Search Results pay_object_groups




Overview

PAY_OBJECT_GROUPS is a Payroll (PAY) module table owned by the HR schema in Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1.1 and 12.2.2. Its documented description states that it stores the grouping of people and assignments for processing. In practice, the table acts as the runtime population of a group definition: PAY_GROUP_DEFINITIONS holds the reusable rule set that describes how a group is selected, while PAY_OBJECT_GROUPS holds the resulting set of object instances (people, assignments, or other payroll objects) that the rules resolved to for a given run, period, or payroll.

The ETRM metadata describes the table's heuristic Data Vault classification as satellite-leaning, mined from its foreign key structure. As a modeling suggestion, this means the table is best understood as a descriptive satellite attached to parent business keys rather than as an independent hub or a pure link table. Its primary key, PAY_OBJECT_GROUPS_PK, is defined on OBJECT_GROUP_ID.

Key Information Stored

The documented physical schema contains nine columns. The most significant are:

  • OBJECT_GROUP_ID — the surrogate primary key (PAY_OBJECT_GROUPS_PK) that uniquely identifies each object group row.
  • GROUP_DEFINITION_ID — foreign key to PAY_GROUP_DEFINITIONS; identifies the group rule set that generated or governs this object group. This is the principal business-key relationship in the table.
  • SOURCE_ID and SOURCE_TYPE — identify the specific object included in the group and its type (for example, a person or an assignment), allowing heterogeneous objects to coexist in one structure.
  • PAYROLL_ID — associates the object group with the payroll that consumes it during processing.
  • PERIOD_OF_SERVICE_ID — foreign key to PER_PERIODS_OF_SERVICE; ties the grouping to a specific period of service for a person or assignment.
  • PARENT_OBJECT_GROUP_ID — supports hierarchical or nested grouping, enabling a child object group to reference a parent object group.
  • START_DATE and END_DATE — define the effective date range during which the grouping is valid.

The unique index documented in the metadata is PAY_OBJECT_GROUPS_PK on OBJECT_GROUP_ID. No separate business-key unique index is documented, so GROUP_DEFINITION_ID, SOURCE_ID, and SOURCE_TYPE function as the practical business identifiers in combination with the effective dates and payroll context.

Common Use Cases and Queries

Typical scenarios include reproducing the exact population of a payroll run, auditing which people or assignments were included in a processing group, and diagnosing why an assignment was or was not processed.

  • Resolving the definition behind a group: join PAY_OBJECT_GROUPS to PAY_GROUP_DEFINITIONS on GROUP_DEFINITION_ID to retrieve the rule set name and description.
  • Listing members of a group for a payroll: filter by PAYROLL_ID and constrain START_DATE/END_DATE to the processing date. A representative pattern is:

    SELECT g.OBJECT_GROUP_ID, g.SOURCE_ID, g.SOURCE_TYPE, g.START_DATE, g.END_DATE FROM HR.PAY_OBJECT_GROUPS g WHERE g.PAYROLL_ID = :payroll_id AND :effective_date BETWEEN g.START_DATE AND NVL(g.END_DATE, :effective_date);

  • Reporting on period-of-service linkage: join to PER_PERIODS_OF_SERVICE on PERIOD_OF_SERVICE_ID to correlate group membership with service periods.
  • Hierarchy analysis: self-join on PARENT_OBJECT_GROUP_ID to traverse nested object groups.

Related Objects

  • PAY_GROUP_DEFINITIONS — referenced via PAY_OBJECT_GROUPS.GROUP_DEFINITION_ID; supplies the group rule definition.
  • PER_PERIODS_OF_SERVICE — referenced via PAY_OBJECT_GROUPS.PERIOD_OF_SERVICE_ID; supplies period-of-service context.
  • PAY_OBJECT_GROUPS (self) — referenced via PARENT_OBJECT_GROUP_ID for hierarchical grouping.
  • PER_ALL_PEOPLE_F and PER_ALL_ASSIGNMENTS_F — common resolution targets for SOURCE_ID/SOURCE_TYPE values representing people and assignments.
  • PAY_PAYROLL_ACTIONS and PAY_RUN_RESULTS — downstream consumers of payroll-time group membership.