Managing Off-Cycle Processing

This chapter provides an overview of off-cycle processing, lists common elements, and discusses how to:

Define common values for off-cycle groups.
Correct or reverse absence results.
Process advances.
View results of off-cycle processing.

Understanding Off-Cycle Processing

This section discusses:

Differences between on- and off-cycle runs.
Types of off-cycle transactions.
Features of off-cycle processing.
Steps for entering off-cycle requests.
Processing and postprocessing steps.
Off-cycle background processing.
System elements for developing off-cycle rules.

Differences Between On- and Off-Cycle Absence Runs

On-cycle processing refers to executing regularly scheduled runs. In Absence Management these are recurring runs for which a period, calendar, and calendar group have been predefined. A paygroup with a monthly frequency has twelve regularly scheduled on-cycle absence runs each year.

Off-cycle absence processing refers to processing absences and making corrections to finalized results outside of the normal absence schedule. Off-cycle transactions are typically made to correct prior absence results or to make termination payments that can't wait until the next scheduled on-cycle absence run.

With the exceptions that are explained in this chapter, the concepts that apply to on-cycle processing also apply to off-cycle processing: retroactivity, segmentation, calendars, calendar groups and running calculations. The primary difference between on and off-cycle processing is the way in which you enter instructions for what and whom to process.

See Also

Processing Absences

Types of Off-Cycle Transactions

Absence Management supports two types of off-cycle transactions.

Corrections

These are transactions that correct the results of a finalized absence run. An example is reversing an absence entitlement that was made to a payee in error.
Advances

Advances are the processing of segments before they are normally scheduled, such as the early calculation of absence transactions in order to pay wages due to termination or to process a leave of absence in advance.

Features of Off-Cycle Processing

With off-cycle processing, you can:

Override supporting elements.

For all off-cycle transactions except advances, you can override the values of brackets, dates, duration, formulas, and variables for a given payee and calendar. Advances will take these overrides from the calendar definitions of the calendars being advanced.
Define iterative triggers definitions for modifications.

For all off-cycle transactions, iterative triggers are enabled, such that the addition or change to any data on the off-cycle pages will automatically cause the payee with data changes to be recalculated when the user next runs the calculate phase for the off-cycle calendar group.

Note. The system will not create triggers unless you have set up the proper trigger definitions for each country. The records for which you should create trigger definitions are GP_OFFCYCL_C_VW and GP_OFFCYCL_A_VW These correspond to Corrections and Advances, respectively.

See Setting Up Trigger Definitions.

Steps for Entering Off-Cycle Requests

You can enter multiple off-cycle requests for the same paygroup and target period.

To enter requests for off-cycle transactions:

Create an off-cycle group using the Off Cycle Requests (GP_ABS_OFFCYCLE) component.

An off-cycle group identifies which off-cycle transactions to process and the processing instructions, including who, what, and when to process. It's purpose is similar to a calendar in an on-cycle process, except that you enter specific instructions for each payee. Off-cycle group setup includes two steps:
1. Name the off-cycle group and enter various default instructions for all transactions on the Intro page.
2. For each transaction, enter instructions on the page that's specific to that transaction type.
Create a calendar group for the off-cycle run.

A calendar group for an off-cycle run identifies the off-cycle groups to process together (whereas a calendar group for an on-cycle process identifies the calendars to process together). Use the same page to create all calendar groups, completing the fields that pertain to off-cycle processing.

Note. You can create a calendar group for an off-cycle run directly on the Intro page of the Absence Mgmt Off Cycle Request componenet by clicking the Create Calendar Group button. When you click this button, the system automatically populates the Calendar Group page with the information required to generate the off-cycle calendar group.

See Also

Defining Calendar Groups

Processing and Postprocessing Steps

To process requests for off-cycle transactions:

Initiate the off-cycle run.

Use the same run control page that you use to initiate on-cycle runs. This page, the Payroll/Absence Run Control page, can be accessed by navigating to Global Payroll & Absence Mgmt, Absence and Payroll Processing, Off Cycle, Process Off Cycle. Or the same page can be accessed by navigating to Global Payroll & Absence Mgmt, Absence and Payroll Processing, Calculate Absence and Payroll.

When the system recognizes the entered calendar group as an off-cycle group, it sets the Suspend Active setting to on for the processing phases where it is relevant (Identify and Calculate).
Finalize the run once you're satisfied with the processing results.
Run any and all post-processes, as necessary.

Each post processing step needs to be run with the same sequence as on-cycle.

See Also

Entering Processing Instructions

Off-Cycle Background Processing

With off-cycle processing, the system automatically suspends affected payees from other runs in which they are active so that they can be included in the off-cycle process. (A payee can only be active in one run at a time.)

Here's what the system does when you submit an off-cycle request:

Checks to see if the payee is associated with an open calendar group.
If yes, suspends the payee in the calendar group so that the payee can be calculated immediately in the off-cycle group.

Note. If the Calculation status is set to Frozen, suspends the payee in the off-cycle calendar group.

Transaction processing varies depending on the type of off-cycle requesting being processed.

Corrections

Off-cycle corrections are based on retroactive processing just like the retroactive corrections that take place during on-cycle runs.

A trigger must exist on or before the pay period end date for the calendar being corrected or reversed.
The retroactive method used is based on the type of correction being processed:
- Replacement – Corrective retroactive method is forced.
- Reverse – Replacement – Corrective retroactive methods is forced.
New calendars are created and will be processed. If delta's exist and are to be forwarded, these new off-cycle calendars that are automatically generated will receive these deltas:
- Elements resolved.
- All supporting elements on process lists are resolved.
- Segmentation triggers are ignored.

Advances

For advances, calendar groups are processed with the applicable calendars. Batch processing follows the same logic as on-cycle processing.

System Elements for Developing Off-Cycle Rules

The following table provides information about delivered system elements that are used during off-cycle processing:

System Element	Description	Values
GP TX TYPE	Identifies the transaction type	R (Correction) A (Advances) Blank (on-cycle runs)
OFF CYCLE	Identifies whether calendar is off-cycle or on-cycle.	Y (Yes) = off-cycle calendar. N (No) = on-cycle calendar. (Any run with a defined calendar is considered on-cycle, including semi-regular runs.)
GP CORR TYPE	Identifies the correction type	R Replacement — Normal Retro, W Reversal — Replacement,

Common Elements Used in This Chapter

Limited Element Set	To process only selected elements on the process list, select the element group to process. Use the Element Group component (GP_ELEMENT_GROUP) to define a limited element set. Note. Including an element in a limited element set does not override general eligibility rules. Limited element sets provide an additional filter that can further narrow the elements that get resolved. See Defining Element Groups.
Offcycle Group	Identifies a set of off-cycle transactions to process. The name of an off-cycle group is user defined. You can use any value.
Period Begin Date and Period End Date	Dates the system uses to determine: The period for updating accumulators, for those accumulators that are defined to accumulate based on period begin date or period end date. The element definitions to retrieve during processing, for those elements that use period begin date or period end date as the definition as of date. Corrections inherit these dates from the target calendar; you can override the default dates. Advance payments inherit these dates from the source calendar—the calendar that is being advanced; you cannot override these dates for advances.
Target Period ID	Affects the period for which balance accumulators are updated. The target period provides the default values for the period begin date and period end date for all transaction types except advances. For advances, the target period determines the process begin date and process end date.

Defining Default Values for Off-Cycle Groups

This section provides an overview of off-cycle group setup and discusses how to create an off-cycle group and define its default values.

Understanding Off-Cycle Group Setup

Use the Off Cycle Requests component (GP_OFFYCLE_SETUP) to create an off-cycle group and to define default instructions for the transactions to be processed. On the component's Intro page you enter a description of the group and select the default payment date and payment method for all transactions. After entering instructions on the Intro page, you complete a separate page of the component for each transaction type you intend to process.

If a payee has entries for more than one transaction type, the system processes the correction transactions first, then the advance transactions. To process the transactions in any other order, set up separate off-cycle groups and process the payments in separate runs.

Page Used to Define Default Values for Off-Cycle Transactions

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Intro	GP_OFFCYCLE_INTRO	Global Payroll & Absence Mgmt, Absence and Payroll Processing, Off Cycle, Absence Mgmt Off Cycle Request, Intro	Name an off-cycle group and select the default payment date and method. Also view off-cycle groups, using the following search criteria to retrieve them: paygroup, period ID, off-cycle group, description, processing status, or calendar group.

Defining Common Values for Off-Cycle Transactions

Access the Intro page by entering the paygroup, target period ID, and name for the off-cycle group.

Description

Allows additional, longer text for easy identification by the user (like J.Doe Advances Mon 01.04.04). Compliments the shorter Off Cycle Group field.

Processing Status

Displays Unprocessed, Processing initiated, Processing finalized, or Canceled, depending on the status of the off-cycle absence process. Once processing is finalized, you cannot make changes to the off-cycle group. Canceled appears if a user has canceled the calendar group with which the off-cycle group is associated.

Calendar Group

This value displays after you associate the off-cycle group with a calendar group. The system clears this value if you remove the off-cycle group from the calendar group.

Create Calendar Group

Click to generate a calendar group for the off-cycle group you are defining. When you click this button, the system displays the Calendar Group page pre-populated with the required calendar group information. Click OK to accept the system-defined calendar group.

Note. This button appears on the page only after you save the off-cycle request. After the off-cycle request is associated with a calendar group, the button disappears.

Note. Note that this button enables you to associate a single off-cycle request (group) with a calendar group. If you want to combine multiple off-cycle requests in the same calendar group, you should create the calendar group manually and add the separate off-cycle requests to the calendar group directly on the Calendar Group page.

Correcting or Reversing Absence Results

This section provides an overview of correcting absence results and discusses how to enter instructions to correct absence results.

With its built-in retroactive processing capabilities, Absence Management generally handles corrections as a basic part of regular on-cycle absence runs. With off-cycle processing, you can quickly address the more critical exceptions.

Understanding Absence Result Corrections

There are two types of corrections that can be processed. They are:

Replacement.
Reversal – Replacement.

Example of a Replacement Correction

For a replacement correction, the normal retroactive processing behavior is overruled from the “calendar to correct” forward. While the system still performs cross-validation of retroactive triggers (no method conflict among triggers allowed), other rules are abandoned. With normal retroactive corrections:

The retroactive mode is corrective (the system ignores for processing the retroactive events of the trigger)
No elements are forwarded (the system ignores the retroactive processing set)
All elements are recalculated (the system ignores the retroactive recalculate setting)

Example of a Reversal — Replacement

The off-cycle request for a reversal will force the reversal regardless of whether the underlying data has been changed to reflect the fact that the payee is ineligible or not, meaning:

If the necessary data corrections have already taken place to reflect that the payee should not have been processed, the request for an adjustment or a replacement will have the same effect.
If the necessary data corrections are not made, a subsequent retroactive process will reidentify and recalculate the reversed segment.

For a corrective client this would develop as follows (in terms of balances and target calendar calculations):

No elements will be forwarded (the system ignores the retroactive processing set)
All elements will be recalculated (the system ignores the retroactive recalculate setting)

	1st Trigger				Target Calendar
	January	February	March	April	Off-Cycle
	v2r1	v2r1	v2r1	v2r1
E1 Old	10000.00	10000.00	10000.00	10000.00
E1 New	10000.00	0	10000.00	10000.00	0
Difference		10000.00

Replacement reversals are similar to the standard replacement in that the normal retroactive behavior is overruled from the “calendar to correct” and forward. While the cross-validation of retroactive triggers still occurs (no method conflict among triggers allowed), other rules are abandoned. With replacement reversal corrections:

The retroactive mode is corrective (the system ignores the retroactive events of the trigger for processing)
No elements will be forwarded (the system ignores the retroactive processing set)
All elements will be recalculated (the system ignores the retroactive recalculate setting)

For a corrective client there is no principal difference between reversal – normal retroactive and reversal – forced replacement.

Pages Used to Correct Absence Results

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Corrections	GP_OFFCYCLE_CORR	Global Payroll & Absence Mgmt, Absence and Payroll Processing, Off Cycle, Absence Mgmt Off Cycle Request, Corrections	Enter instructions for processing payroll corrections.
Adjust Absence Balances	GP_PI_MNL_AE	Global Payroll & Absence Mgmt, Payee Data, Adjust Balances, Absences Click the link in the Absence Balance Cal to Correct column on the Associated Data (Links) tab of the Corrections page.	Adjust frequency-based entitlement for a payee by calendar period.
Retro	GP_TRIGGER_RTO	Click the Review Triggers link on the Associated Data (Links) tab of the Corrections page.	Enter or review retroactive trigger information.

Making Corrections

Access the Corrections page.

Employee ID

Enter the employee ID for whom you created the absence transaction. The section will limit itself to payees (and jobs) that at one time or another were associated with the paygroup associated with the off-cycle group.

Empl Rcd Nbr (employee record number)

Select the employee record number to be corrected.

Calendar To Correct

Select the finalized calendar that needs a correction made to it.

Associated Data (Links)

Select the Associated Data (Links) tab.

From this tab, you can click links to access the absence balance calendar to correct, enter absence events, and view, edit, and add retroactive triggers.

Absence Balance Cal to Correct	Click the link to adjust frequency-based entitlement for a payee by calendar period.
Absence Event Entry	Click the link to add or update an absence event.
Retro Triggers Exist (retroactive triggers exist)	If a retroactive trigger exists for this correction the check box will be selected. If the check box is cleared, you must manually create the trigger or make the correction to data that will cause the trigger to be generated.
Review Triggers	Click the link to view, edit, and add retroactive triggers.

Processing Advances

This section provides an overview of advances and discusses how to enter instructions for advances.

Understanding Advances

Advance processing is the processing of on-cycle calendars ahead of their regular schedule. Examples include payments for early termination or a full or partial period advance.

Note. The advance on-cycle calendars are processed individually exactly like they would have been within their scheduled run. The only difference is the timing.

Page Used to Enter Instructions for Advance Absence Transactions

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Advances	GP_OFFCYCLE_ADV	Global Payroll & Absence Mgmt, Absence and Payroll Processing, Off Cycle, Absence Mgmt Off Cycle Request, Advance	Enter instructions for processing absences in advance. .

Entering Instructions for Advances

Access the Advance page.

Note. The system will not process more than one advance for the same calendar group and person within the same off cycle run. If you need to advance smaller fractions of the same absence period (such as, the 1st through the 5th and the 10th through 11th) at the same time, you must set up two different requests and process each in a separate run.

In addition, if two advances are set up for the same payee and calendar group in two different off cycle requests, and you attempt to process these together in the same run, the system issues a warning that informs you the duplicate was discovered and that all but one request will be ignored. You can ignore the warning and proceed, or go back and modify the request before processing.

List Payees and the Calendar Groups to Advance

Employee ID	Enter the employee ID for whom you created the absence transaction. The section will limit itself to payees (and jobs) that at one time or another were associated with the paygroup associated with the off-cycle group.
Empl Rcd Nbr (employee record number)	Enter the employee record number for the absence transaction.
Calendar Group ID	Select the unfinalized calendar group that is associated with the paygroup. In the Calendars grid, the system lists, in the defined processing order, all calendars that are associated with the selected calendar group.
Overrides Exist	This check box is automatically selected if there are payee calendar overrides for the calendar group.
View Payee Calendar Groups	Click to access the Payee Calendar Groups (GP_PYE_RUN) component. You can view or modify overrides here. The system respects all payee calendar overrides when processing advances, including overrides to prevent the processing of calendars.
Calculate From Date and Calculate Thru Date	To calculate absence transactions for a partial period, enter the begin and end dates for the period of time. Entering dates here causes period segmentation to occur during the off-cycle run, without the presence of a segmentation trigger. (Segmentation triggers would affect both on- and off-cycle transactions, which is not a desirable outcome.) To avoid unintentional duplicate absences, whenever from and thru dates are defined for a calendar, subsequent processes will review the segments to ensure that new segments do not cover the same period of time for the same calendar. This rules applies whether or not the run type allows duplicates for the calendar period.

Associated Data (Links)

Select the Associated Data (Links) tab.

Absence Entitlement Adjustment

Click to access the Adjust Absence Balances page that you use to adjust entitlement balances

Viewing Results of Off-Cycle Processing

To view the results of an off-cycle run you can:

Check the Processing Status field on the Intro page of the Off-Cycle Request component to see the processing status for the entire off-cycle group.
View the Results by Calendar Group pages.
View the Payee Messages pages.

The last two items are covered in the absence processing chapter.

See Also

Viewing Results by Calendar

Viewing Payee Messages

Description	Allows additional, longer text for easy identification by the user (like J.Doe Advances Mon 01.04.04). Compliments the shorter Off Cycle Group field.
Processing Status	Displays Unprocessed, Processing initiated, Processing finalized, or Canceled, depending on the status of the off-cycle absence process. Once processing is finalized, you cannot make changes to the off-cycle group. Canceled appears if a user has canceled the calendar group with which the off-cycle group is associated.
Calendar Group	This value displays after you associate the off-cycle group with a calendar group. The system clears this value if you remove the off-cycle group from the calendar group.
Create Calendar Group	Click to generate a calendar group for the off-cycle group you are defining. When you click this button, the system displays the Calendar Group page pre-populated with the required calendar group information. Click OK to accept the system-defined calendar group. Note. This button appears on the page only after you save the off-cycle request. After the off-cycle request is associated with a calendar group, the button disappears. Note. Note that this button enables you to associate a single off-cycle request (group) with a calendar group. If you want to combine multiple off-cycle requests in the same calendar group, you should create the calendar group manually and add the separate off-cycle requests to the calendar group directly on the Calendar Group page.