Need help on a 457(k) DBA

[janicej]

I need some help from the HR/Payroll gurus out there. Oracle support, as usual, has been totally unresponsive.

We have a 457(k) deferred compensation program where the employer matches the employee’s contribution 1:1 up to a limit of X dollars, depending on the benefit group. Someone who must hate me negotiated a change for 2007 so that now the employer match will be the greater of X dollars or 3% of base annual salary. So, there is the potential for the second limit to be different for every position. To makes matters more complicated, these DBAs are part of a group limit because of the IRS limitations on annual contributions.

I was able to come up with a DBA that calculates correctly for a single salary by using a calculation table with two limits. But, I’m thinking I need a way to come up with a variable second annual limit or set the limit at the employee level. I tried putting the second limit in the employee’s DBA record, but according to documentation, a limit set in a calculation table supersedes one set in the DBA or the employee master. It definitely doesn’t work.

Has anyone got any experience at calculating this type of benefit? I appreciate any and all tips and ideas.

 

[Ray Justus]

Janice,

Are you really technical and do you have the time to experiment? If you do, you should be able to do this by creating your own table method in the Generic DBA Calculations setup.

Check out Table Methods (P059027) on the Pay/Deductions/Benefits Setup menu (G05BD4) and Pre-Payroll DBA Calculation Control (P07901) through FastPath.

It isn't always easy but you can do just about anything. If you are lucky, you may even find a group of existing table methods that will do the calculations you need by using multiple DBA's.

 

[janicej]

Ray,
Thanks for the response. Unfortunately, I'm an application support person. I'm also the only JDE support here, so I do technical and minor development as well. I looked at those applications and my first thought was that I really need some documentation to help me get through this. I searched Oracle's site and could only find a Quick Reference Sheet for DBA Table Methods. I also looked in the People Book documentation and found nothing. Do you, or anyone else, know of a good source of information for P059027 and P07901? Thanks again for your help.
Janice

 

[bthompson]

Janice,

We have set up a custom Table Method. I could not walk you through it but I am attaching our script on how to set it up. We did this for our Long Term Disability, don't know if it would help you much, but might give you a start. The named Event Rules will give you the calculations you need. We went live about 3 years ago and our consultant set this up for us during implementation.

The one thing to be aware of with these custom Table Methods is when ESU calls for you to reload the F07901 table you will lose these custom methods. We have a process in place when we do take an ESU and we don’t always load the new F07901, but if we have to then IT will SQL these custom methods and put them back into the F07901.

We are on XE SP 23 so I’m not sure if there will be much difference in the releases. I have found that there is not a lot of topics posted in these forums for HR/Payroll or any where else, so maybe this will help some.

 

[janicej]

Thanks, Beth! I will certainly look at this. I also found a white paper on JDETips about "User Defined DBA Methods", but there seems to be 2 figures missing, which makes it hard to understand (Input, Andy?). I'll let you know if I figure this out.
Janice

 

[janicej]

I wanted to give an update for anyone who runs into a similar situation in the future. Ray was correct in that using a combination of Table Methods (P059027) and DBA Calculation Control (P070901), you can build a customized DBA to do just about anything you want. It takes a lot of experimentation because there is no documentation! Thanks to the White Paper on JDETips and to Beth who sent me samples, I was able to figure out a solution after a lot of trial and error.

For anyone who supports Payroll/HR, I would suggest you look at these tools. They are very powerful. You can actually load just about any value/variable you want into the associated table, then attach it to a DBA. Good stuff!