What's new: Payroll features

Required

Optional. You might not use these features, depending on how you run your business.

Stakeholders

Business decision makers

Technical decision makers

Implementation team members

Independent software vendors (ISVs)/developers

Partners

Benefit

Benefit accrual

Benefit accrual plans for sick leave and paid time off can be set up in forms that you open from the Setupgroup on the Payroll area page.

Imputed earning

Fringe benefit

An imputed earning is now a fringe benefit that workers are taxed on, such as life insurance, even though the workers do not receive an increase in pay.

Set up deductions to process garnishments (such as child support orders) and tax levies.

Not available.

Set up garnishments and tax levies by using the same forms and controls that you use to set up benefits.

Data entry is simplified.

Correctly calculate deductions for one or more garnishments or tax levies.

Not available.

Specify the amount or percentage of wages to deduct, and the lifetime limit for the garnishment, if applicable. You can also specify the order in which deductions are calculated and the maximum percentage of the base wages that can be deducted.

Net pay is calculated correctly.

Use position settings to control how earnings are generated.

Not available.

Specify the legal entity that the position is paid from, and set the typical hours that are worked per year and per pay cycle for the position. You can also select whether to generate pay based on salary or a schedule.

The amount of data entry that is required when workers change positions is reduced, and the risk of payroll errors is minimized.

Set up accounting details, such as financial dimensions and template support, for the position.

Accounting details were set up for the worker.

Assign default values to positions, so that you can control the standard worker settings.

The amount of data entry that is required when workers change positions is reduced, and the risk of errors is minimized.

Use position settings to control how earnings are generated.

Not available.

Specify the legal entity that the position is paid from, and set the typical hours that are worked per year and per pay cycle for the position. You can also select whether to generate pay based on salary or a schedule.

The amount of data entry that is required when workers change positions is reduced, and the risk of payroll errors is minimized.

Set up accounting details, such as financial dimensions and template support, for the position.

Accounting details were set up for the worker.

Automatically assign default values to workers’ positions, so that you can control the standard worker settings.

The amount of data entry that is required when workers change positions is reduced, and the risk of errors is minimized.

Keep a detailed audit history of all changes that are made to workers’ benefit accrual balances.

Balances could be updated, but no records were kept of when changes were made and who made them.

Audit records are created for every change in the balance of an accrual plan, regardless of whether the changes are made manually or as part of an automated process.

The integrity of benefit accrual data is better protected.

Configure multiple earning codes to deduct the balances of a plan.

A single earning code was used for each benefit accrual plan.

You can set up as many earning codes as you require for each benefit accrual plan. For example, you could use separate earning codes for positions in different legal entities.

You have more flexibility when you account for benefit accrual plans.

Automatically generate earnings.

Earnings were generated based on a set of working days in a week.

Generate earnings based on either salary or a schedule.

Most manual entry is eliminated, and the risk of errors is reduced.

Release earnings for payment processing.

Not available.

Releasing earnings is a stand-alone procedure that designates the earnings as ready to be processed in a worker payment.

The release procedure validates that the accounting distributions for the earnings are completed.

Track pay statements that are generated as part of a group in a single payroll run.

Not available.

Batch numbers are automatically assigned when you generate pay statements.

Reports and other downstream processes can be run on the same set of pay statements.

Specify accounting templates and dimension values for earning codes.

Not available.

Accounting templates and dimensions are linked to earning codes. Therefore, different earnings can be accounted for differently.

The cost of earnings is distributed to accounting dimensions by using the accounting rules that are specified in the earning code.

Create and assign gross-up earning codes.

Gross-up earnings could be generated, but they were difficult to set up.

Create earning codes that are used to correctly calculate gross-up earnings. The gross-up amount is the amount that is added to the net take-home pay, so that an employee always receives a specified amount.

This process automatically “backs out” tax changes that might be missed if they are performed manually. For example, if a tax bracket changes, and a worker receives a 500.00 car allowance, the worker’s pay is automatically adjusted so that 500.00 is still received after the new tax amount is deducted.

Set up worker bank accounts.

An employee bank account in Payroll was used.

Payroll is integrated with the worker bank account in Human resources, and also with the bank account distributions in Cash and bank management.

The information is set up and maintained in one area, which means there are fewer chances for discrepancies.

Use date-effective settings to maintain worker information that affects payroll status, such as residency and marital status.

Changes to tax-related settings were effective as soon as they were entered. There was no record of previous values for those settings.

You can enter worker information for tax regions and tax codes, and specify the date that the changes take effect.

Data management is simplified, and payroll taxes are calculated correctly.

Enroll workers in the benefits they are eligible for by using the new eligibility policy function in Human resources.

Any worker could be enrolled in any benefit.

Workers can be enrolled in only the benefits that they meet the eligibility requirements for.

The policies that your organization sets for benefit eligibility are enforced fairly, and there is less risk of error.

Submit pay statements to Accounts payable for payment.

A single process was used to submit pay statements to Accounts payable and to post the payments.

Submit pay statements to the payment journal for payment.

Users have more flexibility to submit pay statements and post payments in any order, so that workers can be paid in a timely manner.

Update benefit rates for workers.

You can now mass-update the rates for worker deductions and employer contributions for all workers who are enrolled in a benefit. Workers who have custom rates are flagged and excluded from the mass-update process.

For more information, see ”Update benefit rates” in Benefit setup tasks.

Create and update payroll tax groups.

You can now create and update groups of payroll taxes. Each tax group contains a set of payroll tax codes. You can update all the tax codes in a tax group at the same time. For example, you can change the vendor and main account for every tax code in a tax group at the same time.

Tax groups can also be used in transaction posting definitions. Each tax code can be included in multiple tax groups, but a tax code can be in only one tax group that is enabled for posting definitions.

For more information, see Tax groups (form) 6.2 CU7 and prior and Tax information tasks.

Separate positive pay statements for Payroll bank accounts.

You can now generate a positive pay statement file for your Payroll bank account. You can also configure positive pay for bank accounts that are not Payroll bank accounts, so that you can exclude payroll payments. This change helps make sure that only a Payroll user can generate a positive pay statement for the Payroll bank account.

Automatically calculate regular rate of pay earnings.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) provides the framework for U.S. organizations to pay overtime to workers. One part of FLSA defines the way that the premium portion of overtime pay must be calculated. Failure to calculate the overtime payment correctly can open up the organization and its management team to significant fines and penalties.

By using earning codes that have a rate basis of regular rate of pay to calculate and pay overtime premiums (instead of a standard 1.5x or 2.0x overtime code), the premium calculation will be made according to FLSA rules.

For more information, see Premium earning setup tasks and Generate earnings.

Generate retroactive earnings.

You can now automatically generate retroactive earnings statement lines when a worker receives earnings for past services at a new rate. An example might be an increase in compensation that was agreed on after the worker was already paid.

For more information, see Earning code examples and Generate earnings.

Pay statements with zero earnings

You can now manually generate a pay statement without earnings included. You might do this to update only benefit or tax deductions and contributions. For more information, see Pay statements and the payment generation process.