Line items appearing on the Compensation Calculation is defined in a Compensation Calculation Template is configured with the Compensation Line Items Details

From the compensation template, click to amend or delete existing compensation line items and click the to add new line items

The line item details has four sections:

Line items in an assignment calculation can be grouped to appear in sections and sub- sections on the screen and the Compensation Calculation report. In addition to appearance, sections and subsections define how line items are totaled and subtotaled.

Standard sections available are: Base Compensation, Allowances, Relocation Costs and Tax Costs. To add, edit or delete the standard sections, go to Configuration tab select the Lookup Maintenance screen. From the Lookup Field, choose Cost Estimate Section.

Select New to create a lookup value line for a new section heading. Under the Display Order column, input the sequence of appearance of the new line.

Select Inactive to hide a section name from the Section lookup on the Compensation Calculation Template screen.

Within a section, line items can be further categorized into subsections. Subtotals from subsections are rolled up to the total of the relevant section. Standard subsections available are: Initial Expat Costs, Repat Costs, Non-Taxable Costs, Actual Tax, and Hypothetical Tax.

Choose Cost Estimate Sub-Section from the Lookup Field to add, edit or delete the subsection names.

Sequence defines the order that the line items appear on the Compensation Calculation screen and the Compensation Calculation report within the relevant section. A blank will be considered as “zero” and the line will be ordered before any number in sequence of that section. Sequence numbers order line items of the same section. Subsection sequencing is not available.

The Financial Category (Standardized) field enables you to standardize Compensation Calculation Line items. See 'Things to Note' below for further info...

Input name for the line item. This name will appear on the Compensation Calculation screen and Compensation Calculation report.

The selections in the calculation section determine how line item amounts are input to the compensation calculation.

Select this option to manually enter line item amount on the Compensation Calculation screen.

A fixed amount can be input for a specific line item of a Compensation Calculation template. Input the amount and select a currency that is used or to be used as a base currency for the assignment or Compensation Calculation. This is likely to be the company currency or the home or host country currencies for the assignment. If the Compensation Calculation exists, the currencies that can be used to input this default amount are listed in the Base Currency field on the Compensation Calculation screen. Selection of any other currencies will result in an error in the Compensation Calculation screen.

Select this option for line item amount to generate from a Compensation Calculation, a Custom Calculation (backed by a user report and/or an Excel Data source) or a new Business Rule format. Compensation Calculation refers to vendor subscribed tables, such as the Mercer Home Housing Norm. The Compensation Calculation feature pulls relevant data from users’ subscribed tables to the Compensation Calculation Line Item tab.

When using the Equus Tax Engine to calculate hypothetical taxes, users can select from the following tax output options:

These Hypo tax calculations use previous line items as source data for the available base compensation inputs. Use the Calculation Input Mapping feature to configure Line Items to Calculation Inputs.

Note that the Frontier Hypo: Social supports the calculation of both Frontier and non-Frontier social tax, for home work and home locations respectively. Frontier feature is designed for the Equalization Tax Calculation Method. Using other methods may not provide the expected result.

All calculations above include the calculation of social security taxes unless ‘Adjust for social security, if eligible’ is checked to exclude it. This option won’t appear until one of the above Hypo Tax calculations is chosen. It will appear checked to include the calculation of social security taxes by default.

Mapping Line Item Results to Calculation Inputs

This feature allows for the results of a prior line item to be automatically used as an input into the calculation for the current line item. Line item amounts can be explicitly mapped to calculation input parameters for Compensation/Hypo/Custom Calculations. When a 'Get Value From (Line Item)' to 'Input Value to (Calculation Input)' mapping exists for a Compensation/Hypo/Custom Calculation input, the input parameter fields will be hidden from the Compensation Calculation screen. The values for those hidden calculation input parameter fields will be provided by the value of the mapped line item in the estimate itself. Line items, that are themselves Compensation/Hypo/Custom Calculations, can also be used as input to other Compensation/Hypo/Custom Calculations. This allows a template creator to create a chain of inter-dependent calculations and removes the possibility of user error when manually entering parameters for calculations.

Template creators may receive warnings if they are configuring a Calculation Input Mapping and select a Line Item source that appears sequentially later in the Compensation Calculation. Source Line items should appear earlier, sequentially, to the calculated line item.

Note: Items in the first column are line items in the estimate template, and items in the second column are parameters into this Compensation/Custom Calculation. The line item description does not have to match the input parameter's name.

You can also use this feature to specify the user report to source data or to cascade the results of a prior line item as an input into the calculation for the current line item. When using the cascade feature, you can explicitly map line item amounts to calculation input parameters for Compensation/Custom Calculations.

To define the data source, select from the available options displayed on User Report for Input Values lookup. All User Reports with Prompt set to Yes are listed (including company reports for a company template). The User Report will be executed at calculation time, and the results of that user report will be input into any matching calculation parameters. The column name in the User Report must match either the Name or Caption of the input.

The table allows users to explicitly map line item outputs to calculation inputs for the selected calculation. Only those Compensation/Custom Calculation inputs that are of a numeric or money type can be used in this mapping, as all line item outputs are monetary. If a line item output is a calculated line item, it must be sequentially above the receiving line item.

Delete

By checking Delete and clicking , a user can remove a mapping from this Compensation Calculation Line Item Compensation/Custom Calculation.

Get Value From (Line Item)

Specifies the source input value for this input mapping. The Source Line Item can be any line in the Compensation Calculation Template. When specified, the user entered or calculated result will be provided to the calculation input parameter for the Compensation/Custom Calculation.

Input Value To (Calculation Input)

Specifies the calculation input parameter that is populated by the corresponding line item output during estimate calculation process. When one of the Expat4Cast Hypo Calculations is selected as the Compensation Calculation, the <Personal Deductions> parameter value is included in the Calculation Input drop down list. The deduction amount must be entered as a negative value.

Line Item Entry Currency

Selecting a line item Entry Currency allows for the line item to be input in a currency other than a compensation calculation data-entry currency. If used the selected currency will be the base currency only for the specific line item and exchange rates will be applied based on that currency. Host, Home, Company and System are available currency options. Selecting Company or system will result in a column appearing for the selected currency in addition to Home, Host and Data-entry which are always shown for compensation calculations. Columns are ordered Home, Host, Company and System currency from left to right. Line item amounts can only be input for the selected entry currency or data-entry currency if no currency is selected.

For example host currency would be selected for a bonus that is known in host currency. On the compensation calculation the bonus can be input in the host amount without having to convert it to data entry currency.

Override the calculated or defaulted amounts on the Compensation Calculation screen by de-selecting the calculate box for the line input. Then input the relevant amount manually.

Tax Input (for Frontier Worker only)

You should only configure this section if the Compensation Calculation template has a Line Item mapped to the Frontier Hypo: Social calculation to deliver hypothetical social tax for outbound European frontier population.

The use of this tax mapping does not impact hypothetical tax calculation for Line Items mapped to any of the Expat4Cast Hypo calculations. Tax mapping for these Line Items is configured using the Calculation Input Mapping feature, see above.

For templates supporting frontier population, select from the Tax Input Name lookup options to categorize the base compensation item for tax treatment, as shown below.

If the Line Item configured with the Frontier Hypo: Social compensation calculation has activated the Calculation Input Mapping with Calculation Inputs selected, the Calculation Input Mapping will override the Tax Input mapping by adding new or changing existing inputs to the hypothetical tax calculation. It will not remove a tax input mapping from the tax calculation.

Exclude from Section and Subsection Total

This feature, when ticked, excludes the selected line item from being included in section and subsection totals within a Compensation Calculation. These line items will appear in grey italics on the Compensation Calculation screen. If not selected line items will appear as normal and will be included in section and subsection totals. For example if a line item 3 is the sum of line item 1 and 2 then line item 3 should be excluded from section and subsection totals to avoid the value being added in the totals twice.

When <Personal Deductions> is selected as the value for Input Value To (Calculation Input), the Exclude from Section and Subsection Total field is automatically ticked and cannot be overridden.

Compensation Worksheet Line Item Type

This field is used to tie a Compensation Worksheet Line Item to a Compensation Calculation Line Item. The Compensation Worksheet Line Item can then use this to pull the value from the Compensation Calculation Line Item once calculated. As long as the correct calculation has been set-up on the Compensation Worksheet Dictionary Line Item this value will be pulled through when processing a Compensation Worksheet. In order to tie these Line Items together a Compensation Worksheet Line Item Type has been set-up and utilizes the same list on both line item set-ups. By choosing the matching Types on each set-up this will tie the line items together and allow for the Compensation Worksheet Line Item to pull the value over. Only one Type can be chosen per line item per template for each Assignment. Please see the Compensation Module User Manual for more information on how this calculates on Compensation Worksheets.

Payment Location

This specifies the employee payment location for the line: Home or Host. This will default to Host and is used for reporting purposes and does not drive any calculation logic.

Default Assumption Text

This feature is used to document assumptions for the line item. This text can be viewed and edited on the Compensation Calculation screen by selecting the A for the line item. Bold A represents line items where assumption text exists. Character limit is 1000 characters.

Help Text

This feature is used to document help text specific to the line item. The text can be viewed on the Compensation Calculation screen by selecting Help for the line item. Unlike the default assumption, the help text can only be updated from the template level. Character limit is 1000 characters.