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Post Calculation Cost Load file format

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The Timesheet Load (see Timesheet Load file format) is for loading prior to calculating the payroll. The Post Calculation Cost Load (%WPR09971UPRJ (Weekly), %WPR19971UPRJ (Monthly), %WPR09971UPRJ (2-Weekly), %WPR09971UPRJ (4-Weekly)) allows a redistribution of the costing for an employee-item combination after calculating the payroll. The overall item amount cannot change if it would have affected the calculation, just the breakdown of this to various analyses. As such whatever is in the load file for a given employee-item combination will completely replace the existing set of records for that employee and item.

The format is the same as for the pre-calculation Timesheet Load, but with some additional options for different cost splitting methods.

The CSV load file has four types of lines. The first sets the type for the following lines and consists of a single character: C, H or D.

  • C is for configuration: the following line specifies the fields to be loaded to.

  • H is for header: the following lines give field/value pairs which apply to all timesheet records created.

  • D is for data: the following lines give the field values (the columns must match the configuration).

If there is no line with a C, H or D the default is D, so a file can consist of just the data lines.

H – Header

The header section alternates between fieldnames and field values (<fieldname 1>,<field value 1>,<fieldname 2>,<field value 2>…). If there are multiple header lines, all field/value pairs are applied as if they were on a single line (and if the same field appears twice then only the last instance is used).

Valid fieldnames are:

  • EMPLOYEE – employee number (can also use NI/PPS/social security/national ID number for the employee).

  • METHOD – costing method.

  • COINSCO – company.

  • JOBNUM – contract number.

  • PHASE – contract phase.

  • JOB-PHASE – the contract number and phase together in one field (separated by a dot as usual in an analysis).

  • COSTHEAD – contract cost head.

  • SECTION – cost code section.

  • ACTIVITY – cost code activity.

  • SECT-ACT – combined section and activity.

  • CATEGORY – contract cost category.

  • PLTNUM – plant asset code.

  • PCH – plant cost head.

  • GLACCT – GL account.

  • WORKSHOP – workshop reference.

  • WCH – workshop cost head.

  • EFFDATE – the date for the timesheet line. This is not actually loaded, there is just a validation check that the given date is within the effective date-based period being loaded to, so you can use it to avoid accidentally loading the wrong file.

In addition to fields available on the pre-calculation Timesheet Load, the following fields are also available for splitting costs:

  • AMOUNT – period amount.

  • PERCENT – percentage of overall item amount.

  • UINPUT – updated input amount. In this case the overall item input is changed. This would typically be used to load hours worked against particular contracts for an employee who is salaried. Other calculated values like the net pay can then be prorated across these hours to give the effective allocation against each contract worked on.

C – Configuration

The configuration specifies which fields are represented by each of the columns in the data lines. It is possible to have more than one configuration line in a file; each configuration line replaces the configuration for the data lines that immediately follow. If there are no configuration lines in the file, the configuration is taken from a period type-specific Payroll parameter TSL-CNFG (under Weekly Payroll > Setup > Parameters and similar for the other pay frequencies).

In both cases, the valid fieldnames are:

  • Any of the fields which can be specified in the header section.

  • COMMENT – comment text.

  • ITEM – item number.

  • INPUT – input amount.

  • INPUTHHMM – input amount in hours and minutes with a format HH:MM.

  • RATE – rate.

  • LEAVE-DATE – employee leaving date.

  • HOLIDAY-PD – employee number of holiday periods.

  • ITEM_<field><number> - for a specific item and field where <number> is the item to be loaded to and <field> is a letter for the field, namely:

    • I (or H) = input amount (H was for hours, but it is the same field);

    • R = rate on an hours or default hours type item.

    You cannot use ITEM_<field><number> on the same line as the ITEM, INPUT, INPUTHHMM and RATE fields. ITEM_<field><number> lets you load to multiple items with the same analysis on the same line. ITEM, INPUT, INPUTHHMM and RATE are just for a single item per line.

  • DAYSSTRING – See the information below on the period type specific Payroll parameter DYSSTRNG for more details.

  • DYSSTRNG

    Timesheet load daysString field configuration

    Configuration of cost distribution in daysString field for timesheet load. The daysString field is a pipe-separated list, where entries 2 onwards are cost distribution. The cost distribution format is hyphen or comma separated, with the first entry specifying contract and the other entries item values as specified in this parameter. The format of each entry is either a Keyword (see TSL-CNFG documentation) or an item with a letter to identify the field (I = Input, R= Rate) and then the item number.

    Example: If you have timesheet codes W for worked, S for Sick, and A for Absent, a daysString could be:

    1W-2W-3W-4W-5A-6-7-8S-9S-10W-11W-12W-13-14-15W-16W-17W-18W-19W-20-21-22H-23H-24H-25H-26H-27-28-29W-30W-31W|ABC01-7.5-30|DEF33-0-20

    In this we have 15 days worked, 5 holiday, 2 sick and 1 absent. The cost distribution gives contract, overtime hours and percentage distribution to the contract. If the item of overtime hours was 99 and the cost distribution was 360, then the parameter setting would need to be i99,i360 . So ABC01 has 7.5 overtime and 30% of cost, DEF33 no overtime and 20%.

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