNINGS" and
"US_SUPPLEMENTAL_EARNINGS".
 Never check "Closed for Entry" for a standard element. It will create issues
with Hiring and terminations.
 For validation, we can use any one of the three possibilities (Lookup /
formula/ min and max).
 Using Earning Templates
As the elements are of different types, there are two templates in Oracle
payroll that helps us create elements and a lot of other related things.
These templates save time, make the elements standardized and easy to
manage. The two templates are called, Earnings and Deductions.

Let’s start with earnings template first. It is more or less a type of

classification. However using this template to create an earning type of
element creates the following things in Oracle Payroll.
 One element with the same name as earning
 Two support elements (one special input and one Adjustment/ special
feature)
 One Fast Formula
 One Balance
 The input values

So let's configure the earning

Responsibility: HRMS Manager

Navigation: Total Compensation -> Basics -> Earnings

Steps: Create a new record and start filling in the details. See Figure 5.8 –
Earnings Template.

Figure 8 Earnings Template

 (Figure 5.8 – Earnings Template)
Let's talk about the standard Calculation rule a little bit. There are four
predefined standard calculation rules in place:

· Flat amount: The Earning is a flat amount.

· Hours X Rate: The Earning is a multiple of number of Hours worked and

Rate per hour.

· Hours X Rate Multiple: This is as good as Hours X Rate, however multiple

entries are allowed.

· Percentage of Regular Earning: The Earning is a percentage of the Regular

Earning.
Now, what about the two special elements we talked about earlier? The
two elements are used for adjustments. For an example, if an employee’s
regular salary is entered, and now, we want the salary to be increased by
$50 just for this pay period, because of some adjustments. How do we do
that? We can use the special Input elements. It can have two input values:

· Replacement Value: This amount, if entered will replace the amount filled
in with the original element.
 · Adjustment Value: This amount, if entered will be adjusted against the
amount filled in with the original element.

To continue the same example further, we will use the replacement

amount and put the new regular salary there, or will put in $50 in the
adjustment value, so that it will be added to the original element while
processing.

Using Deductions Template

What’s a deduction? It's the amount that needs to be deducted from the
payroll. When we consider deductions, there are two major types:
 Tax Deductions
 Non Tax Deductions

We know what tax deductions are. These are the taxes we pay. Oracle has
tied up with a vendor called Vertex, who takes care of all the taxes in
Oracle Payroll in US. So we do not have to worry about the tax percentage
and everything as of now. Oracle has got it covered. It will get cut from the
employee's payroll automatically, based on his work address and home
address. For all other localizations, there are specific taxing rules that are
to be followed.

What are the Non Tax Deductions? These are the voluntary and
involuntary deductions. Like a Life Insurance Premium / rate or a loan
amount to be paid or a debt to be paid back to the company etc. So to
configure these types of non tax deductions, we can either go for an
element creation or create it via a template. Let's see how the template
looks like. See Figure 5.9 – Deductions Template.

Responsibility: HRMS Manager

Navigation: Total Compensation -> Basics -> Deductions

Steps: Create a new record and start filling in the details.

Figure 9 Deductions Template

 (Figure 5.9 – Deductions Template)

In few cases, the deductions have to be made based on a particular

frequency. For an example, an enterprise may wish to deduct $10 towards
Company Car as of first pay period of every month. So, for an employee in
weekly payroll, the $10 will get cut as of first week of every month; and for
all other pay periods in that month, there will be no deductions towards
the Company Car.

For requirements like these, Deductions have a mechanism known as

Frequency Rules. One can choose the desired number of times deductions
are to happen in one month, for each payroll. To satisfy the requirement in
the example cited earlier, we must go to frequency rules button on the
Deductions screen, and check the check box 1 against the required payroll.
Here the number one signifies the first week of the month. Like wise one
must check the numbers of the week on which the deductions are to be
made.

DEFINING LINKS
 Once the elements are in place, some eligibility criteria must be defined to
help the system determine, whether an element can be attached to a
particular employee or not. That concept is known as linking. Element links
help us define the criteria using a set of indicative data. The elements will
be visible on the element entry screen of an employee, only if s/he passes
the eligibility criteria. One element must have at least one, and can have
more than one links in order to be attached to an employee’s element
entry.

The indicative data with which the eligibility criteria of an element link can
be defined are:
 Organization
 People Group
 Job
 Position
 Grade
 Location
 Employment Category
 Payroll
 Salary Basis

Responsibility: HRMS Manager

Navigation: Total Compensation -> Basics -> Link

Steps: Create a new record and populate the details. See Figure 5.10 –
Element Links.

Figure 10 Element Links

 (Figure 5.10 – Element Links)

ELEMENT ENTRIES
MANAGING ENTRIES
Once the elements and the links are defined, they are available to be
distributed to individual assignments (employees) based on the eligibility.
This distribution of elements is known as entries. The entries store the
name of the element along with the input values, and also the values
assigned to them. Later, when payroll is run, payroll manager engine picks
the entries with the input values and processes them.

For an example, Bonus is a non-recurring element, and it contains two

mandatory input values namely, subject to and percentage; along with Pay
Value. There is a non-standard link on the bonus element that has an
eligibility criterion of Payroll = ‘XXMonthly’.
1. As the link criterion suggests, a person who belongs to ‘XXMonthly’ payroll
is eligible to receive this element
2. As it is not a standard link, it’s not going to make an element entry all by
itself, so the element entry must be created explicitly
3. Once the entry is made, the start date will be the date on which the entry
was made, and the end date will be the Pay Period end date, because it is a
non-recurring element
4. With every entry, the mandatory input values must be populated with
some value
5. The pay value can either be populated or be calculated based on the
design (whether its user enterable / calculated through a formula )
6. Finally, when the ‘XXMonthly’ payroll for that pay period is run, it will
populate / calculate the pay value based on design, and the final value is
then used in payroll calculations

There are different ways to make an element entry. However we will

discuss the major contributors.

Automatic Entries
In many cases automatic element entries can be done on assignments.
Mostly the regular earnings are configured in a way that the entries are
made by design. The assignment and element must satisfy the following
conditions for an entry of this type.
 The element link must be standard
 The element must be a recurring one
 The assignment must be eligible for the link, based on the criteria defined
on the link
Manual Entries
There are cases where the payroll users key in entry by themselves. This
type of entry is known as the manual entries.

Responsibility: HRMS Manager

Navigation: Total Compensation -> Enter and Maintain -> <Query the
Employee> -> Assignments -> Entries

Steps: Select the element we want to update / create a new record with the
element name. See Figure 5.21 – Element Entries.

Figure 21 Element Entries

(Figure 5.21 – Element Entries)

To give input values to the element, we will have to select entry values.

Batch Element Entries

There is a feature in Oracle payroll, with which one can directly fill in
element entries for a number of assignments / elements with one single
interface. It also helps in validating the data being entered.
In cases where the Benefits system is managed by another vendor
organization, the vendor might send a spreadsheet with the Insurance
premium / rate to be cut off from employee's payroll as a deduction. It
becomes impossible to get into each assignment and keep on adding the
details without any mistake.

Similarly, if time tracking is done by an external system or if OTL is housed

in a different environment, then the time must be transferred to
appropriate element entries in the payroll system.

To facilitate an interface between an external system and the element

entries, oracle has developed a feature called the batch element entry.
This feature enables the users to update assignment entries of huge
numbers, at one shot as a single batch.

Responsibility: HRMS Manager

Navigation: Mass Information Exchange: MIX -> Batch element entry

Steps: Create a new record with these details. See Figure 5.22 – Batch
Element Entries.

Figure 22 Batch Element Entries

(Figure 5.22 – Batch Element Entries)

Using Element Lines:

This is the button to be used, when there is a need to make an entry for an
element for multiple assignments.
Using Assignment Lines:

Now, this is the button, we would use, when we want to make an entry for
multiple element for a single assignments.
Using Assignment Set:

This is the Button, we would use, when we want to make an entry for a
single element for multiple assignments. However the multiple
assignments must be grouped together with an assignment set.
Using Totals:

Totals can be used to validate the BEE Transfer. We can put in conditions
in order to validate if the number of entries made matches with the
number of entries requested by us. Or even compare the sum of the
number of hours entered as a whole. Or even do the summation of the
monetary units and compare it with calculation. So this is a powerful tool
to validate data.
Type

Control Total

Message
Choose a type of validation we would need.

Enter the number against the validation.

Message to be appeared if validation fails

For an example, we want a total of entries that are made. We choose a
type of Line Count. Now, we add 55 in the Control Total, as we know there
are 55 entries that are to be made. Then we can set up a message that will
pop up if the line count exceeds or goes down the number 55.

BALANCES
 MANAGING BALANCES
A balance is helpful to store positive or negative accumulation of elements.
This can be fed by the pay run results or by an Input value. Usually a
balance is created when we need to track an aggregated value associated
to one or more elements, for the purpose of reporting or validations. To
Measure a balance, we have dimensions and levels.

Dimensions: These are the different axes through which the system can
calculate the numbers. For an example, the gross earning in this month, in
this Quarter, in this Year; are the different time dimensions.

Levels: These are the levels on which the dimensions will be applied. For
an example, if we take Month as the time dimensions, the levels can be,
Monthly Salary of an assignment, Monthly Salary of an employee, Monthly
Salary of a department etc.

To summarize, balances are a way of keeping track of one or more

elements with various dimensions and levels. Once the balance is created,
the system needs to know the different elements that will be part of the
balance calculations. The attachment of elements to balance, can be done
in three ways:
 Using Primary Classifications: The run result of all elements, under the
classification will be gathered in the balance.
 Using Secondary Classification: It’s as good as using Primary classification,
however the classification changes to a more granular level.
 Using Individual Elements: We can either choose a Run Result or an Input
value for the same. However if we are using an Input value, we should
always have the units same as balance's unit.

Let's seethe steps involved to create a balance.

Responsibility: HRMS Manager

Navigation: Total Compensation -> Basics -> Balance

Steps: Create a new record and start filing the details in the fields. See
Figure 5.11 – Define Balance.

Figure 11 Define Balance

 (Figure 5.11 – Define Balance)
Laws of Balance:
 Either Feed or Classification has to be entered in a balance. We must not
enter both.
 In either screens, it populates only those elements that have an input
value of the same unit as of Balances.

Balance Feeds
As we discussed earlier, there are three ways to assign elements to a
balance. However we can broadly divide the ways into two, using
Elements, and using Classifications (Including both primary and
secondary). Let’s discuss both the ways in detail.

Using Elements:

Responsibility: HRMS Manager

Navigation: Total Compensation -> Basics -> Balance -> Feeds (Button)

Steps: Create new rows and start filling in the details. See Figure 5.12 –
Balance Feeds.
Figure 12 Balance Feeds

(Figure 5.12 – Balance Feeds)

This screen helps us to seed the Input values of various Elements into the
Balance.
Using Classifications:

Before assigning Classifications to the Balances, there might be a need to

create secondary classifications. Because in most cases, all the elements in
a Primary classification are not meant to be included in a single balance;
and the inclusion is needed just for a subset of it. So in cases like that,
secondary classification is created first as a subset of the primary, with the
required elements in list; and then the secondary classification is attached
to the balance.

Responsibility: HRMS Manager

Navigation: Total Compensation -> Basics -> Balance -> Classifications

(Button)

Steps: Create new rows and start filling in the details. See Figure 5.13 –
Balance Classifications.

Figure 13 Balance Classifications

 (Figure 5.13 – Balance Classifications)
Classification Name

Add / Subtract
The Name of the element to be associated

To be selected based on the logic of balance calculation.

Balance Dimensions
As discussed earlier, Dimensions are the axes of a balance that can
provide data related to a specific area/ time. Most of the dimensions used
in balances are related to time.

Responsibility: HRMS Manager

Navigation: Total Compensation -> Basics -> Balances -> Dimensions

(Button)

Steps: Create new rows and start filling in the details. See Figure 5.14 –
Balance Dimensions.

Figure 14 Balance Dimensions

 (Figure 5.14 – Balance Dimensions)

Initial Balance Feeds

An initial feed is used, to initialize a balance with a value to start with. One
element and one of its input values must be selected to initialize the
balance. And later, as the processing continues, the additions and
subtractions are made to the initialized value, based on the definition.

Responsibility: HRMS Manager

Navigation: Total Compensation -> Basics -> Balances -> Initial Balance
Feed (Button)

Steps: Create new rows and start filling in the details.

Element Name

Input Value Name

Choose the name of the element

The Input value of the selected element, to be used as the initial value.

PROCESSING
PAYROLL
 Now, let's come back to the place where we started. In the flash back, we
learnt, how to configure things alright? Now we will learn about the
processing. Here we will use everything that we've defined this far.

We know we have three stages to process the payroll.

 Pre-Processing
 Processing
 Post-Processing

PRE-PROCESSING
This is the stage where all the preparations are done; things like, creating
element entries, getting the costing in place, taxing etc. So let's talk about
these a little bit.

Getting Time Card Data

It all starts with the Time card entry, which happens to be another module
in Oracle HRMS called OTL (Oracle Time and Labour). With OTL, we get all
the time cards captured. Employees log in to OTL, enter the time sheets
and then it stores the time entered by each employee. It also has rules in
place to determine, whether it’s a regular working hour or an Overtime
Hour.

Now, as we have the time card in OTL, we can either run a process to get it
loaded on to Payroll system, or we might get the Time card entries in the
form of a file(Cases where Time card is managed by a vendor), which can
in turn be loaded by using BEE. So once either of the process is complete,
which means the data is transferred to the assignment entries, the time
sheet information is captured.
Getting Benefits Data
To move on, we should then look into the Benefits side of it; the
deductions by the Insurance premium / rate. It’s captured by OAB (Oracle
Advanced Benefits) OR OSB (Oracle Standard Benefits). If we have the
benefits system implemented, it will automatically create assignment
entries based on the deduction. However If our Benefits is managed by a
Vendor, we must request a Payroll Extract / Payroll Interface for the same.
Once we receive the Extract, we will have to use either an Interface or BEE
to load the Entries on to the assignments. So that takes care of the
Benefits portion of it.

Getting Payments Data

So next is the salary. We will have to create Regular Hours / Regular Salary
elements to link it to Assignments. Isn't it? However in few cases, we might
have to give some additional payments to the Employees other than the
regular wages. So, we should always have those types of Non-Recurring
elements in place, so that whenever we need some additional payment,
we could use the appropriate Element. The Wage Attachment itself is a big
subject to discuss. Please see the Wage attachment link for further
information on the same.

Getting Absence Data

Employees go on leave; sometimes they go on Paid Leaves, and
sometimes even on unpaid leaves. The Paid Leaves are something that an
employee must accrue during his tenure/ length of service in the
Company. Like the longer he stays, the leaves get added/ get carried over
from one year to another, based on business rules. That is known as PTO
(Paid Time Off) accruals. So we must have the Information elements in
place to gather the PTO information, so that we can print that along with
the Pay slips, to let the employee know about the accrual numbers. For
Unpaid leaves, the data is taken from the OTL, and based on that the
payments are made.

Once all these data are captured, the next task is to Process the Payroll.

PROCESSING
Now, we will process a Payroll. To do the same, we will have to run it
through a seeded Concurrent Program. The name of the Program is
"Payroll Run / Payroll Process".

Responsibility: HRMS Manager

Navigation: View (M) -> Request (M) ->Submit a new request -> Single
request

Steps: Enter the name of the Process "Payroll Run / Payroll Process" and
enter the parameters. See Figure 5.23 – Payroll Process Parameters.

Figure 23 Payroll Process Parameters

(Figure 5.23 – Payroll Process Parameters)

This will process the payroll. We can always check the Concurrent Program
to see if there are any Errors in the log file. We can also check the number
processed to be reasonable. There is a screen called Payroll Process
Results (Navigation: View -> Payroll Process Results). Look for the payroll
Name and the time period, if the process status is complete, that means
the payroll has no errors. We will discuss more about it later in this
chapter.

POST PROCESSING
So now, as the payroll is processed, what are the next steps? There is a lot
of processing involved. Some are mandatory processes, and some are
optional. Usually the Optional Processes are to generate reports that can
be used for verification. Usually Payroll Administrators ask for their own
set of reports for comparison and logging, which is very enterprise specific.
However in this section, we will learn about the Mandatory processes first
and then will look at some of the widely used optional Processes.

Prepayments
This is a mandatory Process. This process looks in to the amounts
processed for each of the employees and their respective Payment
methods. It then divides the money to be paid on to their Payment
methods. So for an example, Joe's salary for his month is $5000, and he
has two preferred payment methods, 20% as a check and rest of the
money in a Bank Account. After running Prepayments, the system will
know that it has to transfer $1600 in to his bank account and it has to give
$400 as a check to Joe. To run the process, we need to go to single Request
and put the process name as PrePayments. See Figure 5.24 – PrePayments
Parameters.

Figure 24 PrePayments Parameters

 (Figure 5.24 – PrePayments Parameters)
Usually in Start and End Date fields we should enter the date span in which
the Prepayment will be run. The System will look in to the payroll tables to
see, if there is any amount that has not paid yet with in those two dates. If
it finds any, it will sort that according to the Payment methods. However as
we should be running Prepayments after every payroll, the dates should
always be the Pay Period end date. This saves a lot of system time.

If the system does not find details about the Personal Payment methods,
then it will default the payment with the Default payment method used
with the payroll. Usually the default payment method is Check.

Magnetic Transfer
As we know, this is the process for direct deposits. UK localization supports
the BACS and North American Localization support NACHA, similarly all
localization follow a specific payment gateway. This process generates an
output file that can be sent to the Bank and the treasury.
Once the Process is run, we can select the output of the Process and verify
the details. We can then send the Output report to the Bank via
established Preferred Electronic Media.

In few cases, in US Localization, we would also need to run the NACHA

Report. This Report gives us the clear picture about the Number of
Deposits and the Total Dollar amount.
Name of the Process
NACHA Process

Totals Only
NACHA Report

Choose the NACHA process that was run with the table above.

Choose ‘No’ to get a detailed report.

We can then send this Report to our HR managers for a review.

Archiver
Now, as the Payments are about to happen through the Direct Deposits,
which is Bank's headache now, we will proceed to the next action item,
Payroll Archive. This Process generates a pay slip kind of report. This is an
optional step for most of the localizations.

Check / Cheque Writer

Let's write some checks. If we have ‘check’ as one of the valid payment
methods then we need to write the checks to get them out to the
Employees. To do so, we will run a process called the Check Writer
process. We must have the Printer in place with the check leaf book
attached, so that the checks can be generated.

Here, we must have the start check number with us. We can get that from
the Printer. All we need is the number of the first check leaf which is going
to be printed.
We will have to run this Process twice, once for the Normal Payroll check,
and again for the Third party Garnishments.
Deposit Advice
The Deposit Advice actually prints the Pay slips that we might send to the
Employees. This Process goes through the Statements of Earning and gets
us the details of the Earning and Deductions in a more understandable
format as a report.

Costing
As Part of this process, Payroll Engine divides the costs according to the
Cost Allocation Flex Field, keeping Overrides in consideration. This Process
assures that the cost paid for labour is accurately being captured. If no
Costing Information is found on any particular entry, the cost goes to the
Suspense Account.

Transfer to GL
This Process is the one that takes care of the migration of cost to the
General Ledgers. The Payroll Costs are migrated to the General Ledger and
then it gets added against the actual financial accounts.

Other Standard Reports

There are a few other Standard Reports that can also be processed as part
of the Oracle Payroll for reporting purposes. Here is a list of few popular
ones; however there are a lot of seeded reports that can be used. We can
also create our own reports and use them for analysis, based on the
requirements posted by our Payroll administration team.

Payroll Activity Report: This report is run just after the Payroll Process
and before the Prepayments. With this report we can view the status of
the Payroll with details like, how many employees are processed, what is
 the total Earnings, Total Deductions, Total Taxes etc. It can be processed
with the following details:

Name of the Process: Payroll Activity Report

 Beginning Date Paid: Last Day of Current Pay Period
 Ending Date Paid: Last Day of Current Pay Period
 Process Type: Payroll Runs
 Suppress Current Zero Records: Yes
 Full Report: Yes
 Reporting Dimensions: Run
 Sort Option One: GRE
 Employee Page Break: No
 All other parameters should be NULL

Costing Detail Report: This is run after the Transfer to GL process is

complete for all Payrolls as of that date. This gives us a detailed picture of
the accounts and the respective Labour costs for all Payrolls run as of the
given dates.

Name of the Process: Costing Detail Report

 Costing Effective Date Begin: Last Day of Pay Period
 Costing Effective Date End: Last Day of Pay Period
 Output File Type: HTML
 All the other parameters should be NULL.

Costing Summary Report: This is run after the Transfer to GL process is

complete for all Payrolls as of that date. This is more or less similar to the
Costing Detail report, however with a summary of data, not with details.

Name of the Process: Costing Summary Report

 Costing Effective Date Begin: Last Day of Pay Period
 Costing Effective Date End: Last Day of Pay Period
 Output File Type: HTML
 All the other parameters should be NULL.

Payroll Register Report: This is run after the Transfer to GL process is

complete for all Payrolls as of that date. This gives us details on the entire
 payroll process, starting from prepayments to costing for all Payrolls run
as of the given date.

Name of the Process: Payroll Register Report

 Beginning Date Paid: Last Day of Pay Period (i.e. 06-MAR-2010)
 Ending Date Paid: Last Day of Pay Period (i.e. 19-MAR-2010)
 Suppress Zero Count Records: Yes
 Full Report: Yes
 Reporting Dimensions: Current
 Sort Option One: GRE
 Employee Page Break: No
 All the other parameters should be NULL.

Payment Register Report: This is run after the Transfer to GL process is

complete for all Payrolls as of that date. This gives us details on the
Payments made to the Employees as part of Labour cost for all Payrolls
run as of the given date.

Name of the Process: Payment Register Report

 Starting Pay Date: Last Day of Pay Period
 Ending Pay Date: Last Day of Pay Period
 Payroll: NULL
 Consolidation Set Name: The Consolidation Set being used
 Selection Type: Original Payment Date
 Display Employee Details: Yes
 Summary Report: No
 All the other parameters should be NULL.

Third Party Payment Register Report: This is more or less the same as
the Payment Register Report. However this tracks the Third Party
Payments only.

Name of the Process: Third Party Payment Register Report

 Starting Pay Date: Last Day of Pay Period
 Ending Pay Date: Last Day of Pay Period
 Payroll: NULL
 Consolidation Set Name: The Consolidation Set being used
 Selection Type: Original Payment Date
 All the other parameters should be NULL.

US Gross to Net Summary: With this report, we can see the summation of
Salary information of the employees with Gross Earnings, Net Earnings
and deductions.

Name of the Process: US Gross to Net Summary

 Starting Pay Date: Last Day of Pay Period
 Ending Pay Date: Last Day of Pay Period
 GRE: NULL
 Payroll: NULL
 Consolidation Set Name: The Consolidation Set being used
 Sort Option One: NULL
 Sort Option Two: NULL
 Sort Option Three: NULL
 Template: US Gross to Net Summary (PDF)

VALIDATING PAYROLL RUN

As the payroll is processed now, how do we validate the results? We can do
it in many ways. We can view the run results sorted by assignments or
processes.

Process level View

This window shows all the details related to the processes run for a
particular payroll for a given period. Every process that we run as part of
Processing / Post Processing get registered here. See Figure 5.25 – Payroll
Process Results

Responsibility: HRMS Manager

Navigation: View > Payroll Process Results

Figure 25 Payroll Process Results

(Figure 5.25 – Payroll Process Results)

Assignment level View

Like the Payroll Process Results, this screen helps us monitor the
processes run for a given Assignment. See Figure 5.26 – Assignment
Process Results.

Responsibility: HRMS Manager

Navigation: View > Assignment Process Results

Figure 26 Assignment Process Results

 (Figure 5.26 – Assignment Process Results)

CORRECTING
PAYROLL
CORRECTIONS
There will be moments, where we have finished the Payroll run and Pre-
Payments. We processed some report and figured out that, there is some
issue with a set of Assignments. The same thing can even happen just after
the Payroll Run, or in some cases, after Transfer to GL. Now how do we
handle the situation? Is there any way we can correct the data. Yes. There
are three different Processes.
 Rollback
 Retry
 Reversal

Let's discuss these one by one.

Rollback
This is the most commonly used feature. We can use this to un-process the
Payroll. However using a Rollback removes the entire history of the data.
Let's use Joe's example. All of a sudden we realize that Joe has been paid
$200 extra this time. Now we are at the last stage of our post processing.
We are running costing now. How do we fix the Issue?

We will Rollback the Payroll for Joe. We will Rollback the Costing for Joe
first. Then the Check writer job, then the NACHA / BACS, then the
PrePayments and finally we will rollback his payroll. We will fix his
elements, and rerun the entire set of jobs again in the actual order only for
Joe.

Cases: So what are the cases where we would process Rollback?

 We have processed Payroll for a person with a wrong Salary
 We have processed Payroll for a guy who was terminated long back
 We have processed Payroll for a wrong assignment set

How: How to Rollback?

 To rollback payroll of a set of Individuals, Go to the View -> Payroll Process
window OR Go to the View -> Assignment Process. Click on the individuals
we want to rollback and select Delete Record from the Edit Menu.
 To rollback payroll of an entire payroll, Submit a new request: "Rollback US
Payroll Process". Choose the Payroll run. And Submit.
 Retry
Retry is used when we see a small mistake just after the Payroll run. We
want to fix it and move ahead with the Process. This is done when we see a
set of assignments are processed wrong. We fix the data causing issue and
then mark them to retry. It processes only those entries that are incorrect.
In some cases where we saw there is something wrong with the Fast
Formula we just recompiled; probably a calculation mistake. We fix it and
run a retry.

Cases: So what are the cases where we would process a Retry?

 We have an issue with the Calculation method used in a FF
 We found out an issue with a set of assignments, where an earning was
not added at all.

How: How to Retry?

 To retry for an assignment, Go to View ->Assignment Process and select
the Process we want to retry. Check the Retry Box.
 To retry for a set of assignments, Go to View ->Payroll Process and select
the assignments we want to retry. Check the Retry Box. And then run the
"Retry US Payroll Process".
 To retry an entire Payroll, Go to View ->Payroll Process and select the run,
Check the Retry Box. And then run the "Retry US Payroll Process".

Reversal
Reversal is chosen in cases when all the processes are already complete,
and we see an issue with an assignment. This will reverse all the Processes
this far for the particular Run for the particular assignment.

Cases: So what are the cases where we would process Reversal?

 An assignment was processed incorrectly like: An employee got a payment
of $400 by a check, which should have gone to someone else.
 How: How to Reverse?
 Open the Employee's assignment screen.
 Others -> Reverse Run
 Select the Run we want Reverse.
 Check the Reverse check Box.

Adjusting Balances
When Balances are calculated wrong, or we have done some manual
workaround and want the Balance to be updated for the same, we can opt
for Balance adjustments.
 To view Balance of any particular assignment, we can go to View ->
Assignment Process Results -> Employee Assignment Processes
 To Adjust Balances, we can go to the Assignment Record of the Employee,
Others->Adjust Balance.

QUICK PAY
QuickPay is the process that can be used to process Payroll and
Prepayments for one Individual assignment at a time. So this is the
Assignment level version of the Payroll Process. Although all the other Post
Processing except the Prepayments has to be done separately, but this
tool, can help us to do small changes on the assignments and rerun the
payroll for them, after a successful rollback. This can also be used as a
testing tool. We can just run a quick pay and see the SOE. Once our
validation is done, just roll back the Quick pay. It’s so simple.

Figure 27 QuickPay Process

 (Figure 5.27 – QuickPay Process)

Quick pay can be processed from the assignment screen of an employee.

Others -> QuickPay
 Choose the pay period for which we want to process the quick pay
 Enter the Pay period end date
 Select run type as Regular
 Save the record and Process.

RETRO PAY
Retro Pay are one of the Important tools with which we can fix something
that has happened in Past. For an example, salary of an employee is
increased to $300 as of March, effective from the Month of January. Now,
we need to make sure that the Amount of money accumulated since
January to March to be paid as part of March Payroll; Similarly, if the Rate
of Medical Insurance has been changed from $450 to $550 as of March,
effective from the month of January. Here we need to adjust the $100/
month for three months. How do we do that?
 There is a process called the Retro Pay that can solve the problem. There
are three types of Retro pays, however not all of them are available in a
particular localization.
 Retro Pay by Aggregate
 Retro Pay by Run
 Retro Pay by Element

Even though the concept looks simple, it’s not. We must think about the
deductions and taxes in place. If the salary increases by $100, my system
will need the entire calculation to be done once again. Not only that, even
my balances will need updates. Oracle Payroll takes care of all that. Let's
discuss how to achieve the same.

Retro by Aggegate
We can use this, if we do not want to see the way Payroll derives the
amount. If we take Joe's example forward, we will never see how payroll
came up with that $300 for the three Months, if we use Retro Pay by
Aggregate. It’s abstracted. Here it was simple to track, as its just $100/
month. But in Complex Calculations it will be completely abstract.

Set up:
 Complete the Salary level changes.
 First thing is to create/ update the element entries with the new value.
 Now, create the retro pay elements with the following details.
 Pick an appropriate classification. Should not be Information.
 Type should be Non-Recurring
 Should have three input values - Pay Value, Start Date, End Date
 Create an Assignment set with the Impacted assignments
 Link the element to the assignment set
 Create a Retro pay set
 Process Retro pay request.
 Retro by Run
This one is similar to "Retro Pay by Aggregate". Just that it gives us the
clear picture without any abstraction. It allows us to see how backdated
changes are distributed across Individual processes. Here the system uses
the old information and also calculates the difference using the new
information and finally updates the system.

Set up:
 Follow everything that's there in the "Retro Pay by Aggregate". However
with the following changes on the element:
 Multiple Entries allowed flag should be checked
 It just needs one Input Value "Pay Value". No Start date or end date would
be required.

Retro by Element
This option is chosen when we want the retro to be applied for one single
Element without recalculating the others. This is highly specific to Elements
and does not happen a lot often. Imagine just a Post Tax Bonus was
updated wrong in Joe's record. To correct situations like that, we might
need Retro Pay by Element

Set up:
 Update the element entries with the desired value.
 Create an assignment set
 Create an Element Set of type Run Set
 Process Retro Pay request
Retro by Set
This is not required in Retro Pay by Element. This is used only in the other
two cases.

Responsibility: HRMS Manager

Navigation: Payroll -> RetroPay Set

Steps: Create a new record and enter the details.

Retro pay process

Responsibility: HRMS Manager

Navigation: View (M) -> Request (M) ->Submit a new request -> single
request

Steps: Enter the name of the Process "RetroPay by Aggregate or RetroPay

by Run or RetroPay by Element." and enter the parameters.
Oracle Payroll now rolls back and reprocesses all the payrolls for the
assignment set from the date we specified. The system compares the old
balance values with the new ones and creates entry values for the Retro
Pay elements based on the difference. These entries are processed for the
assignments in the subsequent payroll run for our current period. No
changes are made to our audited payroll data.

SUMMARY
Payroll does not deal with a lot of tables, in comparison with other
modules like Benefits / Core-HR. So the idea was to go through the
functional set ups first and then look at the technical aspects, and peep
through the tables.
PAY_ELEMENT_TYPES_F: No need to say, that this is a date track enabled
table. This table stores the details about all the elements in the system.
The Primary key is ELEMENT_TYPE_ID and the two date fields. This is
usually used to get the name of the element, as ELEMENT_TYPE_ID is used
in a lot of places to refer to the element.

PAY_ELEMENT_LINKS_F: This one is date track enabled as well. This one

stores the details on the links. The primary key is: ELEMENT_LINK_ID and
the two date tracked columns, stores the ELEMENT_TYPE_ID as the foreign
key.

PAY_INPUT_VALUES_F: This table stores the Input values for each

element. This is the Date track enabled table. The primary key is
INPUT_VALUE_ID and the two date tracked columns. This table also holds
the ELEMENT_TYPE_ID as a foreign key to PAY_ELEMENT_TYPES_F. This can
be used to pull in the Element input value name.

PAY_ELEMENT_ENTRIES_F: This is another Date tracked table. This one

stores the details about the element entries. The table stores the Entries
with the ASSIGNMENT_ID and the ELEMENT_LINK_ID as foreign key. The
Primary key is ELEMENT_ENTRY_ID. This table also links itself to
PAY_ELEMENT_TYPES_F with storing ELEMENT_TYPE_ID as a foreign key.

PAY_ELEMENT_ENTRY_VALUES_F: This date track enabled table stores the

values for each entry. This table has only 6 columns. Out of which, the
Primary key is: ELEMENT_ENTRY_VALUE_ID and the two date tracked
columns, it stores the ELEMENT_ENTRY_ID as the foreign key to
PAY_ELEMENT_ENTRIES_F and the SCREEN_ENTRY_VALUE stores the actual
value of the Input Value. The INPUT_VALUE_ID column links the table to
the Input values table (PAY_INPUT_VALUES_F).

PAY_PAYROLL_ACTIONS: This table logs all the actions taken by the

Payroll Engine. Primary key is PAYROLL_ACTION_ID, and it logs in each and
every activity. The Table is capable enough to store a lot of information as
it has got columns to store all kind of data used in Payroll; although it does
not populate all the columns / row. However it logs in only the ones those
are needed.

PAY_RUN_RESULTS: This table stores the status related to the elements

against the assignment actions. The primary key is RUN_RESULT_ID.
ELEMENT_TYPE_ID and ASSIGNMENT_ACTION_ID are the two other
important foreign keys.

PAY_RUN_RESULT_VALUES: This table takes the RUN_RESULT_ID and the

INPUT_VALUE_ID and stores the Value obtained by the Payroll Engine.

So these were the important tables in Payroll. However here is a list of few
others, which are use very frequently.
 In the table below, if the Date tracked

column is marked as Yes, assume the

Primary key to be Composite. The given
Primary with bind with the two date tracked
columns to make the Composite Primary
key.
 The below table is in Alphabetical order.
 Some of the values in the column Table
could be a view / synonym. However they
pull data. That's what we want right? :)