Elements, Balances, and Formulas for the US

The Define Payroll task list contains the tasks required for creating payroll elements for compensation and HR management. Use this task list when creating earnings, deductions, and other payroll data for reporting, compensation and benefits calculations, or transferring data to a third-party payroll provider.

If you're processing payroll, use the Define Payroll task list instead. This task list includes additional tasks required to set up payroll processing.

Before You Begin

The tasks in the Define Payroll task list require baseline organization, application, and tax configuration. Before you start the required payroll tasks, complete these tasks first.

Task	How you use it	Why it's important
Legal Entities	Create payroll statutory units (PSUs).	A PSU is a legal entity that's responsible for paying workers, including the payment of employee and employer payroll taxes. A PSU can pay and report on payroll taxes on behalf of one or many legal entities, depending on the structure of your enterprise. For further info, see Define Legal Entities for the US in the Help Center.
Legal Entity HCM Information	Associate a legislative data group (LDG) with each PSU.	As above.
Features by Country or Territory	Select Payroll Interface as the extension if you're extracting HR data to send to a third-party payroll provider.	Ensures you use the appropriate element templates to create earnings. For further info, see Country Extension Options for the US in the Help Center.
Load Geographies for US	Installs the monthly geography updates provided by Vertex.	Ensures you have the latest geography info for payroll processing. For further info, see Manage Geography Info for the US in the Help Center.
Load Payroll Tax Information for US	Installs the monthly tax updates provided by Vertex.	Ensures you have the latest tax info for payroll processing. For further info, see the Load Payroll Tax Info for the US topic in the Help Center.

Consolidation Groups Task

You must have at least one consolidation group for each LDG where you create elements. Payroll definitions require a consolidation group.

For further info, see Consolidation Groups for the US in the Help Center.

Elements Task

Use elements to communicate payment and distribution info to payroll applications from these source applications.

For further info, see Elements for the US in the Help Center.

Application	How you use the elements	What they do
Oracle Fusion Compensation	Earnings and deduction elements, such as bonuses, overtime earnings, and voluntary deductions	These elements are required for compensation plans and base pay, no matter which HR and payroll applications you're using.
Oracle Fusion Benefits	Deduction elements to record activity rate calculation results, such as: Employee contributions and employer costs for medical plans Flex credits for flex benefits	These elements are required if you use element entries to communicate benefits rate info to any third-party payroll application. Note: When defining these elements, you must select Payroll Relationship as the employment level.
Oracle Fusion Time and Labor	Earnings elements with input value of Hours Overtime calculations	These elements are required if you pay worked time based on time card entries.
Oracle Fusion Absence Management	Earnings elements with input value of Hours	These elements are required if you process absence payments and book employer liability of accrual balances through Global Payroll or Global Payroll Interface.

Payroll Definitions Task

Employees' assignments include their assigned payrolls. The payroll definition provides the payroll period frequency and end dates, which the following applications use for calculations.

For further info, see Payroll Definitions for the US in the Help Center.

Application	Is a payroll definition required?	How the definition is used
Global Payroll Interface	Yes	N/A
Compensation	Yes	N/A
Benefits	Optional	Required to use the payroll period frequency to calculate communicated rates or values passed to payroll.
Time and Labor	Optional	Required to pass time entries to payroll calculation cards for payroll processing or for extract to a third-party payroll application.
Absence Management	Optional	Required to pass absence entries: To payroll calculation cards for payroll processing For extract to a third-party payroll application

Other Payroll-Related Tasks

Your implementation might require these other tasks in the Define Payroll task list.

Task name	How you use it
Balance Definitions	Payroll balances show the accumulation of values over time. Payroll processes, such as Calculate Payroll and Calculate Gross Earnings, update the balance values. The values can be an amount, hours, or any other numeric value. Most of the balances you require are predefined, and additional balances are automatically created when you create elements. You can edit these balance definitions or create additional definitions for calculations or reporting.
Element Classifications	Primary and secondary element classifications are predefined.
Fast Formulas	You can write formulas for a number of uses, including: Validating user entries into element input values Configuring compensation, benefit, and accrual plan rules For further info, see the following on My Oracle Support. Oracle Cloud Absence Management: Fast Formula Reference Guide for Release 12 and Later (2065671.1) Oracle Cloud Benefits: Benefits Fast Formula Reference Guide for Oracle Fusion Benefits (1456985.1) Oracle Cloud Time and Labor: Time and Labor Fast Formula Reference Guide (1990057.1)
Organization Payment Methods	Organization payment methods define the combination of payment type and currency to use for payments to employees or external parties. If you want to record personal payment methods for your employees, you must create organization payment methods and associate them with your payroll definitions.