Understanding Organizational Elements

Organizational elements consist of:

  • Element groups and eligibility groups: Use these to create logical groupings of the payroll elements that payees are eligible to receive.

  • Sections and process lists: Use these to control the order in which individual elements are processed.

This topic discusses:

  • Element and eligibility groups.

  • Sections.

  • Process lists.

Use element groups to create groupings of elements to associate with eligibility groups. You associate eligibility groups with pay groups and list sets.

You define element groups based on your organizational needs. For example, if your organization has a simple payroll system, you might group all earnings into one element group and all deductions into another element group and use the two element group names to specify all earnings and deductions.

Sections are groups of elements that you add to a process list. Sections tell the system what elements to resolve when processing a payroll or absence run and the order in which to resolve them.

There are five types of sections:

  • Standard, which is used for regular processing.

  • Generate Positive Input, which is used to create positive input for a different calendar pay period.

  • Payee, which is used to specify which elements should be processed and in what sequence, at the payee level.

    For example, you can create a payee section to process garnishments for a payee.

  • Sub-Process, which is used for net-to-gross calculations and other iterative processes.

  • Absence Take, which is used to process absences according to date order.

Use process lists to control the order in which sections are processed during a payroll run. A process list identifies accumulators that are used to calculate gross and net pay and specifies whether the process is for payroll or absence calculations.

You can create a general or specific process list, based on your organization's needs. For example, you can create a process list for the different types of earnings that a payee can have, including earnings for regular pay, absences, bonuses, and commissions.