University of California, Berkeley

HCM: Basic Concepts

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Click on the appropriate item for more information.

HCM Terminology

  • Effective date indicates the date on which a transaction takes effect. It may be in the past (retroactive), present, or future relative to today's date.
  • Every HCM job data transaction requires an Action/Reason combination.
    • Action defines the type of transaction (for example, Hire, Pay Rate Change, Termination).
    • Reason defines the purpose for taking the action (for example, Pay Rate Change-Merit, Termination-Accepted Another Job).
    • Action/Reason combinations drive field defaults and system edits.
  • A Job in HCM is called an Appointment in PPS (Payroll System).
  • A Job Code in HCM is called a Title Code in PPS.
  • An Earnings Code in HCM is called a DOS Code in PPS.
  • In HCM, a Termination action is used to end a job or employment. In PPS a Separation action is used to end employment.

Concepts

  • Remember that the date you enter a row matters. If you enter something for the current month, make sure the payroll deadline has not passed, otherwise adjustments need to be made by your payroll person.
  • Job FTE (Full Time Equivalent) for 'regular' pay cannot exceed 1.0.
  • Remember that the FTE (on Job Information page) is entered as a whole number (1.0 for full time .50 for half time), while the Distribution % (entered on the Earnings Distribution page) is expressed as a percent (100. not 1.0000, 80. not .8000).
  • Job FTE and total Distribution % must be equal (within a 1% tolerance). Divide Distribution % as appropriate for multiple distributions.
  • Budgeted FTE is required if the Job Code is a budgeted position.

Correction in HCM

  • Since the upgrade to HCM 9.0 in April 2009, departments now have correction access to correct information on the Modify a Person page.
  • Departmental users can not correct information in Job Information. Correction is when a transaction's Effective Date is earlier than the date on the current row (the row closest to today's date without going over).
    • Retroactive actions are “corrections” only when the Effective Date is earlier than the current row.
    • Department users can change a current row by inserting another row. The sequence number of the new row will increase by one (so you will see two rows with that date, the initial row will be "0", then newer row will be "1").
  • If you think you need assistance "correcting" a historical record, please contact HCMhelp at hrmshelp@berkeley.edu. Please send an email with the following information:
    • Full Name and ID # of the person
    • Which job record this is on
    • Which row is affected and what the issue is

    In some cases HCMhelp will need to delete some rows for you to go back and add a retroactive action or to make a correction.