Process Flow of Time & Labor

PeopleSoft Adoption Roadmap

Oracle and PeopleSoft Development Announce the General Availability of PeopleTools 8.53 [links fixed]

This latest release of PeopleSoft PeopleTools provides a new level of usability and productivity within PeopleSoft applications and enables PeopleSoft customers to manage their total cost of ownership for PeopleSoft applications. While PeopleTools 8.53 is the enablement platform for the next planned release of PeopleSoft applications (release 9.2) it also delivers value to customers with existing PeopleSoft deployments. This release fundamentally improves our applications at many levels. The user experience is on par with or better than other applications on the market today. We've also introduced important improvements in how customers deploy, scale, and update our applications with features like virtualization and the PeopleSoft Update Manager (PUM).

Here are some of the major improvements in this release:

• Oracle’s Secure Enterprise Search – Provides secure, free-text search within PeopleSoft applications across multiple objects and multiple applications for a more streamlined search-driven navigation approach.
• Related Actions – Enables end users to take relevant actions on objects within the context of transactions rather than using lengthy traditional menu paths.
• Activity Guides – Provides for the deployment of guided business processes, which facilitate a variety of activities from self-service to administration.
• Pivot Grids – Offers self-service, real-time, multi-dimensional analytics embedded into PeopleSoft applications providing end users with the actionable information needed to make decisions.
• WorkCenters – Consolidates user tasks, exceptions, alerts, links, reports, and queries into a single, secure, role based “command center” that can be personalized and configured by end users for increased productivity.
• Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) – Improves use and support of CSS and enables customers to easily configure their PeopleSoft system to reflect organizational branding (e.g. color, graphics, etc.).
• Oracle Private Cloud Deployments of PeopleSoft – Enables multiple PeopleSoft application instances to be consolidated on Oracle Exalogic, providing high capacity and performance, dynamic scaling and provisioning using Oracle Virtualization.  This also dramatically improves system management, patching, and maintenance.  All of this reduces total cost of ownership.
• Secure by Default - As part of Oracle Secure by Default initiative, PeopleTools 8.53 will request passwords for delivered accounts necessary for system initialization and disabling other sample accounts. We will also be delivering a salted SHA-1 hash for PeopleSoft passwords. The salted SHA-1 hash enhancement will not affect upgrades.

Early testing with this release has already generated enthusiastic reviews, and we have had positive feedback from customers at conferences and corporate visits.  We look forward to similar favorable responses as more customers upgrade.
There is much more in this important release.  Please see the PeopleTools 8.53 Release Notes, available on My Oracle Support.
Documentation and training is also available here:
PeopleTools 8.53 Documentation Home page
PeopleTools 8.53 Installation Guides
PeopleTools 8.53 Upgrade Home page

Federal Tax Changes for 2013

There is much recent discussion of the 'fiscal cliff'.   Will the Bush tax rates expire as of 12/31 or will Congress achieve a compromise?  Either way, what will PeopleSoft provide for 2013 withholding and OASDI employee tax rates in the interim?
News of legislation passing one or both houses of Congress and getting signed into law isn’t enough by itself for us to deliver tax table changes.  The appropriate government agency has to turn enacted legislation into regulations and employer instructions before we can determine what product modifications might be required.  For example, Congress might pass and the President might sign legislation making all sorts of tax changes, but until the IRS turns it into actual employer withholding changes, there’s nothing we can provide.

It’s the same situation if the clock runs down to December 31 and Congress does nothing which, in turn, may trigger numerous tax increases.  Until the IRS actually issues new employer withholding calculation instructions for 2013, there is nothing we can deliver to customers in response to Congress having decided to do nothing.

What is the PeopleSoft position?
Withholding tables. Income tax rates are scheduled to increase on January 1, if Congress does not act before then to keep the rates at the current levels. It's unclear whether the IRS will release the 2013 withholding tables without congressional action.

PeopleSoft Payroll for North America position:  We will leave 2012 U.S. withholding tax calculation values in place until the IRS publishes guidance/instructions for wages paid on or after 1/1/2013.

Supplemental wage withholding rates. The withholding rate on supplemental wages in excess of $1 million during a calendar year will increase from 35% to $39.6% on Jan. 1, 2013, if Congress does not act before then to keep the income tax rates at current levels. The supplemental wage withholding rate will increase from 25% to 28% on supplemental wages of $1 million or less in a calendar year if Congress does not act to keep the income tax rates at current levels.

PeopleSoft Payroll for North America position:  We will leave 2012 U.S. supplemental withholding tax rates in place until the IRS publishes guidance/instructions for wages paid on or after 1/1/2013.

Social Security payroll tax cut. The “payroll tax cut” has temporarily lowered the Social Security withholding tax rate on wages earned by employees in 2011 and 2012 from 6.2% to 4.2%. Currently, there is no legislation in Congress that would extend the payroll tax cut beyond Dec. 31, 2012, but there has been some recent talk in Washington about either extending the cut or providing some other payroll tax stimulus.

PeopleSoft Payroll for North America position:  In Tax Update 12-F we are changing the employee Social Security tax rate back to 6.2% based on information currently on the Social Security website, and in the absence of any pending Congressional action to extend the payroll tax cut.

Should Congress take action to extend the payroll tax cut (or make some other modification to the 2013 employee Social Security tax rate) after Tax Update 12-F has already been delivered to customers, we can (a) provide  customers instructions on how to manually adjust the previously-delivered 1/1/2013 table entry to re-instate the payroll tax cut, and, depending on the timing, (b) deliver the updated table entry in the late December special posting and in Tax Update 13-A.

How to process Person of Interest(POI) in NA Payroll?

Here's how you need to setup POI for paying through NA Payroll :

POI – “Pension” (Pension Administration) or “Other Payee” (used for retirees) should be in a Company that has the Tax Reporting Type of 1099 on the Company Table.
POI – “Student Refund”- must be in a Company that has the Tax Reporting Type of Non-Employees or None on the Company Table. No tax filing will be done for this type.
Not all POI are allowed to be paid. only below POI types can be paid:

Pension Payee – Is used for Pension Employees who use our Pension Administration System.
Other Payee – One such usage is for use for Retirees who do not use our Pension Administration system.
Student Refund – Is used for Student Refunds.
so ..

If an employee is person type "EMP" he MUST be in a W-2 or W-2PR company. If they are retirees in a 1099-R company, they must be a person type of "POI".
and
For POI to work properly in North American Payroll,you must be at least on Tax Update 06C and HR bundle #8.

Is there any way to set up a new POI type to use for Ben Admin processing or is this limited to certain types of POI's like the Payroll question was?

The biggest difference in 9.0 is that a CWR cannot be processed using Benefits Administration and one of the POI types can. As a CWR, you can set them up using Base Benefits, but if you try to set the Benefits System to Ben Admin you will get an error. In 9.0, (perhaps this is also in 8.9 now) there is a POI Type of Other-Payee which originally was intended to allow a Person in this POI type to be paid from Payroll for North America. Since then, this POI Type has been "enhanced" by Oracle to allow processing by Benefits Administration as well (there is a "fix" posted on CC for it).

The initial requirement here was to move them out of the employee population but still allow them to be processed for Benefits purposes using Ben Admin. CWR did not meet that need, but the POI did.

As to the statement about adding "whatever you want for POI's", in the Red Paper released by Oracle for v8.9 Person Model there is a caution about creating new POI types that require a Job record as this may require the need to modify PeopleCode or Batch processes. The perfect example of that is the "fix" delivered to allow the Other-Payee type to work with Ben Admin. In that fix, you will see that PeopleCode was modified to allow this to work.


**`PeopleSoft Enterprise Payroll for North America does not process payroll for contingent workers.
CWR - Contingent Worker:
A person who provides services to the organization and who does not have a legal employee relationship with the organization.
The relationship of a person who provides services to another entity under terms specified in a contract on a non-permanent basis. Contingent workers include independent contractors, temporary workers, and leased workers. The exact definition of what defines a contingent worker is left to the customer since each country has different rules. You will want to make the determination based on your regulatory requirements. Each Contingent Worker's relationship must have a distinct EMPL_RCD.

The employee and contingent worker relationships represent your workforce and are the main focus of the business processes in PeopleSoft. Most of the processes that are designed for employees are also available for contingent workers with the following exceptions:

Payroll for North America
Plan Salary
Plan Careers and Successions
Variable Compensation

**Just a note - although oracle says that you cannot pay contingent workers through payroll for north America, it is in fact possible. The system will not generate a paysheet for them, but you can override and manually create a paysheet.

For that reason it is always recommended that you set the pay system to other for CWRs. In addition to that, setting the pay system will also eliminate some of the pay specific fields that are required, like paygroup. this will ensure that you do not need to setup dummy config for them.

What's new in PeopleTools 8.52:

What's new in PeopleTools 8.52 - Part 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAckEkl339k&feature=related

 

What's new in PeopleTools 8.52 - Part 2 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdjI53LzZw0&feature=relmfu 

 

PeopleSoft 9.2 Release features

PeopleSoft Secure Enterprise Search:

Human Resource applications contain a wealth of data, but finding the information needed quickly can be difficult. Oracle Secure Enterprise Search (SES) enables keyword and contextual searching so users can find the right information quickly. Oracle SES search capabilities were initially available as part of the continuous delivery model on the PeopleSoft HCM and ELM 9.1 releases, and we have continued to expand and enhance these capabilities in the PeopleSoft HCM and ELM 9.2 releases.

With PeopleSoft Secure Enterprise Search integrated into HCM and ELM, users can interact with the application in a new way. From one keyword search entry field at the application level, users are able to search for and further refine their results to quickly pinpoint the information they need. Actions related to the search results are available with one click, enabling business processes to begin directly from the search results without requiring menu navigation. This functionality increases productivity by significantly reducing the steps needed to complete many business processes. The results returned and any actions available to the user are based on their access level, keeping your data secure.

At the component level, keyword searching is enabled for some components to enhance the current search capabilities for Administrators.

PeopleSoft Update Manager:

PeopleSoft Update Manager provides the tools a customer needs to reduce time, effort, and the cost of PeopleSoft application maintenance. On a regular schedule, PeopleSoft will deliver the most current PeopleSoft applications code and objects in the form of a PeopleSoft Update Image on a Virtual Machine. PeopleSoft Update Manager utilizes familiar tools like Change Assistant and Change Packager and provides a way for customers to select what they want to patch to their environment. With PeopleSoft Update Manager:
• Your environment does not have to be current on maintenance.
• You can select a single fix and have the system automatically find the needed prerequisites to go with that fix.
• You can “get current” on fixes by having the system generate a custom change package that suits the current state of your environment.
  
Payroll for North America - Paycheck Modeling:

Payroll for North America is proud to introduce Paycheck Modeling. The goal of Paycheck Modeling is to empower the employee with the ability to make payroll related decisions without calling the Payroll Department or HelpDesk. The end result is to increase employee satisfaction while reducing the workload of the Payroll Department.

Through employee self service, Paycheck Modeling will be used to calculate “what if” situations. There are many reasons why an employee may want to use Paycheck Modeling. Some of those reasons are:
•  The employee is due a Bonus or a Commission and would like to estimate the net take home pay.
•  The employee received a large IRS refund and would like to adjust their withholding status accordingly and estimate the net take home pay.
•  The employee would like to modify various benefit costs to determine net take home pay during Open Enrollment or a Life Event change.

Paycheck Modeling will enable employees to simulate changes to their paycheck without updating the production tables. Paycheck Modeling will be offered for Payroll for North America US employees, and Payroll Administrators and/or PeopleSoft HR HelpDesk agents. The Payroll Administrator will have the ability to control which pay groups will have access to this feature, when they are allowed to use it, and what earnings and deductions the employees will be able to add to their model check.

Employee’s using Paycheck Modeling will be provided an intuitive user interface, using a new guided navigation in PeopleSoft. The employee will be required to agree with the “Usage Terms and Conditions” before they are allowed into the Paycheck Modeler. This customer-configurable text will clearly articulate to the employee that using the Paycheck Modeling functionality is an estimate, not an actual paycheck calculation.

Paycheck Modeling will pull in the employee’s earnings based on their standard hours and any Additional Pay for a selected job. The pay rate as of the last confirmed paycheck will be used and the deductions used will be ones that are scheduled for the employee in the next open calendar.
The employee will be able to make changes to their model check by editing or clearing the standard earnings/deductions amounts shown and by adding additional earnings/deductions. Employees will also be able to model their check with a new tax withholding status for those tax jurisdictions that allow changes.

The resulting Model Check will be displayed in an easy to understand user interface that allows the employee to get the high level results as well as drill down into the details. Employees will also be able to print the modeled check and/or print the changes made. The printed modeled check will not contain the employee name, social security number or employee id and will be watermarked to assure the printed version cannot be used to misrepresent a real paycheck.



Absence Management:
 
Every competitive organization needs a reliable absence management system to determine absence accruals, forecast eligibility for past, current, and future absence events, and properly determine payment of absences. Oracle’s PeopleSoft Absence Management provides a superior ownership experience by delivering a highly configurable and integrated solution for all of your global absence management needs.
PeopleSoft Absence Management 9.2 will deliver enhancements in these areas:
• Integration with Microsoft Outlook Calendar
• HTML Email Collaboration for Approvals 

Global Payroll Core:
 
Oracle’s PeopleSoft Global Payroll is a state-of-the-art, internet-based payroll solution that is built on a truly global architecture. The benefits of this architecture include streamlined application maintenance with one core product and a single rules-based engine and easy deployment and management across borders with consolidated information.
PeopleSoft Global Payroll Core 9.2 will deliver enhancements in these areas:
• Global Payroll and Absence Monitor
• Generic Banking Preparation Framework

Global Payroll and Absence Monitor
 
Global Payroll is a rules-based product. All payroll processes, calculations, and results are determined by a set of rules that you can easily build. The core engine contains no payroll rules, no preset sequence, and no tax algorithms. Instead, the rules are stored in tables, so no program modifications are required to tailor the solution to your requirements.

Global Payroll Core 9.2 will be delivering the Global Payroll and Absence Monitor to help you better administer and monitor Payroll and Absence calculations. The solution will provide a single access point for processing statistics, indicating quickly when a transaction may have gone wrong during the different stages of the Absence and Payroll process.

With the Payroll and Absence Monitor, organizations will be able to set their own thresholds in order to trigger visual alerts, helping determine whether the problem is related to a processing condition, such as a payee suspended, cancelled or due to a wrong calculation on their Absence accruals or their Gross and/or Net calculations. Administrators will be able to see a summarized picture of the entire Payroll and Absence process and have the ability to drill down to Pay Group/Calendar Results at the Department level, in order to help determine the source of the problem rather than having to check into multiple components, pages and search records. This single, one-stop-shop will increase the efficiency of the Payroll and Absence Administration processes.

Generic Banking Preparation Framework:

The banking preparation framework delivered in 9.1 to manage SEPA payments will be enhanced for release 9.2 to handle all the current layouts supported in the PeopleSoft FSCM Financial Gateway. This enables organizations with multi country operations to use the PeopleSoft Financial Gateway as a one-stop-shop to dispatch all of their payments.

Organizations will be able to select any banking layout in the Banking Preparation Definition transaction and will not be limited to the SEPA format. The setup will be very flexible and generic, enabling any country to set up its own banking process.

With the new enhancements, the Financial Gateway will send a message to the HCM database when an error occurs that displays the status in the Results by Calendar Group component of Global Payroll. This will streamline the maintenance of the Financial Gateway Payment Preparation table. Users will be able to view more information in the Payments transactions page through multiple tabs and will be able to review errors from Financial Gateway in the Errors tab.

Enhanced Integration in Between HCM Global Payroll and FSCM Financial Gateway
Financial Gateway Source Payment page will be embedded in the HCM database by using PeopleTools Related Content technology. This feature will provide users with the ability to check Payment Status details instantly within Global Payroll without requiring Administrators to log in and out of multiple databases or utilizing a Portal solution.