Getting Accurate Payment & Deduction Data

Below is information you should know about the Payment Data (PH) and Payment Extract (PY) files before generating reports. For detailed information about the payment files, refer to the master file descriptions in the CIRS Data Element Dictionary.

When both payment and deduction data are needed and the request contains a screening statement, you must use a MATCH to avoid the problem of 'missing instances'. Missing instances occur when FOCUS omits parent segment instances (i.e., payments) which have no descendants (i.e., deductions). For an example of a very basic MATCH request, between the payment and deduction segments, refer to the common library member: FOC1060.

If both payment and deduction data are needed and the request does not contain any screening statements, you can use the ALL command instead of a MATCH to include parent instances that have missing descendants. For more information, refer to the topic: The ALL Prefix. For an example of using this command in a report, refer to the common library member: PAYSUMRY

The PH file contains all payments issued to your employees, including those issued by other campuses. To generate reports only for payments issued by your campus, include a screening statement for campus code. For example: IF PH:CAMPX EQ X.

Be aware of the difference between the business month in which a payment issued and the pay period for which the payment issued. For example, a payment can issue in the current business month (e.g., July 2004), for a prior or future pay period. (e.g., September 2004). Also be aware that a deduction can be processed for a pay period that differs from the pay period associated with the payment. Refer to the CIRS Data Element Dictionary for descriptions of the following fields: Issue Date, Pay Period Date, Deduction Pay Period.

The IBM system limits the number of characters per record (SSN) to 32,000 bytes. Employees with excessive retroactivity may exceed the maximum record length due to the large amount of information maintained per payment.
In the PH file, employees who exceed the maximum record length have summarized records (PH:SUMEMP). These employees have multiple payments combined into a single payment. As the result of the summarization, gross amounts for pay periods may not be correct. For more information refer to the topic: Summarized Employee.

In the PY file, employees who exceed the maximum record length have data overflow (PY:OVERFLOW). You should check for data overflow when a PY file is created for more than 1 or 2 pay periods. Employees with overflow will have missing payments in the PY file. For more information, refer to the topic: Overflow Indicator.