Office of Operations 2010 Fall Conference Conquer Query & Control the Data Presenter: Sherry Azoulay, CUNY University Payroll Director; NYS Payroll Users Group: Query Subcommittee Chair `

Session Objectives  Is the thought of running a query intimidating?  Do you get anxious when asked for a report of employee earnings?  Have you ever miss keyed a direct deposit? Found a typo in the account number or entered it on the wrong employee?

Session Objectives Attending this course will set your mind at ease.  Today’s goal is to provide an in-depth analysis of running queries, and saving and manipulating the results in excel.  The course will focus on two new public queries (soon to be locked queries):  QC_DIRECT_DEPOSIT_TRAINING  QC_EE_EARNINGS_BY_PP

Query Fundamentals  Data is stored in records (tables) in PayServ.  Records are comprised of fields that contain all of the information in PayServ, e.g., employee name, salary, home address, position data, etc.  PSQuery is a tool to extract the data from PayServ.

Query Fundamentals  In order to determine which record you need to reference in Query, consider where a field is located in PayServ; e.g., if the field is located on an employee’s Job Data page, then it most likely can be found on the JOB record in Query; e.g., Action/Action Reason.  Note- while an employee’s name appears on all pages within PayServ, the name is entered in Personal Data. Therefore, it is located in the PERSONAL_DATA record in Query.  Query data is generally one day old.

Query DON’TS  Never change someone else’s public query.  Never attempt to change or save a locked query.  Never use the word LOCK (or any variation) in the name of a query.  No two queries can have the same name. You cannot use the same name for a private version of a public query.

QC_DIRECT_DEPOSIT_TRAINING  The purpose of this query is to audit direct deposit requests that have been entered into PayServ.  Audits should be conducted timely. Allow for the opportunity to correct data entry errors within payroll processing deadlines.  Best practice: Have a staff member enter the direct deposits and a DIFFERENT staff member audit the entries.

Step 1 Step 2 Click on the Excel link in Run to Excel. Another option in Advance Search is: by keying in a partial field name in Uses Field Name you can find in which Record(s) a field resides. You can use Advanced Search to search by partial names and/or description. Enter the name of the query or the first few letters that the query name begins with. Then click on Search.

You are required to complete 2 prompt boxes. Reminder: Query data is generally one day old. Entered On or After: When were the direct deposits entered into PayServ? Ie, entry began on 08/27/2010. Like DeptID: Enter a single DeptID ie or for auditing multiple DeptIDs in a single query, use a wildcard, i.e., 7000_ or 70%. Click on View Results. Step 1 Step 2 Step 3

The File Download window opens. Click on Open.

RESULTS DOWNLOAD TO EXCEL Account Type: Checking or Savings Multiple entries for same employee. Updated by Online User or System (OSC)

Excel  When saving in Excel, make sure to select your version of Excel in the Save as Type dropdown box. Otherwise, your document may be saved as a web page. The name of the Excel document should not include quotation marks.  Once your data is in Excel, you can sort it, filter it, etc.

This Query uses 4 Records. Identified by A thru D.

There are many ways to join (add) a Record (table) to a query. Some are: 1.To select a Record enter the name of the Record or the first few letters that the Record name begins with. Then click on Search. 2. You can use Advanced Search to search for Records by partial names and/or description AND by keying in a partial field name in Uses Field Name you can find in which Record(s) a field resides. 3. Often, one Record can be joined to another from within a Record table. 4. If you are not familiar with Record names, just click Search and PSQuery will return all Records.

Expressions are created in the Expressions Tab. Click on Use as Field to add the Expression to the list of report fields. This Query has an Expression that reports back the last 4 digits of an employee’s social security number. The Expression is being used in place of reporting the employee’s full social security number. To derive the last 4 digits of the employee’s social security number, the Expression will create a substring of the field’s data: From Record A (Direct Deposit) select EMPLID; start at the 6 th position and report back the contents of the next 4 positions.

Prompts are created in the Criteria Tab and are listed here. A Prompt is edited in the Prompts Tab. Prompts ask the user to enter criteria information. This allows for a user to run a query without needing to go to the query tab to change the criteria each time that the user wants to rerun the query based on a different set of requirements. This query is prompting for 2 required criteria: 1= Last_Update_Date: The results will include all direct deposits entered on or after the date entered in the prompt. 2= DeptID: The user must enter the DeptID in which the direct deposits were entered, e.g., 28010; A user may also enter a Like DeptID using a wildcard, i.e., 280__ or 280%.

This query has 15 fields: 3 from Record A; 9 from Record B; 1 from Record C; 1 from Record D; and the SSN Expression. Sorting Order Translate value: N= None; S=Short; L=Long

A Direct Deposit emplid is equal to C Job emplid. A Direct Deposit record # is equal to C Job record #. This joins the direct deposit record to the matching employee in job. Most joins are automatically created by PSQuery. The user generally does not need to create the join. C Job effective date is less than or equal to the current date, sequence last. The query will return information from the job data row with the highest effective date and highest sequence number that is less than the current date. Prompt: Last_Update_Date not less than: Prompt: DeptID like: The results will include all direct deposits entered on or after the date entered in the prompt. C Job emplid is equal to D Personal Data emplid. This joins the job record to the matching employee in personal data.

REFERENCE TOOLS: Pre-Recorded On-Demand Course utreach/courses.htm#demand PS Query 8.9*PS Query 8.9*- Recorded 5/27/09 Descriptions of the Locked Queries. Beginners Query Guide. Spreadsheet to aid in determining in which Record to find a field.

If you have questions about PS Query that you are not able to resolve by using the Introduction to PS Query Guide, Locked Generic Queries job aid, or Payroll Bulletins, please contact:

Heartfelt thanks to Dan Crowe (OSC Query Master). Best wishes in your retirement. We will miss your professionalism and expertise.

Thank you to the NYS Payroll Users Group Query Subcommittee members: