Employee Empowerment Naturally:Payroll What If s on the Webhttp://www.uark.edu/basis/UAWEB/SimulatedES.html

David WimberlyUniversity of Arkansaswdw@uark.edu

Presentation Overview

• University of Arkansas Background

• Why Net Pay• Web Demonstration

- Future Pay- Simulated Earnings Statement

• Natural Components and Design• Efficiency Techniques

Background• Natural/ADABAS shop since 1986

– All non-student systems developed in house (BASIS)

– Payroll developed/implemented in 1999

• Web enablement began in 2001– Com-Plete HTTP Server/Natural as the CGI

• Browse/Select web architecture– Programs generated via a Natural ISPF

macro

Why Net Pay• Previous web development included

– Access and display of most BASIS information

– Some employee self service maintenance

• Payroll did net pay calculations using – A PC product Paybreeze – A 3270 Payroll screen

(Both methods were labor intensive for Payroll and inconvenient for the employee)

Why Net Pay (continued)

• Its a great service to employees, empowering them to make better financial decisions

• It saves the Payroll office time• It was not that difficult due to the

modular design of the Payroll application

Web Design

The task split naturally into two pieces -- two web pages

• Future Pay – Presentation of future payrolls and

associated gross

• Simulated Earnings Statement– Calculation and presentation of taxes,

deductions, and net pay

Web Demonstration

• Future Pay– Gross pay for upcoming payrolls

(which is a benefit of its own)– Pay sources: appointment, hourly, OT,

summer (teaching & research), extra comp, and Supplemental

– Issues: pay categorization, true supplemental pay (look-back method), & student status

Web Demonstration

Future Pay

Web Demonstration

• Simulated Earnings Statement– Simulation options

• Income tax (W4)• Select deductions’ tax basis• Tax deferred/exempt changes• Gross earnings change

– Simulated Earnings Statement Current

• After What If– Disabled simulation options– ES What If Scenario vs As Currently Defined

W4 Options

Changes to the employee’s federal and state income tax withholding options are allowed

Switch pre/after tax basis for:• Medical insurance• Vision insurance• Cancer insurance• Dental insurance• Parking permit

Tax Deferred/Exempt DeductionsHere you can increase or decrease

your tax deferred (retirement) or tax exempt (flex spending plus medical, vision, cancer, dental, and parking) deductions

Gross Earnings Change

• Gross pay can be adjusted (up or down) to see the impact on net pay

• To see the result, press What If

Simulated ES – Before What If

After What IF

Options are displayed along with previous values (yellowshading) at thetop of the page

After What IF

At the bottomof the page isthe ES with What If andAs Currently Definedcolumns

After What IF

Bottomportion of theSimulatedEarningsStatement

Natural Components & Design• Batch Payroll

– Generation (EPBBPG)– Load– Interface– Report

• Web Future Pay• Web Simulated Earnings

Statement

Batch Payroll - Generation 1 P:EPBBPG 1 ---------2 ---------3 ---------4 ---------5 ---------6 ---------N:EPNBPCBG N:EPNCBGTN N:EPNCBSO N:EPNCBENE N:EPNCEBDO N:EPNCEBDS N:EPNFFGBT N:EPNCDNTN N:EPNCARSI N:EPNCTWSB N:EPNFFGBT N:EPNCARSW N:EPNCEFIT N:EPNCTWSB N:EPNFFGBT N:EPNCEIC N:EPNCOMED N:EPNSORTG N:EPNFFGBT N:EPNBPHTO N:EPNBPHTR N:EPNBPPD N:EPNFFGBT N:EPNBPPOS N:PBNLCTLG N:PBNPCALC N:EPNBPST N:EPNSUMT

Web Future Pay 1 P:EPOBFP

1 ---------2 ---------3 ---------

P:UWOFIN P:UWOPTSWA ?:USR2014N

N:EPNBFP-I N:PBNLCTLG

N:EPNFPHTO

N:EPNFPHTR

N:EPNFPPD

N:EPNFPPOS N:PBNPCALC

N:EPNFPST N:EPNSUMT

Web Simulated Earnings Stmt

1 P:EPOGTNSW 1 ---------2 ---------3 ---------4 ---------N:EPNCBGTI N:EPNCBSO N:EPNCBENE N:EPNCEBDO N:EPNCEBDS N:EPNFFGBT N:EPNCDNTN N:EPNCARSI N:EPNCTWSB N:EPNFFGBT N:EPNCARSW N:EPNCEFIT N:EPNCTWSB N:EPNFFGBT N:EPNCEIC N:EPNCOMED N:EPNSORTG N:EPNFFGBT N:EPNFFGBI N:EPNGTNSE N:EPNFFGBT

Efficiency Techniques

• What was our goal and approach?• What results did we obtain?• Analysis of the techniques

employed for:– Future Pay (EPNBFP-I)– BDOE Table (EPNFFGBI)– Tax & Benefit Rates (EPNCBGTI)

Goal and Approach• Goal

– Minimize ADABAS Calls• How

– Buffer ADABAS I/O (GDA/LDA for 3270/Batch)

• How on the Web (when executing under a shared Server ID)– Save and Restore Buffers using the

ESS In-Core Data Base

Adabas Savings using In-Core DB

Process In-Core ADABAS Savings

Future Pay (1st use) 8 30

Future Pay (subsequent) 5 15 15

Simulated ES (1st use) 37 195

Simulated ES (subsequent) 32 22 173

What If with Same Gross 32 22 173

What If with Gross Change 32 38 173+

Future PayComponent EPNBFP-I• Reads In-Core table• If In-Core data created today

– Return future payrolls and pay calculation parameters

• If non-existent or not built today– Read future payrolls and pay

parameters from ADABAS– Save to In-Core – Return data

BDOE (1) TableComponent EPNFFGBI• Get

– Read In-Core and Populates LDA• Set (if BDOE count changed)

– Reads LDA and Populates In-Core• Application invokes copycode (&

subprogram) to manage LDA(1) BDOE = Benefit, Deduction, Other Earning, or

EIC

BDOE Copycode EPCFFGBTApplications pass EPCFFGBT the

desired BDOE code and are returned an index entry into the internal array structure

/* This tax or deduct exceeds the remaining net

INCLUDE EPCFFGBT 'IOF.BDOE-CD(#J)' '#CAF-X'

IF CAF.ALL-OR-NONE-CD(#CAF-X) = 'Y'

/* Since we couldn't take all the deduction, don't take any

IOF.DEDUCTION-NOT-TAKEN-AMT(#J) := IOF.BDOE-AMT(#J)

RESET IOF.BDOE-AMT(#J)

ELSE

Tax and Benefit RatesComponent EPNCBGTI• Get

– Read the In-Core data base and return all tax and benefit rates and tables (2700+ bytes) if for the desired pay date

• Set– Save these payroll parameters to the

In-Core data base

Tax & Benefit Calculations

• Various subprograms perform specific calculations (i.e. EPNCFIT for federal income tax)

• Calling program passes a data block (buffer) to subprogram

• Subprogram tests for existence of rates/tables within the block, if not present it reads ADABAS and returns them

In Summary

Due to a modular design where a main program buffers parameters and tables, we are able to efficiently make complex payroll calculations available to all employees – empowering them to better manage their individual finances.

Thank You