1

OTL and NON-Payroll Hours

Presented for Atlanta Oracle Application User Group on

Nov 18, 2005

Ajoy A. Devadawson&

Sheryl A. BishopCIBER Inc.

2

1) Profile of the Company

• Manufacturing Company in businesses like slag and steel mill services, construction, aggregate production and distribution, concrete, asphalt manufacturing, road construction, trucking and transportation logistics.

• More than 1000 employees.• Most of the business systems were either on home-grown

technology or manual.• Mostly blue collar employees, with limited access and exposure to

computers.• Locations in more than 2 dozen sites all over the country

3

2) EXPECTATION OF OTL AND NON-PAYROLL HOURS

• To transfer Payroll Hours through timekeepers’ time entry.• To track the equipment usage hours to Project Accounting for

costing and billing.• To track labor hours for Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) Work

orders to optimize the fixed assets.• To track labor hours for Batch Operations in Process Manufacturing

(OPM).

4

3) DATAFLOW

PAY

WorkerTimecards

OPMEAMPA

OTLTimestore

PA/PAYTimecard

PAYTimecard

OPM/PAYTimecard

EAM/PAYTimecard

Data Flow

Open Interface(Transaction Import)

Open Interface(BEE)

Open Interface(Resource

Transaction)

Custom Interface(OPM APIs)

5

4) SAMPLE TIMECARD

• There are some hidden fields to the right of Project and Task, which

are part of DFF.

6

5) TIMECARD CONFIGURATION

• A timecard has to be configured through the flexfield and other OTL screens to be used as a EAM or Projects or OPM Timecard.

• The flexfield contexts can be used to construct different types

of timecards, namely EAM, Projects, Process

Manufacturing etc.• Layout of timecard revolves around the DFF – OTL Information

Types.

7

Figure 3a – Timecard Context

• The example shows the configuration for EAM Context. Please note that there is no need for Value set here.

• Time elements can be configured.

8

Figure 3b – Timecard Segments

• Additional segments can be added to the existing contexts.• The Generate Flexfield and Mapping Information process can generate contexts and segments, after the changes.

9

Figure 4 – Mapping Components

• The Mapping Components link the DFF segments to the timecard layout fields. • The mapping component specifies where it is stored in TimeStore and it is needed whenever new segments and contexts are created. • All the seeded DFF contexts come with seeded mapping components.

10

Figure 5 – Alternate Name Mapping

• Alternate Name Mapping maps values in a Value Set to a Mapping Component. • All the Value Set Values, Meaning, ID are available for mapping.

11

• Multiple segments can be populated with one value set.• Alternate Name mapping serves both as a LOV and also as a

validation. • In this example we are mapping EAMWORKORDER component

with the wip_entity_id column which represents released Work Orders.

12

Figure 6 – Alternate Name Definitions

• Alternate Names definition maps an Alternate Name to a timecard layout field.• Specifies the prompt on timecard.

13

Figure 7 – Preferences / Timecard Fields

• Individual timecard preferences.• Individual worker preferences.• Individual timekeeper preferences.

14

Figure 8 – Eligibility Criteria Rules

• Assign preference hierarchies to people via eligibility rules.• Link by responsibility, location, organization, all people, single person etc.• Precedence used when person eligible for more than one hierarchy.

15

6) TIMECARD LAYOUT STEPS

• The following steps have to be followed, if a new Application module needs data or if existing modules need additional data.

• Create a new context for data not captured by new contexts. E.g. OPM Context for Oracle Process Manufacturing data to be sent OPM module.

• Create new segments for existing contexts which lack individual data items. E.g. Timestamp for Projects and EAM contexts, which is not part of the seeded context.

• Run Generate Flexfield Mapping Process, which adds context to mapping components.

• Create Value set for validation and LOVs.• Create Alternate Name Mapping• Create an Alternate Name Definition• Add Alternate Name definition to a Timecard Layout• Assign Layout to people / responsibilities.

16

7) RECIPIENT APPLICATION SETUPS

• The recipient applications like Enterprise Asset Management, Project Accounting, Process Manufacturing need some setups within OTL to transfer and validate data.

17

Figure 9 – Time Categories

• Time Categories identifies groups or categories of fields that will be analyzed by time entry rule formulas.

18

Figure 10 - Application Sets

• Specifies one or more applications that receive a worker’s timecard data.• Can create custom application sets, if seeded applications does not satisfy the requirements.• OTL checks worker’s set against approval, retrieval and entry level processing rules.

19

Figure 11 - Preference Hierarchy - Application Sets

• Assign application set to worker time store preference.• Link groups of people or individuals to application set via hierarchy branch.

20

8) VALIDATIONS

• OTL has robust set of validations which can be done at the

Timestore itself, before it is transferred to receiving applications.• The validations can be both for Payroll and other receiving modules.

21

Figure 12 – Entry Level Processing Rules (ELPR)

• OTL uses seeded validation processes specific to receiving modules.• The Entry Level Processing Rules can associate recipient application with time category (time fields).

22

- The Eligibility Criteria Rules link group of people or individuals to ELPR.• Example : “if any field in EAM time category is populated, then execute the EAM seeded validation process.

23

Figure 13 - Time Entry Rule Groups

• Custom validations can be introduced through Time Entry Rules (TER), which can be enforced through a Fast Formula and a package.• TERs work on a specific time entry categories.• Example : EAM/PAY timecard - When entering any work order related field, require all work order related fields. - Require payroll element to be entered

24

9) RECIPIENT APPLICATION IMPORTS

• The Recipient applications have their own import interfaces.• The recipient applications are Projects, Enterprise Asset

Management and Process Manufacturing.• The seeded ‘Transaction Import’ process creates expenditure

records for the labor cost in the Projects expenditure tables, which transfers the labor hours into Projects

• The custom process ‘OTL Equipment Usages’ transfers the equipment usage hours to Projects. The equipment usage hours have to be transferred for project costing for both in-house and customer projects and customer billing.

• The seeded process for EAM transfers Work Order labor hours for asset management.

• The custom process for OPM transfers labor resource hours to batch operations to determine the final product cost.

25

10) PITFALLS / CHALLENGES IN IMPLEMENTATION

• The timecard screen rolled-up all the lines of a worker with multiple records on the sameday. A timestamp has to be created to avoid the rollup.

• For example, a worker who has worked on multiple machines on the same day would have full 8 hours posted in 1 record, ignoring the machine he worked on.

• There was a disconnect between validations of receiving modules like Projects and OTL.

• We moved the Projects validation to OTL itself, to avoid the disconnect.• The initial design of timekeepers and approvals was a time-consuming

process because of human, ease-of-use and political issues.

26

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

CONTACT :

adevadawson@ciber.com

sbishop@ciber.com