Using the payroll costing report

This report is intended to meet the following business requirements:

  • Checking payroll data eg correct pay items and amounts, account codes, %age split, and cost allocations are as expected;
  • Headcount review eg number of employees, employee FTEs, departmental totals; and
  • Cost forecasting whereby actual payments are used to produce forecasts and monitor against expected costs.

This report is run by the HR Analytics team and is distributed to departments/divisions via Tableau on a monthly basis. The HR Systems Guardian should email any changes to the distribution/access requirements to HR Systems Support.

Please download the report and save locally in a secure location. Departments are advised to retain the information distributed and use it as the basis for their own historic analysis ahead of requesting additional reports in future (see section 4 below).

Each month it is important to review the report to check that data, as highlighted above, is correct and to update records in PeopleXD as needed.

Key details of the Payroll Costing report

1. NI summarised by costing string

NI & Pension Employers’ (ERs) values are combined across the various pay elements/pay codes where the coding string is the same. Where the reports are used by departments for other purposes, NI and pension costs can be calculated using a proportional approach (see below). Queries in this respect should be referred to local finance teams. Note: NI and Pension values are reported on separate lines.

Method for re-calculation of mis-posted pay costs

Where costs have been charged incorrectly to a costing string and need to be identified from the summarised values, please calculate the NI and ER’s amounts using a proportionate approach. You should contact your local finance officer to initiate journals, as required. It is also important to ensure that the PeopleXD record is updated before the next Payroll run.

2. FTE definitions

The report shows two different types of FTE:

Type of FTE Description Example
Contractual
FTE 
  • The contract FTE for an employee against an appointment. 
  • Also known as Appointment FTE. 
  • This is based on data from PeopleXD as at the last day of the month. 
Full-time = 1
Part time (50%) = 0.5 
Derived FTE 
  • The amount of the employee’s contractual FTE that is applied to each element of their cost allocation. 
  • (Contractual FTE X costing %age split) divided by 100. 
  • If there have been changes to the FTE/hours worked during the month, the calculation is based on actual % split for the month. 

Contractual FTE = 0.5
20% split ABC
80% split XYZ 

Derived FTE  

ABC = 0.1
XYZ = 0.4 
 

Note: If someone starts and leaves within the same payroll period this will show as FTE = 0 (Contractual and Derived). 

3. Statutory payment details

Provides detail on SMP, SPP, SAP etc payments.

Note: A sample extract of how this information is presented is available for view at the top right of this web page.

4. Reporting on pay history

Historical pay costing information, dating back to May 2013, can be obtained for individual employees within your department(s) via the PAYDEP02_Historical Pay Costing Report

For broader historical information requests please refer in the first instance to the payroll costing reports you have been provided with previously. If this does not meet your requirements please contact the HR Systems Support, providing details of what you need.