Frequently asked questions

Which user profiles can run Payflow services?

The system admin and HR manager profiles usually have access to Payflow. See Profile and permission set mapping for Sage People packages.

Can I create an exception report to ensure I don't miss any employees in an output?

To achieve this, you can create two output files, reversing any filters you created on the first.

For example, assume that the Unique ID field is mandatory for the receiving system. Ensure the output file contains only those team members with a value in this field by configuring the field to equal "!" (not blank). We've shown this in the following screenshot.

To make you don't exclude any team members, configure a second output file from the same service which contains only those employees without a Unique ID. Use the same configuration we've shown above, but leave the Select Value field blank. This will include only employees for whom that field doesn't contain an entry.

How do I give Sage People support access to my organization?

If you raise a support case with Sage People, we'll ask you to allow the support team to log in to your org as you. This is so they can thoroughly investigate the issue. To grant remote access to your org:

Go to Setup and select Personal Setup. Click My Personal Information, then click Grant Login Access.

Sage People displays the Grant Login Access page.
In the Sage People Support row, select the picklist in the Access Duration column. Choose the duration of access you want to grant.

It's good practice to keep Access Duration as short as possible. Support typically offer guidance on the length of time they need.

How do I clone a Payflow configuration?

You can clone an existing Payflow configuration to serve as a basis for another configuration by exporting it. Then save it locally to your computer, and import the copy to your org.

How do I modify the settings for a Payflow service?

You can edit the settings for an existing service, or change its upload or download configuration. Do this from the Payflow Services (or Connector Services) tab.

See:

Can I add the Last Modified By field to a Payflow download file?

No. If you want to find out who last touched the team member record, run an audit report. However, you can't pull this data into Payflow.

How do I update the Running User for a scheduled Payflow job?

If you need to update the Running User for a Payflow job, for example if the user has left the company:

Go to Scheduled Jobs and copy the Batch Start Cron Command field. Delete the content of the field and save the page. Enter the Cron command again, and save the page.

Or:

Remove the scheduled job and schedule it again.

Can I reclaim space an old Payflow batch data takes?

Use the Delete Batch After Days field and the Delete Payroll Lines With Batch option when configuring the download, upload or the Payflow Service. Delete Payroll Lines With Batch automatically deletes Payroll Lines you associated with a batch when you delete the batch.

Note

When you delete Payflow batches, the system deletes the related child records for the Payflow batch first. Then it deletes the Payflow batch itself. In an org with large volumes of records, it's possible to delete child records. However, deletion of the batch fails because the child records are still in the org's recycle bin. The deletion of the batch will keep failing until you remove these from the org's recycle bin. After you remove the child records from the recycle bin, the system deletes the batch itself successfully.

Does Payflow use the local time zone when it inserts a date into a download file?

No. Payflow applies the GMT time zone to dates it automatically inserts into download files. Payflow applies the GMT time zone in all the situations where you can configure Payflow to insert dates into download files, including:

to the file name
to the header and footer
as a default value for empty date fields, or empty date and time fields

Payflow doesn't reformat dates in the data you export from your org.

Does Payflow support translations for field names and data?

The system doesn't pull through field names and field values you translate within Sage Peopleinto Payflow download files.

The Download Field Name field in the field mapping configuration defines the Download Field Name. If you need to provide download files in different languages, use a different Payflow file per language. Use with localized field names you define separately for each file.

You can translate field values (like picklist entries) within Payflow using the Translation for this value field in the field mapping configuration.

How can I tell the difference between a tab-delimited and a fixed-length field file?

Opening the file in a text editing tool like Notepad++ or Sublime Text shows character markers like commas or pipes. If an empty space separates the fields, it specifies the fields as fixed length, or they're tab separated.

If the fields are fixed length, when viewed in Notepad++ the columns will align, as we've shown here:

If the fields are tab delimited, when viewed in Notepad++ the columns won’t align, as we've shown here:

What happens if the value in a field is longer than the Payflow fixed-length field?

If the value supplied for a field is longer than the field length:

If the field length is set to a specific number of characters, the value will be truncated.
If the field length is not set, the value will overflow into the next field.

For fixed length records, we recommend you set both the Length and Position options for all fields under field mapping.

Where a field length is not specified, field values that overflow are treated as follows. In this example:

Field 1 starts at position 1 and ends at position 10 (10 characters long)
Field 2 starts at position 11 and ends position 20 (10 characters long)
Field 3 starts at position 21 and ends position 30 (10 characters long)

If the VALUE supplied for field 1 is 20 characters long, it will output to both field 1 and field 2. The VALUE for field 2 will output from position 11 for as many characters as needed. The field 2 value will overwrite the overflowing characters from field 1, but will not blank out any remaining characters from VALUE 1 which were overflowed into the field. This is shown in the following screenshot:

What is the Enable Debug option for in a Payflow Service?

This setting is available in the Edit page for a Payflow Service. It sets the batch size for the Payflow to 1. This can be useful when troubleshooting errors that are due to data issues with specific Team Members, as it will only process 1 Team Member at a time. Note this setting should only be enabled temporarily, to assist with debugging. Once any data issues are resolved, this setting should be disabled again. This is because having this setting enabled will require more resource from Salesforce, will make the batch take longer to run, and could cause limits to be hit when processing the data.