25+ Must-Know PeopleSoft HRMS Functional Interview Questions & Answers

Last updated on 04th Jul 2020, Blog, Interview Questions

The optimisation of an organization’s human capital management is largely dependent on functional professionals using the PeopleSoft HRMS (Human Resource Management System). They are in charge of setting up and modifying PeopleSoft HRMS modules so that they comply with the HR regulations and operational procedures of the company. In order to gather requirements, design, and implement solutions for payroll, benefits administration, personnel administration, and other HR functions, these experts work in collaboration with stakeholders. Functional specialists for PeopleSoft HRMS also offer user training, troubleshoot system problems, and guarantee regulatory compliance.

1. What are all components will have data permission security control access?

Ans:

• Departments
• An Employee, Contingent Worker, and POI with the Jobs.
• POI without jobs.
• Recruiting Federal People with jobs.
• Template-based hires.

2. What are all organizational relationships available while hiring an employee?

Ans:

• Contingent Worker.
• Employee.
• Person of Interest (POI).

3. List down people part of the POI.em Administration.

Ans:

“Person of Interest” features Harold Finch, a billionaire; John Reese, a former operative; Joss Carter, an NYPD detective; and Lionel Fusco, a coerced cop. The team also includes Root, a hacker; Sameen Shaw, a skilled operative, and Elias, a powerful crime boss. They work together to prevent crimes using an advanced surveillance system known as the Machine.

4. What are all People Tools Security?

Ans:

• Permission List.
• Roles.
• User Profiles.

5. What are all default programs need to run after creating the user profile?

Ans:

• Refresh SJT CLASS ALL.
• Refresh Trans. SJT tables
• Refresh SJT OPR CLS.

6. What are different components and component interfaces in PeopleSoft HRMS.

Ans:

	Component	Component Interface	Description
PERSON_BASIC	PERSON_BASIC_CI	Manages basic person information.
JOB_DATA	JOB_DATA_CI	Handles employee job-related information.
COMPENSATION	COMPENSATION_CI	Manages employee compensation details.

7. What are all methods for assigning Data Permission Access to Permission List?

Ans:

• A Tree-based data permission security.
• A Role-based data permission security.

8. What are all Access types for Department security sets?

Ans:

• Departments by Tree
• Departments by non–tree
• Departments by set id.

9. What are all Access types for People with job security sets?

Ans:

• Job department tree
• Job location
• Jon business unit
• Job Company
• Job regulatory region
• Job salary grade.

10. What are all Access types for People without job security sets?

Ans:

• POI Business Unit
• POI Location
• POI Institution
• Person of Interest.

11. What are all Access types for Recruiting Job-Opening security sets?

Ans:

Access types for recruiting job-opening security sets include Read-Only, Write/Modify, Create, Delete, and Approval. These permissions govern users’ abilities to view, edit, create, delete, and approve job openings and related data. Additionally, specialized access may be granted for reporting, interview scheduling, team/departmental views, and handling sensitive information.

12. What are all Access types for Template-Based Hire security sets?

Ans:

• Template ID
• Template Category
• Person Organisation
• Country.

13. What is mean by term Convexity?

Ans:

It is mainly characterized as a measure of the ebb and flow that to the great extent exists among the different yields identified with the security and security costs.

14. What is portion of inconveniences of Financial Ratios ?

Ans:

The product offerings are not as assorted as must be. Once in while, the financial information in this approach gets the misshaped severely. Bookkeeping approaches the great extent to changes, and this can have substantial effect on future outcomes.

15. What are all tree manager definitions?

Ans:

• Level
• Node
• Parent
• Sibling
• Child.

16. What are all various types of SJT?

Ans:

SJT, in the context of assessments, typically stands for Situational Judgment Test. Types include Administrative, Managerial, Sales, Customer Service, Healthcare, Legal, Engineering, IT/Technical, Emergency Services, and Finance SJTs. They assess decision-making skills in job-specific scenarios.

17. What are all organizational instance components?

Ans:

• Add Employment Instance (Job_Data_Emp)
• Add Contingent Worker Instance (Job_Data_CWR)
• Add Person of Interest Job (Jon_Data_POI).

18. What are all job instances used for POIs?

Ans:

• COBRA qualified beneficiaries
• Stock employees not administered in the Human Resources
• Global Payroll Employees
• Pension Payees.

19. What are all purposes of Job Earnings Distribution Information Page?

Ans:

The purposes of a “Job Earnings Distribution Information Page” can include promoting salary transparency, enhancing employee satisfaction, aiding in recruitment, addressing pay equity, benchmarking against industry standards, supporting strategic planning, educating employees on compensation factors, and ensuring compliance with legal requirements. Specific purposes may vary depending on the organization or platform.

20. What are all job level defaults?

Ans:

• Work
• Job Information
• Job Labor
• Payroll
• Salary Plan
• Compensation
• Employment Information.

21. What are all main components for setting the hiring template?

Ans:

• Template Record/Field
• Template Section
• Template Category Table
• Template Creation.

22. What are all statuses used to define templates?

Ans:

Template statuses in various systems often include “Draft” for initial creation and modification, “Active” for finalized and in-use templates, “Inactive” or “Obsolete” for retired templates, “Under Review” or “Pending Approval” for templates in the approval process, “Approved” for those with completed approvals, “Rejected” for disapproved templates, and “Archived” for historical records. These statuses help manage the lifecycle of templates, ensuring proper control and documentation throughout their usage and modification processes.

23. What are all statuses available on template hire status page?

Ans:

• Pending Hires
• Cancelled Hires
• Processed Hires.

24. What are methods available to update worker’s compensation packages?

Ans:

Updating worker’s compensation packages involves various methods to adjust salary, benefits, and incentives to align with changing circumstances. These methods often include annual performance reviews where merit-based increases are considered, promotions that come with salary adjustments, and cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) to keep salaries in line with inflation.

25. What are all components available under Setup HRMS?

Ans:

• Install
• Security
• Upgrade
• Foundation Tables
• Common Definitions
• Product-Related
• System Administration

26. What is purpose of EMPLOYEES table in PS?

Ans:

EMPLOYEES table is the current employee information table. This is primarily used in an interfacing with the third party systems or in business reporting as well in conjunction with the EMPLOYMENT which is now a view.

27. What is the PeopleSoft FSCM budgetary administration change and its perspective?

Ans:

It is fundamentally the selection of the another approach in current money related administration strategy. Generally speaking, associations must implement enhancements or modifications to the current proposal prior to the end of the fiscal year. The changes are made to be enhance the results of a some sub-undertakings identified with money related administration in an association.

28. What is restrictive credit?

Ans:

Essentially, it is a credit that the borrower must repay with eminence rather than cash. It is the point at which association or a business creates deals or benefits on wander gave by outsider or another association.

29. What is difference between position number and job code?

Ans:

Position Number: A position number is unique identifier assigned to the specific job position within an organization.

Job code: A job code is standardized code assigned to the particular job role or title, which typically represents the group of positions that have a similar characteristics, duties, and qualifications.

30. What is purpose of update/display mode?

Ans:

The update/display mode refers to a mode in which can view or edit data within the system. It’s a feature that controls whether can update (modify) the data or simply view (display) it. Understanding and using update/display mode is crucial for a data integrity and security within HRMS system.

31. What is purpose of correct history mode?

Ans:

Correct History mode allows an authorized users to make corrections to historical records without changing original data. This mode is particularly useful when there are errors or discrepancies in employee’s historical records, such as job history, salary information, or other important details. The purpose of Correct History mode is to maintain the accurate and reliable historical data without tampering with original records.

32. What is purpose of include history mode?

Ans:

The Include History mode is a feature that allows the users to include historical data while performing various operations or inquiries within system. The purpose of Include History mode is to provide the comprehensive view of an employee’s or organization’s data, including the historical information, when running reports, inquiries, or performing data-related tasks.

33. What is Employee Record Number?

Ans:

An Employee Record Number (ERN) is unique identifier assigned to each employee within system. It is the numerical or alphanumeric code that distinguishes one employee from the another. The ERN serves several purposes within organization.

34. Which fields are mandatory when adding a person to the system?

Ans:

• Name
• Organizational relationship
• National ID, Address, and Birthdate give us warning message

35. What is employment instance?

Ans:

Employment instance refers to the specific occurrence or period of employee’s employment within an organization. It represents the distinct employment relationship between employer and the employee. Each time individual is hired, rehired, or changes employment status within organization (such as transferring to the different department, changing job roles, or being rehired after break in service), it is considered the new employment instance.

36. What is difference between Set Id and Business Unit?

Ans:

Where the Business Unit organizes the company or organization, SetIDs help organize a data within the system. The HRMS system uses the tables (Control Tables or Prompt Tables) that use high-level key that enables to identify and retrieve data from system. A secondary high-level key referred to as SetID, has also been added to the various tables. SetIDs are simply labels used to identify the table set.

37. What is HCCPALL?

Ans:

Delivered primary permission list with the access to all components and pages. HCCPALL is related to the software, technology, organization, or any other specific context information.

38. What are checklists?

Ans:

A checklist is a handout type of utility for user that can be referenced to ensure that all tasks the user has to accomplish are done and noted. Say, recruiter or HR admin wants to hire new joiner in tHRMS system, there is a recruitment checklist the user can use. When user is done with all the data entry, can refer to this checklist in system.

39. When do use concept of effective sequence?

Ans:

An effective sequence concept is used in the some key tables like Job. The job table has high volume of employee transaction data. There are the multiple types of transactions and they are all action-driven. It is likely in a business scenario that an employee has a same type of transaction more than once on the same day. For example, Employees can have data change action happening on same day more than once.

40. What is regulatory region and its usage?

Ans:

A regulatory region is athe region that has a laws and regulations that are used by functionality in the PeopleSoft HRMS. A lot of transactions are driven by the regulatory requirements. These requirements are include areas like ethnicity, disability, and health and safety.

41. What is most important Record in PS HRMS?

Ans:

Different types of records are used to store the various information about employees, positions, benefits, payroll, and the other HR-related data. The importance of record can vary based on a specific requirements and processes of organization. There isn’t a singlemost important record in PeopleSoft HRMS, as significance of a record depends on a context and organization’s needs.

42. What is dynamic view?

Ans:

A dynamic view refers to the virtual or generated view of data in the database management system that is not stored physically but is dynamically generated based on a specific criteria or calculations. Unlike traditional database view, which is saved query that retrieves and displays a set of data from underlying database tables, a dynamic view does not store data persistently.

43. What is difference between SQL View and Query View?

Ans:

SQL View: An SQL view is stored query that is defined in a database schema. It is virtual table that represents the result of SELECT statement. The SELECT statement can involve one or more tables, apply filtering criteria, and perform the calculations or aggregations.

Query view: Referred to as a query or report in the some database management systems or reporting tools, is user-defined view of the data. It is typically created using a visual query builder or report designer tool.

44. What is ERP and how does related to SAP?

Ans:

ERP is generally referred to as the class of business software that addresses a business firm in totality, rather than a one or two functions. That addresses the specific function of a business. However, ERP class software addresses all functions of the business and provides integrated view of business to the management.

45. How are standard hours and FTE auto-calculated for new hires in job details?

Ans:

Under Setup HRMS

• Installation table in the HRMS options, there is standard hour rule setup. This is at system level.
• Here admin will define the minimum and maximum hours for HR system and also the default hours.
• The second place where setup can be done is in a job code table setup.

46. What is difference between the Translate table and Prompt table?

Ans:

• There are differences between the Translate tables and prompt tables Translate tables have max length of 4 chars for each element. prompt table elements have the no such limitation.
• There can be only a 30 entries in the translate table. Whereas the prompt table can have n number of entries.

47. Explain What is the most important Record in PS HRMS?

Ans:

Without specific details about “PS HRMS,” it’s challenging to identify the most important record. However, in a typical HRMS, critical records include employee information, payroll details, time and attendance, performance, benefits, training, recruitment, and compliance records. The importance of a specific record depends on organizational needs and industry requirements. For precise information, consult system documentation or administrators.

48. What are all various types of SJT?

Ans:

SJT_CLASS

SJT_CLASS_ALL

SJT_PERSON

SJT_DEPARTMENT

49. How to execute SQR in command prompt and specify parameters for its run?

Ans:

50. How to retrieve data from 3rd scroll, using traversing?

Ans:

• getlevel0.getrow(1).getrecord(record.level1record)getrow(2).
• getrecord(record.level2record)getrow(3).
• getrecord(record.level3record);

51. Which security attribute sets default user details in PS login?

Ans:

• When a user logs in the PS system scans through the user profile to see associated primary permission list.
• There is the setup called org defaults by permission list Set up HRMS.
• For each permission list following field, defaults are set here: Business unit, Set, Company, Country, Regulatory region, Currency, and name format.

52. Explain effective date and its advantages.

Ans:

The effective date concept is used in the multiple core tables in PS HRMS. For example, in job, this is the primary key. The purpose of this field is to differentiate the multiple transaction rows for a same employee that has happened on the two different dates.

53. Explore various organizational relationships in HRMS and provide examples for clarity.

Ans:

Different organization relationships the person can have are: Employee, Contingent Worker, or Person of Interest as per person model. The employee is a permanent staff member of firm who is paid by company payroll and has hire row in a job with all associated information are company, department, location, playgroup, etc. An example is the permanent position for chief executive or sales manager in the firm.

54. Define global assignments and explain the home/host concept and international assignment security.

Ans:

Global assignments involve sending employees to work in different countries. The home/host concept distinguishes the home country (employee’s origin) from the host country (work location). International assignment security focuses on ensuring employees’ safety during assignments, covering risk assessment, training, emergency response, health support, legal compliance, and security measures.

55. What determines default values in HCM, such as business unit, when accessing Job Data?

Ans:

Default values in HCM, such as business unit in Job Data, are determined by system configuration, security roles, templates, organizational hierarchy, employee preferences, workflow processes, and integration with other systems. Admins set these defaults during system setup to ensure data consistency and efficiency.

56. What are different options for determining a reporting hierarchy in PS as delivered?

Ans:

• If the organization is position driven and uses a full position management then reporting is based on the reports to the field.
• If organization is not position driven then reporting can be driven based on a supervisor id defined in a job as one option.

57. What is job family? How does different from job codes in PS?

Ans:

To identify the particular job in PS HRMS use a job code. Example: can have a job code representing an Administrative assistant. This job code will have a defaulted salary grade and a standard hours. A collection of the multiple such jobs grouped together which use this job code will make job family.

58. How is Geographic location code different from locations?

Ans:

Location is a core table that is used to define all office locations of the organization. All locations are tied to the company and setid. Location is also tied to department. Geographic location is the US federal concept. This is a specific to a State –City code. Locality pay area and law enforcement officer the special pay.

59. What is PeopleSoft Enterprise HRMS?

Ans:

Based on enterprise portal technologies and PeopleSoft’s Pure Internet Architecture (PIA), PeopleSoft HRMS is an integrated suite of business processes and applications.

60. What is PeopleSoft Enterprise HRMS Integrations?

Ans:

Integrations exist between PeopleSoft HRMS and other PeopleSoft applications, including PeopleSoft Enterprise Learning Management, PeopleSoft Enterprise Financials, and PeopleSoft Enterprise Workforce Analytics. The third-party apps and PeopleSoft HRMS are also integrated. Data is sent and received by PeopleSoft HRMS using a variety of integration technologies.

61. What are all default Permission List used while creating User ID?

Ans:

The default permission lists for creating user IDs depend on the system or application. Common ones include Guest, User, Power User, Administrator, Read-Only, Data Entry, and Report Viewer. These define access levels and privileges within the system. Refer to specific documentation for accurate information.

62. How PeopleSoft HRMS stores data?

Ans:

PeopleSoft HRMS is the table-based system that stores a critical general data, such as companies, work locations, and system specifications in the central location. The system enables users to access a same basic information while maintaining a data accuracy and integrity.Tables that are central to the PeopleSoft HRMS include the control tables, transaction tables, and prompt tables.

63. What is control table in Peoplesoft HRMS?

Ans:

• Control Tables – Control tables store information that is used to be process and validate a day-to-day business activities (transactions) users perform with the PeopleSoft HRMS applications.
• The data kept in control tables, such as master lists of clients, suppliers, products, applications, and accounts, are shared and common knowledge within an organisation.

64. What are transaction tables in Peoplesoft HRMS?

Ans:

Transaction Tables – Transaction tables store information about day-to-day business activities (transactions) users the perform with PeopleSoft HRMS applications.The information stored in the transaction tables often changes and is updated more frequently than information stored in a control tables.

65. What are Prompt Tables in PeopleSoft HRMS?

Ans:

When a user chooses the prompt or search option, prompt tables—which are tables connected to fields on PeopleSoft application pages—display the acceptable data values for those fields.The data values stored in the prompt tables are retrieved from a control tables, transaction tables, or other PeopleSoft tables.

66. What are Business Units in PeopleSoft HRMS?

Ans:

The logical units that can be created to track and report on particular business data are called business units. Business units are flexible structuring devices that enable the implementation of PeopleSoft HRMS based on how the business is organised; they have no set restrictions or requirements.Must define at least a one business unit.

67. What is Person or Position Structure in PeopleSoft HRMS?

Ans:

PeopleSoft HRMS enables to structure or drive the PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Resources system by person or by a position. Before set up information in the control tables, must decide which method to use. The system processes an information differently depending on choice.

68. What is Difference between Person or Position?

Ans:

• When drive PeopleSoft Human Resources by person, can use job codes to classify job data into the groups. And use those codes to link a person data to job data.
• In order to create general groups, or job classifications, in an organisation, such as EEO (equal employment opportunity) and salary survey data, while driving PeopleSoft Human Resources by position, job codes are still used.

69. Which Method Should Use Person or Position?

Ans:

To determine whether should drive the system by person or position, consider the following:

• Driving a system by person is probably best for you if your organisation is fluid, meaning that you frequently create new jobs and look at larger groups of workers.
• This method is useful if organization is continually expanding or if new projects require that can create new jobs or job types regularly.

70. What is understanding of PeopleSoft HRMS System Data Regulation?

Ans:

As a companies grow larger and more complex, often need to collect a same type of data across many locations. It is possible to arrange businesses into logical units other than companies and departments using PeopleSoft business units and setIDs, and to specify how organisational data is shared between these units.

71. What are Tablesets and how do work with them?

Ans:

Tableset: A set of data rows in the control table that is identified by a same highlevel key.

setID: The highlevel key that identifies the set of data rows.

Physical SetIDs :The setID of business unit (BUSINESS_UNIT = SETID). The rows of data in the physical setID have one to one relationship with the business unit.

72. What is Data Permission Security for HRMS?

Ans:

Data permission security refers to the controlling access to rows of data in system. In PeopleSoft HRMS, can control access to the following types of data: People.

• Employees.
• Contingent workers.
• People of interest (POIs) with jobs.
• People of interest (POIs) without jobs.

73. What are Security Sets and Security Access Types?

Ans:

• A security set is a grouping of data that is secured. The sets differ by origin of a transaction security data.
• For example, people of interest without jobs have separate security set from a people with jobs because a transaction data used to secure them does not come from JOB record, but from PER_POI_SCRTY record.

74. How does implement data permission security?

Ans:

To implement a data permission security, use Security Installation Settings component (SCRTY_INSTALL), Security Sets component (SCRTY_SET_TBL), and Security Access Type component (SCRTY_TYPE2_TBL).

75. What is Future-Dated Security?

Ans:

The Security Installation Settings page enables to select actions that, when used on a Work Location page (JOB_DATA1), trigger SavePostChange PeopleCode to create the future-dated row in SJT_PERSON.

76. How do SetUp and Assigning Tree-Based Data Permission?

Ans:

Tree Manager (PSTREEMGR), Security Tree Audit Report (RUNCTL_PER506), Security by Dept Tree (SCRTY_DATA), and Refresh the SJT_CLASS_ALL component (SCRTY_OPR_RC) are the components to use and set up for tree-based data permission.

77. How do modify Security Trees?

Ans:

Can alter an already-existing tree by altering one or more nodes or levels. When modify a security tree, tree node numbers usually change, so need to refresh the numbers. And also need to run Refresh SJT_CLASS_ALL process to update data access profiles and security join tables.

78. How do allow Workers to Update Their Own Data?

Ans:

• PeopleSoft HRMS doesn’t allow the users to update their own data except in self-service internet applications.
• However, sometimes might want them to update some of own data in the other components. To allow the users to update own data, implement the PeopleCode function Allow the EmplIDChg (allow emplID change).

79. How do administer Country Codes?

Ans:

To administer country codes, use a Country Table (COUNTRY_TABLE), Country Table – HR (HR_COUNTRY_TABLE), and a State/Province (STATE_DEFN) components.

80. What is Search/Match?

Ans:

Maintaining the database’s integrity is necessary to utilise the system to its full potential. Reduce the amount of duplicate or multiple record entries into the system, as users from various departments enter data into it. Search/Match enables to define criteria to check for a duplicate or multiple ID records. A searchable ID types are:

• Person (EmplID)
• Applicant (HRS_PERSON_ID within a PeopleSoft Enterprise Talent Acquisition Manager)

81. How does setup Search/Match?

Ans:

Define Criteria: Clearly outline what you’re searching for and the criteria for a match.

Data Representation: Structure your data appropriately for search and matching operations.

Choose Algorithm: Select a suitable algorithm based on your data and requirements.

82. What is difference between Search Box Search and Search/Match?

Ans:

The distinction between searching for records using a search dialogue page and using Search/Match is that the former allows you to view or update data by retrieving existing records using a narrow set of search criteria, while the latter uses a wider range of criteria to find duplicate or multiple records in the database or separate records that contain duplicate data that should only uniquely identify one ID.

83. What are Frequency IDs?

Ans:

The PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Resources, Global Payroll, and Payroll for North America all use frequency IDs. The Frequency Table component (FREQUENCY_TBL) defines frequency IDs. Each frequency ID has frequency type and associated annualization factor that represents a number of times that period occurs in course of a year.

84. What are Establishments?

Ans:

Establishment component to define a distinct physical places of business (establishments) within company, to enter address information, and to enter regulatory reporting information. In PeopleSoft Human Resources,can define establishments that are consistent with regulatory requirements of a business operations.

85. Is it possible for PeopleTools 8.4x and a PeopleTools 8.1x database to run on same machine?

Ans:

Yes, it’s possible. But it’s important to verify that database version required by the PeopleTools is the same as for a current PeopleTools x implementation.

86. Does Application Messaging work between 8.1x and 8.4x applications?

Ans:

Application Messaging is used by a PeopleSoft applications to communicate with the one another. For example, the Financials Applications which are based on PeopleTools can communicate with the HRMS applications, which are based on the PeopleTools, using Application Messaging.

87. What is main business processes of Accounts Payable?

Ans:

• Create a Vouchers and payment processes using the manual and automatic processes.
• Country specific tax withholding.
• Matching vouchers with purchase orders and receipts.
• Post vouchers.
• Maintain vouchers throughout life cycle.
• Create a drafts, single voucher payment, prepayments, and a self-billed invoices.

88. What are most important tables in Accounts Receivables in PeopleSoft?

Ans:

• PS_ITEM
• PS_ITEM_ACTIVITY
• PS_ITEM_DST
• PS_PENDING_ITEM
• PS_PENDING_DST
• PS_GROUP_CONTROL
• PS_DEPOSIT_CONTROL

89. What are key processes in Accounts Receivable modules?

Ans:

• Loading Pending items from a Billing/External systems.
• Entering Pending Recv items info into the Pplsoft system and update AR system with these data inputs(AR_UPDATE)
• Entering any deposits recvd in system and update AR System (using AR_UPDATE). Processing Refunds.

90. What are Global assignments?

Ans:

Global assignments enables an organization to assign employees to the global assignment and to monitor, compensate and track education, qualifications for the employee and dependents as move to the multiple locations in organization having presence in the different geographies.