Monday, 3 November 2014

Peoplesoft Paycheck Modeler

Paycheck modeler is a new Self service feature in Peoplesfot HCM 9.2. Employees can use Paycheck Modeler to simulate their own paychecks through a self-service web application, investigate their own what-if scenarios, and answer most of their own questions without having to call your payroll department.
 It enables employees to get the answers for their pay check related queries accurately and quickly with out contacting the payroll administrator. Employees can use the Paycheck modeller to calculate the effective overtime bonuses, or benefit changes.

Business Benefits:
  • It enables employees to take payroll related decisions without calling the payroll department.
  • The Paycheck modeler allows an employee to perform what-if scenarios on their pay based upon the last confirmed regular on-cycle payroll.
  • When an employee is working on large amounts of irregular overtime and want to estimate a check with the overtime pay included, paycheck modeler is helpful. Paycheck Modeler is easy to use and has many configurable features that allow the Payroll Administrator to manage what employees’ see, who can access the modeler and even how often an employee can execute the modeler in one day.
  •  To protect the live payroll production data from impact, paycheck modeling data is stored in temporary work tables. Model paycheck results are automatically cleared when the user exits the paycheck modeling component, and modeling history is not retained for future access.
  • To prevent modeled checks from being offered as real paychecks or proof of pay, and to protect personal and pay information, a model check printout contains no data that identifies either the employee or the company and the watermark says Estimate.
  •  Employees can view a pie chart of the results by using Paycheck modeler, also the totals and details of their modelled earnings, taxes and deductions.
  • Employees can print a Paycheck Modeling Audit report to view the changes made this session


The following example   will  show how we can  update  the tax withholding status from Single to married will reflect on his/her paycheck who has just got married.
Employee will need to Navigate to the following link in the PIA to understand and see how exactly the changes will work after the modifications are carried out

Navigation: Main Menu -> Self Service -> Payroll and Compensation -> Paycheck modeler.

     Step 1:Select the check box “Yes I have reviewed and agree to the terms and conditions above”.


Step2: The earning step shows all the standard earnings of the employee from Job record and picks up the pay rate based upon the last confirmed paycheck. The earnings step allows to add/edit/delete any earnings.
Note:- The value of Earnings should have a value that is greater than zero to move on to define the deductions 


Step 3: The deduction step shows all the standard deductions. It works same as earnings. Employee can add/edit/update the deductions. Garnishments are special consideration here, as employee is not allowed to update the garnishments but can set it to zero.


Step4: Employee’s tax information can be updated in the tax step, state and local taxes are set up, based on the current tax information. In this example the employee wants to update the tax withholding status from Single to Married. By clicking on the Edit Icon for the federal tax as shown in the screen shot. Same should be updated in both the state and local tax information.






Step5: Calculate step calculates the model check based on the changes made. Once the employee has made changes, the “Calculate My Modeled Check” button is available on the Paycheck Modeler – Calculate page. The Next button remains unavailable until after the user selects the Calculate My Modeled Check button. When the modeled check is calculated, a message appears and the Next button becomes available.

Step6: The mock paycheck will now appear on the Paycheck Modeler, the results are based on the changes that are done by the employee in the previous 5 steps. Related Actions allow to navigate to other pages. Related actions- drill down the related actions and have a screen shot that covers the related actions along with the PIE Chart to clearly showcase the actions as well.


Step7: The Print My Modeled Check option generates a model of the paycheck with new changes, which doesn’t show any details of the employee such as name or EmplId so that the employee cannot use it for any other purpose.
This is how the output looks when the employee clicks on Print My modeled check displayed.

This is the output displayed to the employee on clicking Print My Changes button.


Limitations:


 Paycheck modeler is available for North American Payroll only and currently is only available to US employees.

Author,
Shubha Rohit
Kovaion -Peoplesoft Consulting Practice

Thursday, 16 October 2014

PeopleSoft Interwindow Communication

What is Interwindow Communication?

     Interwindow Communication (IWC) is a frame to frame messaging event  which enables field change as  they occur in the same browser window e.g. communication between different pages.     IWC can work in the same pagelet or in different pagelets.Pagelet can work as subscriber or publisher for some other pagelet.


Business Benefits
  •  Allow pagelets to pagelet interaction with each other  in Homepage/Dashboard,WorkCenter and Pivot Grid.
  • No Application designer changes involved
  •   A business analyst  can specify the fields required for using as subscriber or published
  •    Not dependent on Related Content, Workcenter or Integration Broker. 
    Sample Business Scenarios
  •      Recruiters can create IWC pagelets for applicants - like updating the candidate status will immediately reflect in the dashboard.
  •      Managers can create IWC pagelets for employees. There will be no need to change the values  again  and again in different pagelets, for viewing employee data like employee absence  request will immediately update the balances and can be seen on the dashboard.
     Development Pre Requisites:
  •      Pagelets should be registered in the current portal system.
  •      Pivot grids should be published as pagelets.
  •      Get the HTML Field Name for Publishing and subscribing field.
           As can be seen in the figure below the HTML Field Name is: RECRUITER_ID.


      Users can manually define the HTML field name of PeopleSoft fields in Page Field Edit Box Properties- General Tab


      Configuring IWC for Workcenter/Homepage/Dashboard

    1.1)     Configure IWC for publishing message.
                  Go to IWC Configuration Page.
                  Navigation: Main Menu>Peopletools >Portal>Interwindow Communication
                  Or alternate way to access IWC page is
                  Navigation: Main Menu>Portal>Structure and Content
                  


       HTML Field name should be same as what we got during inspect element.

1.2)   Configure IWC for Subscribing   message


     Configuring Workcenter for Pivot Grids

   2.1)  Configuring IWC for publishing pivot grids
            Navigation: Main Menu>Peopletools >Portal>Interwindow Communication
            Add a new value for pivot grid pagelet.



 2.2)   Configuring IWC for subscribing pivot grids
          Navigation: Main Menu>Peopletools >Portal>Interwindow Communication
          Add a new value for pivot grid pagelet.


       IWC is ready for test.
              
        Above diagram shows that based on the filter values selected in Frame: Kovaion IWC Test, Pivot      grid got updated in Frame: IWC Test
     
    
       Above diagram shows that based on the value selected in frame: Kovaion Interwindow Comm1, grid   in the second frame: Kovaion Interwindow Comm2 got populated with Job ID details.

      Best Practices:
  •      While creating PS query with prompts, always provide unique text id.
  •      Provide page field name in edit box properties will make the work easier while configuring IWC.

       Limitations:
  •     A subscribing pagelet should be completely loaded before it consumes a publishing message
  •     Works for fields at level zero only.

Author,
Madhur Mohini
Kovaion -Peoplesoft Consulting Practice