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Case Model

The Payroll Engine categorizes cases into one of four categories. 1. Employees 2. Companies 3. National 4. Global

Each area has its own API endpoints and database tables. The procedure for determining company and employee cases is outlined below.

Contents

Section Description
Case Fields Local, derived and explicit field compositions
Case Slots Multiple records per case (children, addresses)
Case Data Storage by scope, immutability, cancellation types
Company Cases Identification and field design for company cases
Employee Cases Identification and field design for employee cases

Case Fields

The Case object is used to capture case data. The CaseField object represents an input field within a case. The CaseRelation object defines the relationship (availability and value transfer) between two cases.

When capturing the case value, its validity period is set with a date range (start/end). This enables the representation of complex business scenarios, such as the cancellation of prior mutations or the scheduling of salary adjustments (see Time Types). This property distinguishes the Payroll Engine fundamentally from conventional software solutions that typically overwrite existing data.

The engine offers several approaches for composing cases and their fields:

  • Local Case Fields — Fields declared directly within the case as an integral part
  • Derived Case Fields — Fields inherited from a base case
  • Explicit Case Fields — Fields explicitly included from reference cases

The following overview shows possible case field compositions, which can also be combined:

Case Field Compositions

Case Slots

To store multiple records for a single case (e.g. children or addresses), each variant is assigned to a case slot with a unique name. Case slots enable the same case structure to be reused for multiple independent data records.

Case Slots

Case Data

For each case field, a value (Case Value) can be recorded through a case change (Case Change). Case data is stored physically separated by scope:

Object Description
Global Case Value Global data
Global Case Document Global documents
National Case Value National data
National Case Document National documents
Company Case Value Company data
Company Case Document Company documents
Employee Case Value Employee data
Employee Case Document Employee documents

A case value can optionally be available for all divisions or restricted to a specific division. The definition is done in the case field of the regulation.

Case data is immutable and is supplemented by case changes. Based on this change history, the data for any payroll period can be determined.

The case types can be used in regulations as follows:

Regulation \ Case Type Global National Company Employee
Tenant ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Business ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
National ✓ ✓
Global ✓

Canceling Case Data

For cases that allow cancellations, the reset behavior for numeric case values is controlled by the cancellation type:

  • Restore previous value
  • Initialize value to default
  • Invert the value
  • Retain the value

Company Cases

The cases assigned to a company must be identified.

  • Legally required company data
  • Data shared across employees
  • Data related to business partners (insurance conditions, etc.)
  • Subdivide use cases, e.g., by
  • Actor
  • Business partners
  • Company regulations
  • Per case
  • Determine case fields with data type and time type
  • Determine rules for availability and validation

The following example shows two business cases: 

regulations:
- name: RegulationName
  updateMode: NoUpdate          # do not overwrite if regulation already exists
  cases:
  - name: Company
    caseType: Company           # scope: shared across all employees
    fields:
    - name: CompanyId
      valueType: String
      timeType: Calendar        # value is valid for a calendar period
  - name: CompanyInsurance
    caseType: Company
    fields:
    - name: CompanyInsurancePlan
      valueType: Integer
      timeType: Calendar

Case availability and validation is performed using Actions.

Employee Cases

The employee's cases during his time of employment should be identified.

  • Legally required employee data
  • Wage-related cases
  • Subdivide use cases, e.g., by
  • Partner
  • Children
  • Pension plan
  • Benefits
  • Per case
  • Determine case fields with data type and time type
  • Determine rules for availability and validation

The following example shows the cases for the employee and his partner: 

regulations:
- name: RegulationName
  updateMode: NoUpdate          # do not overwrite if regulation already exists
  cases:
  - name: Employee              # core employee master data
    caseType: Employee
    fields:
    - name: EmployeeIdentifier
      valueType: String
      timeType: Calendar
    - name: EmployeeFirstName
      valueType: String
      timeType: Calendar
    - name: EmployeeLastName
      valueType: String
      timeType: Calendar
    - name: EmployeeSalary
      valueType: Money          # monetary value with currency support
      timeType: Calendar
  - name: EmployeeAddress
    caseType: Employee
    fields:
    - name: EmployeeAddressCity
      valueType: String
      timeType: Calendar
  - name: EmployeePartner       # separate case per family member
    caseType: Employee
    fields:
    - name: EmployeePartnerFirstName
      valueType: String
      timeType: Calendar
    - name: EmployeePartnerLastName
      valueType: String
      timeType: Calendar
  - name: EmployeePartnerAddress
    caseType: Employee
    fields:
    - name: EmployeePartnerAddressCity
      valueType: String
      timeType: Calendar

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