Earning codes are used by many enterprise systems at The Texas A&M University System, including Workday, FAMIS, the Enterprise Data Warehouse, Position Budgeting, and others.
As such, earning codes are a controlled data element. New earning codes can be requested by authorized financial and payroll personnel within the A&M System.
To request a new earning code, please contact the Payroll Manager(s) at your member and they will submit a request through the Earning Codes application. To request a change to an existing earning code, please email support@tamus.edu. If you are a Payroll Manager at your member and need access to submit requests in the Earning Codes application, please email support@tamus.edu.
To view the master list of earning codes, visit the public Earning Codes website.
Earning codes are closely related to object codes. To view the master list of object codes, visit the public Object Codes website.
To learn more about the attributes that define Earning Codes, see the Earning Codes Attributes documentation on this web site.
History
In 2017, as part of the implementation of the Workday HCM and Payroll system, The Texas A&M University System (A&M System) was required to set up and define earning codes.
Earning codes are critical to any Workday Payroll implementation, defining attributes such as tax rates and tax eligibility, and are essential data elements used for multiple business processes and tasks within Workday.
Earning codes affect many reports, integrations, and other processes outside of Workday and downstream in FAMIS and the Enterprise Data Warehouse.
Earning codes are used in the following systems:
- State of Texas – integration with USAS
- State of Texas – integration with HRIS
- State of Texas – integration with TRS TEAM
- Federal Government – IPEDs reports
- Federal Compliance – Time and Effort reports
- FAMIS – Object code assignment and benefit allocations
BPP Background
The A&M System’s previous payroll system, BPP, implemented the concept of earning codes differently. BPP used multiple identifiers to attempt to accomplish similar purposes. Being a software system that was created before many of the alternate forms of compensation were used by the A&M System, BPP did a less than perfect job in classifying compensation. The codes used in BPP were:
- Object Code
- Supplemental Pay Code
- Pay Type
- Task Payment
Pay Type was a problematic multi-purpose code that usually controlled how taxes were withheld and if the compensation was delivered by check or ACH.
Starting from these codes, the Workday implementation team built the list of earning codes used in Workday. The Workday model of earning codes simplifies many of the payroll classification issues.
Supplemental Compensation
Supplemental compensation is a term that has been used for many years at the A&M System. However, it is a generic and imprecise term that often was used to refer to allowances, merit or bonus payments, or other non-regular pay.
The term supplemental was also used in BPP to refer to off-cycle or out-of-cycle payroll runs.
It is recommended that the A&M System move away from this term and use the more precise terms described in the Earning Codes Attributes documentation.