A geocode is a three part numeric record representing a state, county and local. An additional two part record identifies a state and school district. You use geocode data to troubleshoot and correct data issues, make adjustments and input time for Enhanced Multi Jurisdiction Taxation. The Jurisdiction Information Tables (JIT) contain geocode and jurisdiction data, for example, zip codes, federal, state and local limits and rates.
For US Payroll, geocodes (or Jurisdiction Code) represent the state, city, county and school district appearing on the employee record. For Canadian payroll, you must enter the Canada Post province abbreviation as the jurisdiction input value. As Canada does not have local level taxes (such as the city), you must uniquely identify the specific geocode by the province abbreviation.
You must apply both the Vertex monthly updates and the Oracle Quarterly Statutory Update to keep the JIT/Geocode data current and correct. The Oracle Statutory updates are released as quarterly payroll patches. You can get the Vertex monthly update by downloading the file from the Vertex website or from a CD sent by Vertex.
If you want to immediately begin using the new JIT/Geocode information delivered in the monthly updates, you can manually enter the data in the Cities.
Annually, you must run the Geocode Upgrade Manager concurrent program to synchronize the Vertex and Oracle geocode data.
The state/ province geocode is a three part record in the format of XX-XXX-XXXX. The first 2 digits are the state/province jurisdiction code, the next 3 digits are the county code and the last 4 digits are the city code. When adjusting a state or province level record, enter the numeric code; enter zeros for the county and city codes. For example: When adjusting SUI for the state of Pennsylvania, the jurisdiction input value is 39-000-0000. When adjusting the city of Allentown in the state of Pennsylvania, the jurisdiction input value is 39-077-0040.
When a School District is involved, there are an additional five digits which need to be appended to the state geocode (XX-XXXXX) when making adjustments. If an employee is taxed at a school district level, the school district geocode is in addition to the state/province geocode. The school district code appears on the employee's tax information form either at the county or city level. For example: When adjusting School District for Easton in the state of Pennsylvania, the jurisdiction input value would be 39-48330.
There are four methods you can look up the geocode:
Look up the numeric geocode in the Geocode Master List supplied by Vertex, Inc.
Reviewing the tax information on the employee's record.
Reviewing the employee's Run Result Values from a payroll run.
Running the Employee Run Results report.
You check and use geocodes in routine payroll administration to troubleshoot data issues, input time for Enhanced Multi Jurisdiction Taxation, make balance adjustments, and to correct data corruption. You use the jurisdiction name, for example, Allentown Pennsylvania, to find the numeric geocode.
The method you use to find a geocode depends on you level of access to Oracle Payroll, and the method you find most convenient.
Look up the numeric geocode in the Geocode Master List supplied by Vertex, Inc. The list is organized alphabetically by jurisdiction within state. This method is useful if you do not have access to the application.
Reviewing the tax information on the employee's record.
Access the employee's Tax Information form.
Navigate to the state, county or city form, and place you cursor in the corresponding field for state, county, city or school district field which you are researching.
Click Help from the tool bar at the top of the application form.
Then select Diagnostics | Examine.
Enter the appropriate password to enable access to the Examine region. You can obtain the password from your Systems Administrator.
Select STATETAX, COUNTYTAX or CITYTAX as the "Block," depending on what code you are researching.
Select JURISDICTION_CODE for the "Field."
The value shown is the geocode for the locality displayed on the employee record.
To view the School District Code, select SCHOOL_DISTRICT_CODE in the "Field" line for either COUNTYTAX or CITYTAX "Blocks."
This method is most useful if you do not have report capabilities or access to the employee run results.
If you do not have access to either of the above methods, you can find the geocode under Run Result Values:
(N) Navigate to View | Payroll Process Results.
Query a payroll run.
Click Assignment Process.
Choose the person you are researching.
Click Run Results.
Click Run Result for the correct tax element.
Click Run Result Values.
This displays the geocode.
Review the Employee Run Results report to find geocode values.
Use this method if you do not have access to the employee's record.
If you want to immediately begin using the new JIT/geocode information delivered in the monthly updates, you can manually enter the data in the Cities window before receiving and applying the Oracle Quarterly Statutory Update.
The application of the Oracle Quarterly Statutory Update does not impact the user defined data. Oracle Payroll maintains this data with no additional intervention by the payroll clerk.
If you want to begin using the new JIT/geocode information before applying the Oracle Quarterly Statutory Update, you can manually insert:
New Vertex defined Geocodes
New county school districts for a new or existing geocode
New city school districts for a new or existing geocode
The Jurisdiction Information Tables (JIT) for new taxes
See: Adding a City to the Database
See: Adding New Tax Information for an Existing Geocode
Periodically Vertex makes changes to geocode data, for example, change a geocode for a city, or move a secondary city from one primary city to another. On an annual basis Oracle releases an upgrade procedure as a part of an hrglobal driver. The Geocode Upgrade Manager concurrent program replaces the hrglobal upgrade procedure. You must run the Geocode Upgrade Manager annually, to modify data in the payroll application and synchronize the Vertex and Oracle geocode data.
The Geocode Upgrade Manager is a concurrent program that writes the output of the upgrade process to two log files, and checks for errors in the upgrade process. You can run the Geocode Upgrade Manager in either Debug or Upgrade mode. Debug mode produces the output reports indicating what data you need to upgrade. Upgrade mode automatically upgrades the data, and produces output reports showing the changes.
After you run the Geocode Upgrade Program, a report is generated listing the assignments that require review. There are many reasons assignments appear on the report, for example, an employee with a work location that is a secondary city in one jurisdiction and now becomes a secondary city in another jurisdiction. An assignment also appears on the report if the record has data corruption, such as missing tax records, incorrectly end dated tax records, effective dated tax records that are out of sync with the Vertex element, a gap in effective dates and missing element entries.
You must review the assignment data and make the necessary correction before resubmit the upgrade process. You can manually review the data, or use the delivered per.sql scripts to diagnose the issue. You correct the issue by making a change to the data, or using deltax.sql and recreating the tax records. Once you correct the data, you resubmit the Geocode Upgrade Manager.