Manage Labor Costs

Labor distribution accountants can search and manage labor costs and their distributions using the Manage Labor Costs page. Labor costs generated from labor distributions are available in the Adjustment Controls work area once they're successfully distributed.

Use the Manage Labor Costs page to:

• Filter costs that have distributions by using a combination of batch name, status, pay period, project number, business unit, person name, pay element, or award number.

  Note:

  • You can retrieve all project and nonproject based distributions using a combination of the award number and person name filters.
  • You can use the Shift key to select multiple payroll costs from the search results.
• Analyze errors resulting from the Import Payroll Costs process and delete payroll costs that are in a status of Error, if required.

• View a static analytical graph for a quick reference to the latest 3 pay periods that have errors in distributions, and the total amount and count of errors.

• Find the root cause of one ore more errors by using the search filters.

• Resolve the root cause and reprocess one or more labor costs using the Process Costs option. You can also delete payroll cost that are in a status of Error.

  Note: When you update and successfully reprocess a payroll cost distribution that contained errors, the application deletes the original erroneous records, because they're no longer needed.

• Adjust a successfully processed distribution using the Process Costs option if the distribution rules associated with the payroll costs have changed.

Page Components

The Manage Labor Costs page comprises the following components:

• Analytic: This is a static graph that reflects the count and amount of total errors as well as the last three pay periods.
• Search: Use one or more of the listed filter criteria to search for labor costs.
• Labor Costs: Lists details associated with labor costs that meet your search criteria. Select a labor cost to view details associated with its distribution rules.
• Distribution Rules: Displays attributes associated with each distribution rule associated with a labor cost. Here are some of the key attributes that appear in this view:
  • Transaction Number: Use the transaction number associated with a distribution rule record to look up the expenditure and see the resulting accounting.
  • Labor Schedule Attributes: Lists all the attributes from the labor schedule version and distribution rule that created the expenditure.
  • Differential: Indicates whether the distribution was generated to make up the difference to total 100%.
  • Line: Identifies the distribution line number. If the distribution line is a differential, this value is listed as -1 to differentiate it from lines that were defined on the labor schedule.

The Labor Distribution Costs Management Matrix

Here's a table that lists the actions you can perform on labor costs in different scenarios across multiple pages.

Labor Cost (Status)	Manage Labor Costs page	Manage Project Costs page	Period Close Exceptions report
Project Cost (Error)	View errors Delete payroll costs in a status of Error Process costs	NA	NA
Non-Project Cost (Error)	View errors Delete payroll costs in status of Error Process costs	NA	NA
Project Cost (Success)	View results Process costs (reversal and reimport of parent labor cost)	View project cost details Perform adjustments* except for: Split Transfer Split and transfer Reversal	View pending transactions until the Create Accounting process is completed for these project costs
Non-Project Cost (Success)	View results Process costs (reversal and reimport of parent labor cost)	Not available (Available in the Subledger Accounting work area)	NA

* These adjustments are not allowed in the Manage Project Costs page because the source labor costs could be redistributed in Labor Distribution, causing the costs to get reversed in different sources. Resolving issues of labor costs at the source is recommended.

Resolve Errors in Labor Costs

Use the Manage Labor Costs page in the Labor Distribution work area to review and resolve errors associated with imported and distributed costs. You can evaluate errors and perform root cause analysis to determine the appropriate resolution. After resolving the cause, select one or more records and process the costs. For larger volume of errors, fix the root cause and run the Import Payroll Costs process with identified parameters.

Note: If any of the distributions has errors, the labor cost will be in a status of error. This ensures full distribution of the labor cost.

Adjust Labor Costs

You can adjust labor costs that succeed in distribution. Create new labor schedules as required and select one or more records and process the costs again, generating reversing entries and new distributions.

Retrieving Data for Analysis

There are two options for retrieving labor distribution data for analysis:

• Use the Labor Distribution subject area in Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence (OTBI).
• Use a Microsoft Excel-based utility to retrieve data.