The Distribution Adjustments process adjusts payroll distributions and posts the new distributions to Oracle Grants Accounting, Oracle Projects, or Oracle General Ledger. Distribution Adjustments does not allow changes to total distribution amounts or changes to distribution dates.
An adjustment set is a group of actual distributions belonging to the same payroll element and the same type of transaction, whether debit or credit, that are adjusted to new distributions. An adjustment set is complete when the unaccounted balance is zero and the user freezes the set by clicking Freeze Set.
An adjustment batch is comprised of one or multiple adjustment sets that are submitted for approval at the same time.
This section describes the following sections:
distribution adjustment at the assignment level
distribution adjustment at the element level
distribution adjustment at the element group level
After you have imported a payroll into Labor Distribution, the system creates payroll distributions for employees using cost schedules that include charging instructions. Charging instructions provide a schedule of accounts to which employees' pay distributions are charged. The employees' original pay distributions are called actual distributions.
Incorrect labor schedules, incorrect Auto-Population rules, or invalid labor schedules can cause actual distributions to be costed incorrectly. When this occurs, you can correct charging instructions by adjusting distributions. Pay distributions that have been modified are called adjusted distributions.
If you perform distribution adjustments for a payroll time period that occurs in the past, then the application overrides the labor schedule with the distribution adjustment.
The Distribution Adjustments process enables users to view, modify, and transfer payroll distributions to Grants Accounting, Projects, or General Ledger. When adjustments are approved and summarized, they are automatically posted to Grants Accounting, Projects, or General Ledger.
Distribution Adjustments enables users to adjust distributions at the following levels:
Assignment
Element
Element group
Distribution adjustment at the assignment level involves the adjusting of employee assignments' distributions, where each distribution is a summation of different elements costing to the same costing account (such as a General Ledger account or to a Grants Accounting or Projects charging instruction).
For example: An employee assignment has been paid from elements Regular Salary and Overtime, and both elements are distributed and costed to the same General Ledger account. If users elect to adjust distributions at the assignment level, they see one distribution costing to a General Ledger account with distribution amounts summed for elements Regular Salary and Overtime.
If users elect to adjust distributions at the assignment level, they can do the following:
Select one distribution costing to a General Ledger account or Grants Accounting or Projects charging instruction, and adjust to one or multiple different costing accounts, whether a General Ledger account or Grants Accounting or Projects charging instruction, for the full distribution amount.
Select multiple distributions costing to a General Ledger account or Grants Accounting or Projects charging instruction, and adjust to different costing accounts, whether a General Ledger account or a Grants Accounting or Projects charging instruction, for the full distribution amount.
Submit one or multiple adjustment sets in a single adjustment batch.
Distribution adjustment at the element level involves adjusting your employee assignments' distributions per elements paid and costed to a costing account (such as a General Ledger account or to a Grants Accounting or Projects charging instruction).
An element is a component used in the calculation of an employee's pay. Each element represents a compensation or benefit type, such as salary, wages, stock purchase plan, or pension contributions.
In the previous example, an employee assignment was paid Regular Salary and Overtime, and both elements were distributed and costed to the same General Ledger account. If you elect to adjust distributions at the element level, you would see two distributions: one for each element costing to the same General Ledger account and with the corresponding distribution amount for each element.
If users elect to adjust distributions at the element level, they can do one of the following:
Select one distribution for an element costing to a General Ledger account or Grants Accounting or Projects charging instruction, and adjust to one or multiple different costing accounts, whether a General Ledger account or Grants Accounting or Projects charging instruction, for the full distribution amount.
Select multiple distributions for the same element costing to a General Ledger account or Grants Accounting or Projects charging instruction, and adjust to one or multiple different costing accounts, whether a General Ledger account or Grants Accounting or Projects charging instruction, for the full distribution amount.
Adjust multiple distributions for the same element in an adjustment set.
Adjust multiple distributions for different elements in a single adjustment batch.
For more information on the Distribution Adjustments Configuration Options concurrent process, see Configuration.
Distribution adjustment at the element group level involves adjusting employee assignments' distributions per element groups. An element group is a user-defined grouping of elements paid and costed to a costing account (such as a General Ledger account or to a Grants Accounting or Projects charging instruction).
Examples of element groups include:
An earnings element group, which can consist of Regular Salary and Overtime.
A benefits element group, which can consist of Dental Benefit and Medical Benefit.
Regular Salary and Overtime earnings elements are paid and costed to the same General Ledger account. Dental Benefit and Medical Benefit elements are paid and costed to a Grants Accounting or Projects charging instruction.
If users elect to adjust distributions at the element group level, they see two distributions: one for each element group, with element group Earnings costing to a General Ledger account and element group Benefits costing to a Grants Accounting or Projects charging instruction.
If users elect to adjust distributions at the element group level, they can do one of the following:
Select one distribution for an element group costing to a General Ledger account or Grants Accounting or Projects charging instruction, and adjust to one or multiple different costing accounts, whether a General Ledger account or Grants Accounting or Projects charging instruction, for the full distribution amount.
Select multiple distributions for the same element groups costing to a General Ledger account or Grants Accounting or Projects charging instruction, and adjust to one or multiple different costing accounts, whether a General Ledger account or Grants Accounting or Projects charging instruction, for the full distribution amount.
Adjust multiple distributions for the same element group in a single adjustment set.
Adjust multiple distributions for different element groups in a single adjustment batch.
With Distribution Adjustments, users can:
Display distributions for adjustment according to employee name, date range, assignment, and currency.
Adjust distributions at the assignment level where you can sum all elements for each costing distribution at the element level, or at the element group level.
Adjust one or multiple costing distributions for one or more days in a single adjustment batch. The adjustment begin date can be different from the adjustment end date.
If adjusting at the element level, adjust costing distributions for one or more elements in a single adjustment batch. Users can only adjust from and to the same element in one adjustment set.
If adjusting at the element group level, adjust costing distributions for one or more element groups in a single adjustment batch. Users can only adjust from and to the same element group in one adjustment set.
Adjust costing distributions with debit and credit transactions in a single adjustment batch. Users can only adjust from and to the same type of transaction in one adjustment set.
Define multiple adjustment sets in a single batch.
Clear transferred distributions to redefine adjustments.
Adjust all types of payroll elements, such as earnings, benefits, and deductions in a single distribution adjustment batch.
Reverse original distributions.
Select new distributions.
Summarize and transfer new distribution transactions to Grants Accounting, Projects, or General Ledger.
Restart summarize and transfer adjustments in the event of database or technical failures.
The Distribution Adjustments process includes the following:
Users select the following items in the Find Distributions window to display the associated distribution lines:
Employee name and assignment number
Begin and end date of the adjustment
Currency
Level of adjustment
Assignment
Element
Element group
In the Actual Distributions region of the Distribution Adjustments window, users select one or more distributions, along with the amounts to transfer, and Labor Distribution reverses the selected distributions and the amounts in the Adjusted Distributions region. In the Actual Distributions region, users can select the following for transfer:
One or multiple distributions in an adjustment set at the assignment level.
One or multiple distributions in an adjustment set within the same element at the element level. For example, users can select Regular Salary or Overtime.
One or multiple distributions in an adjustment set within the same element group at the element group level. For example, users can select Deductions.
One or multiple distributions in an adjustment set for one or multiple days. For example, users can query and adjust for distributions on 08-JAN-2003 or query and adjust for distributions from 08-JAN-2003 to 12-JAN-2003.
One or multiple distributions in an adjustment set for the same type of debit or credit transaction. For example, users can select and adjust all debit or all credit transactions.
Once the Adjusted Distributions region of the Distribution Adjustments window display the reversed distributions and amounts, users can specify the adjustments by entering Grants Accounting or Projects charging instructions or General Ledger accounts as transfer destinations. For each adjustment set, users can specify the modified distribution amounts to be transferred in either currency amounts or percentages.
Users can specify multiple adjustment sets in a single adjustment batch. An adjustment set is a group of actual distributions adjusted to new distributions. An adjustment batch is comprised of one or multiple adjustment sets that are submitted for approval at the same time.
To clear reversed amounts before freezing an adjustment set, users can deselect the appropriate Transfer check boxes and click Done.
To view details of the original charging instruction and its corresponding distributions, users can select a distribution in the Actual Distributions regions and click View Details.
To cancel all adjustment sets or close the window without saving, users can click Cancel.
When you adjust distribution lines, the application can compute and distribute additional information that you stored in DFFs. For example, when you make distribution adjustments, the application can automatically distribute, update, and display the number of hours that you stored in the DFF.
You must use a user hook to compute, update, and display information stored in these DFFs during adjustments. See: Technical Essay on Labor Distribution Configuration (Metalink Note ID 302304.1)
You can use the auto-population of the natural account and expenditure type with Distribution Adjustments if you have enabled the auto-population profile option. If Auto-Population is enabled, a label appears in the lower section of the window indicating that auto-population is on. You can override auto-population by choosing a natural account or expenditure type from the list of values.
You can specify that Labor Distribution defers its auto-population invocation until after you have submitted the batch. In this way, Labor Distribution would be able to apply element-based auto-population rules against each adjusted line, even for distribution adjustments batches that are being done at the Assignment and Element Group levels.
For information on enabling the auto-population profile option, see System Administration Setup.
For information on the Distribution Adjustments Configuration Options concurrent process, see Configuration.
When users submit adjustments, Labor Distribution performs validations against them. To submit an adjustment batch, click Submit and type the following information:
A mandatory, unique distribution adjustments batch name.
An optional General Ledger override date.
Note: Users can override the General Ledger Posting date if the PSP: Use Default GL Posting Override Date profile option is set to "No".
For information on setting the PSP: Use Default GL Posting Override Date profile option, see System Administration Setup.
Mandatory comments. Users can override a default comment, which specifies the employee name, assignment number, and the begin and end dates of the adjustment.
For information on the validation process, see Data Entry Validations Process.
If you create an effort report for an employee and define distribution adjustments for any portion of the effort report period, then the effort report is superseded and you must generate a new effort report.
Labor Distribution issues warnings if lines in the period have been adjusted.
Oracle Workflow routes the distribution adjustment to the appropriate approver for approval. The approver has the following options:
Approve the adjustment
Reject the adjustment
Return the adjustment with comments
Users with the necessary permissions can navigate to the Worklist window to approve or reject the transfer. The approver cannot modify adjustments.
If the adjustments are approved, the distribution lines are summarized and transferred to General Ledger, Projects, or Grants Accounting at the user's convenience as described in the section, Summarize and Transfer Adjustments.
If the adjustments are rejected, all adjustment sets in the batch are rejected, and the distributions revert to the original charging instructions. The approver cannot reject only part of a batch. The approver must reject the whole batch and redefine the distribution adjustment.
Users have the following options regarding the use of Oracle Workflow with distribution adjustments:
Use Oracle Workflow with distribution adjustments. When a distribution adjustment is created for an employee, an Oracle Workflow notification is sent to the adjustment approver to approve or reject the adjustment.
Refrain from using Oracle Workflow with distribution adjustments.
Optionally use or refrain from using Oracle Workflow when a distribution adjustment is created for an employee and the distribution adjustment creator is the same person as the distribution adjustment approver.
For detailed information on omitting the approval step in the Distribution Adjustments Approval Workflow process, see Customizing Distribution Adjustments Approval Workflow Process.
After distribution adjustments are defined and approved, Labor Distribution runs the Summarize and Transfer Adjustments process as a separate process. Users can include one or more batches in the process and can run the process at any time.
The steps in the PSP: Summarize and Transfer Adjustments process are:
The user initiates the Summarize and Transfer Adjustments process.
The user uniquely names the adjustment summary batch.
Labor Distribution searches for all distribution adjustment batches that are approved and must be summarized and transferred.
The Grants Accounting and Projects lines are compiled into one batch, and the General Ledger lines are compiled into multiple batches.
The Summarize and Transfer Adjustments process combines all the batches and creates an adjustment summary batch.
If a distribution line is rejected, only the batch that includes this line is rejected, not the entire adjustment summary batch.
The rejected batch reverts the distributions to the original charging instructions.
Note: The Summarize and Transfer Adjustments process does not use a suspense account to resend rejected lines to General Ledger, Grants Accounting, or Projects.
The Summarize and Transfer Adjustments process provides a log file with details of batches and adjustment summary batches that terminated normally and abnormally and the selection criteria included in the batches.
With Labor Distribution, you can summarize and transfer adjustment lines for employees with zero work day situations, irrespective of employee assignment status.
The following rules apply:
If an employee has a non-active status and has a schedule charging to General Ledger, Labor Distribution uses the current Summarize and Transfer Adjustments process. General Ledger does not validate whether an employee has an active or non-active employee assignment status.
If an employee has a non-active assignment status and has a schedule charging to Grants Accounting or Projects, Labor Distribution looks for the employee assignment's last active date and posts this date as the GMS Override Date. Grants Accounting or Projects then accepts the transfer of adjustment lines with a non-active employee assignment status.
To process zero work day situations, Workflow disables its validation on an employee assignment status so it can process employee assignments with a non-active status.
For information on employee assignments with zero work day situations, see Employee Assignments with Zero Work Day.
Use the Restart Summarize and Transfer Adjustments process if one of the following situations occurs while running the Summarize and Transfer Adjustments process:
System crash
Abnormal termination of the process
The restart process provides a log file with a list of adjustment summary batches that terminated abnormally and the selection criteria included in the terminated batches.
The Distribution Adjustment Register report summarizes distribution adjustments created for employees by batch name. It provides users with a report of summarized and transferred distribution adjustments within the specified begin and end dates. The Distribution Adjustment Register report date is the date the adjustments were defined, not the distribution adjustments date range.
For information on generating the Distribution Adjustment Register report, see Generating Distribution Adjustment Register Report Procedure.
The timeout system profile option for approvals must be defined if the user wants to set a timeout for the Workflow approval process.
To define the PSP: Adjustment Approval Time Out in Days system profile, see System Administration Setup.
Labor Distribution provides you with the ability to configure how it performs its distribution adjustments:
You can specify that Labor Distribution defers its auto-population invocation until after you have submitted the batch. In this way, Labor Distribution would be able to apply element-based auto-population rules against each adjusted line, even for distribution adjustments batches that are being done at the Assignment and Element Group levels.
When you are adjusting at the element level, you can specify that the Distribution Adjustment window displays the distribution percentage either as 100% summation across all element or as 100% for each element.
See: Configuring Values for Labor Distribution, for more information on how to set up the configuration values
To execute distribution transfers, perform the following steps.
In Labor Distribution, navigate to the Distribution Adjustments window by selecting Distribution Adjustments. The Find Distributions pop-up window appears.
In the Employee Name field, select an employee from the list of values.
Select an assignment from the list of values.
In the Begin Date field, enter a beginning date for the adjustment from the list of values.
In the End Date field, enter an ending date for the adjustment from the list of values.
In the Currency field, select the currency type from the list of values.
In the Adjust by region, select the Assignment, Element, or Element Group radio button to specify the adjustment level.
Click Find. The Distribution Adjustments window appears. If you chose either Element or Element Group level adjustments, this window includes the appropriate column.
To view details of the original charging instruction and its corresponding distributions, select a distribution in the Actual Distributions region and click View Details. The View Details window appears.
If the user selects the assignment level in Step 7, then one or multiple distributions can be transferred by selecting the appropriate Transfer check boxes in the Actual Distributions region and clicking Done. The selected lines appear in the Adjusted Distributions region of the Distribution Adjustments window.
If the user selects the element level in Step 7, then one or multiple distributions can be transferred within the same element by selecting the appropriate Transfer check boxes in the Actual Distributions region and clicking Done. The selected lines appear in the Adjusted Distributions region of the Distribution Adjustments window.
If the user selects the element group level in Step 7, then one or multiple distributions can be transferred within the same element group by selecting the appropriate Transfer check boxes in the Actual Distributions region and clicking Done. Only elements matching the selected Currency are available for selection. The selected lines appear in the Adjusted Distributions region of the Distribution Adjustments window.
If distributions consist of a combination of debit and credit transactions, then one or more distributions can be transferred within the same transaction type by selecting the appropriate Transfer check boxes in the Actual Distributions region and clicking Done. The selected lines appear in the Adjusted Distributions region of the Distribution Adjustments window.
To optionally clear a reversed adjustment from the Adjusted Distributions region, deselect the appropriate Transfer check box and click Done.
To select the method of adjustment, in the Adjust By region, click one of the following radio buttons:
Amount
Percent
Note: When adjusting credit amounts, only the Percent radio button can be selected.
In the Adjusted Distributions region, specify new charging instructions and amounts as described in Table 1..
To complete the adjustment set, click Freeze Set. One adjustment set has been created and it is not updateable.
To create multiple adjustment sets, repeat Step 10 to Step 17.
To cancel the submission of all adjustment sets or close the window without saving, click Cancel.
To submit the adjustment batch, click Submit. The Submit pop-up window appears.
When you click Submit, Labor Distribution implements auto-population changes if:
You have enabled auto-population.
You are adjusting by Assignment or Element Group.
You have enabled the "Defer auto-population at assignment/element group level" configuration option.
If you are adjusting at the Element level, the auto-population substitutions for GL Natural Account and Projects Expenditure Type occur immediately when you enter a new adjustment line. This substitution occurs the very first time you enter a line; it does not occur when you change an adjustment.
In the Batch Name field, enter a batch name.
If necessary, enter a date in the GL Override Date field from the list of values.
In the Comments field, a default comment appears. Users can override the default comment by entering text that describe the reasons for the adjustment.
Click OK. The Find Distributions pop-up window appears so users can enter another adjustment.
Close the window.
Field Name | Type | Features | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Employee Region | |||
Full Name | default display only | Employee name | |
Employee Number | default display only | Eemployee identification number | |
Assignment Region | |||
Assignment | default display only | Employee assignment identification number | |
Organization | default display only | Organization to which the assignment belongs | |
Distribution Period Region | |||
Begin Date | default display only | Distribution adjustment period start date. | |
End Date | default display only | Distribution adjustment period end date. | |
Currency | default display only | Currency used for these distributions. | |
Actual Distributions Region | |||
GL Account | default display only | General Ledger accounting flexfield. | |
Project | default display only | Grants Accounting and Projects project charging instruction.
Note: Navigate horizontally to see the entire line by using the scroll bar. |
|
Task | default display only | Grants Accounting and Projects task number. | |
Award | default display only | Grants Accounting award number. Only the awards belonging to the selected project are available for selection. |
|
Expenditure Organization | default display only | Grants Accounting and Projects expenditure organization. | |
Expenditure Type | default display only | An implementation-defined classification of cost that you assign to each expenditure item. A Grants Accounting and Projects expenditure type. | |
Element | default display only | Field appears if you select the Element radio button in the Find Distributions window. A component in the calculation of employee pay. Each element represents a compensation or benefit type, such as salary, wages, stock purchase plan, or pension contributions. | |
Element Group | default display only | This field appears if you select the Element Group radio button in the Find Distributions window. It is a user-defined grouping of elements. Examples of element groups include an earnings element group and a benefits element group. | |
Amount | default display only | Amount distributed for a specific period. | |
% | default display only | Percentage distributed for a specific period. | |
Transfer | optional | check box | Indicates if the distribution item is to be transferred. |
[Total Amount] | default display only | Total amount of distribution line to be transferred. | |
[%] | default display only | Total percentage of distribution line to be transferred. | |
View Details | optional | button | Opens to the View Details window so users can view the original charging instruction and the corresponding original distributions for the selected distribution in the Actual Distributions region of the Distribution Adjustments window. |
Done | required | button | Indicates task completion. |
Adjusted Distributions Region | |||
GL Account | conditionally required | General Ledger accounting flexfield. This is required if you have not entered any Grants Accounting or Projects charging instructions. You can override the Auto-Population value from the list of values. | |
Project | conditionally required | Identifies Grants Accounting or Projects project charging instruction. This is required if you have not entered a General Ledger account.
Note: Navigate horizontally to see the entire line by using the scroll bar. |
|
Task | conditionally required | Grants Accounting or Projects task number charging instruction. | |
Award | conditionally required | Grants Accounting award number charging instruction. Only the awards belonging to the selected project are available for selection. |
|
Expenditure Organization | conditionally required | Grants Accounting and Projects expenditure organization. | |
Expenditure Type | conditionally required | An implementation-defined classification of cost that you can assign to each expenditure item. A Grants Accounting or Projects expenditure type charging instruction. You can override the Auto-Population value from the list of values. | |
Element | default display only | This field appears if you select the Element radio button in the Find Distributions window. This is a component in the calculation of employee pay. Each element represents a compensation or benefit type, such as salary, wages, stock purchase plan, or pension contributions. | |
Element Group | default display only | This field appears if you select the Element Group radio button in the Find Distributions window. This is a user-defined grouping of elements. Examples of element groups include an earnings element group and a benefits element group. | |
Amount | optional | Amount distributed for a specific period. | |
% | optional | Percentage distributed for a specific period. | |
Unaccounted Balance | default display only | Unaccounted balance that must become $0.00 before submitting the adjustment. | |
Freeze Set | required | button | Makes the current adjustment set nonupdatable, which enables users to define multiple adjustment sets in the same adjustment batch. |
Adjust By Region | |||
Amount | optionally required | radio button | Indicates if adjusted by amount. |
Percent | optionally required | radio button | Indicates if adjusted by percent. |
Cancel | button | Cancels all adjustment sets; closes window without saving. | |
Submit | required | button | Submits the adjustment for validation. |
Submit Pop-up Window | |||
Batch Name | required | User-defined batch. | |
GL Override Date | optional | Specify this date to override the General Ledger posting date. | |
Comments | optional | A default comment appears that you can override by entering text that describes the reasons for the adjustment. | |
Cancel | required | Closes window without saving. | |
OK | button | Confirms action and closes window. |
To approve a distribution adjustment:
In Labor Distribution, navigate to the Worklist window as follows:
Workflow > Workflow User > Worklist
The Worklist window appears.
In the Subject column, double-click on a notification link. The Notification Details window appears.
Click the Workflow Monitor icon. The Distribution Adjustments window appears.
To approve the distribution adjustment, click Approve.
To reject the distribution adjustment, click Reject. The distribution lines revert to the original charging instructions.
Close the window.
To summarize and transfer adjustments to General Ledger, Projects, and Grants Accounting, perform the following steps.
In Labor Distribution, navigate to the Submit Request window as follows:
Processes & Reports > Run
The Submit a New Request pop-up window appears.
Select the Single Request radio button.
Click OK. The Submit Request window appears.
In the Name field, select PSP: Summarize and Transfer Distribution Adjustments from the list of values. The Parameters pop-up window appears.
In the Adjustment Summary Batch Name field, enter a unique adjustment summary batch name.
To apply the parameter, click OK.
In the Submit Request window, click Submit. The Requests window appears.
To view the report file, select the appropriate Request ID and click View Output.
Close the window.
If the Summarize and Transfer Distribution Adjustments process fails due to database problems:
View the process's log to determine the cause of the failure.
Correct the errors in the database.
Run the Restart Summarize and Transfer Distribution Adjustments process.
To run the Distribution Adjustment Register report:
In Labor Distribution, navigate to the Submit Request window as follows:
Processes & Reports > Run
The Submit a New Request pop-up window appears.
Select the Single Request radio button.
Click OK. The Submit Request window appears.
In the Name field, select PSP: Distribution Adjustment Register from the list of values. The Parameters pop-up window appears
In the Begin Date field, enter the distribution adjustment creation start date.
In the End Date field, enter the distribution adjustment creation end date which is greater than the start date.
In the Adjustment Batch Name field, select a distribution adjustment batch from the list of values, or leave the field empty to retrieve all batches for the specified period.
In the Submitted By field, select an employee name from the list of values, or leave the field empty to retrieve batches submitted by any employee for the specified period.
In the Approved By field, select an employee name from the list of values, or leave the field empty to retrieve batches approved by any employee for the specified period.
In the Assignment Org. Name field, select an employee assignment organization from the list of values, or leave the field empty to retrieve all batches for employees having any assignment organization.
In the Primary Org. Name field, select an organization from the list of values, or leave the field empty to retrieve all batches for employees having any primary assignment organization.
Note: A value may only be entered in either the Assignment Org. Name field or the Primary Org. Name field.
Click OK.
In the Submit Request window, click Submit. The Requests window appears.
To view the report file, select the appropriate Request ID and click View Output.
Close the window.