Siebel Employee Relationship Management Administration Guide > Setting Up Compensation Planning >

Managing Compensation Budgets

Compensation planning involves creating and maintaining budgets for each type of compensation. Before the planning process can begin, you must define a budget for each type of compensation included in the compensation plan. For each compensation type, you can create a logical expression to calculate the budgeted amount for each employee. During the budget calculation process, a record is created for each employee within the Employees list using the evaluated expression. This section includes information and procedures for the following topics:

Creating a Compensation Budget

Budget records are only created for employees who meet the following criteria:

To create a budget

  1. From the application-level menu, choose View > Site Map > Compensation Planning Administration > Budgets.
  2. In the Budgets list, add a new record and complete the fields.

    3. The following table describes the fields in the budget record.

    Field
    Comments
    Active
    Select the check box to activate the budget.
    Currency
    Select the appropriate currency code for the budget.
    Last Run
    Indicates the date and time of the last budget calculation.
    Name
    Enter a name for the budget.
    Organization
    Click the select button to choose the organization associated with the budget.
    Period
    Select the period that the budget covers. The Start and End fields are populated after you select a period.
    Status
    A system-generated value. Values are New, Calculated and Locked. For more information, see Locking the Compensation Budget.

To create budget types for the budget

  1. In the Budgets list, select the budget.
  2. In the Budget Types list, add a new record and complete the fields.

    3. The following table describes the fields in the budget type record.

    Field
    Comments
    Budget
    The total budget amount. This field is automatically completed when the budget is calculated. The application aggregates budget amounts for the employees associated with the selected budget type in the selected period.
    Budget Spent
    The total budget spent amount. The application aggregates budget spent amounts for the employees associated with the selected budget type in the selected period.
    Eligibility Rule
    Select an eligibility rule to indicate which employees have budgets created for them.
    Expression
    Enter an expression to calculate the budget amount.
    Type
    Select the compensation type for which you want to calculate a budget. Values include Merit, Promotion, Variable Pay, and Stock.

Defining Compensation Budget Expressions

You can create budget expressions that are used to calculate the budgets. A budget expression is a formula that can include any field within the ERM Employee business component including Employee Salary, Employee Job Code, Employee Salary Grade, and so on.

Several standard functions are supported, allowing budget calculations to include arithmetic, Boolean, and conditional operators. For more information on syntax and functions that can be used in budget expressions, see Siebel Tools Reference.

NOTE:  If the employee salary has been stored in the Job Information view using a currency different from the budget currency, the employee salary is converted to the budget currency during the calculation of the budget amount. The Employee Salary field must be the first field to appear within the expression for the currency conversion to be successful.

Calculating the Compensation Budget

After the budget definition (including the desired budget expressions) have been defined, you can begin the budget calculation.

NOTE:  The budget calculation process should only be run in a server environment. Running the budget calculation process on a mobile or dedicated client is not recommended.

The budget calculation can take several minutes to complete depending on the number of employees and complexity of the budget expressions. During the calculation process, you can periodically press ALT + ENTER to refresh the screen and update the budget status.

To calculate the budget

  1. In the budgets list, select the budget and then click Calculate.
  2. Verify that the budget calculation is completed by reviewing the status field in the budget record.

    3. When completed, the budget status is Calculated.

Locking the Compensation Budget

After a budget is calculated, you can lock the budget record to prevent further calculations. Budget Types and Employee records can be manually updated as needed by temporarily unlocking the budget record.

Locked budgets can be linked to one or more planning cycles for incorporation into the associated compensation plans. After final approval of a compensation plan, the approved compensation change amounts for an employee are reflected in the Budget Spent fields in the Budget Types and Employees lists.

CAUTION:  Running the budget calculation process results in the unrecoverable loss of the Budget and Budget Spent amounts for any previously calculated budget records. When necessary, individual Budget and Budget Spent amounts can be manually updated.

To lock a budget

  1. From the application-level menu, choose View > Site Map > Compensation Planning Administration > Budgets.
  2. In the Budgets list, query to find the budget you want to lock.
  3. In the Budget record, choose Locked from the Status field drop-down list.

    4. NOTE:  Budgets can be unlocked by changing the status back to Calculated.

Adding an Employee to the Compensation Budget

Employees can be added to the compensation budget.

To add an employee to a budget

  1. From the application-level menu, choose View > Site Map > Compensation Planning Administration > Budgets.
  2. In the Budgets list, query to find the budget you want to unlock.
  3. In the budget record, choose Unlocked from the Status field drop-down list.
  4. In the Budget Types list, select the appropriate compensation type you want to calculate for the employee.
  5. In the Employees list, add a new record and then click the select button in the Last Name field.
  6. In the Pick Employee dialog box, query to locate the employee you want to add, and then click OK.
  7. Complete the rest of the fields.

 Siebel Employee Relationship Management Administration Guide 
 Published: 18 April 2003