Rules for Parent and Child Element Resolutions

Matching and Mismatching Slices and Segments

During period segmentation, all elements are segmented equally, and parent and child elements always match.

During element segmentation, parent and child elements can be sliced equally, or one may be sliced more than the other. For example, the parent might be included in the list of elements to segment, while the child is not. If the parent and child slices are identical, the parent and child are said to match; if they are not identical, they are referred to as mismatching.

Global Payroll follows specific rules for processing matching and mismatched elements. These rules are illustrated in the following examples.

Examples 1–7: Parent Element Is a Primary Element or a Supporting Element

The following cases use these elements:

Earning E1 = Percent of F1 (supporting element).
Earning E3 = Percent of E2 (primary element).
F1 = 100 (supporting element).
E2 = 100 (primary element).

This table summarizes the examples that follow in this topic. The child and parent slices in these examples do not always match, as indicated in the Match/No Match column.

Case Number	Parent Action	Child Action	Child Type	Match/No Match	Process Rule
1	Sliced	Not Sliced	Primary Element (E2)	No Match	Use the value of the child for each slice of the parent.
2	Sliced	Sliced	Primary Element (E2)	Match	Use the slice value of the child for each slice of the parent.
3	Sliced	Sliced	Primary Element (E2)	Partial Match Child Sliced More	Sum the value for each child slice that matches the parent slice.
4	Sliced	Sliced	Primary Element (E2)	Partial Match Child Sliced Less	Use the Slice value of the child where dates match. If they don't match, sum the value of all child slices. May return incorrect values.
5	Sliced	Sliced	Primary Element (E2)	No Match	Sum the value of all child slices. May return incorrect values.
6	Not Sliced	Sliced	Primary Element (E2)	No Match	Sum of the child values.
7	Sliced	Not Sliced	Supporting Element (F1)	Not applicable. Matching does not matter when the child is a supporting element.	Resolve the value of the child for each slice of the parent. (See note following case details.)

Note:

The following examples show the results with and without proration. Prorated amounts are in parentheses.

Case 1

Assumptions:

E2 (primary element) = 100

E3 (primary element) = 10% of E2

Proration on E3

Scenario: Parent is sliced; child is not sliced. Child is a primary element.

For E3 (parent), there are two slices:

Slice 1: 10% of 100 (50)
Slice 2: 10% of 100 (50)

For E2 (child), there is one slice with a value of 100.

Each slice of E3 uses the full value of the child (E2). This causes a warning message to be displayed in the Payee Messages component.

Case 2

Assumptions:

E2 (primary element) = 100

E3 (primary element) = 10% of E2

Proration on E2

Scenario: Parent is sliced; child is sliced. Child is a primary element.

For E3 (parent), there are two slices:

Slice 1: 10% of 100 (50)
Slice 2: 10% of 100 (50)

For E2 (child), there are two slices:

Slice 1: 100 (50)
Slice 2: 100 (50)

When the parent's slice dates equal the child's slice dates, the parent uses the child's value. Although the slice dates match, without proration on the child, the results may be incorrect.

Case 3

Assumptions:

E2 (primary element) = 100

E3 (primary element) = 10% of E2

Proration on E2

Scenario: Parent is sliced; child is sliced more. Slices partially match. Child is a primary element.

For E3 (parent), there are two slices:

Slice 1: 10% of 100 (33.33)
Slice 2: 10% of 200 (33.33 + 33.34)

For E2 (child), there are three slices:

Slice 1: 100 (33.33)
Slice 2: 100 (33.33)
Slice 3: 100 (33.34)

Slice 1 of the parent and child match, so the system sums the child slices (slice 1, in this example). For the second slice of E3 (the parent), the system sums slice 2 and slice 3 of E2 (the child), because the begin date of slice 2 and end date of slice 3 match slice 2 of E3 (the parent). This scenario causes a warning message to be displayed in the Payee Messages component.

Case 4

Assumptions:

E2 (primary element) = 100

E3 (primary element) = 10% of E2

Proration on E2

Scenario: Parent is sliced; child is sliced less. Slices partially match. Child is a primary element.

For E3 (parent), there are three slices:

Slice 1: 10% of 100 (33.33)
Slice 2: 10% of 200 (66.67)
Slice 3: 10% of 200 (66.67)

For E2 (child), there are two slices:

Slice 1: 100 (33.33)
Slice 2: 100 (66.67)

Generally, if the child is a primary element, it should be on the same list of elements to be sliced as the parent element. This ensures that both the child and parent have matching slices. Otherwise, the above scenario could occur and should be avoided.

The resolution is twofold. When there are exact matches (as in slice 1 of the parent and the child), the system uses the child's value. If the parent or the child has proration turned on, the result is correct. The second resolution of the parent sums all resolutions of the child (200, in this example), resulting in an over calculated amount. This is because the system cannot get a match on the slice dates for the parent and the child. Even with proration turned on, the amount of the child is overstated (see the amounts in parentheses).

Case 5

Assumptions:

E2 (primary element) = 100

E3 (primary element) = 10% of E2

Proration on E2

Parent is sliced. Child is sliced. No match on slice dates. Child is a primary element.

For E3 (parent), there are two slices:

Slice 1: 10% of 300 (100)
Slice 2: 10% of 300 (100)

For E2 (child), there are three slices:

Slice 1: 300 (100)
Slice 2: 300 (100)
Slice 3: (100)

Generally, if the child is a primary element, it should be on the same list of elements to be sliced as the parent element. This ensures that both the child and parent have matching slices. Otherwise, the above scenario could occur and should be avoided.

When the parent's slice dates do not match any of the child's slice dates—as in the second resolution in Case 5 — the system sums the value of all child slices for each resolution of the parent. This causes a warning message to be displayed in the Payee Messages component.

Case 6

Assumptions:

E2 (primary element) = 100

E3 (primary element) = 10% of E2

Proration on E2

Parent is not sliced. Child is sliced. No match on slice dates. (Slice dates are not applicable to the parent.) Child is a primary element.

For E3 (parent), there is one slice with a value of 10% of 200 (100)

For E2 (child), there are two slices:

Slice 1: 200 (100)
Slice 2: 200 (100)

When the parent isn't sliced, and the child is—and the child is a primary element—the resolution of the parent element sums the values of all resolutions of the child. This causes a warning message to be displayed in the Payee Messages component.

Case 7

Assumptions:

E1 (primary element) = 10% of F1

F1 (supporting element) = 100

Proration on E1

Parent is sliced. Child is not sliced. Child is a supporting element.

For E1 (parent), there are two slices:

Slice 1: 10% of 100 (50)
Slice 2: 10% of 100 (50)

For F1 (child), there are two slices:

Slice 1: 100
Slice 2: 100

Slice 1 of E1 resolves the child for the slice 1 time period. F1 is sliced because, as a supporting element child, it resolves for each parent's slice.

Note:

If a supporting element is populated through an array, bracket, or a formula, then that array, bracket or formula element must be on the same list of elements to slice as the parent. (Define the list of elements to slice using the Element List grid on the Segmentation Event Definition page described in this topic.)

System Generated Warning Messages

During the pay calculation, the system issues a warning message in the following situations if the child element is a primary element and its slice dates don't match the parent's slice dates:

Parent is sliced. Child isn't sliced (see Case 1).
Parent is sliced. Child is sliced. The slice dates of the parent don't match the slice dates of the child (see Cases 3, 4, and 5).
Parent isn't sliced. Child is sliced (see Case 6).

If the child element is an accumulator, a warning message is issued whenever the accumulator's slice dates don't match the parent's slice dates.

Messages are displayed in the Payee Messages component.