Workday is the HCM choice for many businesses globally. As a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Workday uses a single, cloud-based database for both HCM and financial applications to provide better integration and embedded business intelligence across business functions as well as cloud connectivity to third-party payroll engines. Traditionally, this connector technology was delivered in a format also known as Payroll Integration Common Output File or PICOF. Today, PICOF is considered an end-of-life product. In 2016, Workday introduced Payroll Effective Change Interface (PECI) to replace PICOF. This interface is designed to improve the visibility of payment transactions by transmitting each payroll change for each employee sequentially and includes the effective date and data entry date for each change.
For recent Workday users, PECI may be the format that they are familiar with. For early adopters of Workday, however, they may still be using PICOF.
Organisations with operations in Asia are likely to transition to PECI from PICOF. As Workday presently does not have any features for payroll processing and calculations for operations in Asia, Workday users in Asia have to integrate Workday with a payroll service provider or engage a local payroll computing software. For organisations that have yet to make the transition, here are four reasons why now is the best time to do so.
PICOF is no longer the main output type
With the release of PECI, PICOF is considered as an end-of-life product. This means that Workday will no longer make any enhancements or changes to this template. While organisations do not necessarily have to switch to PECI immediately, delaying the switch to PECI may mean missing out on existing advantages and further enhancements.
Autocorrect feature
With PECI’s autocorrect feature, this brings out additional efficiencies to organisations and their payroll partners. Data change and corrections are inevitable within the payroll department. With PICOF, each data change must be communicated to the payroll partner. This manual process takes up a significant amount of time, and also increases the likelihood of payroll mistakes. On the other hand, the. PECI format automatically labels corrections in the data file that is sent to the payroll partner. Corrections are annotated with either an “R” for Rescind or “C” for correction. This feature not only significantly reduces the time spent on tracking corrections, it automates the data change communication process between organisations and the payroll partner.
Increased visibility on payroll changes
One major benefit of PECI is that it offers “full stack” visibility as opposed to PICOF which only offers “top of the stack” data. This means that with PECI, businesses are able to extract the entire stack of compensation transactions. With this format, it provides businesses with clear visibility of all changes in Workday, with effective dating and sequencing of records to represent all effective changes. For example, assuming an employee that goes on leave and comes back within the same pay cycle, payroll professionals have to manually manipulate the software to add in the employee’s leave date as only the latest transaction i.e. the employee’s return, is being sent to the system. With PECI, payroll professionals can view all transactions and events during any given payment period.
Enhanced data integrity
Finally, the new PECI format enhances data integrity by capturing all data changes between platform integration runs. This means that there are no two PECI integrations that contain the same set of data, preventing the risk of data loss. On the other hand, organisations using the PICOF format may face the risk of data replication or data loss as each change has to be manually communicated to the payroll partner.
In addition to the enhanced data integrity that PECI offers, Workday has also added an additional feature to PECI, known as the Event Driven Integration (EDI). This feature is not compatible with PICOF. The beauty of EDI is that it facilitates the communication of critical events to the payroll partner, such as new hires or employees that have resigned, allowing the payroll partner to manage onboarding or offboarding of these employees more efficiently. EDI is particularly beneficial for businesses with operations in countries where it is necessary to address certain payroll regulations or legislations prior to the employee’s first or final salary payment.
Shifting to PECI from PICOF is more than just a standard software upgrade. It is an imperative step for organisations to integrate their global payroll platform with Workday. Workday’s latest payroll connector format brings about increased data visibility, greater automation and enhanced communication between businesses and their payroll providers, all of which comes with an easy to implement process. The PECI sets the foundation for a first-class payroll service moving forward, a necessity for organisations to stay ahead in the competitive market today.
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