Elements are the building blocks for Payroll and they have significance across multiple modules like Core HR, Benefits, Absence, Compensation and Time and Labor.
Creating elements manually is a tedious process especially when there are many elements to create. We can use PayrollElementDetails.dat HDL to create elements using the questionnaire that we see when we create elements manually.
It contains two metadata PayrollElementDetails and PayrollElementQuestionnaire
Sample HDL for creating an element for UAE legislation:
METADATA|PayrollElementDetails|ElementName|ReportingName|Description|LegislativeDataGroupName|PrimaryClassificationName|SecondaryClassificationName|Category|ElementStartDate
MERGE|PayrollElementDetails|Hourly Base Salary|Hourly Base Salary|Hourly Base Salary|AE Legislative Data Group|Standard Earnings||Standard|1951/01/01
METADATA|PayrollElementQuestionnaire|ElementName|LegislativeDataGroupName|RuleCode|Rule|Response
MERGE|PayrollElementQuestionnaire|Hourly Base Salary|AE Legislative Data Group|SpecCurrency|Input Currency|UAE Dirham
MERGE|PayrollElementQuestionnaire|Hourly Base Salary|AE Legislative Data Group|Availability Rule|Should every person eligible for the element automatically receive it?|No
MERGE|PayrollElementQuestionnaire|Hourly Base Salary|AE Legislative Data Group|Hire Process|What is the earliest entry date for this element?|First Standard Earning Date
MERGE|PayrollElementQuestionnaire|Hourly Base Salary|AE Legislative Data Group|Terminate Process|What is the latest entry date for this element?|Last Standard Earning Date
MERGE|PayrollElementQuestionnaire|Hourly Base Salary|AE Legislative Data Group|Processing Level2Tier|At which employment level should this element be attached?|Assignment Level
MERGE|PayrollElementQuestionnaire|Hourly Base Salary|AE Legislative Data Group|Processing Asg Level|Do you want the element to be processed at Payroll Assignment level?|Yes
MERGE|PayrollElementQuestionnaire|Hourly Base Salary|AE Legislative Data Group|Recurring Or NonRecurring|Does this element recur each payroll period, or does it require explicit entry?|Recurring
MERGE|PayrollElementQuestionnaire|Hourly Base Salary|AE Legislative Data Group|Once Per Period-Earnings|Process the element only once in each payroll period?|Yes
MERGE|PayrollElementQuestionnaire|Hourly Base Salary|AE Legislative Data Group|Multiple Entries|Can a person have more than one entry of this element in a payroll period?|No
MERGE|PayrollElementQuestionnaire|Hourly Base Salary|AE Legislative Data Group|Process Period|Process and pay element separately or with other earnings elements?|Process and pay with other earnings
MERGE|PayrollElementQuestionnaire|Hourly Base Salary|AE Legislative Data Group|CalculationRule|What is the calculation rule?|Flat amount
MERGE|PayrollElementQuestionnaire|Hourly Base Salary|AE Legislative Data Group|Periodicity|What is the default periodicity of this element?|Calendar Month
MERGE|PayrollElementQuestionnaire|Hourly Base Salary|AE Legislative Data Group|PeriodConverFormulas|Periodicity Conversion Rule|Standard Rate Annualized
MERGE|PayrollElementQuestionnaire|Hourly Base Salary|AE Legislative Data Group|ReportUnitRule|How do you want the work units to be reported?|None
MERGE|PayrollElementQuestionnaire|Hourly Base Salary|AE Legislative Data Group|Proration|Is this element subject to proration?|Yes
MERGE|PayrollElementQuestionnaire|Hourly Base Salary|AE Legislative Data Group|Proration Group|Proration Group|Entry Changes for Proration
MERGE|PayrollElementQuestionnaire|Hourly Base Salary|AE Legislative Data Group|ProrateRate|Proration Rate Conversion Rule|Standard Rate Daily
MERGE|PayrollElementQuestionnaire|Hourly Base Salary|AE Legislative Data Group|ProrationUnit|Proration Units|Daily
MERGE|PayrollElementQuestionnaire|Hourly Base Salary|AE Legislative Data Group|Retro|Is this element subject to retroactive changes?|Yes
MERGE|PayrollElementQuestionnaire|Hourly Base Salary|AE Legislative Data Group|RetroGroup|Retro Group|Entry Changes for Retro
MERGE|PayrollElementQuestionnaire|Hourly Base Salary|AE Legislative Data Group|IterativeInformation|Use this element to calculate a gross amount from a specified net amount?|No
MERGE|PayrollElementQuestionnaire|Hourly Base Salary|AE Legislative Data Group|Reduce Regular|Should this element reduce regular earnings?|NoOnce this HDL load is completed, system will create other related elements like retro, earnings results, etc. It will take some time for the elements to show up as the system will run the element creation process one by one.
If you want to do any updates to the elements/input values/eligibility, we need to wait till the elements process is run, which you can validate on the define elements screen (wait for the green tick to appear for the required element) and then proceed with other updates to elements.
