Tag: Payroll

Oracle Fusion Cloud Payroll 26D: Small Changes, Real Benefits

~ K8 Mead ~ Leave a comment

It’s quarterly release time again, and while Payroll 26D doesn’t contain the sort of headline-grabbing feature that will completely transform how payroll teams work, it does include a collection of enhancements that solve real-world problems. There’s continued progress on Oracle’s Redwood journey, some useful legislative updates for UK and Irish payroll, stronger visibility into tax calculations for US payroll teams, and a handful of practical improvements that should reduce administration effort and simplify troubleshooting.

What stood out to me this quarter is that many of the enhancements focus on making payroll easier to manage rather than simply adding new functionality. Several address common frustrations that payroll teams have been dealing with for years, while others provide much-needed transparency into processes that have traditionally felt like a black box. As always, Oracle may introduce additional features over the coming weeks, but here’s what has caught my attention so far.

One theme that won’t surprise anyone by now is Redwood. Oracle continues to replace classic payroll pages with their modern Redwood equivalents, and 26D brings another significant batch of payroll administration pages across. At this stage, most payroll customers understand that the question is no longer whether Redwood is coming, but when they’re going to adopt it. Releases like 26D continue to chip away at the remaining classic pages and make that transition increasingly inevitable. While not every Redwood page introduces brand new functionality, many do improve usability and create a more consistent experience across HCM Cloud.

The Legal Entity Calculation Card and Legal Reporting Unit Calculation Card have now moved to Redwood. These cards hold payroll statutory unit and tax reporting unit defaults, making them some of the more important configuration pages within Payroll. For customers already using Redwood profile options, the new experience is enabled automatically. Functionally, very little changes, but it continues Oracle’s journey towards a consistent user experience across the application.

The Fast Formula migration is probably the Redwood enhancement that will attract the most attention from payroll specialists. The new page introduces a genuinely modern code editor experience, including syntax highlighting and quicker access to database items and functions. Anyone who spends their day building or troubleshooting formulas will likely find it easier to navigate than the classic version. That said, there is one notable omission. Expression Builder isn’t available in the Redwood experience yet, which may influence how quickly some organisations choose to move over. It’s not a blocker for everyone, but it’s definitely something worth testing before making the switch.

Oracle has also moved a further six payroll setup pages into Redwood: Balance Exceptions, Balance Exceptions and Reports, Element Security Profiles, Features by Country or Territory, Organisation Payment Methods and Run Types. It should be noted that these pages are enabled by default. One point worth highlighting relates to Organisation Payment Methods. If you’ve previously granted access through custom job roles, you’ll need to review those roles and ensure they include both the Organisation Payment Method Management Duty role and the Manage Organisation Payment Method function privilege.

One Redwood enhancement I’m particularly pleased to see is the update to Balance Adjustments. Historically, making multiple balance corrections could be a fairly manual process, particularly when trying to understand the wider impact of those changes. The new experience allows administrators to work with multiple adjustments in a single transaction while immediately seeing the before and after effect across affected balances.

The ability to apply separate costing to individual adjustments and navigate directly from Balance Results into Balance Adjustment creates a much smoother experience than before. It’s the sort of enhancement that won’t generate much excitement in release announcements, but for payroll teams dealing with corrections and reconciliations it could save a significant amount of time.

The Retropay enhancement is another feature that feels small on paper but addresses an issue that has caught a number of organisations out in practice. Where employees are processed through multiple payroll runs within the same period, for example a bonus run followed by the regular payroll run, previous behaviour could sometimes create duplicate retro entries or unnecessary offset adjustments. Those situations could take time to understand and even longer to explain.

The new logic helps Oracle determine whether the entry has already been processed within a later payroll run before generating retrospective adjustments, creating a cleaner and more predictable outcome. This feature is disabled by default and requires the Set Late Recurring Retro Entry Earliest Date process to be run, so customers will want to carefully consider when to enable it.

There are a number of UK-specific enhancements in 26D and, I’ve called out three that address genuine operational scenarios rather than simply introducing administrative changes. The first on is Process Results Enhancements. Anyone who regularly analyses payroll results will appreciate this one. The Run Pension Automatic Enrolment Letters process now displays the employee name and payroll relationship number. Send HMRC XML results show the flow name instead of the payroll action ID, and Pension Assessor Updates include employee details alongside a direct link to the pension component within Earnings and Deductions. These aren’t transformational changes, but they’re exactly the sort of usability improvements that reduce investigation time when payroll teams are trying to locate information quickly.

This Enhanced Statutory Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay for Northern Ireland Employees enhancement delivers support for legislative changes effective from 6 April 2026. Oracle now supports the expanded eligibility requirements for Northern Ireland employees, including miscarriage-related absences and day-one eligibility. The system also records and reports qualifying payments separately from existing statutory parental bereavement pay arrangements. The enhancement is automatically enabled and requires no customer action.

The next one is the Use Published Schedules to Determine UK Statutory Sick Pay Qualifying Days. Customers using Workforce Management alongside UK Statutory Sick Pay should pay close attention to this enhancement. Where a published schedule exists before the absence begins, Oracle can now use that published schedule to determine SSP qualifying days rather than relying solely on the employee’s work pattern. For organisations with complex scheduling arrangements, this should help ensure SSP calculations more accurately reflect planned working patterns. Customers planning to use this functionality should review the Schedule Hierarchy Starting Point configuration within relevant sickness absence types.

The US payroll enhancements arguably provide the strongest collection of updates this quarter, combining compliance improvements, increased transparency, and continued investment in AI-assisted payroll analysis. Managing SECURE 603 eligibility has often required manual effort, particularly for organisations with large employee populations. Oracle now automates the determination of catch-up eligibility outcomes through the Start-of-Year process, evaluating high-earner status based on payroll statutory units, tax reporting units, or tax groups depending on configuration. The inclusion of a draft mode is particularly welcome, allowing payroll teams to review outcomes before committing them in final mode. Some complex organisational structures will still require manual intervention, but for many employers this should significantly reduce annual administration effort.

The next feature is the Tax Calculation Statement Page: Federal Income Tax. This is probably my favourite enhancement in the US payroll release. Payroll teams are regularly asked why a particular tax deduction was calculated in a certain way, yet historically obtaining that answer often meant navigating several screens or performing manual calculations. Oracle has introduced a new Tax Calculation Statement view that provides complete visibility into Federal Income Tax calculations. Administrators can either review the calculation components directly or work through a step-by-step breakdown showing intermediate values and calculation logic. For troubleshooting and employee query resolution alone, this has the potential to save a huge amount of time.

Oracle continues to expand the capabilities of its Payroll Run Analyst AI Agent. The agent can now answer natural language questions relating to Federal Income Tax calculations, allowing administrators to ask questions such as why a calculation was performed a particular way or which attributes contributed to the result. This is one of the more practical examples of AI within payroll. Rather than trying to automate the payroll process itself, Oracle is using AI to make it easier for payroll professionals to understand and investigate payroll outcomes.

Oracle has added a new Tax Enforcement Level field within the Federal component of the employee Tax Withholding card. This allows administrators to determine whether annual limit tax tracking should occur at the PSU, TRU, or tax group level. Because the setting exists at employee level, it can also override organisation-level defaults when required. For organisations with more complex employment structures, the additional flexibility will be welcome.

Oracle has also improved how USOPTE statutory tax rule overrides are managed. Payroll administrators can now create, update, delete, and end-date override records directly from the Statutory Rules interface, while also reviewing override history over previous years. It brings what has sometimes been tracked externally back into Oracle in a much more controlled and auditable way.

Oracle continues to invest heavily in Irish payroll, and that’s entirely understandable. Irish Payroll is still relatively new within Oracle Fusion compared to some of the more mature localisations, and Oracle have been steadily expanding both functionality and legislative coverage release after release. The pace of delivery remains impressive, with large number of enhancements arriving in 26D alone. While some of these changes are legislative in nature, others help bring Irish Payroll into line with capabilities that customers in longer-established payroll localisations have already been benefiting from.

The Payroll Activity Centre is now available for Irish payroll customers. This provides administrators with a consolidated view of payroll activity, balances, and exceptions, including Irish-specific values such as PAYE, PRSI, USC, and My Future Fund deductions. The real value isn’t the visibility itself, but the ability to identify and resolve issues earlier in the payroll cycle before they become employee-facing problems.

Oracle has updated eligibility calculations for SSP and Illness Benefit so that they now use recorded sickness absence dates rather than medical certificate dates. It’s a relatively straightforward change, but one that better reflects how absences are typically managed in practice.

The Periodic Foreign Tax Credit enhancement allows payroll teams to apply periodic or annual foreign tax credits through the employee’s PAYE Additional Information card. Rather than waiting for relief to be claimed after year end, payroll can now reduce tax liability during payroll processing itself. For employees with cross-border tax obligations, that has the potential to improve cash flow and reduce the impact of dual taxation while relief is being processed.

Oracle now automatically applies the Department of Social Protection’s 15% net-pay deduction cap for applicable Notice of Attachment deductions. Whenever statutory limits apply, the payroll calculation automatically uses the lower of the requested deduction amount or the permitted cap.

The final enhancement supports deletion requests for previously submitted My Future Fund contribution records. The Send File Submission process can now determine whether an earlier submission exists and automatically generate either an initial submission or a deletion request as appropriate. Additional audit reporting has also been introduced to maintain visibility of deleted contribution records.

Overall, I wouldn’t describe 26D as a blockbuster Payroll release, but that’s not necessarily a criticism. Some of the most valuable payroll enhancements aren’t the flashy ones. They’re the improvements that make investigations quicker, reduce administration effort, improve compliance, or remove manual work that payroll teams have quietly accepted as part of daily life.

For me, the stand-out areas this quarter are the continued maturity of the Redwood payroll experience, the Retropay processing enhancement, and the new transparency around US Federal Income Tax calculations. Together they show Oracle continuing to focus on usability and operational efficiency rather than simply adding more functionality.

If you’re planning your 26D review, I’d recommend paying particular attention to the Redwood changes and checking whether there are opportunities to simplify payroll administration processes as part of your wider upgrade planning. And as always, keep an eye on the What’s New documentation throughout the release cycle. Oracle occasionally slips in additional gems after the initial announcement, and payroll is no exception.

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Oracle HCM Cloud Payroll 26C

~ K8 Mead ~ Leave a comment

It’s that point in the quarter again, and Release 26C brings a solid set of Payroll updates across global capabilities, UK legislation, US compliance, and a particularly strong set of enhancements for Ireland. As always, Oracle may introduce further updates as the release progresses, but here’s what stands out so far.

One of the most useful additions in this release is enhanced audit visibility for costing. Payroll and finance teams now have a clear, end-to-end view of changes made across costing setups. This means you can quickly understand what has changed, when it changed, and who made the change, without relying on manual tracking or investigation.

In practice, this improves both control and confidence. It supports audit readiness, reduces time spent investigating discrepancies, and makes it easier to explain costing outcomes to stakeholders. The fact that it is available straight away, with no setup required, makes it an easy win.

Another helpful improvement is the introduction of a consolidated view of costing configuration within the Redwood experience. Instead of switching between different areas to understand how costing is set up, everything is now visible in one place.

The benefit here is simplicity. It becomes much easier to validate configuration, spot inconsistencies, and understand how costing is applied across different levels. For teams supporting multiple payrolls or complex structures, this will save time and reduce the risk of mistakes.

The continued rollout of Redwood is also worth noting. Additional payroll setup pages have now moved across, bringing a more consistent and searchable user experience. For teams already using Redwood, this reduces the need to move between interfaces. For others, it is another step towards a more modern and intuitive payroll administration experience.

There are four key UK updates in 26C, starting with one that requires action. The update to RTI encryption introduces a stronger approach to protecting submission credentials. While this is not applied automatically, it is important to prioritise, as it ensures compliance with the latest security standards. The benefit is straightforward: improved protection of sensitive payroll data and reduced risk in RTI submissions.

The next update is the automatic enablement of Redwood for key employee self service pages, including Pension Enrolment and New Starter Declaration. For organisations already using these, it removes the need to manage profile options. For employees, it means a more consistent and user-friendly experience when completing important payroll-related tasks.

There is also an update to international payment formats to align with ISO 20022 standards. For payroll teams managing cross-border payments, this provides better alignment with modern banking requirements and supports smoother processing with financial institutions.

One of the more visible enhancements is the introduction of a digital P45 through Document of Record. Traditionally, P45s have been a manual and paper-heavy process. This change allows organisations to publish them directly to the employee record.

The benefit is flexibility and accessibility. Employees can access their P45 online, payroll teams reduce administrative effort, and organisations can move closer to fully digital processes. It does require some setup, but the long-term efficiency gains are clear.

For US customers, 26C focuses on simplifying compliance and improving visibility.

The automatic synchronisation of local tax jurisdictions based on employee address changes addresses a long-standing challenge. Instead of relying on manual updates, the system now helps keep tax data aligned automatically. This reduces the risk of incorrect tax withholding and lowers the administrative burden on payroll teams. It is particularly valuable for organisations with a mobile workforce or frequent address changes.

There is also an enhancement to the management of involuntary deductions within Redwood. This brings all relevant information into a single, structured view. The key benefit here is clarity. Payroll administrators can see everything they need in one place, making it easier to manage complex deductions, respond to queries, and ensure accuracy. It also supports better decision making without increasing complexity.

The final US update supports states where employer matching contributions must be included in SUI taxable wages. While this requires some planning to adopt, it ensures compliance with state-specific rules and avoids potential processing or reporting issues.

Ireland sees the most significant legislative investment in this release, with four new features. The introduction of Carer’s Leave brings support for extended unpaid leave in line with legislation. For employers, this provides a structured way to manage entitlements and ensures compliance. For employees, it offers clarity and consistency around a sensitive type of leave.

Domestic Violence Leave and Payment is another important addition, enabling organisations to support employees from day one of absence. Beyond compliance, this reflects a broader focus on employee wellbeing and responsible employment practices.

There is also a refinement to PRSI exemption handling, improving how exemptions are classified and reported. This leads to more accurate reporting and helps ensure that employees’ contribution records correctly reflect their entitlements.

Finally, NAERSA pension reporting is now supported through an end-to-end submission process. This simplifies what has historically been a fragmented activity, bringing submission, monitoring, and error handling into one place. For payroll teams, this means better control and less manual effort when managing pension reporting.

Release 26C feels like a well-rounded update for Payroll. There is a clear focus on improving visibility, reducing manual effort, and supporting compliance across multiple regions.

While some features require configuration or planning to adopt, many are available immediately and deliver quick benefits. As always, it is worth reviewing these in the context of your current processes to identify where you can simplify, streamline, or reduce risk.

If you are looking at 26C more broadly, you may also find my latest write-up on the Core HR updates useful.

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Oracle HCM Cloud Payroll 26B

~ K8 Mead ~ Leave a comment

It’s my favourite moment in the quarter, Oracle has just unveiled what’s coming in Release 26B. As you’d expect, this Payroll update includes a strong focus on Redwood‑driven improvements, alongside a welcome number of enhancements that have come directly from customer ideas, which is always great to see. While Oracle may add more features as the month progresses, let’s start by taking a look at what’s been announced so far.

The first feature I want to call out is one that originated directly from a customer idea. If you’re not familiar with Oracle’s Ideas page, it’s where customers can submit suggestions and vote on others, and those that gain the most support often attract Oracle’s attention. While there’s no guarantee an idea will make it into the product, it’s a great way to influence the roadmap. One such idea has led to the new Redwood Earnings and Deductions page, which brings all employee earnings and deductions into a single, streamlined workspace. From one clear summary view, payroll administrators can review and manage records across a chosen date range, drill into details such as values, costing and processing history, create new entries and even submit QuickPay, all without switching between pages. The result is a more intuitive day‑to‑day experience that supports accurate, timely payroll processing.

Another set of enhancements that’s worth calling out has also come directly from customer ideas, and it’s great to see Oracle responding to what users have been asking for. The new Redwood QuickPay and QuickPay Cycle flows make it far easier to run payroll for an individual employee when needed, all within a guided, Redwood‑based experience. Administrators can review and adjust earnings and deductions, submit QuickPay, and move through each stage of the process with clear visibility of tasks, results and statuses, including payslips and payments where required. With flexible task selection, automatic skipping of steps that aren’t relevant, and the ability to verify results as you go, off‑cycle processing becomes much simpler without losing control or confidence.

Alongside this, Oracle has also made it easier to manage corrective actions across payroll flows. A new security approach allows administrators to grant designated users the ability to resolve issues on flows they didn’t initiate, without relying on complex, per‑task group ownership. This reduces administrative overhead, speeds up issue resolution, and ensures access remains tightly controlled to only the flows each user is responsible for managing.

Turning to legislative updates, UK users will be pleased to see that a long‑awaited permanent solution for Statutory Neonatal Care Leave and Pay is now in place. Employers can record neonatal care absences and make statutory payments where eligibility is met from April 2025, with support for day‑one entitlement, accrual of up to 12 weeks’ leave, and flexible take‑up within 68 weeks of discharge, all backed by the necessary legislative data and RTI reporting. Alongside this, LGPS pension calculations during child‑related leave have been improved to ensure contributions are based on actual pensionable pay where it exceeds assumed pensionable pay, using daily proration to accurately handle pay changes mid‑leave and deliver more precise employee and employer contributions.

With the recent introduction of new Irish legislation, it’s no surprise that this release includes a strong set of updates for Ireland. Support has been added for Parent’s Leave Benefit payments and offsets through new payroll attributes that simplify absence setup and improve the accuracy and consistency of benefit calculations, alongside additional attributes to support the processing of parental leave more broadly. There are also important enhancements for statutory redundancy and termination lump sum payments, including a new predefined redundancy element to handle tax‑exempt payments and improved support for calculating and reporting termination lump sums based on service and exemption rules.

Further updates introduce payroll attributes to support Health and Safety entitlements and payments, helping organisations correctly calculate both statutory and benefit‑based payments linked to these absences. Finally, a new Ireland Gender Pay Gap reporting solution provides an assignment‑level extract and a ready‑to‑use spreadsheet template, streamlining the collection of pay and hours data and supporting all required statutory calculations. Together, these changes significantly reduce administrative effort while helping organisations remain compliant with Irish legislative requirements.

There’s just one update to call out for our US customers this time, but it’s an important one. Address Search has been enhanced to support FedRAMP‑compliant environments, meaning organisations operating in federally regulated pods can use the same address search functionality while meeting stringent security and data protection requirements. The experience remains unchanged for users, ensuring consistent behaviour across both commercial and FedRAMP environments while continuing to support downstream processes such as payroll.

As mentioned earlier, Oracle often releases additional features as the month goes on. If any of these turn out to be real stand‑outs, I’ll share a follow‑up blog to keep you up to date. In the meantime, you might like to take a look at my latest post on the new Core HR features in Release 26B, which you can find here.

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Oracle HCM Cloud Payroll 26A

~ K8 Mead ~ 1 Comment

It’s that time again, quarterly release time, and there’s plenty to look forward to! With Oracle’s strong focus on AI, Release 26A promises some exciting updates. Oracle often adds extra features throughout the month, so keep an eye out for more enhancements as they arrive. This release is especially important for UK Payroll customers, as it includes all the new tax year functionality.

Global Payroll introduces an exciting new AI-powered tool, the Payroll Administrator Troubleshooting Agent. Known as the Payroll Run Analyst, this assistant helps payroll administrators validate employee payroll results directly from the Payroll Results page, including reviewing statements of earnings. Built on Oracle’s AI Agent framework, it delivers secure, role-based information within your permissions and significantly reduces manual effort during payroll reconciliation. It also streamlines corrective actions with deep links to related HCM pages, such as earnings and deductions, for quick updates. Best of all, it requires no extra setup and is ready to use immediately, with a chat experience coming in a future release.

Another feature worth highlighting is the redesign of payslip templates using the Redwood toolkit. The new Redwood Payslip offers a far better experience than the previous responsive version, but until now it only worked with the seeded payslip, which most organisations don’t use. With this update, the Redwood payslip can be viewed online or downloaded, and the PDF/UA templates are fully accessible while meeting all legislative requirements for payslip reporting. To stay compliant with local regulations, Oracle recommend adopting the Redwood payslip template as soon as possible.

As mentioned earlier, this release includes the UK legislative updates for the new tax year. Please note that a monthly patch may be required to incorporate any additional changes announced by the UK Government closer to April. One key update relates to the Full Payment Submission (FPS). You can now choose whether employee addresses are reported for all employees or only new starters. This option applies to the FPS processes for tax years ending April 2025 and April 2026. To set this, use the new field Employee Address on FPS from Tax Year 2024–25 on the organisation-level Statutory Deductions calculation card. By default, this is set to All Employees.

There’s also an update to the P60 template for the 2025/26 tax year. A new Statutory Neonatal Payment field has been added to the Statutory Payments section of the P60, along with a corresponding balance in the UK Balances for the End-of-Year Archive group. To generate and issue P60 End-of-Year Statements to employees, use the updated templates for 2025/26: Type LE(P), eP60 – Online and Plain Paper.

New payroll attributes have been introduced to help organisations set up adoption, maternity, and paternity absences for calculating benefit payments or offsets. Detailed steps are provided to guide you through creating the necessary elements, entitlement formula result rules, balance feeds, and validation formulas based on delivered templates. You’ll also find instructions for setting up entitlement formulas, certificates, absence plans, and absence types, ensuring a smooth and compliant process.

Oracle has now introduced Advance Pay for Irish legislation, giving employees the option to request payment before going on holiday. The amount is then recovered over a set period, such as weekly, bi-weekly, or lunar cycles, as needed. Before processing Advance Pay, make sure all other earnings and deductions have been completed. You’ll also need to configure Advance Pay usage and ensure that earnings are correctly processed during the holiday period.

Enhanced Reporting Revenue (ERR) Requests are now available, making compliance easier. After payroll runs and prepayments that include ERR element entries, use the Run Enhanced Reporting Submission Request. You can also run this process for a specific time period to report on unprocessed ERR entries, such as Travel and Subsistence, Remote Working Daily Allowance, and Small Benefit Exemption. The process generates three outputs: an ERR Audit Report showing archived employee and element details, an Errors and Warnings report, and a JSON file for Revenue submission via the Send File Submission process. For corrections, use the Run Enhanced Reporting Correction Request on previously submitted ERR files. This creates a revised JSON file, an ERC Audit Report, and an Errors and Warnings report—ready to send to Revenue.

As I mentioned earlier, Oracle usually drops extra features throughout the month, so keep an eye out! If anything really exciting comes along, I’ll post an update to make sure you’re in the loop. In the meantime, why not check out my latest blog on the new Core HR features in Release 26A? You can find it here.

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Oracle HCM Cloud Payroll 25D

~ K8 Mead ~ Leave a comment

I’m a big fan of innovation, which is why I always look forward to the Oracle Fusion Quarterly Releases. While this one doesn’t bring a huge wave of new features for Global Payroll, there are still some important updates across various legislations worth noting. In this blog, I’ll give you a quick rundown of the key highlights from both the global and local perspectives. Oracle’s got plenty more in the pipeline this quarter, so keep your eyes peeled, and if anything particularly exciting crops up, I’ll be back with another post to keep you in the loop!

The first feature in Global Payroll is the new Redwood Archive Results page. Whilst this isn’t a glamourous new feature, it is an important page. The redesigned Redwood Archive Results page offers payroll admins the modern Redwood functionality for managing their payroll data with greater efficiency and accuracy. With enhanced navigation, flexible search, customisable views, and inline editing, it’s easier than ever to identify and resolve errors, unprocessed assignments, or missing records directly within the archive. These improvements help reduce manual effort, minimise rework, and ensure smoother payslip generation and external payment processing. The feature is enabled by default via the Redwood Payroll Activity Enabled profile option, so you don’t even need to do anything and can start benefiting straight away. 

Payroll Activity Centre

All Payroll admins know that reporting is critical to the job! Oracle have made a small, but helpful update to the Payroll Costing Report. Prior to 25D, the report was a standard BI Publisher output, but listening to feedback, Oracle have rewritten the report as an extract-based one. This new version will handle larger payroll volumes and has added in more report output options, including Excel, XML and text. There are some simple steps to enable this new version of the report. First go to the Switch Task Action Version flow. Select Run Payroll Costing Report from the task list, choose the Extract-based Report version, and set it as active. From then on, all flows using this task will automatically run with the new version.

Moving on to the different legislations. There are a number of key features for Local Government in the UK. The first one is for the MCR for Teacher’s Pensions. A new input value, Error Number, is now available on the predefined TPS When Earned Details element, enabling employers to directly record error numbers linked to corrections for MCR files, particularly for When Earned U lines that typically require a TPS When Earned Details entry. This enhancement streamlines the reconciliation process for Teachers’ Pension errors. It’s easy to apply this update, navigate to Submit a Flow → Payroll, run the Run Feature Upgrade payroll flow task, and select Update Element Eligibility to Link Error Number for TPS When Earned Details Element.

There are two changes for LGPS included. Firstly a solution for the Pensionable Pay calculation for non-recurring payments. You can now easily work out the right Pensionable Pay for employees who’ve had time off mid-month and received one-off pensionable payments during their working days. With new balances in place, regular and irregular earnings are handled separately, so the LGPS employer contribution is calculated correctly without needing to prorate the monthly Pensionable Pay. Creating a new Main Pension Scheme element allows you to feed regular and irregular earnings into dedicated balances, ensuring accurate Pensionable Pay calculations for periods with one-off payments during working time. The second LGPS change relates to KIT and SPLIT days. You can now mark earnings as KIT or SPLIT days so they’re added to the right pensionable pay balances (CPP1 or CPP2). Just make sure to include the actual date worked when entering these, so the system can compare the day’s earnings with the assumed pensionable pay and use whichever is higher. If the day falls during unpaid leave, the full KIT or SPLIT earnings will be included in the pensionable pay.

With the introduction of Irish legislation for the first time, it is unsurprising that there are a significant number of new features in this release for it. These include Illness Benefit Payment or Offset; Public Sector Pensions; Salary Sacrifice; Send File Submission Process; Additional Superannuation Contribution (ASC) Forms; Check Revenue Submission Request; Payroll Submission Correction Request and Payslip Template. Additionally there are enhancements to reporting; Create Element template; Shadow Payroll; Special Assignee Relief Program and Withholding Taxes only on Irish Income. We know a few of you are already ahead of the curve when it comes to Irish legislation, so this’ll definitely be of interest. But even if you’re just starting to think about switching to Oracle Payroll, it’s still worth a look for our Irish customers.

There’s just one update this time for our US customers, but it’s worth flagging. The Retroactive Overpayment and Recovery for Earnings Elements feature is now switched on by default. Honestly, I can’t think why you wouldn’t want to use it, but just so you know, it’s no longer optional. This functionality gives you more control over how Retropay results are managed, especially when they reduce an employee’s net pay. Instead of the full overpayment being automatically deducted, you can now set up a repayment plan for the employee.

As I mentioned earlier, Oracle tend to roll out new features throughout the month. If any of these updates turn out to be game-changers, I’ll pop up a fresh blog post to keep you in the loop. In the meantime, feel free to check out my latest write-up on the new Core HR features in Release 25D, you can find it here.

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Discover Oracle HCM Cloud’s Activity Centres

~ K8 Mead ~ 2 Comments

Have you seen the new Oracle HCM Cloud Activity Centres? They’re a fundamental part of the new Redwood pages and I love them! When they first came out, they were called ‘Spotlights’, but they’ve since been rebranded and now there are 4 Activity Centres.

The original Activity Centres were for Employees and Line Managers. All Activity Centres are ‘One Stop Shops’ for the relevant user. Focusing first on the Employee Activity Centre, this is where an employee can view / update their personal details; view their payslips; book annual leave and absences and many other things. If there is information that need to be shared with employees in bulk, they can be posted on there too. Any activity the employee is likely to carry out can be linked from the activity centre. If there are tasks that aren’t needed, they can be easily hidden via VBS.

Employee Activity Centre

In the Manager Activity Centre, Line Managers can easily access all of their team members records in one place. From here you can view employment and compensation details and also monitor talent and performance. Again important communications for line manager can be posted in here. Additionally bulk actions can be carried out for team members, such as creating communications, adding Journeys and creating surveys for feedback.

Manager Activity Centre

The Recruiting Activity Centre was the first one that was launched as an ‘Activity Centre’ and I regularly talk about it to my customers. It’s a great landing site for the Recruitment team to use. Originally it was only available to Recruiters and Hiring Managers, but last year it was extended to Collaborators too, so the whole team has access to this great tool. It summarises key data like high priority tasks and the number of new applicants that need reviewing. It’s easy to view the status of requisitions and offers and, my personal favourite, communication history between the Recruitment team and the candidate in conversation format. This is something that a lot of my customers have enquired about in the past.

Recruiting Activity Centre

The final, and most recent, Activity Centre is the Payroll one. It allows the Payroll team to view all payrolls in one location, easily view notifications that might indicate their has been an error or significant disparity in a payroll run and investigate the root cause. All the usual actions that the team would need to carry out are easily accessible, such as calculation cards, element entries, costing etc as well as to be able to submit payroll flows. It speeds up the time to run processes and investigate issues.

Payroll Activity Centre

The Activity Centres are all designed to improve the user’s experience and reduce the number of menus / clicks they need to make. It has all the information that you need at your fingertips and in my personal opinion, is a massive improvement! I’m sure this won’t be the last of the Activity Centres that we see and Oracle are constantly improving the existing ones, so keep an eye out on those quarterly release updates for more news.

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