The latest quarterly update for Oracle Cloud is here! Oracle 24D release brings new features and functionalities to the Oracle environment.
- Payroll Activity Center Redwood User Experience
Likely replacing the existing Payroll Dashboard, it will provide a centralized screen for managing payroll activities and flows using Redwood.
At its heart is an enhanced view of the status of payroll flows together with quick navigation to take any corrective action that may be required. This provides a streamlined user experience for the payroll team rather than relying on filters in the View Flows page. Use of the Payroll Activity Center is optional, you can of course keep using the existing method if you wish.
The release notes also describe some interesting new functionality:
- Comparing the balance and costing information for the current run to previous periods to identify anomalies and trends.
- The ability to easily identify any employees who are pending further processing, such as having a payroll calculation without a prepayment result.
- Additional data is stored in payroll flow results to support this additional functionality, so it is necessary to use the Run Feature Upgrade facility to update the last 12 months of payroll history.
This will absolutely be a focus of testing and evaluation for us, and no doubt the basis of further enhancements in forthcoming releases, as we have seen with other Redwood screens after their initial release. The new functionality could replace some existing auditing and exception checks. Additionally, it can assist with identifying employees who have been rolled back out of flows and require further action, reducing errors and saving time. Potentially significant benefits to be had here.
- Redwood Experience for View Flows and Payroll Flows Checklist
A Redwood screen for submitting flows was released in 24C, and now in 24D we have the rest of the set:
- Redwood Experience for View Flows, for viewing already submitted flows
- Redwood Experience for Payroll Flows Checklist, which shows the progress and output of the flow steps
- Redwood Experience for Costing Results and Adjust Cost for a Person, which completes the migration to Redwood for all parts of the Person Results page which has been delivered progressively since 23D
The Redwood Payroll Flows Checklist includes some new functionality that allows you to submit a report as part of an existing flow, rather than navigating to Submit a Flow and creating a new flow. This means the report parameters will default to the inputs already provided, saving you time reinputting, and reducing scope for potential errors.
These pages integrate with the Payroll Activity Center but can be used without it. As these pages are fundamental to the work of the payroll team and are in frequent use, we would recommend assessing them at the earliest opportunity. The ability to submit a report against an existing flow is interesting and may be a timesaver but may make report results less immediately visible in View Flows, so you will need to consider the practical implications of this.
- Guided Journeys on Redwood Payroll Pages
Guided Journeys have been enabled on the new Redwood payroll pages.
As guided journeys are new to the payroll module, it will be interesting to see what ideas users come up with for using them on back-office payroll pages. The release notes for the Payroll Activity Center refer to guided journeys, so perhaps Oracle has something in mind for that page specifically.
Add New Input Values to Existing Elements
Up to now, no additional input values could be added to an element definition once it has been included in a payroll calculation. If requirements change and additional inputs or outputs are required, this means building entirely new elements, which has knock-on impacts on reporting and interfaces. In some cases, the time and effort in doing this have prevented users from enhancing their elements at all.
As of 24D, new input values can be added to existing elements using HDL, followed by running a flow to push those new input values to all existing element entries. Fast formulas and other configurations can then be modified to use that input value like any other. There are some limitations, the input value cannot be mandatory or have a default specified.
This is a very useful new functionality. In most scenarios, where all you need is an additional output from a fast formula, the limitations should not be an issue. Bear in mind that the pay history will not be updated, so new input values will only appear in run results in calculations processed after the change is made.
QuickPay Performance Enhancements
The Pay Daemon Group background process that was introduced in 23D has been enhanced to include a setting specifically for QuickPays and provides logging as well as improved performance.
It remains to be seen how much of an improvement this will make in the real world, but it should at least provide a more consistent experience where the payroll team is running multiple QuickPays and it is a very welcome enhancement. Review this in conjunction with the existing settings for the payroll background process and ensure that all the relevant Pay Daemon settings are configured.
UK Specific Updates
New Starter Declaration and Employee Pension Enrolment Guided Journeys – Redwood Experience for UK
The existing new starter declaration and employee pension enrolment functionality for onboarding can now use guided journeys to provide additional guidance to self-service users.
These guided journeys will further improve the onboarding experience for self-service users, worth reviewing.
Other Enhancements
Change Hire Date: Payroll Calculation Entries
Up to now, an employee’s hire date could only be changed if there were no absences or timecard entries present. That is no longer a limitation, any payroll records that predate the new hire date will simply be deleted but remain present in other areas of the system.
Hire dates can drive several calculations based on length of service, from probation periods to sickness and annual leave entitlements, so this is a very welcome change that will improve the accuracy of employment records and absence calculations that impact payroll. Make sure your HR team knows about this change.
- Override Accounting Date Using Transfer to Subledger Accounting Process
Up to now, the Transfer to Subledger Accounting process would submit previous period costing changes to the original accounting period. Now, an Accounting Date Override can be entered which allows you to specify that all changes should go to the period of your choice, most likely the current period.
If you use Subledger functionality then this is an enhancement you will want to discuss with your finance team. This enhancement has been requested from users on Customer Connect.
Download Payslips
A new standalone flow is being introduced that allows the bulk downloading of payslips for one or more employees.
Some payroll teams will find this new flow a great timesaver as it allows multiple copy payslips to be downloaded for either an individual or group of employees. Current employees will still have the capability to download payslips themselves, but there are scenarios where payroll finds themselves needing to provide them on request for leavers, and those on long-term absence for example.
Enchant Apps has a team of Oracle Cloud experts across all modules. If you are interested in learning more or have a project that requires Oracle Cloud expertise, feel free to contact us!