http://docslide.us/documents/cwb-faqs.

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Q. What are the licensing requirements for Compensation Workbench?
A: If you purchased a Self-Service HR license prior to June 18th, 2007 and have a core
HR license, you may use Compensation Workbench. The purchase of a Self-Service HR
license on or after June 18th, 2007 does not permit the use of Compensation
Workbench. A separate Compensation Workbench license made
available on June 18th, 2007, in addition to a Core HR license, must be purchased to use
the product. A Self-Service HR license is not required to use the product if you
purchased a Compensation Workbench license. Purchasing a Compensation Workbench
license also allows the use of Total Compensation Statement.
Q: Where can I find more information about Compensation Workbench ?
A: Overview, setup, and processing information for CWB can be found in Online
Help. Additional information can be found on Metalink such as whitepapers,
viewlets, and functional setup documents. Transfer of Information presentations
are available from Oracle University (internal) or the OPN (partners).
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Q: We need to award salary increases and bonuses using a single budget.
For example, if I have a budget of $100,000 and I give a $5000 bonus to
someone, then I only have $95,000 left to allocate for other salary increases
or bonuses. Is this possible?
A: You can set up a single group plan that enables you to award different types
of compensation such as salary increases, bonuses, and stock options using a
single budget amount.
Q: We have employees in multiple countries and in different business
groups who are eligible for the same compensation plan. Employees are
paid in different currencies. Is it possible to set up a single plan in which
all these employees can receive compensation using a single budget
amount?
A: You can set up a single group plan through which employees in different
business groups can receive compensation. You set up separate local plans for
each currency in which employees are paid. You can also budget and award
compensation in a corporate currency defined for the group plan or in the local
currency of each employee.
Q: What is the difference between a 'group' plan/option and a 'local'
plan/option? Are 'group' plan and a 'global' the same thing?

A: 'Group' and 'local' plan terminology was introduced with HRMS Family Pack
J. 'Group' and 'global' can be used interchangeably.
A group plan groups together local plans, uses a single budget, and
defines the common corporate currency of all local plans associated with it. A
local plan is linked to a group plan. A local plan without a designated group
plan acts as its own group plan. Local plans have their own defined currency,
do not have budgets, and may be in the same or different business group than
the group plan.
A group option is the child of a group plan and is used for global
component or global combination plans. Budgets may be maintained at the
group option level. Options defined for a group plan are displayed on the same
worksheet within Compensation Workbench. Group options may also be
referred to as group components. A local option is a child of a group option
and may optionally be the child of a local plan. All rates, except budget rates,
may be defined at the local option level. Eligibility may also be defined at this
level. Local options may also be referred to as local components.
Q: What are the different ways that I can set up a CWB plan?
A:
1. Basic Plan - Groups together local plans of the same plan type. Local
plans may be in the same or different business group and have the same or
different currency than the global plan. Each local plan may have the same
or different currency. For example, a global basic plan structure might be
defined for a global salary increase plan whose currency is USD and includes
local plans for the US, the UK and CA, each defined in its local currency.
Using this plan structure, the budget would be set at the global plan level and
would then get distributed between each local plan in its local currency.
2. Component Plan - allows for plans that also use components. For global
component plans, local plans may be in the same or different business group
and may have the same or different currency than the global plan. Each local
plan may have the same or different currency. Global and local plans and
global and local options (components) must all be of the same plan type. A
component plan may have up to four options (components) that are of the
same compensation type. For example, a global salary increase plan whose
currency is USD may include local plans for the US, the UK and CA each
defined in its own local currency, and may also be based on 2 different
components, e.g. cost of living and performance. Using this plan structure,
the budget would be set at the global plan level and would then get
distributed between each local plan in its local currency. Managers would
then allocate compensation between each component. For stand-alone
component plans, the global and local plan and all components (up to four)

must be in the same business group, use the same currency, and be of the
same plan type.
3. Combination Plan - Combining the global basic and global component
plan structures, a global combination plan structure enables budgets to be
issued for plans in multiple business groups and currencies and comprising
different types of compensation. Global and local plans and global and local
options may be of different plan types. This structure enables different types
of compensation to be allocated at the same time and on a single worksheet.
A plan may have up to four components whether they are the same or
different compensation types. For example, a global focal review plan whose
currency is USD may include local plans for the US, UK and CA each defined
in its own local currency, and may also include global and local components
for salary increases, bonuses, and stock option awards. For each global
component, separate budgets are issued that are then dispersed between the
components at the local level. A stand-alone combination plan enables a
single budget to be issued across different plan types within the same
business group, all using the same currency. For example, in a US business

group, a budget in US Dollars may be issued for a focal review plan that
includes salary increase, bonuses, and stock option awards all in US Dollars.
Each of the above plan structures can also be set up as standalone plans. A
single plan acts as the global and local plan and a single type of compensation is
awarded
within a single business group.
See Metalink for sample setups for each of these plan structures.
Note 333569.1 - Compensation Workbench Global Basic Plan Sample Setup
Note 301163.1 - Compensation Workbench Global Combination Plan Sample
Setup
Note 302084.1 - Compensation Workbench Global Component Plan Sample
Setup
Note 182858.1 - Compensation Workbench Sample Setup (For customers who
are not yet on HRMS Family Pack J or beyond.)
Q: When do we run Participation Process: Compensation Workbench?
What Effective Date do we use?
A: You run the Participation Process: Compensation Workbench after you have
completely set up your CWB plans. The Effective Date of the process should be
the same date as your life event date you defined on the Plan Enrollment
Requirements for your group plan.
Q: Does the entire CWB process need to start at the highest level of the
organization? For example, can middle and lower level managers access

their worksheets and start allocating compensation before their managers

have issued them budgets?
A: Managers can begin working on their worksheets at any time as long as initial
access for the Allocate Compensation task is set to Full Access for the group
plan on the Plan Definition form. Task access can be changed from the
Compensation Administrator's page using the Plan Administration link.
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Q: Can a Compensation or HR administrator set and publish the budget to
managers rather than requiring the CEO or highest-level manager to do it?
A: Yes, this can be done in 2 ways.
1. The administrator use the Compensation Administrator's homepage >
Employee Information page to enter and publish the budget for the highestlevel manager.
2. Budgets can be automatically issued when the participation process is
run. You can set up a plan to auto-issue budgets by checking the
'Automatically Allocate Defined Budgets' box on the Plan Enrollment
Requirements form, and by entering the budget amount or % of eligible salary
in the CWB Distribution Budget and CWB Worksheet Budget Standard Rates
(calculation method should be 'Flat Amount').
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Q: What happens if an employee's salary is changed via the Salary
Proposals form in the middle of CWB salary increase cycle? If the
employee's salary increase is a % of their eligible salary, will their new
salary be based on their old salary or new salary?
A: The system handles this scenario differently based on the CWB life event date
for the plan. If you change the base salary after the life event date, the post
process will error out, even if you refresh the data. You will need to either delete
the recent salary proposal update and rerun the post process, or enter the new
salary manually. If you change the base salary before the life event date and you
refresh the data, the post process will run successfully and the employee's salary
increase will be based on the new salary change entered in the Salary Proposals
form. If you do not refresh the data before running the post process, the process
will error out and you will need to either delete the recent salary proposal update
and rerun the post process or enter the new salary manually.
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Q: If you reassign an employee to another manager's worksheet in CWB,
does the employee's supervisor get changed in the core application after
running post process?

A: No. Employee reassignments are only effective for the specific compensation

plan and plan period.

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Q: What do the different dates used for CWB plans and processing mean
and determine?
A: For a CWB plan, you use the following dates and date ranges.
1. Enrollment or Availability Period - Determines the period that the plan
appears on the CWB homepage. This period is difficult to extend once the
participation process has run, so give these dates careful consideration.
2. Plan Year (Partial/Within Plan Years) - Period during which employees
earned the compensation being awarded, or in which employees are being
evaluated/reviewed for the award. <>This period can be a full or partial year.
It is informational only and displays on the CWB homepage along with the
plan name.
3. Assigned Life Event Date (Life Event Occurred Date) - The date employee
eligibility is evaluated.
4. Self-Service Worksheet Update Period - Period during which managers
can make changes to the worksheet.
5. Participation Process: Compensation Workbench Effective date - This
should be the same date as the Event Date.
6. Post Process Effective Date - Date used for when element entries and/or
salary change become effective. (Ensure that the Rate Start Date Code is
'Elections' for the plan on the Plan Enrolment Requirements form.)
Different cycles of the same plan should have different availability periods. We
recommend that availability periods do not overlap. In addition, you can only
have one started life event for a plan, meaning that you must run the post
process for one compensation cycle before you can start the next cycle for the
same plan.
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Q: I set up my CWB plan according to the sample setup, but the plan does
not appear in CWB. Why not?
A: CWB plans appear on a manager's homepage when the following conditions
are met.
1. The plan's status is Active.
2. The participation process has been run for the group plan.
3. The availability period is current.
4. The manager has at least 1 employee under him who is eligible for at least
1 local plan attached to the group plan and and the manager has a started life
event.

5. You are logged into CWB using an HR Professional or Manager SelfService responsibility.
6. The system date falls within the Availability Period. (You can change the
system date via the preferences page of an administrator responsibility (i.e.
HR PROFESSIONAL V4.0)).
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Q: Why does the Participation Process: Compensation Workbench hang
and never complete?
A: If you are using a supervisor hierarchy as your hierarchy type, ensure that you
do not have recursive relationships in the supervisor hierarchy. For example, the
following are invalid:
A reports to B and B reports to A
A reports to B, B reports to C, and C reports to A
Also, try reducing the number of threads that are processed to 1 by navigating to
Processes and Reports > Batch Process Parameters and creating a new row for
Manage Life Events Process with Threads = 1.
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Q: Where can we store additional data items that can be pulled into the CWB
worksheet?
A: Family Pack J introduces new Compensation Workbench flexfields. Flexfields
defined prior to Family Pack J need to be redefined as the old Enrollment Opportunity
flexfields are no longer used. You can search for the flexfield title 'Compensation
Workbench' or 'CWB'. Data is obtained from table ben_cwb_person_info. The columns
are CPI segments. There are also 20 custom columns that you can use to display
information: columns 1-10 are reserved for non-numeric values and 11-20 are reserved
for numeric values. Custom columns can be populated using a provided batch user
hook.
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Q: Are there benefits to using flexfields over custom columns?
A: Both flexfields and custom columns have their advantages and limitations. An
example of a few are as follows. (See the Metalink Note 303198.1 for more
information.)
Custom columns can be used as grouping criteria on the Allocation Matrix,
Summary by Directs report, and the Stock Option History report. Flexfields cannot.
Flexfields are enterable by managers as free form values/text or are selectable
from a poplist or LOV. Values in custom columns are fixed and cannot be changed
within CWB.

 You can default values in custom columns. You cannot in flexfields.

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Q: Can you process multiple plans simultaneously? Can each plan be at different
stages of the compensation cycle?
A: You can have more than 1 CWB plan open at the same time as long as the plans are
independent of each other, have their own budgets, and do not rely on one another to
get
updated information. Each plan can be at different stages of the compensation cycle.
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Q: How do the refresh process and freeze date work?
A: The Refresh Batch Process can "refresh" data displayed in CWB so that managers can
make compensation decisions based on data as of an effective date that you choose.
The
process can perform 4 separate tasks simultaneously or separately. It can refresh (1)
person information, (2) plan information, and (3) summary information. The process also
(4) consolidates summary information that consists of multiple records into a single row.
If an effective date is supplied for the process, data is updated as of that date. If an
effective date is not supplied, the process uses the freeze date that you can define on
the
Plan Enrollment Requirements form for the group plan.
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Q: Does CWB handle salary and comparatio differently for full-time employees and
employees on a reduced full-time schedule? How is comparatio calculated?
A: CWB does not differentiate between different employee work schedules and does not
handle annual salary or comparatio differently. To adjust for different work schedules,
you can write a user hook to adjust calculations before data is written to CWB tables.
Comparatio is computed by taking the annual salary/mid point of the employee's grade.
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Q: How can we obtain a summary of average percent of salary increase by
performance rating?
A: All CWB tables are available to System Extract and the Discoverer end-user layer, so
you can create your own reports. To use Discoverer, you need an HR Intelligence
license.
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Q: Can Special Information Types (SITs) and Extra Information Types (EITs) be
pulled into CWB? Also, if I store my salary history in SITs, how can I get it to
display in compensation history?

A: SITs and EITs cannot be pulled into CWB directly. You can write a quick script that
copies the values in the SITs or EITs to a person or assignment flexfield which can be
displayed in CWB.
You can also use custom columns, rate formulas, or user hooks to obtain this
information. To display salary history in from CWB or ICD (Individual Compensation
Distribution), you must first load Salary Administration with the history.
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Q: Do I have to use WebADI to upload and download information to and from
CWB?
A: Yes, WebADI is the only supported facility for uploading and downloading.
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Q: To what extent can we personalize the display of CWB?
A: You can personalize CWB plans using Self-Service personalization or Personalization
by Plan. Personalization by Plan allows you to configure each plan differently. You can
show and hide fields on the budget and worksheet allocation tables, reorder columns,
rename column headings, make certain columns read-only. You can also choose to hide
certain regions within CWB.
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Q: What is the difference between 'Budget on Worksheet' and 'Budget on
Worksheet (Published)'?
A: You can enter a worksheet budget that is not yet published for managers to see and
use. Only when a budget is 'published' as of a specific date will managers have access
to
their budgets.
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Q: We have 4 different organizations within our company. Can we divide a single
budget amount between each organization?
A: As long as an organization is represented by a person (manager), you can give a
budget to that organization (person). All people within that organization need to fall
beneath the person in the Compensation Workbench hierarchy. If this differs from your
supervisor hierarchy, you will need to build a CWB hierarchy using a fast formula rule or
an AME hierarchy definition.
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Q: Can CWB handle contingent workers?

A: Contingent workers can be worksheet managers in CWB, but they cannot be found
eligible to receive compensation. If they have employees under them who are eligible to
receive compensation, the participation process will process them as Placeholder
Managers so that they can login to CWB, hold and publish a budget, and perform other
managerial tasks.
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Q: How do the combination and component plan structures differ? Are they the
same thing except that combination plans are used for different compensation types
and component plans are used for itemizing a single compensation award based on
different reasons?
A: Combination and component plan structures work the same way except for the way
they total options. The combination plan does not total options. This means you can
award different compensation types within the same plan even if they have different
units
of measurements. Component plans do total all options by defining a CWB Worksheet
Amount Standard Rate at the plan level. This means that all options must have the
same
unit of measurement.
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Q: Is compensation/HR administrator access to CWB determined by role or
responsibility?
A: Compensation/HR administrator access to CWB is determined by responsibility (HR
Professional) and the user's security profile.
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Q: How do I see the final notification when the highest-level manager submits the
worksheet for final approval and then approve all allocations?
A: To see the notification, define an HR Role in the Transaction Maintenance > Roles
form using the US Super HRMS Manager responsibility. Choose a Role Type of
'Compensation Administrator'. In the User field, define the actual person who you want
to be the final approver and receive the final notification. If you, as the
compensation/HR professional approve all allocations, you run the Compensation
Workbench Post Process to post the results. You can run the post process at any time.
You do not need to wait until the all worksheets are approved by the highest-level
manager.
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Q: Can I run the Backout Compensation Workbench Life Events Process after if I
have already run the Compensation Workbench Post Process?
A: Yes, however, the backout process will not back out HR data such as performance
rating and assignment changes. Only Salary Proposals updates will be backed out
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Q: Can a manager allocate more compensation than he was budgeted?
A: Yes. CWB allows managers to award more compensation than what they were
budgeted. Higher-level managers have the option to reject worksheets when total
compensation awards exceed a manager's budget.
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Q: Can we upload a budget amount into CWB from Oracle Financials?
A: You can write a fastformula to retrieve a budget amount from Oracle Financials as
long as the financial budgets are stored in the same database as CWB.
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Q: Why can't I see the Personalize by Plan link on my worksheet?
A: Check the setting for the system profile option 'HR: Enable User Personalization'.
This needs to be set to 'Yes' for this link to appear. Please note that if 'HR: Enable User
Personalization' profile option is set to 'No' at a level lower than Site level (e.g. at User
or
Responsibility level), then this overrides the Site level setting. If the Personalize by Plan
link still doesn't display after setting the profile option to 'Yes', then the apache server
may need to be bounced. (You may also need to check other system profile option
setting such as: 'Personalize Self-Service Defn'.)
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Q: How do I change the number of decimal places to which all amounts are rounded
in CWB?
A: You can set the precision (number of decimal places) for a currency using the GL
responsibility > Setup > Currencies > Define. Query the currency and enter the number
of decimal places to which you want amounts displayed in the Precision field. You must
then bounce the apache server. Using a Standard Rate rounding code of 'Round to
Nearest One' or less will truncate the decimals completely.
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Q: What is the 'Currency Precision' field on the Plan Administration page used for?
A: This field is used to designate the number of decimal places to display when rounding
salary amounts when converting the amount from pay frequency to plan frequency.

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Q: How do I define target minimums and maximums?
A: You define the min and max values on the CWB Recommended/Target Standard Rate
by checking the 'Enter value at enrollment' box and enter the target/min/max as follows.
Target = Default value, Min Target = Min value, Max Target = Max value. If your
calculation method is "Multiple of Compensation" and your operator is "Multiply By",
enter all values as .01, for example, which will be calculated as 10% of compensation.
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Q: Why are there duplicate rows for employees on the worksheet?
A: If you have multiple local plans in the same business group linked to the same group
plan, you need to ensure that each employee is eligible for only one local plan.
Otherwise, employee names will be duplicated in the worksheet. However, if employees
can be eligible for multiple local plans, include the local plan name on the worksheet via
personalization.
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Q: How can I set up CWB so that HR managers allocate all compensation rather
than allowing managers do it?
A: There are several ways to accomplish this.
(1) You can use the hierarchy rule or Hierarchy AME option to define a hierarchy which
has employees reporting to HR managers. Then each HR manager can log into CWB as
him or herself and see all the employees they support on their worksheets. Please note
that doing this completely eliminates the ability for the regular line managers to have
access to CWB.
(2) You can use the supervisor hierarchy as normal, but define security profiles that
allow
only HR managers to switch to only those managers that they support. This method
requires user-defined security.
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Q: Why can't I customize the approval chain within Compensation Workbench?
A: Compensation Workbench does not use workflow for approvals. Because of the way
that worksheets are consolidated, Compensation Workbench uses a different approach
to
approvals which reduces the administration effort of each approving manager.
Worksheets are consolidated as they go up the approval chain, so that high-level
managers only have to manage/approve the consolidated worksheets of immediate
direct
reporting managers, rather than the worksheets of the hundreds of managers that may
fall
beneath them.

To control the approval path, you must build your hierarchy in a manner which is
consistent with the approval chain. The approval chain cannot be changed based on
data
obtained from managers such as compensation amounts.
Family Pack J introduced new flexibility in building the manager hierarchy including
Fast Formula and AME definition. You can also enforce guidelines within the worksheet
which could eliminate the need for HR approvals. For example, you can set up company
targets, impose maximum award amounts, and use eligibility rules to prevent awarding
compensation to employees who are ineligible.
In addition, you can use dynamic column conditions, introduced in Family Pack K, to
bring attention to certain columns on the worksheet.
Please note that upon pressing the submit button, Compensation Workbench does call
workflow to send an FYI notification. You may be able to customize this notification to
send a second FYI to a compensation administrator.
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Q: Why does the Set Budgets task and the Approvals task not appear on my
Compensation Workbench homepage?
A: The Set Budgets and Approvals task only appears for managers who have direct
reporting managers with employees eligible to receive compensation. These tasks do
not

appear when a manager has no employees to budget for or worksheets to approve.

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Q: Can I use the same budgets for all components (i.e. Merit, Promotion, and Lump
Sum) of my plan?
A: Yes. If you define your budget rates at the plan level and define a worksheet amount
at the plan and option levels, then all options will be subject to the plan level budget.
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Q: What is the difference between 'Item Name' and 'Current Prompt' on the
Dynamic Columns page?
A: There are 4 distinct values when defining Dynamic Columns.
Item Name - The 'behind the scenes' name for the item.
Original Label - The Original Label name given to the item. This label is lost
once the item is renamed with a new label.
Current Label - The personalized name you give the column which is seen on the
worksheet. This can be the Original label or the personalized label.
New Label - This is the area to fill in a new label which then gets moved to the
Current Label after applying your changes.

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Q: On what are the results of the Total Compensation History Report** based?
A: If you set the Plan and Plan Period in the BEN: CWB Context for Reporting profile,
the Total Compensation History report will display results based on that specific Plan
and
Plan Period. If you leave that profile blank, the system automatically displays results
based on the most recent plan that was run in which the manager who is viewing the
report is a participant.
**Note, this report was renamed to Combined Plan View as of HRMS Family Pack K
RUP1.
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Q: What happened to the 'Compensation Workbench Backout Life Events' process?
A: As of Family Pack J, the Compensation Workbench backout process has been
changed to 'Backout Compensation Workbench Life Events'.
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Q: What happens if I check the 'Populate Employee Worksheet Targets' box on the
Set Budgets task > Allocation Wizard > Distribute Based on Criteria?
A: The following scenario illustrates how the system calculates amounts when the
'Populate Employee Worksheet Targets' box is checked.
Populate Employee Worksheet Target box: Checked
Total Eligible Employees: 60
% of Employees to Consider: 50
% of Eligible Salaries: 10
Average Eligible Salary: 50,000
The system will determine the budget for this manager as follows: 30 [% of eligible
employees to consider] x 50,000 [average eligible salary] x 10% [% of eligible salary] =
$150,000. This calculation will be used to populate the worksheet for lower level
managers since the Populate Employee Worksheet Target box is checked. Each
employee's target will be populated as $2500 (150,000/60).
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Q: Can I access documents I attached to an employee record in Compensation
Workbench after the plan period is over?
A: Attachments are stored in an FND table and cannot be accessed outside of
Compensation Workbench. Attachments are attached to the Compensation Workbench

group plan per in ler. After the compensation period has finished, you can reopen the
availability period so managers can see the attachment if needed.
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Q: When downloading from Compensation Workbench using WebADI, is there a
way to download personalized column names to the spreadsheet?
A: Yes, you can update the table containing the downloaded column names with
personalized headings using the Oracle Web ADI responsibility. See note 389624.1
available on Metalink for detailed instructions.
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Q: What happened to the Total Compensation History Report?
A: As of HRMS Family Pack K RUP1, this report was renamed to Combined Plan View.
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Q: The worksheet has been personalized to display seeded columns Grade Range
and Grade Midpoint, but they are displaying only blank values. It has been
confirmed that Grade Names, Currency, Min, Mid and Max values have been set up
properly with the correct effective start date. Why are these values not populated in
the worksheet?
A: The salary basis definition needs to reflect the correct Grade Rate and Grade Rate
Basis. See Metalink Note 432653.1 for more details.
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Q: How do I add Discoverer Reports to the CWB Home Page?
A: The steps to add Discoverer Reports to the CWB Home Page are detailed in Metalink
Note 464014.1.

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