Phil Blecker, of inX Services, asks where he can find an "ANSI document
for payroll timecard reporting." He goes on to say "I can't find such a
beast. I presume that I'm just missing it. Does anyone know if there is
already a document for sending timecard information?"
Dear Phil:
I don't think you're missing it, because *it* just isn't there as an X12
transaction; nor does EDIFACT seem to have such a message. Timecard
reporting is one of those activities which probably never leaves the
confines of a single enterprise or organization; hence there'd be no,
or limited, need for an interoperable standard, like an X12 or EDIFACT
message, for the exchange of timecard reports. If no organizations have
a need to exchange particular types of information, then no one would
have thought to make a national or international EDI message standard
for it.
Who wants to send whom timecard information? On first blush it may
appear that's something a company may send to a payroll service, like
ADP. But then thinking about it, a timecard is a bit more information
than is necessary to calculate a paycheck and deductions - I would think
the timecard information would be consolidated and summarized internally
well before it got to the payroll service.
The X12 811 Consolidated Service Invoice/Statement transaction set might
be used for hourly billing of labor or contract services, but that is an
altogether different animal than timecard reporting; here a temp
agency, say, has a need to itemize and bill a customer for its product
(labor). There may be a limited ability to report timecard information
on government contracts using the obscure X12 251 Pricing Support
transaction; the 251 can be used "to request or transmit budget or
actual data for labor and overhead rates, factors, and other supporting
data for a specified period of time."
I always have a good laugh whenever I see the XML/EDI dilettantes
(usually vendors and consultants) trip over each other to invent their
own XML variant of the PO or material release, all the while people who
actually make things, like Ford, GM and their suppliers, are perfectly
happy with X12 and EDIFACT. But a timecard application does seem to be
an ideal EAI (Enterprise application integration) effort, well suited
for XML. You'd think that these XML consultant types would take
themselves away from their powerpoints and white papers on how awful EDI
is, and help you find XML resources related to human resources EAI.
Every other word that comes out of the consultants' mouths is
"repository", so I was thinking to myself: "Is there a repository
somewhere that contains an XML schema that may be useful to Phil for
timecard information?" There's two big-name repositories - Microsoft's
BizTalk and OASIS' XML.ORG - covered in the article "Schema
Repositories: What's at Stake?," Jan. 26, 2000, by Liora Alschuler, at
http://www.xml.com/pub/2000/01/26/feature/index.html, which asks "Why
exactly are schema repositories useful? How do Microsoft's BizTalk and
OASIS' XML.org compare, and are they both missing the point?"
So I checked them out: BizTalk was hopeless, and I could never figure
out how to search on "timecard" or "payroll" or "human resources." I
could never understand why these people have to over-automate a simple
search for a few dozen schemas which could have been listed in
alphabetical order on a single HTML page. For "scalability," I guess.
I then tried out XML.ORG, which was a bit more useful in that it had a
single consolidated "XML Catalog" which I could scroll through, more to
my low-tech tastes. Under "Human Resources," I found an intriguing
entry labeled "Siemens Business Communication Systems: Siemens Time and
Attendance System." Though the link was stale, I did find information
about Siemen's system at eXcelon Corporation's web site at
http://mothra.odi.com/content/XML/Siemens/siemens.htm, where it
describes them "[benefiting] from XML every time a timecard is
submitted or approved." Further:
The Time and Attendance system allows employees to submit their
timecards, and allows managers to approve them. Each timecard
submission is tied to basic HR data such as name, serial number
and employee type, and timecard validation is tied to paycode
rules and frequency tables. Managerial approval is also tied
to the basic HR and organization information, and managers have
the ability to temporarily delegate approval responsibilities.
The system interfaces to the corporate-wide Directory Database,
as well as to payroll systems.
Now isn't that clever?
William J. Kammerer
FORESIGHT Corp.
4950 Blazer Memorial Pkwy.
Dublin, OH USA 43017-3305
(614) 791-1600
Visit FORESIGHT Corp. at http://www.foresightcorp.com/
"Commerce for a New World"
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