PeopleSoft Global Payroll

Global Payroll application is comprised of pay item or elements which are building blocks for Payroll and absence processing applications.  There are many pay items or Elements defined in GP e.g. Earnings, Deductions, Accumulators, Formulas etc. An element is defined once and can be repeatedly used anywhere in the system. An element can be associated with a specific country or with all countries. Also, an elements can be grouped by industry, category or up to 5 database fields. Payroll Rules usually use one or more elements combined with other filtering elements (e.g. eligibility groups) determine which elements are calculated during payroll process. A Process List is a control feature to which the payroll rules are added and it specifies the order of processing during a pay run.

Pay Item Name number (PIN) - a numeric identifier for an element and are numbered sequentially. The system assigns a PIN number (starting from 100001) to each element that is created. Prior to 100001 are reserved PINs for delivered elements. PINs being numeric values improve performance during batch processes as these are easily read into processing arrays and creating a pointer to the correct place in array. 

The payroll processing sequence -

Identification, 
Calculation, and
Finalization.


The Organizational Structure -
Pay Entity defines the organization making payments to payees. A specific country is associated with each pay entity. It is linked to one or more Pay Groups. A Pay Group is a logical grouping to qualify individuals for payment. Each pay group has a default Eligibility Group associated with it. Eligibility Group specifies specific elements for which certain payees are eligible. Pay groups are ultimately associated to Pay Calendars to process a payroll. A large number of elements when grouped together forms an Element Group and Element Groups can be assigned to an Eligibility Group.

The Processing Structure -
A Process List specifies the order in which pay elements are processed and resolved. Sections are added to a Process List and thus using sections, pay elements are added to a Process List. Sections are processed in order as are inserted in process list. Separate Calendars are used for payroll and absence processing run so separate process lists are created for these runs. Sections controls the order that the elements within a section processed in a process list. 5 Section types used for different processing requirements are -

1. Standard sections,
2. Sub-process sections,
3. Payee sections,
4. Generate Positive Input section, and
5. Absence Take section

A Calendars controls who is to be paid, what amounts are to be paid and the period of time for which the payment is being made. Only one Pay Group can be associated with a calendar.

Run Type- specifies process list to be used during processing.

Calendar Period ID - identifies what pay period will be processed.

Calendar Group ID - identifies the calendars or set of calendars to process during a payroll/absence run or set of off-cycle calendars to process in case of off-cycle runs.

Calendar Periods- Periods page is used to define a single pay period, while Automatic Period Creation page defines multiple pay periods. The period ID identifies the begin date, end date and frequency of a pay period.

Define run type and period ID before creating a calendar. Target Calendars need to be created first before creating calendars for an absence run or for a pay run that generates positive input for another calendar.

Positive Inputs- earnings and deduction data for just one pay period, it can be entered manually or is received from T&L/Manage Variable Compensation business process in HR, or from third-party-applications. Absence Take process converts paid and unpaid absence into positive input. Also, generate positive input section included in process list also creates positive input for a different pay calendar.

Payroll Processing

The Identify phase opens a Calendar group ID and loops through each calendar of this group and finds all the payees belonging to the pay group associated with the calendar. Based on pay selection criteria defined on the calendar, it further identifies a subset of these payees. The calendar group ID is closed once the Finalize run is complete. Gross-to-net pay calculations or Absence Take or Entitlement calculations are now performed during Calculate phase, the process may be run several times for the same calendar group ID, first for all the Identified/selected payees and then for payees with changes or errors. Recalculate All is an option selected when you need to delete existing calculations and calculate each of these payee again.