Understanding Global Payroll for Germany

This chapter introduces the main concepts in Global Payroll for Germany and discusses:

• Delivered elements.

• Naming elements.

• Delivered elements for Germany.

Global Payroll for Germany

Global Payroll for Germany is a “country extension” of the core Global Payroll application. It provides the payroll rules and elements needed to run a German payroll.

Delivered Elements

Global Payroll defines each business process for Germany in terms of delivered elements, rules pages, and reports. Some of these elements and rules are specifically designed to meet legal requirements, while others support common or “customary” payroll practices.

Creating Delivered Elements

All of the elements and rules delivered as part of your country extension were created using the core application — the same application you use to create additional elements or rules and to configure existing elements delivered as part of your Global Payroll system. Because the tools needed to redefine or create new payroll elements are fully documented in the core application PeopleBook, we do not reproduce this information here. Instead, we briefly review the relationship between the core application that contains the tools you need to define your own elements and rules, and the country extensions that contain country-specific rules and elements defined by PeopleSoft.

The core application has the following characteristics:

• It consists of a payroll rules engine—a flexible tools that enables users to define the rules and elements of their payroll system and execute payroll and absence calculations. Global Payroll does not embed payroll-specific logic or computations in application code. Instead, it specifies all business application logic, such as earnings, deductions, absences, and accumulators, in terms of payroll rules and elements. Global Payroll enables the user to enter and maintain payroll rules through a set of pages and offers a comprehensive set of features that enable the user to work in their preferred language or currency.

• It provides a payroll processing framework—a flexible way to define and execute payroll and absence processing flows, such as calendars, run types, pay periods, and process lists.

Country extensions have the following characteristics:

• They are built using the core application.

• They consist of statutory and customary objects, such as country-specific payroll rules, elements, payroll processes, reports, pages, and self-service applications.

See Also

Viewing Delivered Elements and System Data

Element Ownership and Maintenance

The delivered elements and rules of your Global Payroll country extension can be classified based on whether they are owned and maintained by the customer or by PeopleSoft. Some elements and rules are maintained exclusively by PeopleSoft and cannot be modified or reconfigured, while others can be configured to meet requirements unique to your organization.

Understanding Element Ownership in Global Payroll

Global Payroll has the following five categories of element ownership:

See Also

Defining Element Names

Naming Elements

Understanding the naming convention developed for PeopleSoft-delivered elements can help you determine how an element is used, the element type, and even the functional area it serves. Depending on whether the element is a primary element, a component of a primary element, or a supporting element, one of the following naming conventions applies:

• Supporting elements.

• Primary elements.

• Component names (suffixes).

This section also discusses how the following are used in the names of German elements:

• Functional area codes for Germany.

• Element type codes (PIN_TYPE).

• Abbreviations in element names for Germany.

Supporting Elements

Global Payroll for Germany uses the naming convention DE FF NAME for arrays, brackets, counts, dates, durations, formulas, rate codes, variables, historical rules, fictitious calculation rules, proration rules, rounding rules, accumulators, sections, element groups, and generation control conditions. Following is an explanation of the components of the naming convention:

For example, DE_TX_LSTYY is the formula that calculates the annualized tax according to the published flowchart.

Primary Elements

Global Payroll for Germany does not use type codes in primary element names. Global Payroll for Germany uses the naming convention FF NAME for earnings and deductions elements, which are primarily elements.

For example, DE_TX_0003C is the estimated yearly income for regular bonus taxation.

Component Names (Suffixes)

When you create an earning or deduction element in Global Payroll, you must define the components that make up the element, such as base, rate, unit, and percentage. The system automatically generates the components and accumulators for the element based on the calculation rule or accumulator periods. The system also names the components and accumulators by appending a suffix to the element’s name.

For example, you define the earnings element named EARN1 with the calculation rule EARN1 = Rate x Unit. The system automatically creates two additional elements for the components in the calculation rule: a rate element called EARN1_RATE and a unit element called EARN1_UNIT.

In Global Payroll for Germany, all suffixes fall into one of the following types:

• Separator.

• Earnings/deductions component suffixes.

• Earnings/deductions accumulator suffixes.

• Deduction arrears component suffixes.

See Also

Defining Earning and Deduction Elements

Functional Area Codes for Germany

The following table contains the functional area codes used in the names of German elements.

Element Type Codes (PIN_TYPE)

The following table contains codes for all the element types. Because not all element types are delivered for Germany, not all of these codes appear in the names of German elements.

Suffixes for Germany

Global Payroll for Germany uses the default core Global Payroll suffixes.

See Also

Defining Suffixes

Delivered Elements

The PeopleSoft system delivers a query that you can run to view the names of all delivered elements designed for Germany. Instructions for running the query are provided in the PeopleSoft Enterprise Global Payroll 8.9 PeopleBook.

See Also

Viewing the Delivered Elements