Site Specific Parameters (SPAR) Settings

The Site Specific Parameters (SPAR) table is used to set defaults and other settings specific to your site. There are options and controls on SPAR that are specific to each functional area.

PAM processes payroll details based on the Accounting setup for those details in HRM. Accounting details are specified on Site Specific Parameters (SPAR) and on specific windows in HRM.

The following SPAR entries must be set for Accounting in HRM:

ACCTG ATTR DEFAULT LEVEL ID - Defines whether Accounting details are set at the Department [A] or at the Global [G] level.
ACCTG CHARGE EXCESS TIME CATEG - Select (Y) the Yes/No Flag field if an object or labor distribution code to which overtime hours are reported on the General Ledger can be defined on the Time Category (TIMC) page. When the flag is selected, the General Ledger interface uses TIMC to determine the accounting information for hours charged in excess of employee standard hours.
ADVANTAGE FINANCIAL 3.X SYSTEM - The ADVANTAGE FINANCIAL 3.X SYSTEM parameter on SPAR is used for processing cancelled checks. If the Yes/No Flag is set to Y, then the check cancellation process reads the payroll accounting journal tables to determine the original accounting information posted for the check.
ALLOCATE LEAVE PAY OVER LABOR - If the Yes/No Flag is set to Y, the Leave Pay Events are allocated over the Labor Pay Details in the pay period.
ALLOCATE OVERTIME OVER LABOR - If the Yes/No Flag is set to Y, the Overtime Pay Events are allocated over the Labor Pay Details effective during the FLSA period.
ALLOW CONTRACT PAY PROCESSING, ALLOW RESERVE PAY PROCESSING, GET WORK CYCLE FROM PYCL, and USE NEW CONTRACT MODEL are used to determine the work cycle code to calculate the number of working days in a particular time period.
DEFAULT LDPR CD FOR DED - This key allows you to define the Labor Distribution Profile to which HRM will default to retrieve Accounting details for deductions, when needed. You can verify the Accounting Details for this LDPR on the LDPR screen.
DEFAULT LDPR CD FOR PAY - This key allows you to define the Labor Distribution Profile to which HRM will default to retrieve Accounting details for pay, when needed. You can verify the Accounting Details for this LDPR on the LDPR screen.
CLEARING FUND DEFAULT OPTION - This flag indicates whether or not the Clearing Fund functionality will be used. A value entered for this SPAR key is overridden by Clearing Fund specifications on the DPLN/BENP. Reserve Pay is not affected by this flag.
CLEARING FUND DEFAULT VALUE - This key must be used if CLEARING FUND DEFAULT OPTION is set to Yes. This is where you specify the Clearing Fund you want to use. CLEARING FUND DEFAULT VALUE is overridden by Clearing Fund specifications on the DPLN/BENP. Reserve Pay does not use this key. It will always use the Clearing Fund specified in the FUND CODE FOR RESERVE PAY.
CREATE PYRL DOCS FOR NET PAY - Select (Y) the Yes/No Flag field to create Net Pay transactions.
DEFAULT BALANCE SHEET ACCT CD - If the Balance Sheet Account Code on the Payroll Liability Journal Records is invalid then the DEFAULT BALANCE SHEET ACCT CD on SPAR is used.
DEFAULT LDPR CD FOR PAY and DEFAULT LDPR CD FOR DED are used to define the default labor distribution profile code for the payroll expense and payroll liability journal records respectively.
DEPT CODE FOR RESERVE PAY - Enter the Department code where reserve pay is accumulated and paid out in the Text Value field. Valid values are contained in the Department (DEPT) page. Refer to the note under USE HISTORICAL POSITION ACCTG below for additional information.
FUND CODE FOR RESERVE PAY - Enter the fund code for reserve pay in the Text Value field. Reserve pay is accumulated to and paid out from the fund specified. Refer to the Fund (FUND) page for valid codes. Refer to the note under USE HISTORICAL POSITION ACCTG below for additional information.
GLOBAL LEVEL DEFAULT DEPT - If ACTG ATTR DEFAULT LEVEL ID is set to G, you must set this SPAR key. The Department code you specify is used as the key to the LDPR entry.
INCL PPER DETAILS IN LABOR ACC - If the Yes/No Flag is set to Y, the pay journal records for prior period pay details on a check that has been reversed are written to the Payroll expense journal table.
JV BUDGET OVERRIDE FL - This flag allows you to determine how the Budget Override Flag on generated Journal Vouchers is set.
JV OFFSET BS ACCT CD - This account is used to offset each Journal Voucher in the General Ledger interface. Valid values can be found on the BSA screen. The Text Value field should display the Balance Sheet Account for the salaries and waged. By setting this flag to Yes, the first four characters of the BSA in the Text Value field will be used for both expense and liabilities offsets. By setting the flag to No, the offset accounts will be determined on the SPEC screen in Financial. The account specified in the Due to Fund field is used as the offset for expense-side JVs, and the account specified in the Due from Fund is used as the offset for liability-side JVs.
KRONOS INTEGRATION - Select the Yes/No Flag to enable the system to control if the Kronos Pay Rule field will be editable. If this SPAR entry is set to true, the value can be entered in the Kronos Pay Rule field. Note: This SPAR should only be set to true for clients using the baseline Kronos/Advantage HRM integration.
KRONOS MULTI APPT – Select the Yes/No Flag to indicate that the site is configured to support multiple appointments for employees. This means during the export, a combo Employee ID will be will be constructed by concatenating the Employee ID and the Appointment for Kronos, and during import, the Employee ID and the Appointment are obtained by splitting the combo Employee ID from Kronos.
LD ACCR EXCLUDED 1PAY DOCS 1 - parameter is used by the system to identify transaction events to be excluded from accruals regardless of the event type. If the Text Value field is populated with values (space separated), then they are compared against the fringe journal FRGDTL_DOC_CD. If they are identical, it will skip accrual for this record.
LD ACCR EXCLUDED FRINGE CATGS - The LD ACCR EXCLUDED FRINGE CATGS parameter is used by the system to identify ineligible Pay Event Categories. If the Text Value field is populated with values (space separated), then they are compared against the fringe pay event category. If there is a match, then the Payroll Accrual (PRACR) transaction is not generated.
LEAVE PAY TYPE CODE - This code is used to determine Leave Liability on the Leave Liability Report (HAA8100). Valid codes are on EVNT for the pay type in use. If the flag is set to No, HRM will default to each employee’s Base Pay Type Code as specified on their EMPS.
NO JV DEPT ON LIABILITY FL - Clear (N) the Yes/No Flag to allow department codes to be posted on liabilities. Select (Y) the Yes/No Flag to remove the department from Journal Voucher liability detail line entries. If the flag cleared and Reserve Pay processing is being used, the Site Specific entry Department Code for Reserve Pay should be set to spaces.
PAMPYDT DOC ID REQUIRED - Select (Y) the Yes/No Flag field to require Transaction ID on the PAMPYDT page. The setting of this flag is initially cleared so that Transaction ID is not required.
PAMPYDTE FILTER RESTRICTION - Set to Yes to restrict the results of the PAM Pay Details by Employee (PAMPYDTE) inquiry page.
PAM COMMIT BLK SIZE - Enter the minimum number of blocks of data committed at a time during the Payroll Check Processor job in the Text Value field.
PAM DOC DEPT DEFAULT - If the GLOBAL LEVEL DEFAULT DEPARTMENT parameter on SPAR is not activated and a Department is not specified for the Reference Page or Transaction the application is processing, the PAM DOC DEPT DEFAULT parameter provides a default Department. Without this default Department, the Payroll Accounting Transaction Generator will fail with a 'GLOBAL LEVEL DEFAULT DEPT. NOT FOUND' error.
PAY CHECK PROCESSOR BLOCK SIZE - Enter the commit block size for the PAM process in the Text Value field. If this is 0 then C_BLOCK_SIZE is the commit block size.
PAYMENT VOUCHER DEPT - Specify the Department code that is to display on all Payment Vouchers created to satisfy Deduction liabilities.
PREXP SUMMARIZATION DATE - Enter 1 in the Numeric Value field to indicate that the system must use the Event Date for PREXP summarization and enter 2 in the Numeric Value field to indicate that the system must use the Process Date for PREXP summarization. As the PROCESS_DT is the date on which the PAM jobs are run, and is the same for all the records, you can choose to have a uniform summarization for the PREXP transactions.
PYRL ACTG DOC SUMM LEVEL - Used as the Default Summarization Level for the payroll transactions if no Summarization Level is passed as a job parameter.
PYRL ACTG LINE DED SUMM - When the Yes/No Flag of the USE PAM DOC TYPE SUMMARIZATION parameter is selected, then summarization at the header and line level may be defined for each payroll transaction code type via the PAM Summarization by Transaction Type (PAMSUMM) page and the SPAR entry PYRL ACTG LINE DED SUMM setting is ignored. In this instance, the Payroll Check Processor defaults to execute at Summarization Level 3 and the information on PAMSUMM is then used as input to the PAM Transaction Generator batch job.
PYRL DOC GEN BLOCK SIZE - Enter the number of records the job will commit from memory to the DB in the Text Value field.
PYRL DOCUMENT MAXIMUM SIZE - Enter in the maximum number of lines that are allowed per PYRL transaction in the Numeric Value field.
RESERVE PAY FUND CD, RESERVE PAY DEPARTMENT CD, RESERVE PAY FIN ACCRUAL EVENT and RESERVE PAY FIN USAGE EVENT - The Fund, Department, Financial Accrual Event and Financial Usage Event from the RESERVE PAY FUND CD, RESERVE PAY DEPARTMENT CD, RESERVE PAY FIN ACCRUAL EVENT and RESERVE PAY FIN USAGE EVENT entries on SPAR are written to the Payroll Liability Journal Records when processing reserve pay events.
SPLIT PAY PERIOD - Select (Y) the Yes/No Flag field to indicate that if the pay periods cross accounting periods, expenses and liabilities should be prorated. If selected and Text Value is MONTH, then prorate if pay periods cross accounting months. If selected and Text Value is QUARTER, then prorate if pay periods cross accounting quarters. If selected and Text Value is YEAR, then prorate only if pay periods cross accounting years. Proration is calculated using the Work Day (WDAY) or Calendar Date (CLDT) pages. If the % of Pay in Prior Acctg Period on the Pay Cycle (CYCL) page is filled in, this value overrides the Work Day (WDAY) and Calendar Date (CLDT) page entries.
USE CLEARING FUND - If the Yes/No Flag for this parameter is selected (True), the PAM Transaction Generator job checks to make sure the Use Clearing Fund flag on the PYRL Journal table is set to ‘True’, then uses the populated Clearing Fund/ Clearing Sub-Fund codes from the PYRL Liability Journal table to populate the Fund/ Sub-Fund fields of the PRLNP transaction. If the Yes/No Flag for the USE CLEARING FUND parameter on SPAR is cleared (False), the PAM Transaction Generator job keeps the Clearing Fund/ Clearing Sub-Fund codes in the same fields of the PRLNP transaction.
USE HISTORICAL POSITION ACCTG - Enter Y in the Yes/No Flag field to use the employee’s historical position accounting values when an employee’s accounting attributes are not active for the entire pay period. Enter N in the Yes/No Flag field to use the site’s default accounting values for employees whose accounting attributes are not active for the entire pay period. Note: The FUND CODE FOR RESERVE PAY and DEPT CODE FOR RESERVE PAY are used as the ultimate default values regardless of whether USE HISTORICAL POSITION ACCTG is set to Y or N. The purpose of USE HISTORICAL POSITION ACCTG is to enable the application to perform additional look-ups for the historical position accounting IF and ONLY IF no employee appointment accounting and position accounting attributes can be found since the employee is not active for the entire pay period. If any of the employee appointment accounting or position accounting attributes can be found for the current pay period, that accounting code is used. If no employee appointment accounting and position accounting (current and historical) attributes can be found, the FUND CODE FOR RESERVE PAY and DEPT CODE FOR RESERVE PAY are used as the final fail-safe default values. In another words, the USE HISTORICAL POSITION ACCTG parameter only enables additional look-ups for historical position accounting attributes and does not dictate whether the FUND CODE FOR RESERVE PAY and DEPT CODE FOR RESERVE PAY are used or not, as they are used if all attempts to look for the employee appointment accounting and position accounting attributes (current and historical) produce no results.
USE PAM DOC TYPE SUMMARIZATION - If the Yes/No Flag of this parameter entry is selected, then summarization at the header and line level may be defined for each payroll transaction code type via the PAM Summarization by Transaction Type (PAMSUMM) page. In this instance, the Payroll Check Processor defaults to execute at Summarization Level 3 and the information on PAMSUMM is then used as input to the PAM Transaction Generator batch job.