Compensation Items and Sources

Compensation items are the lowest level of compensation detail in the total compensation statement. Map each item to the specific source from which the statement retrieves compensation information. Items can hold monetary, nonmonetary, date, or text values. You can use them across statement definitions.

This topic explains the following significant aspects of compensation items:

• Source type

• Type of compensation and unit of measure

• Estimated values

• Rounding

• Proration

• Compensation item testers

• Relationship in the statement

Source Type

Using the Manage Compensation Items task, you map compensation items to the source of the compensation to retrieve the compensation information. This table describes the source types and special data entry requirements for each.

Source Type	Description	Additional Data Entry Requirements
Benefit Balance	Compensation such as data obtained from a legacy compensation application entered as a one-time benefit balance.	Type of Compensation
Calculated Item	Create a calculation to define the value of an item and display it as descriptive text.	Item Value, Operation, Fixed Number
Element Entry	Compensation such as salary and bonus earnings retrieved from element entry whose pay period end dates fall within the statement period.	Legislative Data Group, Payroll Element, and Input Value
External Data	Compensation such as data internal to the organization from another system, or data from a third party supplier.	Record Type, Column, and Type of Compensation.
Formula	Create a formula to retrieve compensation information that isn't stored in the other predefined source types.	Type of Compensation, nonmonetary Unit of Measure, Rounding Rule, and Currency. (Formula unit or currency overrides item definition)
Payroll Balance	Compensation such as commissions or company-paid taxes retrieved from payroll balance records. We support these payroll balance dimensions: Relationship Period to Date Relationship Year to Date Term Period to Date Term Year to Date Assignment Period to Date Assignment Year to Date Fiscal Year to Date Inception to Date Rolling 12 Months	Legislative Data Group
Salary	Compensation such as overall salaries.	Salary Basis, or all Salary Basis from a particular Legislative Data Group, or All Salaries
Salary Rates	Salary amount based on incremental components	Base Salary or Allowances or Other
Salary Simple Components	Salary amount based on standard components	Base Salary or Allowances or Other

Compensation Type and Unit of Measure

The compensation item inherits from the source:

• Default type of compensation, such as monetary or nonmonetary

• Monetary currency

• Nonmonetary unit of measure (UOM)

In some cases you can override the default compensation type and nonmonetary UOM when defining the item.

• If a formula that retrieves compensation also specifies currency or nonmonetary unit of measure, the formula configuration overrides the currency or unit selections in the item definition.

• The currency defined in the benefit balance overrides the currency on the item definition.

Estimated Values

For each item, you can select the Estimated amount option to indicate that this compensation isn't the actual amount paid. In the statement definition, you can specify whether to display the estimated amount indicator for amounts designated as estimated.

Rounding

You can specify how to round nonmonetary amounts.

Proration

You can control whether proration occurs for element entry style compensation items. You can enable proration or not for salary, and also enable it for other element entries. Use the Allow Proration radio buttons on the compensation item when the source type is Element Entry and Type of Compensation is Monetary. We recommend that you always select Yes for any element entries linked to a salary basis.

Compensation Item Testers

Use the Test buttons to verify that the results are what you expect before you generate the statements.

Items in the Statement Hierarchy

You can't add items to statement definitions directly. To include them on statements, you must add items to a compensation category.