FastTrack360 Version 12 Online Help

How to Define a Rate Rule

Owned by Fiona Sims
Last updated: 31 January 2024 by Max Ciereszko
7 min read

To define a pay rate rule, follow the procedure below.

1.

If not already open, open a pay agreement in the Edit Pay Agreement screen.

 

2.

Navigate to the Secondary Interpretation section and click the arrow.

The Secondary Interpretation section of the pane expands.

4.

Click Add.
The Pay Rate Rule Entry pane opens on the right-hand side of the screen, thereby allowing you to define the properties of the new rate rule.

 

In the Pay Rate Rule Entry pane, type or select the rule name, validity dates, hierarchy level and value, pay code, rounding type and rounding value in the relevant fields as required.

Pay Rate Rule Name

Unique name of the rate rule.

Note - it is recommended that you do not include - BU as a suffix to the pay rate rule name (e.g. Late Shift – BU22). That is because the – BU suffix is reserved for pay rate rules that are automatically created by the Bulk Rate Update process. Including the suffix in the pay rate rule name could result in a duplication of rule names if Bulk Rate Update is used to automatically create updated pay rate rules.

Validity Start Date

Date from which the rate rule is valid. Click the calendar button and use the calendar control to select a valid date.

Note that the date must be within the validity period of the agreement, as defined in the agreement header. The date cannot fall within the validity period of another rate rule for the same pay code assigned to the same hierarchy level and hierarchy value.

Validity End Date

Date after which the rate rule expires. Click the calendar button and use the calendar control to select a valid date. Alternatively, leave this field blank if the rate rule is to remain valid indefinitely.

Note that the date must be within the validity period of the agreement, as defined in the agreement header. The date cannot fall within the validity period of another rate rule for the same pay code assigned to the same hierarchy level and hierarchy value.

Hierarchy Level

Agreement hierarchy level to which the rate rule belongs. This defaults to Country but you can select another hierarchy level as required.

Hierarchy Value

Agreement hierarchy value to which the rate rule belongs. For example, if the rate rule is assigned to the Country level of the agreement hierarchy, the hierarchy value defines the country to which the rule applies. Click the display button to
to display a dialog box that allows you to search for the relevant hierarchy value.

Hierarchy Group

Hierarchy group to which the pay rate rule belongs. If pay rate rules are assigned to a hierarchy group, when pay interpretation occurs the system will first attempt to apply a pay rate rule my matching on a combination of hierarchy level, hierarchy value and hierarchy group. If no such pay rate rule exists, the system will attempt to find an applicable pay rate rule by matching on a combination of hierarchy level and hierarchy value only.

It is not mandatory to assign a pay rate rule to a hierarchy group and you can only assign a pay rate rule to a hierarchy group if hierarchy group functionality is enabled in Maintenance > Hierarchy > Country Settings > Hierarchy Group.

Hierarchy group functionality can be labelled to suit the terminology required by your business and the country to which it applies. This can be configured in Maintenance > Hierarchy > Country Settings > Hierarchy Group.

Calculation Only

When ticked, indicates that this pay rate rule is used to define a base pay rate that can be used in the rate calculation of other pay rate rules. No payments will be made against this pay rate rule itself and no pay items will be generated based on this pay rate rule on payslips.

If this field is ticked, the pay code for this pay rate rule can be selected in the Rate field on the Pay Rate Rule Entry screen for other pay rate rules that have a rate that is based on a calculation, even if there is no pay code rule that uses the pay code.

Pay Code

The pay code to which the rate rule corresponds. Only those pay codes that are selected within a pay code rule action of the agreement can be selected in this field. The exception to this are pay codes that are used by calculation only pay rate rules (for more information, see above), which are available regardless of whether they are used in a pay code rule.

Rounding Type

Determines if the result of the rate calculation is to be rounded or truncated. Select Round if the result is to be rounded up or down to a specific number of decimal places. Select Truncate if the rate is to be shortened to a specific number of decimal places without rounding up or down.

Rounding Value

Number of decimal places to which the result of the rate calculation is to be rounded or truncated. For example, a value of 2 will round the rate calculation result up to two decimal places or will truncate the result of the rate calculation at two decimal places, depending on whether the Round or Truncate is selected in the Rounding Type field respectively.

Top Up Rates

When ticked, indicates that the rate rule represents a top up rate, which applies a top-up operation to an existing base pay rate.

Top Up Operation

Type of top up operation the rate rule is to apply. The options are as follows:

Plus – adds a value to the base rate

Minus – subtracts a value from the base rate

Multiply – multiples a value by the base rate

Percent – applies a percentage value to the base rate

Divide – divides the base rate by a value.

Note that if the rate rule is to specify a top-up rate, you also need to select the Top Up Rates option and select the relevant top-up operation option from the Top-up Operation field. You can only specify a top-up rate if another rate rule already exists for the same pay code.

 

5.

In the bottom part of the Pay Rate Rule Entry pane, define the required rate type(s) and corresponding rates. For more information, see How to Define the Rate Types below.

 

6.

Click Save.

A confirmation message opens, indicating the agreement has been saved successfully.

Define the Rate Types

To define the rate types for a rate rule, follow the procedure below.

1.

In the grid at the bottom of the Pay Rate Rule Entry pane, click Add.

A new Pay Rate Rule panel displays, as shown in the example below.

2.

In the Rate Type column, select the rate type that is to apply to the rate rule.

3.

If you selected Flat Rate in the Rate Type column, type the applicable rate in the Rate column, as shown in the example.

If you selected Calculation in the Rate Type column, in the Rate column, select the pay code on which the calculation is to be based, select the applicable calculation operator and type the value to be used in the calculation. An example of this is shown below.

If you selected Direct Valuation or Payee Rate in the Rate Type column, skip this step.

4.

If the rate rule is to have multiple rate types depending on specific conditions, select the relevant conditional variable name and value in the Conditional Variable Condition column, as shown in the example, depending on the specific condition under which the rate type is to apply.

If the rate rule is to have one rate type only, do not proceed any further.

5.

To add another rate type to the rate rule, click Add and repeat steps 2-4.

Note that for each rate type you select, you must select a different conditional variable value in order to define the specific condition under which each rate type applies.

 

Note that you can remove any rate type that you add unintentionally by clicking the delete button next to the relevant row of the grid.


Classification-Public