Flexfields in Oracle HRMS

In this article, We have explained the flexfields in oracle hrms, its types and usages.

What is Flex Field

Types of Flex Field
–Key Flexfields
–Descriptive Flexfields
Key Flexfields in Oracle HRMS
–Job Key Flexfield
–Grade Key Flexfield
–Position Key Flexfield
–Cost Allocation Key Flexfield
–Competence Key Flexfield
–Soft Coded Key Flex field
–Bank Details Flex Field
–Person Analysis Key Flex Field
–Collective Agreement Grades key flexfield
–Training Resources key flexfield
Key Flexfield and Their Tables
Protected Flex Fields in Oracle HRMS

What is Flex Field

Every organization has its business entities and they want to assign some unique
numbers in order to identify the business objects. for exmaple, In Accounting system, it
may be account number. In vehicle system, it might be vehicle number. Likewise in
human resource system, it may be employee number.

So in order to store such key information Oracle has provided dynamic structures to
capture the key information as well as their related additional information. This dynamic
structure is called flex field.

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Types of Flex Fields
Oracle has provided following two types of flex fields
• Key Flexfields
• Descriptive Flexfields.

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Key Flexfields

These flexfield contain unique information of your system. Some of Key flex fields are
needed at the time of setups while others are optional. They appear on Oracle forms as
normal text fields for data entry.

Key flex fields can also be referred as unique combinations of codes that we use to
identify the business entities. Following is the navigation for defining the key flex fields

Responsibility: Application Developer

Navigation: Key->Segments
Following is the screen to define the flex fields
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Descriptive Flexfields

Every enterprise has specific requirement to store some information which is specific to
their business or environment. Such requirement can be met by fields that is designed
by yourself. Oracle HRMS provides a flexible mechanism called descriptive flexfields to
enable you to add fields to application windows.

All window blocks in which you can enter information contain a user definable
descriptive flexfield. You decide in which blocks you want to record additional
information. Each such user definable descriptive flexfield has 20 segments that you
can define. After you define a descriptive flexfield, Oracle HRMS treats the segments as
part of the window.

The following figure illustrates the distinctive appearance of descriptive flexfields. When
users click in a flexfield that you have set up, or choose Edit Field from the Edit menu, a
window opens, displaying up to 20 segments that you have defined.
The way in which descriptive flexfield windows open is controlled by the Flexfields:Open
Descr Window profile option. If this option is set to Yes, the flexfield window
automatically pops open when the user navigates to the field. If it is set to No, users
can open the flexfield by choosing Edit Field from the Edit menu or pressing CTRL+L.
The default is Yes.

DFF appears on your form as a two-character-wide text field with square brackets [ ] as
its prompt. When we click on these two lines, They appear as as a pop-up window that
contains a separate text field and prompt for each segment. Each segment in the
descriptive flexfield has a name and a set of valid values.

Following is the navigation for defining the Descriptive flex fields

Responsibility: Application Developer

Navigation: Descriptive->Segments
Following screen opens
Types of Descriptive Flexfield Segments

There are two types of segments that we can define for DFF:

Global segments: If we define global segments they will always appear in the window.
Context-sensitive segments: These segments appear only when a defined context
exists. If we define context-sensitive segments, application prompts the user to provide
the context or alternatively you can provide the context from a reference field in the
same block.
For example, a segment holding information about an employee’s disability might
appear only when the Disabled field is checked.

Tip: Some descriptive flexfields appear in more than one window. For example, the
Additional Evaluation Details flexfield appears in the Job Evaluation window and the
Position Evaluation window.
Check all of the windows that use a descriptive flexfield before you define any of the
segments. This is especially important if you intend to make the flexfield context
sensitive to another field. You must ensure that the reference field is present in all of
the windows that use the flexfield.
Famous descriptive flex fields are following

• Additional Personal Details

• Additional Position Details
• Additional Job Details
• Additional Element Entry Information
• Additional Grade Details
• Additional Position Details
• Extra Person Information

For a full list of available descriptive flex fields you can click here
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Key Flexfields in Oracle HRMS

There are some mandatory flex fields and some optional key Flexfield Structures in
oracle HRMS. Following is the list of mandatory KFFs that you must define before you
can define a Business Group in Oracle HRMS.
These are:

• Job
• Position
• Grade
• People Group
• Cost Allocation
• Competence
There are other key flex fields which are optional and can be used as per business
requirement. Names of those flexfield are

• Soft Coded Key Flex field

• Bank Details Flex Field
• Person Analysis Key Flex Field
• Collective Agreement Grades key flexfield
• Training Resources key flexfield

In order to use the flexfield, you should carefully identify the requirement and need of
each flex field and specify the following details for each of the flexfield:

• Structure Name
• No of Segments in each flex field structure
• Flexfield Qualifiers
• The Flexfield Value Sets to be used for any of the segment

Note: All flex fields can have only one structure per business group except the Personal
Analysis and Collective Agreement Grades key flexfields. They can have an unlimited
number of structures.

The protected key flexfields are the Soft Coded Legislation key flexfield and the Bank
Details key flexfield

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Job Key Flexfield

Job is a generic name of role that employees in your organization will be performing.
Jobs vary depending on the nature of business of your enterprise. You should decide
whether you want to use simple names and codes, or multi-segment job and position
names to hold more information.

Simple Job Structure can be of one segment merely containing the name of job or we
can add the job group segment or job family family as part of job flex field.

simple example of job flex field could be Programmer, Clerk, Manager

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Grade Key Flexfield

Grade flexfield allows to define grade structure in oracle hrms. It is important to define
this flexfield before you define business group. There is one Grade flex field per
business group. You associate these structures with a Business Group in the Business
Group Information window, which opens from the Organization window.

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Position Key Flexfield

Poisition is specific instance of a job. Like wise Job, there is one structure for position
flexfield. This structure can be used to configure position flexfield as per your enterprise
requirement. You define one position flexfield per business group and this can be
associated with business group when you go to business group form and click Others
and select the business group information window. It can have 30 segments
.
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Cost Allocation Key Flexfield

Only 1structure per BG is defined for this flexfield its strcture can contain 30 segments.
Flexfield qualifiers are used to configure the level at which user can enter the costing
information. There are 5 levels at which costing can be configure.
These levels are following

• Element Entry Level (Highest Priority)

• Assignment Level
• Organization Level
• Payroll Level
• Element Link Level (Lowest Priority)

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Competence Key Flexfield

This flexfield is used to store the competencies of employees in your enterprise. You
can create simple or complex competency model depending on your need.

This flexfield is needed for performance management module and you define
competencies for performance management and records and manage appraisals of
employees through oralce system.

Simple example of competency flex field is Competency category, competency name

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Soft Coded Key Flex field

It holds the legislation specific information. Structure of this key flexfield depends on
legislation of the BG for which it is being defined. It is the role of Localization team to
identify the segments that should be used for this flexfield.

Qualifiers are used to determine the level at which each segment is visible. Therefore,
you may be able to enter information specific to your legislation at one or more of the
following levels:

• Business Group – Organization window

• Payroll – Payroll window
• Employee Assignment – Assignment window
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Bank Details Flex Field

This flexfield holds legislation-specific bank account information. The legislation of your
BG determines the flexfield structure that you see. Each localization team defines a
flexfield structure that allows you to record the bank account information relevant to
your legislation. You enter this information in following places

• Organizational Payment Method window

• Personal Payment Method window.

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Person Analysis Key Flex Field

This is an optional key flex field structure in oracle hrms. It allows you to define number
of Special Information Types (SITs) for people.

Each SIT is defined as a separate flexfield structure for the Personal Analysis Flexfield.
In every enterprise there are different types of information that they would like to store
in oracle so these structures can be used to capture such information.

Example of such cases could be to hold information like

• Medical Details
• Passport Details
• Medical Insruance Details etc

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Collective Agreement Grades key flexfield

Use this flexfield to record the grade factors which are defined within a collective
agreement in Oracle HRMS. A Collective Agreement Grade is defined by a combination
of values that you enter using grade factors. A grade factor is a user-defined field that
you set up as part of the grade structure in the Collective Agreement Grades (CAGR)
key flexfield.

N Number of grade structures can be created for the Collective Agreement Grades Rate
(CAGR) key flexfield.

Grade structure must be created first before using it in collective agreements. Collective
Agreements created in oracle hrms can be linked with grade structure once it (Grade
Structure) is created and later you can record the required factor values against each
reference grade. Each structure can have 20 segments and every segment refers to a
grade factor available as part of grade structure.
This is an optional structure. You can start using oracle HRMS even if this flexfield is not
configured in your system.

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Training Resources key flexfield

This flex field belongs to Oracle Learning Management (OLM) module and is configured
if you want to define the object related to OLM. Any resource that is needed for training
is considered a resource in OLM. You can define different training resources using this
flexfield strcuture.

Example of some of the resources are

• Venue
• Trainer
• Rooms
• Laptops

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Key Flexfield and Their Tables

Full details of KFF and their tables can be found from Oracle Link
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Protected Descriptive Flex Fields in Oracle HRMS

Note: There are two Key Flex field and six descriptive flex fields which are protected by
oracle. You cannot modify them. Your localization team determines which of these
flexfields are required for your legislation, and what segments they should contain.
Ensure that you select the appropriate legislation code when you define your Business
Group so that you can see these flexfields.

Following is the list of protected DFF in Oracle HRMS

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Protected Key Flexfield are

• Soft Coded Legislation Key Flexfield

• Bank Details Key Flexfield

Warning: Do not attempt to alter the definitions of these protected flexfields. These
definitions are a fundamental part of Oracle HRMS. Any change to them may lead to
errors in the operating of the system.

It is possible that Oracle HRMS will use other segments of these flexfields in the future.
Therefore, do not add segments to any protected flexfield. This can affect your ability to
upgrade your system in the future.