Summarizing Form Setup and Management

Form Sections (Levels)

• Entry-Level

  • Support standard and custom columns

  • Groupings and column order are configured in Column Designer

• Assignment Details Level

  • Order of fields is configured in the background element

  • Data is pulled from the employee history data file

• Calculation Level

  • Fields are configured under Label Names and Visibility

  • The order of fields is not customizable

There are two tools to arrange or design the worksheet:

1. Label Names and Visibility

   • List all the standard fields for Variable Pay, select the visibility and labels as required by customers

   • Standard fields are grouped into different levels – use checkboxes to display/hide levels

2. Column Designer is used for:

   • Sorting and grouping standard fields

   • Adding Assignment Level custom fields

   • Customizing budget row labels

   • Configuring Custom Views

• Displays on Employee History

• Columns:

  • Assignment Basis – Basis amount

  • Target Percent 1–4 – Bonus plan target percentages

  • Proration – Calculated percent based on Start/End and Program Dates

  • Target Amount – Prorated basis amount

  • Multiplier – Applied multiplier

• Displays in Business Calculation

• Columns:

  • Business Goal Header – Title of the Business Calculation Section

  • Business Section Amount – Section Weight x Target Amount

  • Goal Name

  • Goal Weight

  • Goal Basis – Business Section Amount x Goal Weight

    

  • Goal Results – Actual result value for the Business Goal

  • Goal Results Payout Percent – Calculated Achievement Percent

  • Goal Results Payout Amount – Goal Basis x Goal Payout Percent

  • Business Section Multiplier

  • Business Section Multiplied Amount – Goal Results Payout Amount x Business Section Multiplier

  • Business Section Prorated Amount – Business Section Multiplied Amount x Proration

Goal Result, Payout Percent, Payout Amount are repeated for both Forecast and Forecast2 (modeling).

• Displays in Business Calculation

• Financial metrics from the business goals data file

• Columns:

  • Performance Minimum

  • Performance Low

  • Performance Target

  • Performance High

  • Performance Maximum

• Displays in Individual Calculation

• Columns:

  • Individual Goal Header – Individual Calculation Section title

  • Individual Section Amount

  • Goals – Goal Name

  • Form Name

  • Weight – Goal weight

  • Rating – Performance rating or achievement percent

  • Prorated Objective Amount – Goal Weight x Individual Section Prorated Amount

  • Individual Guidelines

  • Individual Percent

  • Individual Amount – Individual Calculation Amount x Individual Percent

  • Individual Section Multiplier

  • Individual Section Multiplied Amount – Individual Results Payout Amount x Individual Section Multiplier

  • Individual Section Prorated Amount – Individual Section Multiplied Amount x Proration

  • Individual Section Weighted Percentage – Section Weight

• Display in Entry-Level

• Can also be configured in Column Designer

• Columns:

  • Local Currency Code

  • Total Target Amount

  • Total Target – Business Target Amount

  • Business Calc Amount – Business Goals Payout Amount

  • Business Percent – Business Goals Payout Percent

  • Individual Calc Amount – Individual Target Amount

  • Business Calc Amount and Percent repeat for both Forecast and Forecast2 (modeling)

  • Individual Rating – Individual Performance Rating or Achievement Percent

  • Individual Guideline

  • Individual Percent – Individual Payout Percent

  • Amt – Individual Payout Amount

  • Total – Sum of Forecast2 Payout Amount

  • Percent of Target – Percent of the Target Payout

  • Percent of Salary – Imported from user data file

  • Final Payout

  • Override – Field for managers to enter an override value

• Provides the ability to add and configure field grouping

• Can change name or column order for Entry-Level columns

• Ability to specify column alignment and rounding format

• Custom fields sourced from the user data file also use an Import Key

• Column Name: Customer-defined
• Read Only: must be set to yes for Calculated and Reloadable Fields
• Visibilities: Do not use. Set visibilities in the Label names and Visibility tool
• Column Alignment: Sets the horizontal alignment
• Column Type -
  • String: Any alphanumeric character set
  • Money: Numeric value for currency fields
  • Date: Calendar date
  • Percent: Percentage value
  • Amount: Numeric value - non-currency
  • Username: For Employee Central customers - can display Second Manager information
• Enable Help Text
  • Add a help text icon for the field to assist planners in better understanding the technical aspects of a field or its purpose.
  • Help text may be added in multiple languages that are visible during Executive Review or on the worksheet. 
  • Limitations allow for 50 help text enabled fields on a given template. Up to 256 characters per help text are allowed.
• Formula: Mathematical formula for a calculated field
• Validation: Validation rules for an input field
• Column Width: Define a new width if the default is not desired
• Other Options
  • Hide Column: For fields used in a calculation that should not display on the form
  • Reloadable: When selected, data in this column is updated whenever data is modified in the user data file. By design, reloadable only works with read-only fields. To improve system performance, there is a setting to update reloadable fields only when Update All Worksheets is run, instead of whenever the form is opened. The setting can be enabled in Plan Settings → Advanced Settings.
  • Reportable: Field is available in ad hoc reports
  • Translatable: Displays translated values of custom fields mapped in Employee Central
  • Note: This cannot be selected after forms are live.

Column ID: Unique field identifier, used when referencing fields in the formula

Import Source: Defines where to pull the data, either user data file or employee history data file

Import Key: Field mapping can be a user data file column header or data-field-Id for employee history data

Aggregate Field: Amount pulled from lower level

Grouping the columns makes the worksheet more cohesive and easier to look at and analyze.

Column Group Settings:

• Column Name: Label visible in the worksheet.

• Grouping ID: Unique identifier is visible in the XML. Use letters, no special characters.

• Initial State: Column behavior when opening the form for the first time. Can be set to expanded or collapsed.

• Displayed Column When Collapsed: One column can be set to be visible even when the group is collapsed.

• Group Color: Background color for the columns.

Custom views provide planners direct access to view portlets from People Profile (PP3) in the compensation worksheet. The ability to view employee details such as compensation history, rating history, or bonus history facilitates better decision-making for planners.

Compensation Profile is another option of configuring the display of historical information, however, Compensation Profile can only use existing compensation templates as historical source. When off-cycle changes are made through Manager Self-Service (MSS), the changes are not recorded in compensation plans, which make the historical periods in Compensation Profile incomplete.

Administrators can configure which portlets are viewable in the form using Design Worksheet. Viewing permissions respect the role-based permission set for the planner.

For Non-Employee Central: Portlets which are supported for Performance Management are also supported by Compensation/Variable Pay.

For Employee Central: The following list of EC_Portlets is supported both for Compensation and Variable Pay:

• EMPLOYMENT_INFO_BLOCK

• ASSIGNMENT_INFO_BLOCK

• JOB_INFO_BLOCK

• ORGANIZATION_INFO_BLOCK

• BENEFIT_CURRENT_BENEFITS_PP3

• ADDRESS_INFO_BLOCK

• DEPENDENT_INFO_BLOCK

• COMP_INFO_BLOCK

• TOTAL_COMP_HISTORY_BLOCK

• NON_RECURRING_BLOCK

• ONETIME_DEDUCTION_BLOCK

An extra three custom string fields with import key can be used as executive review filters.

Plan-level executive review filters can be enabled within Advanced Settings.

One use case for ALCF is when the customer requires different guidelines that differ based on assignment information. Without ALCF, this requires creating multiple Variable Pay plans, as Variable Pay allows only for one set of guidelines to be set on data at the Entry-Level.

When using ALCF, it is important to know the levels on which you can create custom fields. Lower levels can reference data at higher levels and higher levels can aggregate data from lower levels.

In the preceding figure, Example – Assignment Level Custom Fields, there are four ALCFs in the business goal level: Overall Rating, Business Unit, Modifier, and Goal Level Payout.

The sum of the Goal Level Payout is aggregated to business section, which is then aggregated to the assignment level before finally being aggregated to the Entry-Level.

Assignment Level Custom Fields can be used in the following:

**For TeamSect & IndSect for NonABR, if configured, they are still calculated based on each assignment, same behavior as ABR.

A sample configuration of Assignment Level Custom Field is discussed in the unit Advanced Topics.

• Located under Settings → Set Number Format Rules

• Default rules populate in the Number Formatting Rules List

  • Admin can modify existing rules

  • Admin can create new rules

• Use for money, percent, amount, or rating

• Round or Truncate Modes

• Rounding Multiple to the nearest 1, 10, 100, 1,000, or 10,000

  • # only displays significant digits, so it does not display leading or trailing zeros

  • 0 always displays the digit

  • Examples

    • 15234.2 (#,###.00) = 15,234.200

    • 434.52 (0,000.#) = 0434.5

    • 15 (#.0#) = 15.0

Navigate to Settings → Set Number Format Rules.

• Enter a unique Rule Name.
• Enter a Format.
• Select Use For.
• Select a Mode.
• If Mode is round, then select the nearest Multiple to round (if necessary).
• Select Add Rule.

Navigate to Settings → Set Number Format Rules

• Select the Rule Name of an existing rounding rule.
• Enter a Format.
• Select Use For.
• Select a Mode.
• If Mode is round, then select the nearest Multiple to round (if necessary).
• Select Edit Rule.

• To round to the nearest tenth for percent fields, you’ll need three places after the decimal. The system treats the percent as a decimal number, moves the decimal two places to the right, and then rounds to the last digit in the format (###.000 or ###.###).

• Example: you want 37.53% to round to 37.5% (nearest 10th).

  • You might think to use ###.# as your rounding format, but actually you must use ###.###. The system rounds to the five because the five is the last digit in the format (0.3753).

  • 0.3753 is changed to 37.53 first, and then rounded. The result is 37.5.

  • You can do this for your defPercentFormat if you need all or most percent fields to round to the tenth. Then, you could set up a customPercentFormat for those fields that do not need the rounding.

Each standard field is set to display the default number format for that type of field.

If you need a certain field to use a different format than the default (in the example in the preceding figure, Apply Rounding Rules, Goal Weight must be rounded to the 100th), you assign a different format here.

Navigate to Design Worksheets → Set Number Formats.

• Find the desired field to apply a number format.
• Choose the desired Number Format from the dropdown.
• Choose Save.

The Check Tool helps eliminate common errors and catch configuration and data-related issues. It is recommended to run checks before launching forms, as the information returned by the Check Tool can provide valuable input to an administrator, and can be used to identify potential issues before a bonus period begins with forms launched.

The Check Tool requires role-based permissions and the Metadata Framework. Grant the following administrative permissions to use the feature:

• Access Check Tool authorizes users to access the tool.

• Allow Configuration Export authorizes users to export system configuration data from within the Check Tool.

The Check Tool can be launched directly from the Manage Worksheet page or by using Action Search. Checks available for Compensation and Variable Pay include but are not limited to checking:

• Cyclic Dependency
• Inactive Planners
• Formula Configuration issues
• Statement Setup

Check results can be any of the following:

• No issues found.
• Warning: Inconsistency is found. System proposes a solution.
• Error: Inconsistency is found, admin must take action, which might include creating a ticket.

The process of launching a Variable Pay form is the same process followed when launching Compensation forms. Navigate to Manage Worksheets.

1. Select Create Worksheets.
2. Enter a unique worksheet name.
3. Select Start Date, End Date, and Due Date.
4. Select the top level manager/planner (you must use the Find Employee button OR type the planner's username, for example, "aathompson" instead of typing "Alan Thompson".

• Create worksheet for Head of Planning only - launches a form only to the planner selected in Head of Planning; used mostly in testing scenarios in order to reduce form creation time.
• Send Email Notifications to planner(s) - if selected, planners are notified that forms are ready for review (assuming the Document Creation notification is turned on in the Admin Center).

Some organizations may need to launch forms to employees within a hierarchy at different points in the year.

For example:

• UK merit planning takes place in March; Netherlands merit planning takes place in April.

• Planners with teams in both countries receive one worksheet that lists the UK employees, and then another worksheet that lists Netherlands employees.

To enable worksheet creation by employee group, enable the setting in Advanced Settings → Create worksheets by employee group. This setting is grayed out when the template already have in-progress forms. Groups can be created under the Manage Employee Groups tool.

When changes are made to employee data, these changes might need to be reflected on Variable Pay forms too. The following options are available to push employee data changes to the worksheet:

• Add New Employee to Variable Pay worksheet (employee hired and added as a user after the admin created the worksheets).
• Move employee’s variable pay data from previous manager to current manager (this setting will only work if the new manager already has an existing variable pay worksheet).
• Create Worksheet for new manager(s). A manager is considered a new manager if:
  • This manager is in the user hierarchy of specified head of compensation planning and/or is manager of employees in specified dynamic group.
  • This manager does not have a worksheet created yet.

  A manager has a worksheet created if the manager has at least one eligible employee. If all their employees are ineligible, no worksheet is created.

  If Move employee’s compensation data from old manager to current manager is not checked, then only employees under the new manager not in any existing worksheet is included in the new worksheet.
• Remove Inactive Employees from Variable Pay Worksheets
• Remove Inactive Planner’s WorksheetsUse caution when selecting this – this deletes the planner’s entire worksheet, even if there are still employees on the worksheet. Make sure you first move the employees to a new worksheet before deleting an inactive planner worksheet.
• Update Budget
• Synchronize Bonus Data with Performance Management form

Updates can also be applied to specific worksheets.

The update process can be automated by setting up a scheduled update job in Provisioning → Manage Scheduled Jobs.

The same update options exist for the automated job as the manual process. Changes are automatically applied to all ongoing and completed Variable Pay forms (if the completed option is selected).

Employees can be moved, deleted, and added to worksheets manually.

To move an employee (for example):

• Select the Source Worksheet.

  • All available employees on the worksheet are listed.

  • Select the employee(s) to move.

• Select the Target Worksheet.
• Select whether to update budget and which notifications to send.
• Select Move.

By default, any manual movements are overwritten when a mass update job is run. For example:

• Employee A is manually moved from Manager 1’s worksheet to Manager 2’s worksheet.

• Then Employee A is assigned to a new manager – Manager 3 – and forms are updated with the Move employee’s variable pay data form previous manager to current manager option.

• Employee A is not moved to Manager 3’s worksheet.

This overwrite behavior can be skipped with the Advanced Settings option Do not override manually updated employees. If this option is checked before the processes take place, Employee A remains on Manager 2’s worksheet when forms are updated in the preceding sample. An e-mail notification is sent to alert the admin that Employee A was not moved.

There can be times when you want to delete Variable Pay worksheets. There are two methods for deleting worksheets:

1. Using Manage Worksheets.

2. Using Delete Document.

This option is appropriate for a few worksheets (under 100).

This option is appropriate for deleting many worksheets (over 100).

An optional setting in Actions for All Plans → Company Settings can be used to automatically purge deleted worksheets. As deleted forms reside in the same database tables as that of live forms, enabling the setting can help improve Executive Review loading performance. To set the process, enter how old deleted worksheets must be before being purged. The system can auto purge 1 to 365-day old deleted forms.

There are two other purging tools available for Compensation and Variable Pay: Data Retention Management (DRM) and Data Retention Time Management (DRTM). The latter allows for different data retention times for different countries. To know more about purging settings for Compensation and Variable Pay, visit the SAP Help Portal for DRM and DRTM guides.

The process includes:

1. Adding a Variable Pay statement template from SuccessStore (or upload in case of custom templates).
2. Associating a reward template with the Variable Pay plan.
3. Generating statements.

Statement permissions can be set at the plan level.

1. Default Permissions follow the user permission and the target population defined in the role-based permission.
2. Change Permission who can view generated statements supersede the permission in RBP.
3. Generated Statements are not viewable hide the statements from all users.

When statement templates are added to the system, administrators can manage how statement templates are used at the plan level. Navigate to Complete Compensation Cycle → Rewards Statements.

• To associate the plan with a statement template, use Select Template. The list displays all previously added reward templates that match the plan (for example, only variable pay statement templates will appear on the list if the plan is variable pay).
• When using multiple plan sources, use the Combined Statement template.
• Multiple statement templates can be associated if different versions are required for employee statement groups.
• When using multiple statement templates, assign a default template. The system will use the default template for any employees included in a complete form but not associated to a statement group. Default template should be the last on the list.
• Assign template permissions – this can be modified even after statements are generated.
• Statements can be generated by employee name, username, or by reward template. The same options are available when recalling statements.
• Bulk printing from Executive Review can be enabled at the plan settings. The Download statement button appears only if a generated statement is available for any of the filtered employees in Executive Review.
• When using the Combined Statement template with Compensation and Variable Pay as data sources, use Compensation as the primary plan. This will allow planners to download/bulk print statements on compensation worksheets.

The system can prevent statement generation for select employees, such as if there is no change in an employee’s base salary, no bonus, and so on. In order to prevent generating statements, a dedicated custom string column should be added to each template.

Data on a custom string column can be imported or formula driven. Column result should be Boolean "TRUE" or "FALSE". Examples of formulas which can be used:

• Example for no bonus payout: if(finalPayout=0,"FALSE","TRUE")

• Example for low rating that would render ineligible for planning: if(totalIndividualRating<50,"FALSE", "TRUE")

• Example with a custom logic to look to exclude certain statuses: if(customStatus="Leave of Absence" , "FALSE", "TRUE")

1. Create a custom string column in the Design Worksheet dedicated for statement suppression.

   

2. Enable the setting from Plan Setup → Settings.

   Note

   The dropdown to designate field suppression shows all string data custom fields, but only those custom columns with the value "TRUE" have forms generated, a value of "FALSE" will be suppressed.
   

3. Generate statements as you normally would.

4. The Job Status report lists the names whose statements have been suppressed.

<comp-statement-suppression fieldId="customfield4"/>

An additional option for making the reward statements available is to place them directly on the employee’s profile page. With this option, employees can access their reward information at any time after the statements are generated.

Variable Pay statements can be made available directly on People Profile. With this option, employees can access their reward statements anytime after it is published. Make sure that proper permissions are set for users. The statement links are defined in User Permissions → Employee Data, while statement blocks are defined in User Permissions → Employee Views. To configure statements on People Profile:

1. Go to Manage People Profile.
2. Set Variable Pay Statement section and block to be visible.
3. Save.

Once the Compensation statement is generated and published by the administrator, the employee can view it at any time.

Administrators can send a system-generated e-mail to notify employees of their reward statement by completing the following steps:

1. Enable the setting, View generated Variable Pay and Combined Statements based on Role-Based Permission, from Actions for All Plans → Company Settings.
2. Enable permission from the role-based permission, Manage Permission Role → Administrator Permissions → Manage Compensation and Variable Pay → Manage Email Notifications for Statement Generation.

A new e-mail template, Personal Compensation Statement Generation notification is available from E-Mail Notification Templates. To send the e-mail notification, navigate to Complete Compensation Cycle → Reward Statements → Send Email Notification. The same choices are available for sending notifications as that of generating statements, by template, by employee name, and by username.

Administrators can generate reconciliation reports into a downloadable CSV file and identify 1) employees who have reward statements generated and 2) employees who do not have them.

Navigate to Complete Compensation Cycle → Reward Statements → Manage Statement Templates. Select the Reward Statement Generation Report icon on the far right.

A job is initiated and can be accessed via Report Center → View Scheduled Jobs → My Jobs. In the Statement Generated column of the downloaded CSV, the name of the statement template is displayed for the employees for whom a statement was generated. If a statement was not generated, a blank cell is displayed.

Personal statements can be generated using an autocomplete search for user:

• User Search: Only one user can be generated at a time

• Statement Type: Can pull Compensation, Variable Pay, or Combined Statements

• Date Range: The system fetches all statements within the date range specified

• Print All: The administrator or data protection officer can print all fetched statements

1. The following permission code block must be added to the data model for the appropriate roles. In this example, the Employee, Managers up the chain, and HR Rep can view the Variable Pay Individual Review.

   
   Note

   Be sure to properly select the Target Population for each permission role.

2. Enable the Variable Pay Individual View in RBP → Employee Views.

3. Add the Variable Pay Individual View as a section or subsection in People Profile.

4. Search for the Variable Pay Individual view block and add it to the subsection.

5. Navigate to the appropriate Variable Pay program to enable Live Profile visibility for the plan.

Employees can easily access their bonus payout distribution from the home page or People Profile. To set up the home page bonus distribution notification, the latest home page must be enabled.

The home page bonus revision notifications require the New Experience for the home page found in the Upgrade Center. To trigger these types of notifications, you must have the Send Personal Statement and Bonus Plan Notifications RBP found under Manage Compensation and Varpay within RBP. This now opens up the capability to trigger the notifications by clicking on a template within Compensation Home and navigating to: Complete Compensation Cycle → Manage Notifications.

Manage Notifications allows the administrator to send a personal statement or the individual bonus view the notification.

A more user-friendly individual bonus payout view is available for employees; however, this does require a setting to be enabled: Enhanced Individual Variable Pay View is found in Company Settings.

Navigate to Compensation Home → Actions for All Plans → Company Settings.

Once enabled, the overall experience of reviewing bonus payout information is easier.

Enhanced Bonus Payout View for employees requires a Company Settings switch enabled in Compensation Home.