Recently, Oracle announced the decommissioning of the HCM Cloud interfacing tool, Payroll Batch Loader (PBL), which is scheduled for mid-year 2020. For organizations bringing data into Oracle HCM Cloud through PBL, the time is now to transition to the replacement tool, HCM Data Loader (HDL). Payroll clients dependent on inbound integrations-listen up!
Integration to HDL requires a certain amount of modification. If you have an automated PBL file, you’ll need to update it to start using HDL. Clients that are dependent upon getting payroll information from multiple vendors and pushing that information into Cloud will find it especially useful to implement HDL if not already using PBL. Dealing with data specifically surrounding employee leave of absences is where the PBL to HDL conversion is particularly useful. It’s also worth noting that new customers who are planning to implement or are in the process of implementing Cloud, it’s suggested that instead of going through a PBL switch to just move directly to HDL at this time.
Payroll Data Considerations
There are a number of approaches you can take to load payroll data:
- Incoming files in an HDL format. You can present data in the HDL format and load them using HDL. In this case, you don’t need to transform the data into HDL format.
- Data loaded using HSDL. You can use user-defined spreadsheet templates to load data using HCM Spreadsheet Loader (HSDL).
- File in a PBL or other file format is converted into HDL format. You can use the Payroll Transformation Formula for HCM Data Loader to convert the payroll object file into an HDL format.
It is recommended that you convert files to an HDL format to reduce complexity. In certain cases, before you load the payroll objects, you can use Payroll Transformation Formula for HCM Data Loader to convert files into HDL format. For example, when file formats are determined by third parties or when changing a file format is prohibitive.
HSDL versus HDL
When deciding to use HSDL over HDL, there are certain factors to consider. Use of HSDL is typically recommended if you previously used PBL spreadsheets. HDL is used to migrate and maintain data and to load large volumes of data, typical for, more than a few hundred entries.
HSDL is used to bulk load small volumes of data from spreadsheets. It offers both ease of use and flexibility. For example, you can configure spreadsheet templates to best suit business needs by omitting certain attributes. HSDL also allows business users to complete ad hoc information loads without writing code, as they were able to do before with PBL. Users interested in learning more about the HDL Post Conversion Processes can view this post from the Oracle HCM Cloud Center of Excellence.
