Pay Code

The Pay Code (or Earnings Code) identifies the method and the calculations to be used for paying employees. The pay code is an integral part of a salary function and, therefore, at least one pay code must be defined in the database. Pay codes are used to classify earnings, and store different types of earnings in the history and current totals.

Pay Code 

• Enter 2 numbers (01-99). Use lookup table that includes the pay code short description.

Pay Code Description

Enter 30 alphanumeric characters.

Following the full description is an 8-character optional short description field. This short description field may be left blank.

When the short pay code description is used the Payroll History Inquiry screen will use the short pay description in place of the truncated pay code description.

Factor

The value of this field is determined by the calculation code (7 numeric, 2 decimal).

If the calculation code is '+', enter the amount to add to regular pay rate.

If the calculation code is '*', enter the percentage to multiply the regular pay rate by to get the rate to use for the pay code. When you use this '*' the factor field must contain a numeric value. Enter 1.5 for a 50% increase to the regular rate. Enter 1.0 for no change to the pay rate.

Calculation Code

• Enter '*' to Multiply the factor value and the regular salary rate. When you use this '*' the factor field must contain a value.

• Enter '+' to Add the factor amount to the regular pay rate.

• Enter 'M' if this is a Money only pay code. No hours are entered or carried through the payroll run.

NOTE: On the function line for employee pay types F, S, T, or A:

*indicates the total hours are stagnant. Any timesheet entries against the function lines will reduce the hours paid out by the function line. Entering negative hours (using a + pay code as well) will increase the hours paid by the function line by the number of hours entered, thus the total hours are the same.

NOTE: A '+' pay code to be used to reduce function line time CANNOT contain a premium. When a pay code premium exists, the pay code is treated as an adjustment and not a replacement of wages. Use a shift or occupation premium instead.

To reduce hours paid on a function line through time sheet entry, enter negative hours against the function line using a pay code with a * calculation code and the factor 1.0.

The * calculation allows the total hours to fluctuate according to the time sheet entries, an adjustment entry. For simple docking of pay you would define the pay code with a calculation of * with a factor of 1.0.

Type of Code

• Enter 'E' to report all earnings (pay) codes.

• Enter 'N' to indicates this is a 'No Pay' pay code. The 'No Pay' type code overrides the pay rate and all premiums to zero on timesheet entries while retaining the hours entered. The calculation code of the pay code will retain the original functionality for example, a plus pay code will still reduce hours from a fixed wage function line.

This no pay option also allows a method of recording hours against employees without generating any earnings. The 'N'o pay type cannot be used on a pay code with a calculation code of 'M'oney only.

The 'Omit Benefit Costs' field will be forced to 'B'oth for 'No Pay' type pay codes. The pay code can never have monies attached, thus cannot be used for Benefit Cost Distribution.

• Enter 'B' when this pay code is to be defined to deposit to a storage bank. With the Pay Code Type of 'B' the hours on the timesheet entry are inflated by the factor value when the hours are deposited into the storage bank. The pay code must be defined with a Calculation code of * and a value in the Factor field. This feature does not affect the hours value on the timesheet.

• Enter 'T' when the pay code is to be used in conjunction with a 'P'art-time function line to generate Accrue Time.  This feature allows the hours on the 'P'art-time function line to be picked up by the payroll stream and feed into the storage bank system. You can control which storage banks these hours/days will be applied to based on the pay code include/exclude per storage bank table.   The 'T' type forces the Hours to be non EI Insurable and sets the pay code to Omit Benefit Costs.  The Hours Pensionable is not forced to 'N' although under most situations the hours processed under this pay code would not be applied to pension credit.  The intent of this option is to process hours/days into Seniority banks for employees On Leave with Benefits, although this feature may be used on active employees.  When not used in conjunction with a 'P'art-time function line this pay code type has no special meaning.

• Enter 'W' to indicate this pay code is to calculate the timesheet per unit rate by using the Working Days from the payroll calendar instead of the hours/days from the function line.  This pay code type is only applicable for Fixed, Annual or Contract function lines where a per unit rate is calculated. This override calculation only refers to timesheet activities. *Note: The Payroll Calendar Alternate Days will override the default calendar Working Days when applicable.

• Enter 'J' to indicate imported timesheets entries should generate a reversing timesheet. The intent of this pay code type is to allow timesheet entries to be imported with specific GL costing defined.  A reversing timesheet will be generated that will reverse the time/monies while using the GL costing as defined by the employee's function line costing definition.  This timesheet reversing is only generated when timesheets are imported from either atrieveHR or through the Timesheet Interface Process.

GL Expense Account

• Enter an override expense GL account. This GL account must contain the wildcard character. This expense GL account will override the use of the Default Earnings GL from the employee's costing as well as the Default GL from the cost center. Refer to the Payroll GL Costing Rules document for details on GL costing. 

HRS Display ON Earn State   

• Enter 'Y' to have the hours field display on the user defined earning statement.

• Enter 'N' to block the display of hours for this pay code on the user defined earning statement.  Any hours from this pay code will not be included in the hours totals and the field will display as a blank.

Override EI Allocation

This field is a marker for EI distribution of earnings. This field can only be set to 'Y' or 'R' with a pay code that has a '+' calculation code. The 'Y' and 'R' indicator is only used during time sheet/card entry when the time sheet is entered against an employee's F(ixed), S(alary), A(nnual), or T(eacher) function line.

• The 'Y' marker is used against the hours entered (regardless of the date used) are marked as replacement wages. The wages are added back to the employee's salary during payroll processing and the total salary is evenly distributed for UIC. During time sheet/card entry the message 'Automatic EI Distribution' displays and no EI adjustments are available nor is an EI time sheet record available for adjustment.

• The 'R' marker reacts the same as the 'Y' marker when the pay rate during time sheet/card entry is not adjusted or overridden. The pay rate entered is compared to the default pay rate for the current function line. The master (or first) function line values are used if the current entry is against a nonstandard function line.

When the pay rate entered does not match the default pay rate this indicates that the dollar difference created by changing the pay rate, should affect only the EI insurable for the week the time sheet was entered in. This option is only valid for current period dates and no EI adjustments are available.

Hours EI Insurable

Canadian payrolls only

• Enter 'Y' if the hours paid under this pay code should be included in the EI history for ROE reporting. This is the default value.

• Enter 'N' to indicate the hours (earnings are not affected) are to be excluded from the EI history and therefore not reported on the ROE. This option should only apply to situations where the EI defines the hours as uninsurable, but the earnings are still insurable and at the same time the hours paid must be recorded. When both the hours and earnings are not EI insurable, the pay code should just be excluded from the EI deduction code.

Marking the pay code with hours not insurable will affect all activities for the pay code in timesheet entries, function line paid hours, Manual Cheques, Year to Date Adjustments and Statement History Adjustments.

The option to mark hours as not EI insurable does not apply to pay codes that have the EI Allocation is set to 'Y' es or 'R'ate.

Unit Factor

This field only applies when the time for this pay code is EI Insurable and only applies to Canada payrolls for EI insurable time.

Use of the field is an override to the employee's actual setup and usually left blank.

The intent of this field is to allow the time entered under this pay code to be handled differently by the EI hours processing. Use this field if you want an hourly pay code to be used against an employee who has been defined with days on the function line and days on the corresponding pay cycle code.

This field allows you to define an override to the number of hours to a day for the time on processed under this pay code. If this pay code is to be an hourly pay code used against an employee defined with days, enter 1.0. This ensures all time entered with this pay code will be processed under the EI system without expanding the time, as is done with the days.  This field can also be used to enforce a different number of hours per day for specific time. E.g.: a teacher may be defined with 9.1 hours per day but work as a Teacher On Call where the time should be processed as 7.5 hours per day.

Storage Bank Unit Factor

Use of the field is an override to the use of the regular pay code and is usually left blank.

The intent of this field is to allow the unit of time entered under this pay code to be converted by the Storage Bank Unit Factor entered before being applied to the storage banks. The unit of time from the pay code will be multiplied by this Storage Bank Unit Factor before the unit of time effects any storage bank functions, deposited, withdrawn, accruals etc.

This field allows a pay code with a different type of unit to be used such as an hourly pay code on a days payroll. The hourly time can be converted into days before affecting the storage banks.

• Enter 'Per Day' to have the number of hours per day per employee passed into the timesheet entry to be used as the storage bank unit factor, thus converting hourly entries into daily storage bank entries. This feature is triggered by the field 'Convert to Days Using Schd Hrs' on the atrieveHR Absence code database per payroll, field. Instead of the storage bank transactions being based on a fixed unit factor, the individual employee's hours per day are passed in on the timesheet entry during the atrieveHR interface. The 'Per Day' setting will also trigger the hours per day loading for the Web Timesheet Entry Import for the TEW system.

The hours per day used per entry is displayed under the Employee Transaction Inquiry per timesheet entry. The Timesheet Entry and Timesheet Edit will both prompts to enter/change the Storage Bank Factor - Hours Per Day which allows you to manage these entries.

Hours Pensionable

• Enter 'Y' to indicate all hours processed under this pay code are to be included in the calculation of pension credits and pension hours used. If left blank, it will be processed as though 'Y' was entered. The default is 'Y' and the normal setting.

• Enter 'N' to indicate all hours processed under this pay code are to be excluded from the calculation of pension credits and pensionable hours, although the earnings may be considered pensionable earnings. Setting this field to 'N' will omit the hours on any entries from this pay code for pension calculations (Group "1" deductions) using eligible hours. This includes the Saskatchewan Teacher pension Group 1 Type 6 for the calculation of eligible days and the determination of the daily rate. This setting also applies to the hour calculation on pension Group 1 Type 1 using Units, the minimum hours to qualify on pension Group 1 Type 8 and the minimum number of hours to activate on pension Group 1 type 9. This omission includes the reporting of hours on the pension reports, where applicable which includes the Saskatchewan Teacher and MEPP reports as well as the Manitoba TRAF report.

This pay code marker only refers to the hours paid out under the pay code. The pay code must still be included in the list of eligible earnings on the pension deduction for the hours/earnings to be considered pensionable. Pay codes excluded from the pension deduction will not pick up the hours or earnings from the excluded pay code.

Pension Service Override

This field only applies when the time processed under this pay code is pensionable. This pension service override affects the calculation of pension credits for BC, Alberta and Montana. 

This field allows you to specify an override Employee Type code to be used when calculating pension credits from time processed under this pay code. Normally the Employee Type code is taken from the master function line for all pension credit calculations.

This field would only be used when the time processed under this pay code has a different Base Hours (meaning base time) than the time usually processed for an employee.

For example, if the employee is defined using days the employee Base Hours would be defined using days. In order to pay the employee on an hourly basis the pension credit calculation would require a different Base Hours.

NOTE: When the Maximum CREDITS on this override Employee Type code is set as zero then the system will use the Maximum Credits from the employee's default Employee Type code in the calculation of pension credits during Payroll Update and for the Pension Credit Recalculation process. The employee's default Employee Type code is taken from the employee's master function line.

This feature would only be used when different groups of employees with a different number of maximum credits are to use the same pay code which contains a Pension Service Override employee code. An Employee Type code with zero Maximum Credits could NOT be attached to an employee's function line.

Omit Benefit Costs

This prompt allows pay codes to be marked so earnings paid out under a pay code will/will not be used in determining the costing of benefits. The benefits are costed on a ratio of benefits to earnings, following the cost center of the earnings.

• Enter 'N' to indicate earnings paid out under this pay code should be used in determining the costing of benefits. This is the default for all pay codes and represents the standard use of pay codes. The system assumes 'N' if this field is left blank.

• Enter 'S' to indicate earnings paid out under this pay code should not be considered when costing the employer share portion of deductions. The earnings will still be considered when costing accrual banks costs.

• Enter 'A' to indicate that earnings paid out under this pay code should not be considered when costing the accrual bank costs. These earnings will still be considered in the costing of the employer share.

• Enter 'B' to indicate that earnings paid out under this pay code would not be used in determining the costing of both the employer share and the accrual bank costs. No benefits would follow the earnings paid out under a pay code with this marker.

When 'S'hare or 'B'oth has been selected you have the option to enter an override list of deduction codes. An empty deduction code list is the default and means all earnings from this pay code will be omitted from the share benefit costing on all deduction codes. Earnings from this pay code will not be used to allocate benefit costs for any deduction code listed. Earnings from this pay code will be used to allocate benefit costs for deduction codes NOT included in the list (and the list is not empty).

This override applies only to deductions (share benefits) and not to the accrual bank costs.

The system requires the pay code used on all employee's master function lines (the first function line) be set to accept all benefits. The system will cost back to the master function line if all earnings in a pay run are set to omit benefits.

Memo Field

• Enter up to 35 characters of relevant information. This field is not used by the payroll system and may contain any necessary information.

Bank Transactions

Leave field empty when no storage bank transactions are required for this pay code.

• Enter 'W' to indicate this pay bank should withdrawal from a storage bank. All hours and amounts processed through this pay code will be withdrawn depending on the storage bank set up.

• Enter 'D' to indicate this pay bank should deposit to a storage bank. NOTE: 'D' can only be used during time sheet entry and is typically used for banked overtime.

• Enter one storage bank for Deposits and one or up to 10 storage banks (separated by a comma) for Withdrawals. For example, D01, or W01,02,03,04,

With multiple storage banks on Withdrawals, the system will scan the employee's record and use the first storage bank found on the employee with an adequate balance (for withdrawal) or the first bank for deposit. This allows you set up a series of storage banks for vacation, sick leave, etc. with differing allowances, but use a single pay code to withdraw from any bank listed. This means the withdrawal will be taken from the appropriate bank on each employee's record.

• 01 - One Week Vacation

• 02 - Two Weeks Vacation

• 03 - Three Weeks Vacation

• etc.

Bank From Absence Code   

• Enter 'N'o when the pay bank to be used is to be derived from the Bank Trans list defined on this pay code, or storage bank is not applicable to this pay code.  No is the default for pay codes.

• Enter 'Y' es when the storage bank to be used per timesheet entry for this pay code is defined on the Absence Code database in atrieveHR. This feature is designed to be used when absences are automatically interfaced into payroll from atrieveHR. The atrieveHR Absence Code database has definitions per payroll which allows you to control which storage bank will be used per absence entry without having to use multiple pay codes. The Bank Trans field on the pay code must still be completed and the action Withdrawal or Deposit is based on the Bank Trans setting. When no override storage bank is defined on the absence code, the storage banks from the Bank Trans will be used for the entry. Note: the atrieveHR Absence only applies the storage bank entry to one storage bank per absence, when multiple storage banks are defined on the HR absence this feature is not active.

The storage bank used per entry is displayed under the Employee Transaction Inquiry per timesheet entry. The Timesheet Entry and Timesheet Edit will both prompts to enter/change the Absence Override Bank Entry which allows you to manage these entries.

Parallel Pay Code Entry

Leave this field when a parallel timesheet entry is not required for this pay codes.

Enter the parallel pay code related to the current pay code.  This feature only applies for pay codes set to do a bank withdrawal.  When the Earnings Detail phase of the payroll is run, all timesheets for the current pay code will trigger a timesheet to be auto generated for the parallel pay code(s).  These timesheets are generated into a batch using the reserved batch code of BTU. Should the parallel pay code have a storage bank defined, the employee must meet the requirements of that storage bank in order for the timesheet to be created.

The report from the auto generation of the parallel pay codes is appended to the bottom of the Earning Detail report for reference. Should the payroll stream be rerun (not updated), then all non-updated batches for code BTU will be purged and recreated.  Once a payroll has been updated, updated batches are not affected by rerunning the payroll.

Override Occupation Premium Pay Code

Enter ‘N’ to omit overriding the pay code set on the occupation code with premiums.

Enter ‘Y’ to override the pay code on the occupation code entries for timesheets related to this pay code.  The occupation premium amount will remain within the pay code amount instead of being split off to another pay code.

Activating this field also alters the premium amounts are applied to the pay rate for timesheets related to this pay code.  By default, the shift premium is added to the pay rate after the pay code factor is applied.  When this override field is active, the shift premium will be added along with the occupation code premium to the pay rate and then the pay code factor will be applied.

Pay Type (FLASH code) and Pay Code Interaction