Sunday, January 24, 2016

Compare PeopleSoft 8.0 to 8.3 to 8.8 to 8.9

Process
8.0 Functionality
8.3 Functionality
8.8 Functionality
8.9 Functionality
General HRMS Enhancements
Web-based architecture.  Browser based deployment.
Continued global expansion of HRMS solutions, adding new countries to the list of supported locations and enhancing our products in those regions already familiar with PeopleSoft

Improved PeopleSoft HRMS Collaborative Applications for better, faster decision making at the desktop by including self-service features and integrating more content from industry leading suppliers.

PeopleSoft Recruiting Solutions combines several applications to provide a fully integrated, end-to-end recruitment tool.
PeopleSoft 8.8 HRMS features portal navigation, a new and more intuitive way to navigate around your HRMS application.

PeopleSoft 8.8 HRMS provides enhanced address formatting for all countries as well as address search functionality.

§ Person Model – PeopleSoft has redesigned the HRMS architecture to support the storing and tracking of all person types, including contingent workers and persons of interest, within one centralized repository.
§ Configurable Search/Match – HRMS 8.9 delivers a company-configurable search and match wherever people can be added into the application. The search results page is also configurable.
§ Configurable Action/Reasons – HRM 8.9 delivers configurable actions and action reasons. Actions have been moved from the translate table and relocated to their own table.
§ Row-level security – Row-level security for HRMS 8.9 includes features that enable organizations to align their security strategy with their business model and corporate culture.
§ New Country Functionalities – France.
§ Configurable Matrices – configurable matrices, which allows the user to customize input and out, put criteria. Types of matrices that can be created are; Market pay matrix, Rate matrix, Salary increase matrix (Setup HRMS>Common Definitions>Configurable Definitions).
§ Security Enhancements – Row-level security for HRMS 8.9 includes features that enable organizations to align their security strategy with their business model and their corporate culture.
§ Plan Salaries – The name of Plan Salaries to Base Compensation and Budgeting changed with 8.9.
HRMS Core Table Changes

FSA Claims Administration – select to activate these different types of benefits functionality.

Automatic Job Termination – setup to automatically terminate any job that has an end date. The system will insert a termination row for this job.

Installation Table - Automatic Job Suspension – select to activate substantive job suspension for employees working in temporary assignments.


EMPLID Field Length – enter the number of characters to be used for Employee IDs.

Company Table – new Rules Definition page for the defining of FTE rules.
Installation Table – Multiple Jobs Flag has been removed.

Company Table – on the Default Settings page, the Tax Details link is renamed from FICA/Tax Details, and the FEIN field is located under the USA flag/section.

Establishment Table – A location can no longer be associated on this table. Once the location table is updated with an Establishment, the Establishment table will show the coordinating location by effective date.

Department Table – on the Department Profile page, the Manager ID field has been moved to the Manager Type section where the user can indicate if the manager is a person or a position.

Comp Rate Code Table – new Calculated By Field that is used in conjunction with matrices.

Salary Plan Table – new Wage Progression Plan check box that can be used to associate a wage progression rule to the salary plan.  The Salary Plan Table also has a new Attach File section where you can attach a salary planning document to the plan and the Auto Calculated Premium group box that allows user to indicate if employees assigned to the salary plan are eligible for a salary premium above the amount calculated by component defaulting.

Salary Step Components page – has a new Step Description field and a new Totals section where the total value of the pay components assigned to the step are displayed.  Also on the Salary Step Component page, if the hours based as the increment type function is checked, the special accumulator and hours to next step fields become visible.
Performance Enhancements

Deferred processing mode, enabling you to enter data quickly and efficiently without losing any keystrokes or waiting for processing:

·          Hire
·          Add Non-Employee
·          Add Concurrent Job
·          Personal Data
·          Job Data
·          Current Job Data
·          Health Benefit Elections
·          Life/ADD Elections
·          Disability Benefit
·          Savings Plans Elections
·          Leave Plans
·          FSA Benefits (U.S. and Canada)
·          Retirement Plans
·          Pension Plans (U.S. and Canada)
·          Vacation Benefit
·          Health Care Claims Entry (U.S. and Canada)
·          Dependent Care Claims Entry (U.S.)
·          Retirement Counsel Claim Entry (Canada)


Base Benefits
·          Support for 403(b) savings plans has been included in the general release. This feature will include the projection and monitoring of the complex Maximum Exclusion Allowance limit, as well as alternative limits for 415(c).
·          Enhanced limit testing to handle most regulatory limit types, such as 401(a)(17), 402(g), 415, and 403(b).
·          The earnings used for calculating the employee’s contribution has been “unlinked” for applying the regulatory limits so that you’ll be able to use different special accumulators for the two processes.
·          Clarification of the reporting of amounts not taken due to limiting
·          Support has been added for employer-only plans and employer-matching or non-matching contributions using threshold percentages.
·          Support for “$0" elections within savings plans to enable users to suspend and restart contributions throughout the year.
·          Validations for Dependent/Beneficiary Court Orders
·          Support for when life insurance or savings plan benefits “waivers” when benefits are not assigned to a spouse
·          PeopleSoft will extend the functionality of the “court orders” record to generalize it to handle a variety of “riders,” including spousal waivers.
·          The Benefit Plan table will allow the definition of a “minimum spousal beneficiary allocation.”
·          An audit report that identifies potential violations of court-ordered coverage requirements or spousal beneficiary allocations will be available.
·          PeopleSoft Benefits Community Integration
·          The multiple-page Health, Life, Savings, and Pension enrollment components have been consolidated into single pages each, and a new Enroll All feature has been added to enable the user to enroll all eligible dependents or assign all eligible beneficiaries with the click of a single button.
·          When employees change their marital status to divorced using Change Marital Status self-service transaction, the system generates a COBRA trigger when PeopleSoft Benefits Administration does not manage the employee.
·          Regulatory compliance testing now includes Section 457 Savings Plans. Section 457 Savings Plans are deferred compensation plans for state and local government and tax-exempt organizations.  The deduction calculation process checks to see if the savings plan falls under the 457 Limit and calculates the deduction according to rules established by the limit.  This provides you with greater plan design and a wider array of support for regulatory compliance testing.
·          To ease the maintenance of regulatory limits, the Limit Table has been modified to remove Benefit Program as a key.  What that means to you is that now you only create a limit code, not a limit-benefit program code combination. 
·          You can also create user-defined limits on the Limit Table.  This enables a consistent application of limits against populations of deduction codes for any plan type.
·          Description field on the Calculation Rules table.
·          Ability to define dependent and beneficiary relationship typed (child, domestic partner, etc.).
·          Enrolling of dependents in benefit plans is simplified with these new features; the Enroll all Dependents button, Employees and dependents are enrolled using the same page and the rollover and beneficiary data is on one page for savings plans.

Benefits Administrative Contacts
New Benefits Administrative Contacts record and component allows the tracking of contact information within a benefits department or for third party administrators such as:
·          Name
·          Title
·          Address
·          Email

This component replaces the COBRA Administrator setup component, and is used during printing of HIPAA certificates.

Employee Savings Plans
Identify age 50 extensions process
·          Identifies employees in PeopleSoft Payroll for North America who are age 50 or older
·          Creates extension records to increase the 402(g) and/or 457 limits for elective deferrals

Special Accumulators for a Deduction Code
Special accumulators enable the user to combine specific deduction codes to be used during payroll processing. You can designate which deductions should add or subtract from a bucket of earnings.
With Multiple Jobs functionality always “on” with 8.9, the BRN (benefits record number) is visible to all users.

With 8.9, the HIPAA Report Date fields are no longer on the Health Benefit elections page. You can view HIPAA information for employees and dependents on the Notification Letters page.

Benefit System Options
Provides capability to track and separate employees, contingent workers, and persons of interest within benefits. 
·          Benefit System on Benefit Program Participation page can now be set to Not Managed in PeopleSoft filtering out individuals where there is not sufficient employment and job data information for benefit enrollment.

Dependent/Beneficiary Enhancements
Record is now effective dated providing more comprehensive reporting and tracking capabilities. 
·          Provides internal control for compliance with QMCSO, and QDRO

The following information on the Dependent/Beneficiary page is effective dated:
·          Name/Address
·          Gender
·          Marital/Disabled Status
·          Student/Smoker Status
·          Relationship

Dependent Relationship Table
Now has two additional fields:
·          Covered Person Types - Dependent Relationships are now linked to a covered person type.  Relationships such as son, daughter, stepson, and stepdaughter can all be linked to a covered person type of child.
·          Age Limit Flag – used for the COBRA admin process in processing over age dependents by indicating which dependent roles should have the over age rule applied.

Multiple Annual Base Benefit Rates
Ability to define and use an unlimited number of Annual Base Benefit Rates by providing the capability to:
·          Provide for the entry and maintenance of multiple ABBR’s.
·          Enable the user to specify which ABBR to use for a benefit plan.
Benefits Administration
Through Self Service, Employees will be able to view their current benefit enrollments online, update personal data for their dependents, and modify beneficiary allocations and savings plan contributions throughout the year, even when a benefits event (such as Open Enrollment or a recent job change) is not in progress.  The system can also guide users through the Open Enrollment process with our new "enrollment wizard," thereby reducing confusion and errors during the enrollment process.

·          Enhanced web access allowing employees to change elections as well as update dependent information. In prior versions benefits information could only be reviewed.

·          New on-demand event maintenance functionality allowing individual employee processing
·          Improved data entry panels for participants and dependents
·          Event maintenance has been redesigned to increase efficiency as well as allow for processing of passive events and the ability to review, insert, and delete unprocessed events.
·          New eligibility debugging tolls have been created to assist in troubleshooting participant enrolment issues.
·          Cross Plan Validation functionality allows the system to perform checks for ‘prerequisite’ plans and coverage amounts when it’s determining eligibility for enrollment in another plan.
·          Eligibility Rules based on Geographic Location provide an increase in the range of flexibility for determining plan participation.
·          Eligibility Rules have also be enhanced to incorporate an Eligibility Rules Table allowing eligibility based on FLSA status, Regulatory Region etc.

With the 8.3 release, the eligibility fields (Elig Config 1-9) appear on this page only if Benefits Administration has been activated on the Installation Table.

Improved Election Entry – The BAS Election Entry pages have been redesigned to facilitate more rapid keyboard-only Entry of employee enrollments by presenting the available plan choices as a continuous long page rather than plan-by-plan. PeopleSoft also enables the user to defer the enrollment of dependents and beneficiaries until after the employee’s choices have been entered.

New fields have been delivered on the Event Class Table:

§ Use Suppress Forms – field to specify the printing of enrollment forms or confirmation statements.
§ Use Enrollment Forms – Days to Print field to set the number of days (prior to an event) that an enrollment form should print.

Within v8.8, there is a Allow Dependent/Beneficiary Addition checkbox on the Event Rules Table page. This check box determines whiter an employee can add new dependents through the eBenefits enrollment process.

Ben Admin Schedule Table – the “No New Events” field in new with the 8.8 release. Select the No New Events field if you don’t want any new events assigned to the schedule.  Existing events assigned to the schedule will continue to be processed.
Event Rule Table - within the 8.9 release, the rules that apply to an employee’s participation in a benefit option following an event have been moved to their own page, The EOI and Level Rules page.

ERISA Enhancements – with the 8.9 release, new security requires that changes in elections have to be consistent with the actual life event. For example: to increase coverage, the event must be an increase in the number of eligible dependents, such as marriage, birth, adoption, or placement for adoption or a coverage decrease would only be allowed for divorce, annulment, legal separation, death of spouse or dependent, or loss of dependent eligibility. You would use the functionality/fields within the Event Rules and Coverage Code Table to specify how benefits may change with each class of work/life events.

Changes to Validation Messages – error messages are consistent with the new coverage code parameters and also consistent with Benefits Administration data entry content.

Time & Labor

New Employee Time Reporting self-service Web applications will enable employees to report their time as elapsed hours worked or based on "clock" time such as the actual hour and minute that work began and ended.  Additionally, employees will be able to specify the type of time they are reporting (vacation, overtime, and so on) as well as the related project or task information.  Employees will also have the ability to view their work schedule.  Managers will be able to generate a list of the people who report to them in order to view, approve, or modify this information.  Additionally the following changes will also be incorporated:
§   In PeopleSoft 8, the most significant enhancement we’ll deliver for PeopleSoft Time and Labor is the replacement of the key Daily Time table with three separate tables—Scheduled Time, Reported Time, and Payable Time.
§   Globalization of the PeopleSoft Time and Labor application
§   Add flexibility to time reporting through several robust new data entry pages that you can customize for each type of time reporter.
§   Simplified batch processing to take advantage of the new data architecture by having one batch process prepare reported time for payroll rather than multiple processes as in previous releases.  Additionally, the approval process will be optional, eliminating yet another batch process.
§   Processing time and labor is customarily considered part of the payroll-processing window.  The batch process changes that we’ll make in the PeopleSoft Time and Labor system will increase your organization’s payroll-processing efficiency by narrowing that window of time. 
§   PeopleSoft 8 Time and Labor will shift from the template-based approach for executing processing rules to an object-based approach.  To implement the object-based rules approach, we’ll create a set of tools that you can use to easily define most of your rules.  This will even include the most complicated algorithms. 
Redesigned processing to afford integration to any payroll system including global payroll., we’ll change the PeopleSoft Time and Labor integration architecture.  We’ll provide a seamless integration with our PeopleSoft North American Payroll as well as our PeopleSoft Global Payroll applications.  If you use third-party payroll systems, you’ll be able to use our Application Messaging technology to export payable time and import and distribute actual labor costs.
Primary enhancements to Time and Labor include:

§   Online Rules – used to define online rules using delivered rule templates and immediately estimate the effect of applying these rules to weekly elapsed and punch time.
§   Restartability of Batch Process – when all temp tables have been used, batch processes no longer terminate with a temp table allocation error.
§   Time Reporter Status – before or after you run the Time Administration batch process, you can use the View TR Status page to check the status of a time reporter or a group of time reporters.
§   Global rules enhancements – PeopleSoft delivers several new rule templates and accumulator functionality that can be used by an organization that needs to track and compensate overtime hours against a maximum number of hours for a single week, multiple weeks, or on a yearly basis.
Employee and Manager Self-Service Search Functionality - the navigation method for employee and manager self-service time reporting is modified for:

§  Employee Self-Service Navigation for Time Reporting – the navigation method for employee self-service time reporting is modified for ease of use.
§  Manager Self-Service Search page functionality – after navigating to the Select Employee search page, a manager can view an employee’s time entries based on reporting method with just two clicks. 
§  Improved Manager Self-Service Group Time Approval Functionality – managers can now view a list of employees who have submitted time for approval by selecting Approve Time by Group from the portal navigation menu. Once the Approve Time by Group-Select Employees page appears, the system displays all of the time to be approved without requiring a specified date range.

Additional Self-Service Enhancements

§   Self-Service Overtime Management – enables managers to better plan their overtime needs and allocate overtime more equitably based on employees’ availability and the amount of overtime they’ve already worked.
§   Self-Service Time Reporting by Period – new time reporting by period functionality provides easy-to-use, self-service pages that employees and managers can use to report elapsed time.
§   Self-Service Manager Time Calendar View – self-service manager time calendar view provides managers with up-to-the-minute scheduling information for individuals and groups, including which employees are scheduled to work, which employees actually worked, which employees are available to work on an ad hoc basis and which employees are scheduled to leave.
§   Self-Service Home Pages – there are home pages for both employee and manager self-service. Links to pages with a common function are grouped together on each home page.
Time and Labor Scheduling features enhancements:

§ Fixed schedules – companies can now support centralized standard schedule definitions and ad hoc manager-specified work patterns. All schedule building blocks, including shifts, workdays and schedule definitions, are optional.
§ Rotating schedules – a set of rotations, with relative start days, can be defined on a schedule.
§ Dynamic schedules – a generic interface to the open scheduling architecture loads optimized work schedules or data from other systems, including training data from PeopleSoft Enterprise Learning Management.
§ Employee access – Time and Labor 8.9 enables employees to view their monthly schedules, including work and shift information, planned absences, holidays and training.

Time Reporting enhancements provide:

§   Pre-population and configurability – users can specify what task related data should appear on the main time reporting tab or a secondary tab. Fields that are used frequently can be placed on the main tab, and overrides can be placed on the secondary tab.
§   Visibility to useful information – employees and managers have easy access to leave balance and schedule information from within the timesheet. Users can view daily and period running totals by time categories.
§   Task completion improvements – punch-time reporters and adjusters report punch and elapsed time on a single page, users automatically access the timesheet based on today’s date.

Time and Labor 8.9 includes new and improved self-service timesheets that feature pre-population and configurability, visibility to useful information and task completion usability improvements.

Enhancements to business process controls include:

§   Timesheet approval and controls.
§   Payable time approval enhancements.
§   Manager self-service.

User Interface

§   New for PS8 is NO PeopleSoft client software.
§   Working with pages versus Panels
§   Web Browser is all you need to access PS8
§   No Java applets or plug-ins required
§   Portal technology providing a foundation for navigation and content aggregation from different systems.
§   Use of browser hyperlinks and favorites for ease of user navigation.
NO MORE scroll bars
Several pages collapsed to one page view. For example Federal tax data and state tax data.

New Breadcrumb navigation shows the navigation path to the current web page location.

Toolbar Button Changes – toolbar buttons of “Notify” and “Refresh” have been added.
Eliminated breadcrumb navigation and enhanced with new portal navigation functionality.
§ Return of Breadcrumb navigation.
§ DFAN (default Functional Area Navigation) Page – a page of categories and links to enable the user to efficiently navigate and matches the information architecture on the left menu.
§ CFAN (Collection-based Functional Area Navigation) page – A navigation page that does not match the information architecture on the left menu. These pages are alternative categorizations of navigational items that are made available to improve the user’s experience.
§ Toolbar Button Changes – new toolbar of “CANCEL” and redesign of Toolbar Buttons..
Globalization and Multilingual functionality
Add country-specific functionality for Italy, Spain, and Switzerland.  This will include a full set of customary, regulatory, and best-practice HR features for the new countries.  Enhancements have also been made  for countries supported in previous releases, such as the U.S., Canada, Germany, France, Netherlands, and UK.

Currency support for the Euro and a generic currency conversion utility that will enable you to convert your organization’s base operating currencies to the EMU common currency is included
Add country-specific functionality for Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand and Singapore.  Enhancements for previously supported countries, such as Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, and the UK

Added country-specific functionality for France (FRA).
Recruit Workforce
Employees and external applicants will be able to apply for specific jobs by completing an online resume.  Managers will be able to generate job requisitions and handle a variety of hiring process transactions on the Web.  These transactions will include viewing all of the applicants linked to their requisitions, reviewing applicants who have been screened and routed to the manager, entering interview results, and requesting offer letters. Security will be added to applicant data based on two roles: hiring manager and recruiter.  We’ll also streamline the recruitment process and will provide automated screening of applicants. Tighter integration with the Manage Competencies module will populate competencies in the job requisition thereby eliminating reentry of this data. Flexibility in this enhancement will enable the user to keep the original competencies for that job or choose to add or delete competencies as required.
Common changes made to Recruiting Solutions:

§   Interview enhancements
§   More flexible status values.
§   Multiple job offer components.
§  Self-identification for Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reporting.
§   Automatic population of Apply for Job.

PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Resources Recruit Workforce and PeopleSoft Enterprise eRecruit Manager Desktop were combined and renamed PeopleSoft Enterprise Talent Acquisition Manager.

PeopleSoft Enterprise eRecruit was renamed PeopleSoft Enterprise Candidate Gateway.

Talent Acquisition Manager and Candidate Gateway combine to make up PeopleSoft Enterprise Recruiting Solutions:

§ New architecture and packaging.
§ Enhanced candidate experience.
§ Reviewing the interview schedule.
§ Enhanced usability.
§ Enhanced integration.
§ Additional core features.

As parting of Recruiting Solutions 8.9, major changes were made to the data model and organizing components into components, as well as merging and enhancing functionality. Two tools are available for use with configuring the application:
§  Message Catalog
§  Text Catalog
By using these tools, you can change instructional text, button labels and links to match specific business needs. You can also segment the application actions by internal and external candidates or by SetID.

General Usability Enhancements:

§ Applicant and job opening activity pages – these components were redesigned to improve and rationalize user interface. These pages enable managers and recruiters to view all of the information related to a job opening.
§ Referral source improvements – ability to define your own referral sources.
§ New recruitment templates – using these templates, you can define the series of pages presented to hiring managers and recruiters creating a job opening and to applicants applying for jobs.
§ Recruiting installation table – a new recruiting specific installation component configures both Candidate Gateway and Talent Acquisition Manager.
§ Recruiting location table – this is a new table linked to the HRMS table, but enables you to configure different locations.

Ability to integrate with specialized vendors.



One-line reports view
Ability to view reports in PDF format and Email reports to users.



Administer Workforce Self Service
Managers will be able to generate a list of the people who report to them and view their employees’ information.  Specifically managers will also be able to:
·          request or approve status changes for an employee’s location change
·          request an employee promotion or transfer
·          hire or terminate an employee
·          change an employee’s full- or part-time status
·          initiate a pay rate change


§ Ease if use.
§ Online payslip – Global payroll.
§ ePerformance Multi-source functionality (360-degree and multirater capabilities).
§ ePerformance user interface enhancements.
§ ePerformance employee-initiated performance process.
§ ePerformance writing tools.
§ ePerformance improved administrative capabilities.

Manage Professional Compliance


New functionality enabling you to manage the certification requirements of employees and non-employees in professional service organizations.
·          Defining the certification requirements established by a regulatory authority—the body or organization that defines the compliance rules, standards, and regulations for certifying that individuals are qualified in a particular field. The regulatory authority can be either an external organization or entirely internal to a company.
·          Setting up classifications used to define the status of regulated individuals (for example, an individual can be classified as compliant or non-compliant with the requirements for certification).
·          Assigning regulated individuals to compliance managers/supervisors.
·          Defining development plans and enrolling regulated individuals in these plans.
·          Assessing the progress of regulated individuals relative to professional compliance requirements.



Absence Management

Enhancements have been made that will enable you to define holiday schedules by regulatory region.
Two new online features make evaluating and projecting absences easier.  First, a new balance inquiry function, launched through the Forecast Balance page, enables users to view current absence balances and project absence balances and related values as of a future date.  Second, you can now forecast and process upcoming absence events from the Absence Event Entry page.  For example, you can immediately see if an employee has enough entitlement to cover an absence.

Other new features:
·          Use the new Absence Types page to create an unlimited number of absence types, such as vacation, illness, personal, or maternity, for all countries or for specific countries.
·          An absence type is linked to each absence take element.  Using this new functionality, you can classify multiple absence takes according to the absence types that are most relevant to your organization. 
·          Define one or more absence reason codes for each absence type. 
·          For example, you might want to track specific reasons for absences reported with the absence type of illness, such as cold, flu, or back problems. You can select a reason code for each absence event that you enter. 
·          Add details about an absence event in a Comments field during absence entry.
·          Complete up to 16 user-defined fields when recording absence events on the Absence Event Input Detail page. 
·          Enter additional characters in the user-defined fields on the Take - Calculation page. 
·          Specify the rate and amount for generated positive input when defining a take element on the Take - Day Formula page.
  • During the Take process, this information automatically populates the rate and amount values for earnings or deductions.

PeopleSoft Enterprise Absence Management has been enhanced with the following new features:

§ Additional employee and manager self-service functionality.
§ Highly configurable request approval functionality and absence accrual functionality.
§ Highly configurable absence consumption.
§ Ability to export computed absence results to PeopleSoft Enterprise Payroll for North American and PeopleSoft Enterprise Payroll Interface.
§ Ability to export computed absence to PeopleSoft Enterprise Time and Labor.

Absence Management handles absence processing and enables the user to fine tune design of their system. Using a browser environment, PeopleTools and a rules-based system, you can configure your absence system online without writing or changing the source code.

Absence Management delivers a robust feature set to assist organizations in all their time-off management activities and processes. In a single installation, Absence Management 8.9 enables organizations to automate the processes around planning for, and later compensating, paid time off for their entire workforce.

Absence Management provides highly configurable absence accrual functionality. For example, with each user-defined absence entitlement, you can indicate whether it accrues per period (such as biweekly) or per absence (such as 180 days per maternity leave). You can also define eligibility rules that govern when each accrual should occur (based on hours worked, longevity, etc.).

Absence Management provides highly configurable absence consumption functionality or absence takes. For example, with each user-defined absence use, or take, you can indicate how it draws down one or more accruals and with what priority.
Administer Workforce
Enhancements to the personal, job, position, labor, and absence information include:
·          Multiple addresses and multiple National ID numbers for an employee.
·          A system for specifying employee categories and subcategories as regulated by national labor agreements.
·          Enhanced grievance and disciplinary action tracking capabilities.
·          New Badge Information functionality
·          Position Management - A new position description field, a health check field, and a signature authority field.
·          Position Management – dynamic updates to position pages when movement occurs in the tree manager.
·          Personal Data has now been enhanced to include the ability to store the marital status and marital status date as separate information.
·          Temporary Assignment functionality enables you to assign employees to positions or roles for a temporary period while maintaining their substantive positions or roles.  The temporary assignment takes on the payroll characteristics of the substantive position that remain applicable to the temporary assignment, such as bank accounts and allowances, while allowing you to override such things as compensation when there is an increase associated with the temporary assignment.
·          Default Pay Components and Calculate Compensation buttons are new with the 8.3 release.

Manage Positions Enhancements:

§ New Default Values – when you create a new position, PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Resources uses data that was entered in the Department, Location and Job Code tables to insert values in some of the position data fields:
§ Standard Hours field comes from the Salary Admin Plan table based on the location, or from the Job Code table.
§ The Position Title field value comes from the Detailed Position Description field.
§ The Salary Plan field comes from the Location table or the Job Code table (Location table takes preference).
§ The FLSA Status field comes from the Job Code table.

Update Incumbent Enhancements:

§ Standard Hours
§ Salary Administration Plan
§ Grade
§ Step

Position Cloning – use the Initialize button on Position Data – Description page to clone an existing position. The Initialize button is only visible when adding a new position.
PeopleSoft HRMS 8.9 contains the following changes to the Job Data component in the Administer Workforce process:

§  The Absence System field on the Payroll page – this new field is part of the separation of the Absence Management business process from Global Payroll.

§  The Wage Progression Rule check box on the Salary Plan page – the system selects this check box if the salary plan includes wage progression.


Names

Name fields have been separated in Personal Data
For organizations operating in multiple countries, this information must be available in multiple formats.  We’ve modified the Names History page to handle numerous format requirements with ease.  Once you select the specific country, the system uses the formatting rules to display the appropriate fields in the correct layout.


Multiple Jobs

Multiple Jobs functionality has been improved to enhance the performance, consistency of use, and integration of multiple jobs between a number of HRMS applications.  Specifically;
·          By enabling you to define which jobs contribute earnings towards certain benefit deductions and control how the system takes an employee’s benefit deductions when multiple jobs are paid by a single check or individually
·          Allowing you to specify which job (or group of jobs) controls benefits eligibility and how multiple jobs should combine to satisfy eligibility criteria
·          You’ll be able to produce a single check for employees with multiple jobs within a company, across pay groups.  New system processes will do the correct limit checking for deductions and taxes. Redesigned our FLSA calculations will consider all of an employee’s when calculating.
·          You will be able to process employee job data according to pension plan eligibility and support pension plan participants with multiple positions in situations where not all of the positions are covered by the pension plan as set up in the Plan Eligibility definition.


The Multiple Jobs Flag has been removed from the Installation Table causing the multiple jobs functionality to be always “on” and the BRN (benefits record number) visible to all users.
Non-Employee Information
Tracking and processing of non-employee data in PeopleSoft has been significantly enhanced. Non-employees will be maintained in the Administer Workforce menu.  In addition Payroll, Stock Administration and Pension Administration have all been enhanced to include non-employee information.


PeopleSoft has redesigned the HRMS architecture to support the storing and tracking of all person types, including contingent workers and persons of interest, within one centralized repository. This new architecture enables personal data to be stored once, with one ID that is retained for the duration of a person’s tenure with the organization, regardless of changes to that person’s working status.

Contingent Worker – a person who provides services to your organization under terms specified in a contract on a non-permanent basis or who do not have a legal employee relationship.

Person of Interest – a person who is not an employee or contingent worker but is of interest to the organization and requires a job record (COBRA participants, Stock payees, Pension payees, etc.).
Multiple Components of Pay
We’ll enhance the Multiple Components of Pay feature to satisfy salary-tracking requirements for various countries. We’ll add additional classes of components such as seniority components.  To complement these new component classes, we’ll add new automated calculations such as seniority-related payments. These automated calculations will enable you to add a seniority component (% of Base Pay) that is based on the amount of time an employee has spent in the company.
Additionally, we’ll enhance our standard hours definition.  In PeopleSoft 8, we’ll link the standard hours field to a standard frequency field that will enable you to track the number of hours an employee has worked over a period of time that you define.  For instance, you’ll be able to arrange for your company to track the number of hours worked per year or per month. This feature will be very useful for organizations with seasonal activities.  We’ll also improve the flexibility of FTE calculation by basing it on the standard hours per standard work periods that you define.  You’ll be able to specify the default values for these variables and override them at the employee level.  You’ll also be able to choose to apply FTE to pay components in the compensation calculation.

PeopleSoft HRMS now includes a comprehensive and rules-driven defaulting architecture at the salary component level to support European salary structures.  We have expanded the functionality of the Multiple Components of Pay by adding the following features:
·          A default salary component functionality that includes a default from location or a combination of defaulting criteria, including the existing job code and salary defaults.
·          A Job Ratio functionality that enables you to compare salary information based on job-related activities.
·          A Default Compensation button lets you control when the system performs the defaulting calculations.
·          The Refresh Employee Compensation process compiles a list of affected employees and triggers compensation defaulting.  A new report compiles a list of previous compensation changes already performed on the affected employees.
·          The Auto-Calculated Premium feature enables you to accommodate any additional salary above what the industrial tariff and other compensation defaulting rules grant to the employee.
·          The Target Compensation Rate on the Job Data component monitors the Job Compensation rate, ensuring that job compensation is equal or greater than the target.
·          A Rate Source Indicator identifies the source of the compensation component in an employee’s compensation package.  Possible sources include manual insertion, Salary Step component default value, Job Code component default value, and Seniority Pay default value.
Rules-Driven Component Defaulting functionality enables you to define flexible defaulting rules at the rate code level and by linking rate codes to fields and field values from the job record.  When you enter a value on the Job Data component that is tied to a rule in an employee’s job record, the system will automatically update that employee’s compensation data based on that rule.


Monitor Health & Safety

As part of the delivery of Occupational Health and Safety functionality in PeopleSoft 8.3 HRMS, we’ve added setup tables and fields for Medication, Immunization, and Allergy to the Health Card 2 page.


Manage Competencies
Manage Competencies will have redesigned competency assignment pages.  Assigning competencies will be much simpler and more flexible with a clearer distinction between role and individual.  Effective dating at the proficiency level will be added so that employers can better track when their employees reach certain levels of proficiency.  Also new will be the ability to customize the rating scales and have different scales for different competencies.
In PeopleSoft 8.3 HRMS you can maintain information on the competencies and accomplishments of your employees. By maintaining information on employee competencies and accomplishments, you can easily consider successions based on employee experience and specific knowledge
The new Assign/Approve Merit Increase component enables the user to:

§ View the approved and completed review results for a group of employees.
§ Calculate merit increases for a group of employees based on the review results and a merit increase ID.
§ Adjust the merit increases calculated by the system.
§ Approve or deny merit increases for individual employees in the group.
§ Load the increase information into the Job table.

Plan Carriers and Successions

In the Plan Careers business process, Geographic preference now prompts from a table.  The Plan Careers menu now includes Geographic Preference, where you can enter your desired list of regions.




Administer Training
New functionality  will support cut-session training courses enabling you to schedule courses that do not run on consecutive days from start to finish.  A new course session planner will give you the ability to check on the availability of trainers and training rooms before you schedule a session.  And we’ll add a group enrollment feature that will enable you to enroll a group of employees and non-employees defined with the new Group Build module.



Group Build
The Group Build module provides a centralized area of functionality that gives you the flexibility to define a group’s membership based upon any user-defined criteria.  The groups you define can contain both employees and non-employees.
Once you’ve defined a group, you can use the same group throughout all of the other PeopleSoft Human Resources compensation modules (Salary Planning, Variable Compensation, and Total Compensation) to manage the various aspects of employee compensation.  You’ll also be able to use the new Group Build features in the Training Administration module in PeopleSoft Human Resources (to identify and administer a group of workers eligible for training) and in PeopleSoft Stock Administration (to identify a group of members eligible for the allocation of stock awards).


The HR_PER501 app engine was used in release prior to 8.9 during implementation to recalculate compensation-related JOB fields. The HR_PER501 app engine used SQL statements to do the compensation calculation. In order for the Job Data PeopleCode to recalculate compensation related JOB fields, the application engine should use a component interface to open Job Data.

The HR_PER501A application engine uses a component interface that opens the Job Data component for each employee ID/employee record number to be processed.
Variable Compensation
We’ll revise the Variable Compensation module to enhance the basic usability and functionality of the module. These enhancements will provide for variable compensation plan administration by groups (using the new Group Build module) and by individuals, as well as on an ad-hoc basis.  The Variable Compensation module will support multiple plan types such as funded (top-down or bottom-up) or non-funded plans, prorated or non-prorated plans, hierarchical and non-hierarchical plans, monetary or non-monetary plans, stock-type programs, and formula-driven or performance-driven plans.  The Variable Compensation will also support budgeting for variable compensation awards by plan and by defined groups.  
Also new to the Variable Compensation module in PeopleSoft 8 will be the support of Goals Matrix plans, enhanced management reporting, tracking of guarantees, and the ability to administer carryover awards. 
In the PeopleSoft 8 Group Build and Variable Compensation modules, we’ll even extended our group functionality to include the ability to develop a user-defined hierarchy of groups.  This feature will enable your organization to administer incentive awards by a hierarchy other than its department structure.
Enhancements to the Manage Variable Compensation business process now allow integration with PeopleSoft Global Payroll. A new interface transfers variable compensation payment details to PeopleSoft Global Payroll for processing in the next pay run.

Using application messaging functionality, award information can be pulled from the Manage Variable Compensation business process directly into the positive input record structure in PeopleSoft Global Payroll.



Salary Planning

The Salary Planning module will support budgeting and salary planning by groups defined in the Group Build module. Enhanced budgeting capabilities will enable you to create several budgets for the same group and budget period.. Individual or multiple reviewers will be able to review individual employees or groups. You’ll be able to resolve the total points an employee receives in a review into a standard review band, and you’ll be able to compare and adjust “actual” and “desired review” results distributions.
New features using multiple components of pay, as well as new frequency factors, have been introduced for the Plan Salaries business process.


North American Payroll


§   FLSA calculation enhancements will enable you to accurately pay overtime across pay periods.  In addition, organizations whose pay periods are monthly or semi-monthly will also be able to take advantage of this new cross-pay period processing of FLSA.
§   In PeopleSoft 8, we’ll use API technology to exchange expense data between an expense system (PeopleSoft or a third-party product) and the PeopleSoft North American Payroll application.  We’ll include functionality to create pay sheets for these expenses and enable the system to pay them through the payroll. 
§   Using API technology, which will enable the PeopleSoft Payroll system to process employee and employer deductions and send them to accounts payable (both PeopleSoft Payables and third-party systems) for payment to third parties.
§   We have modified the final calculation process to lock the pay sheet from further updates once the process has begun, thus enabling users to continue to modify employee data.  The system will provide a waning message to the user Alerting them the payroll is in progress if changes are being made
§   The Contract Pay feature delivered in earlier Education and Government releases to provide the ability to manage benefit deductions for contract pay employees who are paid over the term of their contract. 
§   Added functionality to the existing Contract Pay feature to allow lump sum, retroactive contract payments.  With this enhancement, the system will calculate and pay the lump sum amount owed to the employee, then take that lump sum payment into account for all future payments for the contract.

Special Accumulator Processing


Payroll processing has been enhanced to allow for the designation of deduction classifications to add or subtract from special accumulators.  Accumulators are virtual “buckets” into which you can store amounts for future use. Taxable benefits or other before-tax deductions affect the special accumulator so that the calculation of deductions such as 401(k) and Canadian pension plans that use the accumulator are correct.

Expanded Check Number Field


For PeopleSoft customers with a high-volume payroll, the check number field used throughout the system has been expanded from seven to 15 digits.  This will enable sufficient unique check numbers within a four-year period.  (Most banks set a time frame of four years after the original issue date for a check number to be reused.)

 

Bond Addresses


The Bond Spec Data page has been modified to allow either an employee address or the dependent address to be selected as the delivery address for the bond.  If a dependent is the bond owner, co-owner, or beneficiary, the dependent address can be selected.  If the bond is to be sent to the employee’s address, an address type must be selected.  The selected address will appear on the page for verification purposes before the page is saved.

Integration for Employee Referral Program Awards


Companies use several methods to recruit new employees.  One of those methods is an employee referral program, wherein current employees refer friends, family, and former co-workers for open positions.  When an employee refers someone for a position and that person is hired, the employee may become eligible for a referral bonus.

These bonuses are taxable income to the employee and are paid through the company’s payroll system. For those PeopleSoft Payroll for North America customers using PeopleSoft’s employee referral functionality, we now provide the ability to integrate employee referral program awards from PeopleSoft eRecruit and Recruit Workforce to PeopleSoft Payroll for North America.  Publish/subscribe technology is used to process awards through the payroll cycle and to record costs in HR job requisition expense data records.
Rapid Entry Timesheet

PeopleSoft 8.8 Payroll for North America provides a new rapid entry paysheet that will enable quick adding of basic payroll data such as exception time reporting (illness, vacation), overtime, commissions, and bonuses. This functionality is in addition to the paysheets feature that currently exists in PeopleSoft Payroll for North America. Following


Bank Transit Number Validation

We now validate U.S. bank transit numbers entered when setting up company bank tables, employee direct deposits (including self-service), and USF deduction and garnishment distributions. The validation utilizes check digits to verify the transit routing number using an algorithm published by the American Bankers Association.


§ Sales Incentive Management – to facilitate incentive payments, there is now a bi-directional data interface between Sales Incentive Management and Payroll for North America.  This interface includes functionality to configure the data integration and then manage the ongoing exchange.
§ Alternative Overtime – California legislation requires an employer to pay overtime at the rate of one and one-half times an employee’s regular rate of pay for hours worked over eight in a workday and twice an employee’s regular rate of pay for hours worked over 12 in a workday. New configuration table to define states for alternative overtime. New FLSA translate value of “Alt OT”, attached to employee’s JOB record for calculation of alternative overtime.
§ General Ledger Integration – enables synchronization between PeopleSoft Enterprise Payroll for North America and PeopleSoft EnterpriseOne General Ledger.
§ Standard Chartfield Configuration – enables consistent use of ChartFields between General Ledger and Payroll for North America, It enables the synchronization of ChartField configuration between the two PeopleSoft applications, thereby providing the information necessary for more detailed reporting of labor costs.

Global Payroll
PeopleSoft Global Payroll is an innovative new payroll system that will give you control over all aspects of your payroll operation in a multinational environment.  PeopleSoft Global Payroll is composed of two complementary pieces:
A core payroll application that will include:
·          A payroll rules-based engine.   Our payroll rules-based engine will provide a flexible tool that defines and executes payroll and absence calculations.  PeopleSoft Global Payroll won’t embed payroll-specific logic or computations in application code.  Instead, it will specify all business application logic, such as earnings, deductions, absences, and accumulators, in terms of payroll rules.  PeopleSoft Global Payroll will enable you to work in your preferred language or currency.
·          A payroll-processing framework.   Our payroll-processing framework will provide a flexible way to define and execute payroll and absence processing flows using components such as calendars, run types, pay periods, and process lists.
·          Country extensions.  Our country extension will:
§   Be built using the core payroll application.
§   Consist of statutory and customary objects (such as payroll rules, payroll processes, reports, and self-service applications) that are specific to individual countries.
The first targeted country extensions are the UK, France, Germany, and Switzerland.  These extensions will be delivered on the PeopleSoft 8 platform in the fourth quarter of 2000 through off-cycle deliveries, meaning that they will not be tied to the ERP calendar release.  We’ll add additional country extensions to this list in off-cycle releases following PeopleSoft 8.
The core payroll application will be available in all the languages that PeopleSoft supports.  We’ll deliver the country extension database objects in English and in the native languages of the target country.  We’ll deliver local statutory reports in the native languages only.
PeopleSoft North American Payroll and PeopleSoft Global Payroll are two separate applications, each built using the same technology (PeopleTools) and are designed to coexist in the same database.
PeopleSoft 8 will give you the ability to run both PeopleSoft North American Payroll and PeopleSoft Global Payroll on the same database.
Several new features expand the functionality of earnings and deduction processing in the PeopleSoft Global Payroll core application. You can do the following:
·          Override the value of a supporting element that’s used in the definition of earnings, deduction, absence take, or absence entitlement element.  Enter these override instructions on the Supporting Element Overrides page that’s now part of the earnings, deduction, and absence take, and absence entitlement components.
·          Use the PRORATE system element to prorate an earnings, deduction, absence take, or absence entitlement element when there is no segmentation.
·          Assign an element, rather than a numeric value, for an arrears payback amount on the Deductions - Arrears page.
·          On the Calculation page of an earnings or deduction component, enter instructions to execute a preprocess and/or a post process formula immediately before or after the resolution of the earnings or deduction.
·          On the Element Name page, you have greater flexibility in designating whether you want to store earnings and deduction results that resolve to zero.

Positive input refers to earnings and deduction data that are entered for a single pay period.  The data—such as hours worked or a one-time bonus—is specific to a payee and can change each period.  Currently, you can enter positive input for one payee at a time.  Enhancements to this feature provide a faster, easier option for data entry.

·          The new Positive Input - Calendar page enables you to enter positive input for multiple payees.  You access the component by specifying the calendar and pay group.  In addition, you can use the PI - Bulk Template page to create templates that identify just those elements or supporting element overrides included on the Positive Input by Template data entry page.  Templates are especially helpful when you have a lot of data for the same type of earning or deduction—for example, quarterly bonuses or overtime hours.


Payroll Interface

§   Pay System flag has been moved from the Employment record to the Job record
§   Payroll Interface check box has been added to the Installation table
§   Multiple jobs will be supported by Payroll interface
§   Enhanced effective dated logic in the Payroll interface to provide the ability to export multiple effective dated rows In order to support retroactivity needs.
§   Improved performance with the addition of an enhanced selection process and compare data only for employees who have had changes made in PeopleSoft HRMS since the last time the data was exported.
§   We’ll also add the ability to write the PeopleSoft Payroll interface export files to database tables instead of the external files.
§    
§    
§