How Do I Set Up Labor Cost Transfer Templates?

You can define a labor cost transfer for an employee and a specific date range by using Labor Cost Transfer Template Entry (GM12.2).

Additionally, you can copy the setup from the Labor Distribution Template (GM10.2) by using the Copy to Labor Cost Transfer button (GM12.5).

You can use Labor Cost Transfer Template Entry (GM12.2) or Copy to Labor Cost Transfer (GM12.5) to define labor cost templates one at a time. Or you can use Labor Cost Transfer Template Creation (GM466) to automatically create labor cost transfer templates for selected employees when actual-to-salary or actual-to-planned effort variances exceed a user-defined tolerance.

Note: If you use GM466 or GM12.5, you will still use Labor Cost Transfer Template Entry (GM12.2) to review and modify the created templates, and Labor Cost Transfer Template Approval (GM13.1) or Labor Cost Transfer Template Entry (GM12.2) to approve them.

Cost transfer template lines represent what the employee's labor distribution should have been for the date range. In each template line, you identify the grant activity and general ledger account with the salary percentage. If you track planned effort for effort reporting, you can also enter a planned effort percentage. Salary and effort percentages must total 100 percent for all distribution lines before the template can be approved and processed.

You can attach comments to the cost transfer template to document why the cost transfer was made. Comments can be attached to the template header and to individual template distribution lines.

Because you can pro-rate redistributions during labor cost transfer processing, only one unprocessed template per employee and date range is allowed at any given time. Date ranges cannot overlap for unprocessed templates. For example, you must process a template defined for May 16 to May 27 before you can define a template for the same employee that covers May 11 to May 18.

You can enter a pay code and job code or position on a template. That means the template applies only to records containing the specified pay code, job code, or position for the employee. For example, a template that is defined for an employee and pay code REG (regular pay) results in redistributions only for existing distribution transactions containing pay code REG. Regardless of whether you enter a pay code, job code, or position on a template, overlapping date ranges for unprocessed templates are not allowed.

When you add or update a Labor Cost Transfer Template entry (GM12.2), the system checks whether salary cap is enabled for the activity (grant). If it is enabled, the system finds the salary cap that is in effect. If the salary for the line exceeds the salary cap, then a warning message is displayed for the labor cost transfer line. You can then execute the Salary Cap action to recalculate the salary percentage that is allowable for the grand and create an overage transfer line to hold the non-allowable portion of the salary.

If the overage line GL account, activity, account category, and user analysis are defined on AC10.1, then these values are used for the overage line. If the GL account and user analysis values are not defined on AC10.1, then the values on the originating transfer line are used. If the overage activity is not defined on AC10.1, then no activity or account category is used on the overage line. If the overage activity is defined on AC10.1 without an account category, then the overage line will use the account category on the originating transfer line.

You can view the calculation detail on Labor Cost Transfer Template Salary Cap (GM12.6), which you access from GM 12.2.

When you process labor cost transfers using Labor Cost Transfer Processing (GM170) or Non-Lawson Payroll Cost Trans (GM171), you specify the posting date to be used for the reversing and redistribution transactions. If the date range in the template spans multiple accounting periods, the all reversing and adjusting entries are posted to the period in which the posting date falls. To post cost transfers to multiple accounting periods, you must create separate cost transfer templates with date ranges for each period and process labor cost transfers by period.

After the cost transfer template has been processed successfully, its processing status is changed to Updated. This prevents the cost transfer template from being processed again, and new templates can be entered with date ranges that overlap the processed template's date range.