PSF Analysis Code Structures

There are 2 types of analysis codes which are submitted to PSF for verification.

Profit & Loss (Income & Expenditure)

The structure of the P&L analysis codes in PSP is as follows:

Location, 3 characters.

Nominal Code, typically 5 characters.

Account, variable length.

Cost Centre, variable length.

The structure in PSF is slightly different and will frequently consist of only 3 levels, of which the middle level is typically a numeric code which reflects the combination of the Nominal Code and Account in PSP. PSF will also contain a series of mapping rules which verifies that a particular combination of these 2 elements is valid and subsequently transposes into the required numeric analysis level in PSF.

More familiar terminology from a PSP perspective, for the 4 elements of the P&L analysis, may be:

Location

Activity Category

Payment/Deduction Category

Cost Centre

Before describing how each of these levels is determined, it will be helpful to appreciate how an entry in the Working File (employee’s payslip) can be associated with a specific Employment History record (role).

There are 2 mechanisms available.

1. Fixed Payments/Deductions

These are the recurring payments and deductions associated with an employee’s payslip and will be automatically transferred into the Working File as part of the Period End process of the Payroll module. If the Fixed Payment/Deduction is associated with a particular Employment History record (the Activity drop-down list at the bottom of the screen is not empty) then this link will also be associated with the Working File entry.

2. Temporary Payments

In a particular pay period, further payments (or even deductions) may be added to the Working File which are pertinent to the current pay period only. Unlike the Fixed Payments/Deductions described above, they are not automatically created in the Working File as part of the Period End process. These “temporary” transactions can be captured by a number of mechanisms such as:

Direct entry into the Working File via the Windows Application Desktop.

Imported from spreadsheet(s)

Entered and authorised via the Self Service facilities and deposited into the Working File.

Each of these mechanisms can provide the capacity to also nominate an Employment History record, so that any particular Overtime the employee is submitting (for example) can be costed to the correct role. Obviously of importance where an employee has more than 1 active Employment History record.

Each level of the 4 part P&L analysis code is determined as follows:

Location

If a payment or deduction in the Working File (employee’s payslip) is specifically attached to a particular role (Employment History record) then the 3 character location code associated with that definition will be used. If no role has been specified, the location code associated with the Primary Active role is used.

Activity Category (Nominal Code)

As with the Location, the PSP Activity definition, the first item displayed on the first TAB of the associated Employment History maintenance form, will be used. If no role has been specified, the Activity associated with the Primary Active role is used. Unlike the Location however, the code of the Activity definition is not assigned to the composite PSF code, instead, the definition of this master Activity (role) is located:

Windows Application Desktop: Payroll / Definitions / Terms & Conditions / Activity

Select the required Activity definition, and press “Edit”

On the Terms (2nd) TAB of the presented form, there will be an item labelled “Gen Code”. It is the contents of this data item that will be used as the Activity Category (2nd level) of the P&L analysis code. A list of available codes is accessible via the lookup button ( … ) adjacent to this data item.

Typical entries in this list are described on the following page: Default Activity Categories

However, the analysis items available in your particular definitions may be different, if the analysis categories in PSF have been altered.

Payment/Deduction Category (Account)

The Payment/Deduction associated with each Working File entry (this is a mandatory item) is selected and then the definition of this Payment/Deduction is located:

Windows Application Desktop: Payroll / Definitions / Module Setup / Payment/Deduction

Select the required Payment/Deduction definition, and press “Edit”

On the GEN TAB of the presented form, there will be an item labelled “Gen Code”. It is the contents of this data item that will be used as the Payment/Deduction Category (3rd level) of the P&L analysis code. A list of available codes is accessible via the lookup button ( … ) adjacent to this data item.

Typical entries in this list are described on the following page: Default Payment/Deduction Categories

However, the analysis items available in your particular definitions may be different, if the analysis categories in PSF have been altered.

Cost Centre

If a payment or deduction in the Working File (employee’s payslip) is specifically attached to a particular role (Employment History record) then the Cost Centre code associated with that definition will be used. If no role has been specified, the Cost Centre code associated with the Primary Active role is used.

The Cost Centre definition is then located:

Windows Application Desktop: Payroll / Definitions / Module Setup / Cost Centre

Select the required Cost Centre definition, and press “Edit”

On the first TAB of the presented form, there will be an item labelled “Gen Code”. It is the contents of this data item that will be used as the Cost Centre code (4th level) of the P&L analysis code. If this data item is empty however, the code of the PSP Cost Centre definition (the first field on the same TAB) will be used.

If the PSF Cost Centres are less than or equal to 5 characters and are uniform for all locations, then it is anticipated that the Cost Centres used in PSP will be exactly the same as those described in PSF. PSP however, needs to only consider those PSF Cost Centres which are relevant to the payroll process so it is anticipated that the PSP list of Cost Centres will be dramatically less than the PSF list.

If your chosen list of PSP Cost Centres does not currently contain a link to a PSF equivalent (and the codes are not the same anyway) then you will need to ensure an appropriate GEN Code entry is provided on the PSP Cost Centre definition.

Once each of the 4 levels have been independently identified they are combined to create a single composite analysis code which is then presented to PSF for verification, for example: XYZ-TEACH-SAL-ABCDE.

The following page describes how you can investigate any “issues” identified by PSF if it subsequently rejects a particular analysis code combination, as presented on the Suspense Account List:

Windows Application Desktop: Payroll / Reports / Financial Analysis / Suspense Account List.

Please ensure you tick the “Analyse Payroll” option on the 2nd TAB.

The Suspense Account List, as well as the Control Account Errors report on the same menu, should be empty before you attempt to close a pay period in PSP.

The following page describes what you should do if entries are identified on the Suspense account List:

PSF Suspense Account List – Troubleshooting

Balance Sheet (Control) Accounts

The Balance Sheet account structure also contains 4 levels, only 3 of which are utilised. Examples of some typical codes are:

XYZ-BSHEET-NET-

XYZ-BSHEET-PAYENI-

XYZ-BSHEET-OTHDEDN-

where XYZ is the designated location.

For Balance Sheet analysis, each composite code is not “built” but simply extracted from one of the following sources:

Financial Control Accounts

Windows Application Desktop: Payroll / Definitions / Module Setup / Financial Control Accounts

Select “Display” button

These will normally contain one of the following entries:

???-BSHEET-NET-

???-BSHEET-PAYENI-

???-BSHEET-OTHDEDN-

The Location can be either the Location of the individual to which the transaction is associated (???) or to a centralised Location which is the same for all employees attached to the selected payroll template. This can be adjusted by either specifically describing the required central location on these screens, for example:

XYZ-BSHEET-NET-

XYZ-BSHEET-PAYENI-

XYZ-BSHEET-OTHDEDN-

OR

Windows Application Desktop: Payroll / Definitions / Module Setup / PSF Integration Options.

Balance Sheet Master Location : Select the centralised location to be allocated to any Balance Sheet definitions which are prefixed with ???-

Pension Schemes

Windows Application Desktop: Payroll / Definitions / Module Setup / Pensions / Pension Schemes

Select a Pension Scheme definition, press “Edit”:

General Ledger TAB, Employee and Employer entries should be:

???-BSHEET-LGPS-  or  ???-BSHEET-TEACHPEN  or  ???-BSHEET-OTHDEDN-

The same rules apply for the substitution of the required Location code prefixes.

User-defined Payments/Deductions

Some user defined deductions such as Cycle-to-Work schemes, Union Deductions, Child Care Vouchers and so on should be analysed to Balance Sheet accounts rather than as part of the construction process applied to P&L accounts. As per the other Balance Sheet accounts described above, these should be provided in the same structure on the Payment/Deduction definition:

Windows Application Desktop: Payroll / Definitions / Module Setup / Payment/Deduction

Select the required Payment/Deduction definition, and press “Edit”

On the GEN TAB of the presented form:

Generate GL : This Code

GEN Code :  ???-BSHEET-UNSUB-  or  ???-BSHEET-CHILDVCH–  or ?????

If an error is presented (because the system is unable to determine an appropriate Location suffix at this juncture), please continue and save the definition regardless.