Setting Up Date Aliases

To use dates in pension calculations, use the Date Alias (DATES), Date Round (DATE_ROUNDING_OPTI), and Date Conversion (DATE_CONVERSIONS) components.

Page Name

Definition Name

Usage

Date Alias Page

PA_DATE_CALC

Manipulate dates for use in pension calculations.

Date Round Page

PA_DATE_ROUND

Set up date rounding rules.

Date Conversion Page

PA_DATE_CONV

Establish methods for converting raw dates to decimal dates and vice versa, and for extracting data elements from raw dates.

Use the Date Alias page (PA_DATE_CALC) to manipulate dates for use in pension calculations.

Navigation:

Set Up HCM > Product Related > Pension > Variable Definitions > Date Alias > Date Alias

This example illustrates the fields and controls on the Date Alias page.

Date Alias page

Date Option

Select the type of manipulation you want to perform. You can add time to a date, determine a service date, or convert or round a date. The parameters for each option appear in a group box with the same name as the option. When you select an option, the group boxes for the other options become read-only. .

Add Time to Date

Field or Control

Description

From

Enter the source date as a constant or an alias. For example, to reference an employee's date of birth, enter BIRTH_DT, which is a database alias delivered with the system.

Add Decimal Value or Add Years (Months and Days)

Select Add Decimal Value to use decimal dates, or select Add Years (Months and Days) to use raw dates.

Use the same date format as the base date. Normally you use raw dates. The only reason your base date would be a decimal date is when it is the result of another date alias that explicitly converted it to a decimal date format.

Years or Decimal, Months, and Days

Specify the amount of time to add.

  • For years, months, and days, you can enter a constant or an alias.

  • If you are using decimal dates, use the Years field to enter the decimal number of years to add.

    The Months and Days fields become unavailable for entry.

Service

A date alias can look up the date when an employee attains a specified amount of service. For example, to set up an alias for the date of first vesting, you could look for the date when an employee will have accrued five years of vesting service.

Field or Control

Description

Service Name

To set up this type of date manipulation, enter the service function result used to calculate service.

Service Amount

Enter the required amount of service.

The function result provides all the information needed to calculate the date, including a projection method for future service.

The system does not necessarily determine the exact day that an employee attains the specified amount of service. Instead, the system looks at the service history, finds the period when the employee attained the specified service amount, then uses the first day of the next period. How exact this date is depends on how you set up your service requirement. Monthly service accrual methods provide more precise values than yearly service accrual methods.

Note: Service dates are not necessarily exact.

Convert / Round

Field or Control

Description

Conversion, Rounding, and Date Option

To apply the conversion or rounding option to the base date, select either Conversion or Rounding. Then enter the date option that has the conversion or rounding instructions.

When you use the date conversion option on a raw date, the result is a decimal value. For example, you could convert April 1, 2006 to 2006.25. When you use this decimal value elsewhere in the system, it is not necessarily recognized as a date.

Use the Date Round page (PA_DATE_ROUND) to set up date rounding rules.

Pension plans frequently round dates. For example, if normal retirement date (NRD) is the first of the month after a participant's 65th birthday, you create an NRD alias by applying a rounding option to the date representing the birthday.

Navigation:

Set Up HCM > Product Related > Pension > Calculation Rules > Date Round > Date Round

This example illustrates the fields and controls on the Date Round page.

Date Round page

Date Type

Field or Control

Description

Raw Date, Decimal Date, or User Exit

Select Raw Date to use the raw date format. You can assume that you are using a raw date unless you use the date conversion option specifically to create a decimal date.

Select Decimal Date to use the decimal date format, and enter the number of decimal places.

Select User Exit to set up your own date rounding method.

Rounding Day, Rounding Period, and Rounding Rule

A date rounding definition consists of three parts: the rounding date, the rounding period, and the rounding rule. These are illustrated in the following examples:

Rounding Day

Rounding Rule

Rounding Period

First day of

the previous

month

Last day of

the current

calendar year

First day of

the next

plan year

When you round to the last day of a period, you do not have to specify the rounding rule. In this case, the date is always rounded to the last day of the current period. For example, if you round to the last day of the calendar month, August 8, 2008 becomes August 31, 2008. If, however, you round to the first day of a period, you must select a rounding rule.

Basic Rounding Rules

There are five basic rounding rules:

  • Coincident or Next

  • Next

  • Coincident or Previous

  • Previous

  • Near

The following table illustrate how each of these options works. In all cases, the date is being rounded to the first of the month.

Rounding Rule

Base Date

Rounded Date

Coincident or Next

May 1, 2005

May 1, 2005

Coincident or Next

May 2, 2005

June 1, 2005

Next

May 1, 2005

June 1, 2005

Coincident or Previous

May 1, 2005

May 1, 2005

Previous

May 1, 2005

April 1, 2005

Previous

May 2, 2005

May 1, 2005

Near

May 3, 2005

May 1, 2005

Rounding Rules with Thresholds

There are also two rounding rules that incorporate thresholds:

  • Up if Day/Month => rounds up if the day or month is greater than or equal to the threshold you set in the Limit for Rounding Up field.

  • Up if =>, Else Down rounds up if the day or months is greater than or equal to the threshold you set in the Limit for Rounding Up or Down field, otherwise it rounds down.

With both of these options, you specify the threshold number of days in a month (if the rounding period is months) or months in a year (if the rounding period is any type of year). Both options round up after the specified number of days or months. However, the first option leaves dates under the threshold unrounded, whereas the second option rounds down.

Note: The threshold options do not apply if you round decimal dates.

The following table illustrate how each of these options works. In all cases, the date is being rounded to the first of the month.

Threshold Rounding Rule

Base Date

Threshold

Rounded Date

Up if Day/Month => Threshold No.

May 17, 2005

15

June 1, 2005

Up if Day/Month => Threshold No.

May 17, 2005

20

May 17, 2005

Up if Day/Month => … Else Down

May 17, 2005

15

June 1, 2005

Up if Day/Month => … Else Down

May 17, 2005

20

May 1, 2005

Use the Date Conversion page (PA_DATE_CONV) to establish methods for converting raw dates to decimal dates and vice versa, and for extracting data elements from raw dates.

Navigation:

Set Up HCM > Product Related > Pension > Calculation Rules > Date Conversion > Date Conversion

This example illustrates the fields and controls on the Date Conversion page.

Date Conversion page

Option Type

Field or Control

Description

Date Extraction or Decimal Conversion

Select one of these options:

  • Date Extraction to extract data elements from raw dates. If you select this option, complete the parameters in the Extract group box.

  • Decimal Conversion to convert raw dates to decimal dates and vice versa. If you select this option, complete the parameters in the Assumptions and Conversion Method group boxes.

Assumptions

Field or Control

Description

Days Per Month and Days Per Year

When you convert days, you can either convert the days to months and then the months to years, or you can convert days to years in a single step. In the first case, you have to specify how many days per month to assume; in the second case, you have to specify the assumed days per year.

Decimal Places

There are always twelve months in a year, so converting months is straightforward: each complete month equals .083333 years. The decimal is carried out to the number of places that you specify.

Extract

Sometimes a calculation needs the year, month, or day of a date, but not all three. For example, suppose your employees' periodic earnings consolidations are based on compensation rate on each anniversary of their hire dates. You need date aliases that determine the month and the day of hire. This means that if an employee is hired on March 17, 2007, the month extraction alias resolves to 3, and the day extraction alias resolves to 17.

Field or Control

Description

Weekday, Julian Date, Year, Month, Day, or User Code

Select the element you want to extract.

The Julian date represents the number of actual calendar days in the year, up to and including the date. For example, January 31 is 31 days, and February 1 is 32 days.

All extraction results are decimals, including month and weekday extractions. For example, when you extract the month from June 30, 2005, the result is 6. When you extract the weekday from a Sunday date, the result is 1.

You can only apply date extraction options to raw dates, not to decimal dates.

Conversion Method

When you convert raw dates to decimal dates, you have to convert months and days to partial years. There are a number of ways to do this, depending on your assumptions and your conversion method.

To understand the differences among the options, review the following examples. These examples convert the raw date, June 6, 2002, to a decimal date. Assume there are 30 days per month, 365 days per year, and four decimal places.

Notice that the conversion methods use Months - 1 and Days - 1. They use this method in order to work with whole months and days. For example, June 6, 2002 is only six days into in the sixth month, June; and the last whole month is the fifth month, May.

Years + [(Months - 1) * Days per Month] + (Days - 1) / (Days/Year)

This example converts the raw date June 6, 2002 to a decimal date.

Years + (whole months converted to days + whole days) converted 
to partial years
Years = 2002
Whole months converted to days = (6 - 1) * 30 = 5 * 30 = 150
Whole days = 6 - 1 =5
Total days = (150 + 5) = 155 
Total days converted to partial years = 155 / 365 = .4247

Years + [(Months - 1) / 12] + (Days - 1) / (Days/Year)

This example converts the raw date June 6, 2002 to a decimal date.


Years + whole months converted to partial years + whole days 
converted to partial years

Years = 2002
Whole months converted to partial years = (6-1) / 12 = 5 / 12 = .4167
Whole days converted to partial years = (6-1) / 365 = 5 / 365 = .0137

Result: 2002.4304

Date Tables; Years + (Actual Days - 1)

To find the (actual days - 1) value of June 6, 2002, add 31 (January), 29 (February in a leap year), 31 (March), 30 (April), 31 (May), and 5 (June through yesterday) for a final value of 157. This is converted to years using the actual number of days in this year: 366 because of the leap year. 


Years + actual days converted to partial years

Years = 2002

Actual days converted to partial years = 157 / 366 = .4290

Result: 2002.4290