Payroll Payment and Distributions

Payroll Payment and Distributions Overview

Using Oracle HRMS you can define payment methods for your enterprise and define any rules for validating or processing the distribution of pay.

Payroll Payment and Distributions in Oracle HRMS

You provide for payment and distribution by defining payment methods for your enterprise and then specifying which of these organizational payment methods are valid for the payrolls that you create. This enables you to set up a flexible pattern of payment in which you can pay individual employees by a single payment method, or by a combination of valid payment methods.

Key Concepts

To enable you to set up payment and distributions correctly, you need to understand these key concepts:

Reporting on Payroll Payment and Distributions

See: Reports and Processes in Oracle HRMS, Oracle HRMS Configuring, Reporting, and System Administration Guide

Payroll Payment and Distributions

You can use Oracle Payroll to calculate the payments and distributions for all your employees

Can you verify that payments have been made?

Yes. Oracle Payroll is fully integrated with Oracle Cash Management. This enables you to use Oracle Cash Management to verify that payments have been cashed. Reconciliation can be applied to payroll checks/cheques and third party checks/cheques. You can identify which checks/cheques have been cleared and the date on which they were cleared. You can also view a reconciliation report which shows if voided checks/cheques appear to have been cashed.

Can Oracle Payroll handle different pay frequencies?

Yes--you can set up different pay frequencies, for example weekly or monthly, so that you can pay different sets of employees at different intervals. Each payroll can only have a single pay frequency and you must set up at least one payroll for each pay frequency that you define.

Multiple payrolls in a Business Group

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Note: Semi-monthly is not a valid frequency for UK payroll users.

Can you group employees according to payroll categories in your organization?

You can assign people to any work structure such as an employment category or a particular location. You can also define a special grouping for your organization. For example, you can create a group to indicate membership of a union.

Can you set up a payroll to process multiple assignments for an employee?

Yes. If the Multiple Assignment Prepayments has been enabled for your localization, you will see the Multiple Assignment check box on the Payroll window. The process is activated by selecting the Multiple Assignment check box.

Do you have flexible control over payment methods?

You can define a payroll to include different types of payment method - for example, payment by bank transfer, payment by check/cheque, and so on. When you process the payroll you can then pay the set of employees for that payroll in any of the following ways:

Payment and Distributions

Payment Methods for Your Enterprise

You can define as many payment methods as you require for your enterprise. When you create a payroll, you can select which of these methods are valid for employees assigned to that payroll. You select one method as the default method for the payroll. To choose the payment methods for an individual employee, use the Personal Payment Method window. If you do not enter any personal payment methods, the employee is paid by the default method for the payroll.

Payment Methods and Payment Types

Any payment method that you define must belong to one of the payment method types that your enterprise supports. The most common payment method types are:

Your particular enterprise may support a different range of types. Additionally, there can be local variations within each type. For example, the direct deposit type is NACHA in the U.S., BACS in the U.K. and BECS in Australia.

However, in all enterprises you can define multiple payment methods for the same payment method type.

You can also define payment methods for third party payments, such as court-ordered wage attachments. Third party payments are always made by cheque/check, so methods for these payments must have the type Cheque (Check).

Valid Payment Methods

A valid payment method is a payment method that:

Payment Method Types: Required Information

When you define a payment method, always include the required information for the payment method type:

Payment Method Type Required Information
Check/Cheque Source bank account name and number.
The source account is the account from which your enterprise makes the payment.
The payee account details are only known to the payee. You do not record them in Oracle Payroll.
Direct Deposit Source and destination account details.
The destination account is the payee account.
Because payments transfer directly to a named account, Oracle Payroll can make direct deposits only if you supply source and destination account details.
Cash Coinage analysis.
If your enterprise makes cash payments, you use the coinage analysis to specify the denominations of notes and coins in which employees receive payment.

Payment Methods and Employees

Each employee must have at least one valid payment method, but you can also use multiple payment methods for an individual employee.

Payment Methods and Source Bank Accounts

When you pay employees from separate source accounts, each source account must have a separate payment method. You cannot share a payment method across several different source bank accounts. However, you can create multiple payment methods for the same source bank account.

Payment Methods: Summary

Observe these guidelines when defining your payment methods:

Your sequence for defining payment methods and attaching them to a payroll is:

  1. Define your organizational payment methods.

    See: Defining a Payment Method

  2. Link your organizational payment methods to a payroll.

    See: Defining a Payroll, Oracle HRMS Payroll Processing Management Guide

Cash Management and Oracle Payroll

Oracle Cash Management manages and controls the enterprise cash cycle. The Cash Management auto reconciliation matches Oracle Payroll against bank statement lines if the transaction meets the following criteria:

Cash Management accesses a view of payments generated by Oracle Payroll and compares it against the information on the bank statement. This process generates error messages on mismatched transactions.

Each time a new payment method is created, the bank details transfer to Oracle Accounts Payable. When defining a payment method, you must enter the GL Cash Account field to work with Cash Management.

Important: Because payment method details are passed to Accounts Payable from Payroll, it is important to ensure that you are entering this information correctly. If you inadvertently enter incorrect details, you could end up with reconciliation issues later.

Cash Management is available only for the Payroll payment methods of checks/cheques and electronic fund transfers (such as NACHA in the U.S, Direct Deposit in India).

Important: If you want to use Cash Management fully, you must install Oracle Accounts Payable and Oracle Accounts Receivable due to the interdependency of the products. All accounting functions take place in Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable, and Cash Management provides the engine for reconciliation and forecast.

Defining a Payment Method

Use the Organizational Payment Method window to define payment methods for your enterprise.

From this window, you:

To define a payment method

Supply a name and start date for your payment method

  1. Set your effective date so that it reflects the date when you want to begin using this payment method.

  2. Enter a name for the payment method, and select the payment method type.

    For a third-party payment method, always select the type Check/Cheque. The default currency for your business group appears automatically.

  3. If an alternative currency exists for your payment method, select it.

  4. If your payment method controls payments to a third party such as a benefits carrier or garnishment receiver, check the Third Party Payment box.

Enter the source bank details for your payment method

  1. Navigate to the Source Bank tab. The Country for your source bank account appears automatically.

  2. Enter the Bank Details field to open the Bank Details window. Enter information about the account from which your enterprise intends to make payments.

    If you are using Cash Management, include the following information:

    • Account Name

    • Account Type

    • Account Number

    • Bank Name: If this already exists, enter the name exactly as it appears in Accounts Payable.

    • Bank Branch: If this already exists, enter the name exactly as it appears in Accounts Payable.

    Italy Users: You can enter the Bank Name, Bank Location, Account Number, and Account Name. The IBAN Account displays by default.

    Ensure that you enter any additional bank details that are specific to your enterprise. For example, bank details for U.S. payment methods always require a transit code. The transit code, or transit routing number is the nine-digit number that identifies the financial institution. If the transit code is incorrect, the funds will not be posted to the account.

    South Africa Users: Enter the account holder's name and indicate whether the account holder relationship is joint, own, or third party.

    Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, and Sweden users: Enter the Bank Identifier Code (BIC) and International Bank Account Number (IBAN) in the Bank Identifier Code and the IBAN Number fields, respectively. Note that you must enter at least one of the account numbers, that is, either the International Bank Account Number (IBAN) or the Account Number. If you enter the Account Number, then the Bank Code and Branch Code fields are mandatory.

    Warning: Always review the account setup for Oracle Accounts Payable before you define the account in Oracle Payroll. The details for your Payroll account must exactly match the account details in Accounts Payable. Otherwise, Accounts Payable creates an extra account with marginally different details. This duplicate account introduces errors when you reconcile payments between Payroll and Accounts Payable.

Specify what type of payments to cost for this payment method

  1. Navigate to the Costing tab. Each check box indicates a particular type of payment. Check the boxes for each type of payment that you want to cost. When you subsequently run the Costing of Payment process, it costs each type of payment as you have indicated. The entries that you make for an individual check box can imply automatic checking of related boxes. Your choices are:

    • Cost Payment: Check this box to specify that you want to cost only uncleared payments for this payment method.

    • Cost Cleared Payment: Check this box to specify that you want to cost only cleared payments for this payment method. If you check this box, the Cost Payment box is also checked by default.

    • Cost Cleared Voided Payment only: Check this box to specify that you want to cost any voided payments that have also been cleared by Oracle Cash Management. If you check this box, the Cost Payment and Cost Cleared Payment boxes are also checked by default.

    • Exclude External/Manual Payment: Check this box to exclude any external/manual payments from costing. This exclusion is useful if you are using this payment method as a dummy payment method to cancel a previous payment, or if you are making a payment by cash. If you check this box, the Cost Payment box is also checked by default.

    • Transfer to GL: Check this box to specify that costed payments should transfer to General Ledger. If you check this box, the Cost Payment box is also checked by default.

Specify the GL accounts for this payment method

  1. Navigate to the General Ledger tab.

  2. Select Ledger to indicate the ledger to use if you intend to reconcile payments using Oracle Cash Management.

  3. Select the GL Control Account.

  4. Select GL Cash Account to indicate which cash account to use for the reconciliation of payments.

    The entry for Description appears automatically by default, depending on what you enter in the GL Cash Account details.

  5. Select the Cash Clearing Account.

  6. Select the Error Account.

    When you first specify the GL accounts for a bank account, these then become the default GL accounts for any other payment methods that use the same bank account. The defaults apply for all new payment methods using the bank account. They also apply retrospectively for any existing payment methods that were already using the same account. However, you can override these defaults by entering your preferred GL accounts on the General Ledger tab.

    At this point, check that your Payroll setup and Cash Management setup are fully integrated.

Confirm that you can reconcile payments in Cash Management

  1. Navigate to the Cash Management tab. You cannot change the information on this tab, but you can confirm that your GL accounts are correct.

  2. To confirm that Oracle Cash Management is operating with the same source bank account that you are using in Oracle Payroll, view the check box. If the box is checked, then Oracle Cash Management holds the bank account for this payment method, and you can reconcile payments knowing that you are using an identical account in Payroll, and in Cash Management.

    However, if the box is not checked, this indicates that Oracle Cash Management does not hold the details for your Payroll account. This may indicate that duplicate accounts exist and you should exercise caution when you reconcile your payments.

Enter further information for the payment method

  1. Enter further information to determine how to process this payment method. Click in the Further Information field to see the range of further information for your enterprise.

Viewing Statement of Earnings Information

Oracle Payroll allows you to view an employee's statement of earnings through the Statement of Earnings window, without having to run the Statement of Earnings report.

There are various ways to view and access the Statement of Earnings window. The information displayed in the Statement of Earnings window may vary depending on whether PrePayments has been run, or if a payroll run only has been processed.

To view the last payroll with PrePayments run against it

  1. From the Assignment window, choose the Others button, and select Statement of Earnings.

    The Statement of Earnings window is displayed.

To view the most recently run QuickPay

  1. From the Assignment window, choose the Others button, and select QuickPay.

    The QuickPay window is displayed.

  2. Click on the View Results button and select Statement of Earnings from the View Results window.

    The Statement of Earnings window is displayed.

    Additionally, you can view the Statement of Earnings directly via FastPath.

    Viewing the statement of earnings via FastPath displays the most recent statement of earnings for an employee with PrePayments information.

To view the most recent statement of earnings via FastPath

  1. From the Navigator menu, select FastPath -> Statement of Earnings.

  2. Enter the details of the employee whose statement of earnings you wish to view.

    The Statement of Earnings window is displayed.

To view the statement of earnings information without running PrePayments

You can view the processed payroll without any PrePayments information from the Payroll Processes window and the Employee Assignment Processes window.

See: "Viewing Assignment Process Results for an Assignment".

See: "Viewing Assignment Process Results for a Payroll Assignment".

Setting Up Payslip Information and Generating Payslips

You need to identify any additional information you want to appear on your payslips using payslip balances and elements. Once you have identified the information to archive and display, run your regular payment and archive processes and generate your payslip for printing or viewing online.

To set up your payslip

  1. Select the payslip balances and elements to be included in your payslips.

    See: Entering Payslip Information, Oracle HRMS Enterprise and Workforce Management Guide

    For UK, Netherlands, and South Africa: Enter the information balances and elements through the following:

    See: Identifying Balances for the Payslip, Oracle HRMS Enterprise and Workforce Management Guide and Identifying Elements for the Payslip, Oracle HRMS Enterprise and Workforce Management Guide

    For Ireland: Enter the balances and elements information in the SOE Balances and SOE Elements windows.

    See: Selecting SOE Balances, Oracle HRMS for Ireland, Supplement and Selecting SOE Elements, Oracle HRMS for Ireland, Supplement

  2. For online payslips, enter self-service preference information to indicate how you want to view them. You can specify these settings at the organization, location, and person levels.

    See: Entering Self-Service Preference Information, Oracle HRMS Enterprise and Workforce Management Guide, Location Extra Information Types, Oracle HRMS Enterprise and Workforce Management Guide, and Person Extra Information Types, Oracle HRMS Workforce Sourcing, Deployment, and Talent Management Guide

  3. Configure your online payslip to view through Oracle Self-Service.

    See: Online Payslip, Oracle Self-Service Human Resources Deploy Self-Service Capability Guide

    US, Canada, Mexico, and UAE only: Oracle Payroll uses an RTF template to produce the online payslip through XML Publisher. You can use the default template or create your own.

    See: Oracle XML Publisher Administration and Developer's Guide and Oracle XML Publisher Report Designer's Guide.

    For Ireland: To include the regular payment date of the payroll period in your online payslip, set the Visible property of the Regular Payment Date field to Yes.

  4. US, Canada, Mexico, and UAE only: Oracle Payroll provides the ability to customize the content of your employee payslips to suit your business needs. Prior to making any changes, however, you should review the default content to best determine what changes you require. See: Payslip Region Information, Oracle HRMS Payroll Processing Management Guide (Mexico)

    To change balances or include additional balances on the payslip:

    1. From the Total Compensation menu, select Basic and then Balance.

    2. Query for the element whose balance you want to add, and click Attribute.

    3. Click on a new row under Attribute, and choose the attribute you want to display from the list of values. This represents where the current balance will appear on the payslip.

    4. Choose a dimension from the list of values.

    5. To delete an entry, select the row and click Delete.

    6. Save your changes.

    Note: These changes do not take effect on the payslip until you rerun the Payroll Archiver Process for the affected payroll period.

Generating the Payslip

You must have completed the payroll runs, prepayments, and payment processes prior to generating the payslip.

  1. Run the archive process to gather the latest payroll information.

    See: Extracting Information to Appear on the Payslip

  2. You can view the payslip online through Self-Service.

  3. Print your payslips in the usual way. Users in the Netherlands and China, run the payslip report to produce a formatted report ready for printing and sending out to your employees.

    See: Printing the Payslip

Extracting Information to Appear on the Payslip

You run the payslip archive process to extract and gather relevant information to appear on your employees' payslips. The archiver accesses the payslip information for the dates you select and copies the information across to storage archive tables, where it is picked up and converted into a format for printing and distributing to employees or for viewing online through the self service application.

Run this process after each payroll period to enable Self-Service. You must complete the payroll runs, prepayments, and payment processes before you can run the payslip archive process.

Netherlands, US, and Mexico only: If you are producing paper reports, use this process to view your current payslip.

Run the payslip archiver from the Submit Request window.

To run the payslip archiver

  1. Select your country's payslip archive process in the Name field.

    Canada, China, and Netherlands: Select the Payslip Archiver.

    India: Select the Payroll Reports Archive (India).

    Ireland: Select the IE Legislative Reports Generator. See: Running the Legislative Reports Generator, Oracle HRMS for Ireland, Supplement

    Mexico: Select the Payroll Archiver. See: Managing the Payroll Archiver, Oracle HRMS Payroll Processing Management Guide (Mexico)

    South Africa: See: Pay Advice Generation - Self Service (South Africa), Oracle HRMS for South Africa, Supplement

    UK: See: Payslip Generation Self-Service, Oracle HRMS Payroll Processing Management Guide (UK)

    US: See: Managing the Payroll Archive, Oracle HRMS Payroll Processing Management Guide

  2. In the Parameters window, select a payroll name and consolidation set. This selects the employees for whom you want to run the report. When you select a payroll, the default consolidation set is displayed.

  3. Enter the start and end dates for the period of time you want the information extracted. You typically run this process for the same dates you ran your payroll.

  4. India: Select whether you want to mail individual payslip or view consolidated payslips in the Generate Payslip field.

  5. Choose Submit.

After running the Payroll Archiver, you can use the Payroll Actions Not Processed report to see what employees (and corresponding payroll processes) were not archived but did fall within the report's parameters.

Running the Pay Advice Alignment Report

Run this report before you run the Pay Advice report. It shows printer alignment details for your sample pay advice.

You run the Pay Advice Alignment report from the Submit Requests window.

To run the Pay Advice Alignment report

  1. In the Name field, select the report name.

  2. Choose the Submit button.

Running the Payments Summary Report

Run this report when you want to see payments totalled by payment method type and organizational payment method for a specified payroll and payroll period. Account details for each organizational payment method are also listed.

You run the report in the Submit Requests window.

To run the Payments Summary Report

  1. In the Name field, select the report name. Then enter the Parameters field to open the Parameters window.

  2. Select the payroll and payroll period for which you want to see the information.

  3. If you want to restrict the information by consolidation set, select the name of the set.

  4. Choose the Submit button.