The Federal Maintenance windows contain information such as Remarks and Legal Authority Codes and process methods used by the RPA. In general, only the system administrator defines information in these windows. Information defined in one window is often viewable in another so that you can understand and view the relationship of data. You can also search for information in these windows using the application's selective search and Find window capabilities.
The federal maintenance windows contain the following information:
Families and NOA Familes: View Nature of Action Codes (NOACs) and their related nature of Action (NOA) families. See: Nature of Action Families
NOA Codes and Remarks: Associate Remarks to NOACs. You can associate several Remarks to a single NOAC, as well as a single Remark to several NOACs. See: Associating Remarks to NOACs
NOA Legal Authorities: View current NOACs and each NOAC's associated legal authorities; associate legal authorities to your 900 NOACs. See: Maintaining Legal Authority Codes
Personnel Office Identifiers: Link the Personnel Office to the group box you defined in the routing groups and group boxes window and enter Approving Officer's name. See: Maintaining Personnel Office ID Information
Process Methods: Defines the data entry methods on RPA fields such as user enterable or auto-populated and associates these fields to a specific NOA family. See: Process Method
Warning: Changing the NOAC order of processing may severely impact the database when you update records. For example, if you assign Pay Adjustment NOAC 894 a processing number that falls below Promotion NOAC 702, the system may incorrectly calculate the employee's promotion salary.
Enter and Maintain Events: Defines productivity data by event codes, descriptions, and standard completion times. See Setting Up Event Codes
The Federal Maintenance Forms store relevant and timely information, such as the Nature of Action Codes (NOAC) and Remarks.
The product provides maintenance forms to view and update OPM mandated Nature of Action Codes and Descriptions, Remarks, and Legal Authority Codes (LACs). The forms associate related NOACs with their Remarks and LACs as well as group related information into appropriate families.
Additionally, agencies can use the forms to enter their own information, such as agency-specific Remarks.
You can create new Duty Stations, update existing ones, and terminate (end-date) Duty Stations manually using a supplied federal maintenance form. After entering the updates, you can run a process to convert employees from an old to a new location. A change in Duty Station may affect an employee's Locality Pay. You can run a report to identify the assignment records with that Duty Station, and then take appropriate action, such as processing a Locality Pay Adjustment for those employees.
Nature of Action Codes (NOACs) included in a Nature of Action (NOA) family share its family types. The family types determine different processes. For example, the Required family type determines which fields you must complete before you can update an RPA. The Conversion to Appointment family is a Required family type. The NOACs belonging to this family share the same set of required fields. The Change Schedule and Hours family is not a Required family type, so the NOACs belonging to this family do not have required fields. The following table describes the family types.
| Family Type | The NOACs in this family... |
|---|---|
| Enabled | Are valid selections and appear on the List of Values, such as the Change Families List of Values.Note: If you disable a family, the family does not appear on the List of Values, but it continues to appear on the Navigator menu until you remove it from the menu. |
| Required | Have the same required fields that you must complete before you can update the RPA to HR. The required fields may include fields on the RPA and extra information types. |
| Update HR | Share the same code for updating the HR database. |
| Process Method | Control actions in the field on the RPA form. For example, the process method controls whether you enter data or only view data. |
| Request Info Type | Display the same Extra Information fields on the RPA. |
NOACs are associated to a NOA family in the Family, Nature of Action window. A NOAC can belong to more than one family, but the families can't have the same family type. For example, a NOAC isn't associated to more than one Process Method family type.
Oracle US Federal HR supports the Nature of Action Codes issued by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The Navigator menu groups Nature of Actions (NOA) into families of related actions. The following table describes the family types.
| Family type | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Enabled | Valid selections that appear on lists such as the Change Families list |
| Process Method | A NOAC can belong to only one Process Method family. OPM based process rules specify the type of information for each field: Non-Enterable (NE) AutoPopulated (AP) User Enterable (UE) Autopopulated User Enterable (APUE) |
| Request Information Type | A NOAC can belong to more than one Request Information type family. Extra Information accompanies a specific NOA. |
| Required fields | A NOAC can belong to only one Required family. The OPM requires data entry in specific fields before you can update the RPA. The application performs edit checks on these fields before updating the data to the database. |
| Update HR | A NOAC can belong to only one Update HR family. Business rules run against the data to determine if the data is consistent and passes the Central Data Personnel File edits. |
A NOAC is associated to a NOA family and inherits its family types, such as process methods. A NOAC may belong to more than one NOA family type. For example, the NOAC 827 (Retention Incentive) belongs to two NOA family types. It belongs to the Incentive family for Process Methods, and to the Retention Incentive Info family for Request Information Types and Required fields.
In this example, when you initiate a personnel action for a Retention Incentive, you choose the NOA family Incentives from the Navigator menu. The application generates an RPA and applies the Incentive process methods. When you enter the specific NOAC (827), the application applies the Retention Incentive Info Required fields and Request Information Types.
Oracle US Federal HR defines process methods for each Nature of Action (NOA) family based on the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) process rules. Process methods determine which fields you can enter or edit on an RPA and how the application updates these fields.
The Process Methods window defines the data entry methods such as user enterable or auto-populated for the RPA fields and associates these fields to a specific NOA family.
The Process Methods window contains two regions. The upper region displays NOA families. The Process Method region displays RPA fields and defines the process methods for each NOA family.
Each region has several check boxes. The NOA Family Code region contains two check boxes: Process Methods and Required. The check box displays the family type assigned the NOA family in the Families, Nature of Action window.
The Process Method region contains three check boxes: Required, Navigable, and Enabled that you set for each RPA field.
Required: You must complete the field before you can update the RPA to HR. The Required check box is available only if the family type is set to Required.
Navigable: You can tab into the field. You can choose this check box regardless of the process method. You might do this to have users review data such as pay calculation results before entering data in a different field.
Enabled: The Enabled check box tells the application to use the process method you assign to a specific field, or if it is deselected, to apply the default process method (Auto Populate User Enterable).
The process methods initially configure the RPA based on the NOA family selected. However, other processes also affect the field configuration:
User access: The Restricted RPA sets the fields to display or non-display. A user's role may determine whether the user can enter data in a field.
Required data: The application overrides the field level process method to populate specific data, such as pay plan information.
Pay calculations: Data changes in an RPA that affect pay calculation, such as a change in PRD or grade, override process methods. In addition, API user hooks for pay calculation permit agencies to enter data in fields usually designated as auto populated.
Use the Federal Process Log window to view the error messages for a given process that you're running. As a tool for system administrators, the error log displays errors encountered in running:
Future actions (Initiate Future Action process)
Automatic Within Grade Increases
Mass Actions
Errors encountered in Previewing eligibility run results, and reports for Realignments, Mass Transfers, Mass Salary Adjustments, Reduction in Force Retention Registers.
See: Using the Federal Process Log
There are two regions in the Families, Nature of Action window. The Families region displays NOA families. The Nature of Action region displays the Nature of Action Codes (NOACs) and Descriptions for the family you choose in the first region.
To view the NOA Families and Codes
Open the Families, Nature of Action Federal Maintenance Form.
To display all possible families, choose Find All from the View menu.
The Process Methods window displays the NOA family information.
To display the Process Methods window
Open the Process Methods Federal Maintenance Form.
To display all possible NOA families, choose Find All from the View menu.
The NOA Family Code region displays the NOA Family Codes and NOA Family Names. The Process Method region displays the process methods for the selected family.
Note: You cannot change the process methods assigned to data fields for seeded NOA families; only for families that you add.
Use the Personnel Office Identifiers window to link the Personnel Office to the Groupbox you set up in the Routing Groups and Groupboxes window.
You also use the Personnel Office Identifiers window to enter Approving Officer's name. The application enters the Approving Officer's name, working title, and approval date on all mass actions, including:
Automatic Within Grade Increases
Mass Salary Adjustment
Mass Realignment
Mass Transfer Out
Mass Transfer In
If the application encounters an error when processing one of these actions, it displays the error message in the Process Error Logs window and routes the RPA to the POI groupbox for processing.
To complete the Personnel Office information
Create a routing group and groupbox for each Personnel Office ID, and include at least one member (the employee you wish to name as Approving Official).
See: Setting up Routing Groups, Groupboxes, and Routing Lists
Enter the ID for the Personnel Office.
Enter Description text, such as the name of the Personnel Office.
Enter the groupbox name that you set up for the Personnel Office in the Routing Groups and Groupboxes window.
Enter the full name for the employee who serves as the Approving Official.
After entering the Personnel Office ID, you can edit the information if necessary, but you cannot delete it.
Use the Enter and Maintain Events codes window to:
Set up Event Codes
Enter Descriptions
Enter Standard Completion Times
Note: If you need to capture more information related to a category, you can extend GHR_US_EVENT_CATEGORIES QuickCode type by defining other Attributes.
Event Codes have a start and end date and a corresponding description such as Requisitioned and Cleared to describe the activities associated to those dates. Although each Event Code belongs to an Event Category, you can set up more than one Event Code per Category. For example, you might set up several Event Codes to closely track the steps involved in recruiting and filling a position.
Each RPA that you initiate has an associated Event History window as does each Position that you create. For more information about entering and reviewing productivity data while processing and routing an RPA, see Productivity Data, Oracle HRMS Workforce Sourcing, Deployment, and Talent Management Guide.
To enter a new event
Open the Enter and Maintain Events code window.
Enter a unique value for the event code.
Enter a description.
Enter a descriptive context for the Start Date, such as Issued.
Enter a descriptive context for the End Date, such as Returned.
Choose a Category Code.
Enter the number of days in the Standard Completion Time (STC) field that you estimate an event should take. You can enter fractions of days using up to two decimals.
You can use this STC metric when creating reports to show that users have completed events in the estimated time.
Enter the Date From and Date To Effective Dates.
Choose Enabled.
You can record the amount of time in days that it takes to process a specific NOAC in the NOA Codes and Remarks window. You can then create reports that compare that Standard Completion Time to the actual time recorded in the Routing History for processing those NOACs.
The Process Log Errors window displays the following information:
Program name, and the date the application entered the error in the log.
The errors are arranged by the log date followed by the program name.
Message Name
The Message Name indicates either a subprogram name or an execution point in the program. If the program does not use a message name, the application leaves this field blank.
Text for each message encountered
For future approved actions, the application displays the PA Request ID followed by the message text. If the application has updated the RPA to the database, it displays the PA Request ID only, and not the message text.
For preview errors for mass actions, the application precedes the program name with an abbreviation (MSL for Mass Salary, MTO for Mass Transfer Out, and MTI for Mass Transfer In) followed by the criteria name. If the error includes the Person ID, the application also displays the person's name and social security number.
If you run the mass action from the Concurrent Manager, you can locate the message text in the log by querying the record using the Concurrent Manager Request ID.
Use the Process Log Errors window to view and print log information.
To use the process log
Query the content that you want to view by entering the Log Date or the Program Name.
If you queried the log based on the Log Date and the log contains more than one record for that day, you can position your cursor in the Program Name and use the down arrow key to page through the different logs and locate the one you wish to view.
To print the contents of the log visible on the computer screen, choose the print icon.
Use the NOA Codes and Remarks window to associate Remarks with NOAC. You may associate multiple Remarks with a NOAC and associate the same Remark to different NOACs.
This window contains two regions. The upper region displays Nature of Action Codes and shows the order in which the NOACs are processed. The system references the order of processing when there is more than one NOAC for an employee on the same effective date. The system processes the NOAC with the highest priority and returns the others for Cancellation or Correction to the person who submitted the action for Update to HR.
The Remarks region displays the Remarks for the code you've selected in the NOAC region. You can add or delete Remarks in the Remarks region.
Note: Do not change the NOAC order of processing. Changing the NOAC order of processing may severely impact the database when you update records. For example, if you assign Pay Adjustment NOAC 894 a processing number that falls below Promotion NOAC 702, the system may incorrectly calculate the employee's promotion salar.y.
For information about insertion values for NOACs and Remarks, see Insertion Data.
To display information
Open the NOA Codes and Remarks Federal Maintenance Forms.
To display all possible codes, choose Find All from the View menu.
You associate Remarks to NOACs in the NOA Codes and Remarks window. You can associate several Remarks to a single NOAC, and also a single Remark to several NOACs.
Before associating remarks to NOACs, you must have entered the Remarks in the Remarks and Description window and any required insertion data.
See: Remark Codes
See: Insertion Data
Use the NOA Codes and Remarks window.
To associate a Remark to a NOAC
In the Nature of Action Codes region, select the NOAC you plan to associate to a Remark.
In the Remarks region, create a new row where you want the Remark to appear on the list.
In the Code field, select the Remark from the list of values.
Enter a From date that accommodates the historical records that you want to maintain.
Select Required if the Remark is required for an update to the HR database.
For example, if your agency uses the National Finance Center to process personnel, position, and payroll records, you select this option for those Remarks NFC designates as required.
Save your changes.
To associate this Remark with other NOACs, repeat these steps to add the Remark under each NOAC.
To remove a Remark from the NOA Codes and Remarks list
Use the NOA Codes and Remarks window to remove Remarks.
In the Nature of Action Codes region, select the NOAC associated to the Remark.
In the Remarks region, select the Remark you want to remove.
In the To field, enter the date when the Remark is no longer valid.
Save your changes.
Repeat these steps for those NOACs where you added this Remark.
If you no longer use the Remark at all, you can remove it from the Remark Codes and Descriptions window.
Use the Remark Codes and Descriptions window to see a complete list of Remarks in alphabetical order. You can add or delete Remarks as needed.
To display information
Open the Remark Codes and Descriptions Federal Maintenance Form.
To display all possible codes, choose Query and Run or press F8. The window displays all Remark codes and descriptions in alphabetical order.
You use the Remark Codes and Descriptions Federal Maintenance window to add agency Remarks. For example, if your agency uses the National Finance Center as a provider, you would enter the Remarks NFC requires in this window. When you add a Remark, you must also associate it to a specific Nature of Action code in the NOA Codes and Remarks window.
See: Associating Remarks to NOACs
Use the Remark Codes and Descriptions Federal Maintenance window.
To add a Remark
Add a new row for the Remark you want to add.
Enter a code for the Remark.
Enter the description. If the Remark description has insertion values, enter two or more underscores for each insertion value. You can have up to five insertion values in a Remark.
Enter a PA Notification ordering value.
This value determines the order in which the system prints the Remarks on the Notification of Personnel Action. The values are in ascending order, with 00 (or null) for the Remark that appears first in the list of printed Remarks.
Enter the date on which the Remark takes effect.
Save the record.
Associate the Remark with the appropriate NOAC in the NOA Codes and Remarks window.
Note: If you plan to associate the Remark with more than one code, you must enter the code under each NOAC.
If the Remark description has insertion values, add the insertion value segments in the Descriptive Flexfields Segment window, as explained in Setting up Insertion Data.
Use the NOA Codes and Remarks window to delete Remarks.
To delete a Remark
Select the Remark you want to delete.
Note: You can end date Remarks but not remove them.
In the Date To field enter an end date.
Save your changes.
Caution: Do not delete the predefined Remarks. Before deleting an agency-specific Remark, confirm that you have not processed actions that use this Remark.
Many Nature of Action Codes (NOACs), Remarks, and Legal Authorities include descriptions.
Descriptions may contain:
No insertion data
A combination of text and insertion data
Only insertion data
If your agency adds agency-specific descriptions that contain insertion data, you can capture that data. The product includes descriptive flexfields for NOAC, Remark, and Legal Authority descriptions. These flexfields have five context-sensitive segments for insertion values that correspond to the underscores in the descriptions.
Underscores represent insertion data only. Make sure that your Remarks, Legal Authority Codes, or NOACs do not contain underscores unless they have corresponding insertion segments. The application does not validate the number of segments for a specific description in the Descriptive Flexfield Segments window with the number of underscore segments in the Maintenance forms. The application does not datetrack insertion values. When the application updates the database, it only updates insertion values associated with NTE (Not to Exceed) NOACs. Upon update, the application does remove the underscore characters.
To add insertion values
Add your Remark, or Legal Authority Code to the appropriate form.
As an Application Developer, you set up segments for the descriptions in the Descriptive Flexfield Segments window. Each group of underscores in the description should have a corresponding segment defined to store its data.
The flexfield uses the code as context to determine what segments are displayed in the pop-up window and the value sets (if any) to be used for each segment.
Each description has 5 segments that you can define. The number of characters associated with each segment are as follows:
Remarks: 2000 characters for the first segment; 150 characters for the remaining segments.
NOACS and LACS: 240 characters for the first segment; 150 characters for the remaining segments.
Repeat the segment definition for NOACs twice (to accommodate dual actions). Repeat the definition four times for Legal Authority Codes.
For example, the Legal Authority Code LAC A2M has a description CS Cert No. ____ WTO. Because each NOAC has two possible supporting Legal Authority Codes for each action, you need to enter the Legal Authority Code in all four flexfields.
Follow the steps for freezing and compiling the flexfield segments as described in the Oracle Applications Flexfields Guide.
Use the Legal Authority Codes window to see current NOACs and each NOAC's associated legal authorities. You can also use this window to associate legal authorities to your 900 NOACs.
This window contains two regions. The upper region displays Nature of Action codes. The Legal Authorities region displays the legal authorities for the code you have selected in the upper region.
To display information
Open the NOA Legal Authorities Federal Maintenance Form.
A dialog box appears and asks that you enter a range of codes to display.
To display a specific code, enter it in the Nature of Action From field. Choose Find.
To display a range of codes, enter the beginning of the range in the Nature of Action From field, and enter the end of the range in the Nature of Action To field. Choose Find.
To display all possible codes, choose Find.
To select a code from a list of codes, insert a percentage symbol (%) in the Nature of Action From field. A second dialog box appears that contains all the Legal Authority Codes and Descriptions. Choose a code from this list. Choose OK.
You use the Nature of Action Legal Authorities window to associate legal authority codes you define in the Lookup window to a NOAC. You can associate a single legal authority code to more than one NOAC, as well as several legal authority codes to one NOAC.
To associate a legal authority code to a NOAC
Open the NOA Legal Authorities Federal Maintenance Form.
A dialog box appears and asks that you enter a range of codes to display.
To display a specific code, enter it in the Nature of Action From field. Choose Find.
To display a range of codes, enter the beginning of the range in the Nature of Action From field, and enter the end of the range in the Nature of Action To field. Choose Find.
To display all possible codes, insert a "%" in the Nature of Action From field. A second dialog box appears that contains all the Legal Authority Codes and Descriptions. Choose a code from this list. Choose OK.
In the NOAC region, choose a Nature of Action code.
In the Legal Authority region, determine where you want the legal authority to appear on the list. Choose the New Record button on the toolbar. An empty row appears below the legal authority you selected.
Choose a Legal Authority from the List of Values.
Save your changes.
You add new legal authority codes and update existing ones in the Lookup window. After doing so, you can associate the legal authority to a NOAC in the Nature of Action Legal Authorities window.
To add a new Legal Authority Code or revise an existing one
Open the Lookups Values window.
Query GHR_US_LEGAL_AUTHORITY to display a list of predefined Legal Authority Codes.
Choose the New Record button on the toolbar. An empty row appears below the legal authority you selected.
Enter a Code, Meaning, and Description for the legal authority. If the legal authority has insertion values, enter two or more underscores for each insertion value. You can have up to five insertion values in a Legal Authority Code.
You can create more than one description for a Legal Authority Code. If you create an alternate description for a LAC code, then you must add a number suffix to the LAC code.
Note: Underscores represent insertion data only. Make sure that your Remarks, Legal Authority Codes, or NOACs do not contain underscores unless they have corresponding insertion segments.
Choose Enabled to have the legal authority appear on the appropriate List of Values, for example on the List of Values in the Nature of Action Legal Authorities window.
Choose First Valid LAC and/or Second Valid LAC.
The NOAC determines whether the Legal Authority Code is valid as the first code and/or second code.
Note: The list of first and second Legal Authority Codes for Within Grade Increases (WGI) is predefined. If you change the validation for these Legal Authority Codes by deselecting their check boxes, when you process and update a WGI personnel action, the system will inform you there's an error.
Save your changes.
If the Legal Authority Description has insertion values, add the insertion value segments in the Descriptive Flexfields Segment window, as explained in Setting up Insertion Data.
To delete a Legal Authority Code
Open the Lookups Values window.
Query GHR_US_LEGAL_AUTHORITY to display a list of predefined Legal Authority Codes.
Enter an end date in the To field when the Legal Authority Code is no longer valid.
Note: If you delete a Legal Authority Code and then process an RPA action using it, you'll get an error upon update to the HR database.
Save your changes.
Open the NOA Legal Authorities Federal Maintenance Form.
A dialog box appears and asks that you enter a range of codes to display. To display a specific code, enter it in the Nature of Action From field. Choose Find.
In the NOAC region, choose a Nature of Action code.
In the Legal Authority region, locate the Legal Authority Code. Enter an end date in the To field when the Legal Authority Code is no longer valid.
Save your changes.
Run the Ex-Employees Report/Purge Process to remove from database all data related to separated or ex-employees. Run this program first to identify records of separated or ex-employees and then purge the data associated with such employee records.
Prerequisite: Before you run this process, ensure that the GHR: Allow Ex-Emp Purge Profile option value is set to Yes.
See: User Profiles
The Ex-Employees Report/Purge Process:
Identifies person records with the person type of ex-employee or ex-contingent worker. Removes all information related to ex-employees from the Benefits and Oracle Federal HR tables.
Retains the name of the ex-employee, if the ex-employee is identified as a contact or dependant for any active person record.
Retains the name of the ex-employee in historical hierarchy records and approval data. For example, if the separated employee was previously a manager in the assigned organization, then the organization hierarchy history reflects the person name as of the historical date. Similarly, if the separated employee was an approver or requestor on any personnel action or performance related documents, then the separated employee's name is not removed from those historical records of active employees.
Run the process from the Submit Request window.
To run the Ex-Employees Report/Purge process
Select Ex-Employees Report/Purge in the name field. The Parameters window appears.
In the Retention Period (No.of Years) field, enter the number of years for which you want to retain the ex-employees' data. The value must be in the numeric format, for example, 5. The data retention period is based on US Federal legislative or US Federal business requirement. The application uses the combination of the value in this field, effective date of the employee's termination (month and year) and the system date on which you run the process to report or purge data of separated employees. For example, the system date is 01-JAN-2013 and the retention period value is 5. The application checks for records of separated employees prior to January, 2008 to report or purge data.
Select any one of the options:
Purge: Application removes data of separated employees based on the retention period parameter value.
Report: Application generates a report on the data separated employees based on the retention period parameter value.
Click OK and then Submit.
Navigate to the View Requests window to view the details of your request. The process log contains the record identification of each record that is reported or purged.