Search Results hr_ben_benefit_contributions




Overview
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Overview

HR_BEN_BENEFIT_CONTRIBUTIONS is an Oracle EBS Applications (APPS) PL/SQL package body that supports the Oracle Advanced Benefits (OAB) module by managing the linkage between benefit offerings and the Oracle Payroll element infrastructure. Its central responsibility is to validate and register the payroll element types that represent employee and employer benefit contributions, ensuring that each benefit plan's cost definition is uniquely and correctly mapped to a payroll element before payroll processing can occur.

The package is classified as OTHER, meaning it is an internal utility rather than a public, versioned API. It was originally shipped under the header pebenpbc.pkb (version 115.1, dated 1999), reflecting its long-standing role in the Benefits-to-Payroll integration layer. In EBS 12.1.1 and 12.2.2 it remains part of the APPS schema and is referenced by one dependent package, indicating that other Benefits validation routines rely on its duplicate-detection and element-linkage logic.

Key Procedures and Functions

The documented package exposes four procedures and functions:

  • HR_BEN_CHK_DUPLICATE_CONT — Determines whether a benefit contribution record already exists for a given element type, coverage type, business group, and date range. It opens a cursor against BEN_BENEFIT_CONTRIBUTIONS_F, excludes the current contribution ID, and tests for overlap on effective start and end dates. When a match is found it issues HR_UTILITY.SET_MESSAGE with HR_13107_BEN_DUPLICATE_CONT and calls HR_UTILITY.RAISE_ERROR, preventing redundant contribution definitions from being saved.
  • HR_BEN_BENEFIT_CONTRIBUTION_ID — Retrieves the surrogate key value from the sequence that generates primary keys for the BEN_BENEFIT_CONTRIBUTIONS table. This is the routine most closely associated with the user search term "get_element," since it supplies the identifier used when building payroll element associations for a contribution.
  • HR_BEN_CHK_FUTURE_CONTS — Validates future-dated contribution rows, guarding against the creation of contribution records whose effective dates fall beyond the permitted window or conflict with planned element entries.
  • HR_BEN_REF_CHK — Performs referential validation across the benefit contribution definition, confirming that the referenced element type, element link, and input values exist and are consistent before the record is committed.

Tables Accessed

The package reads and writes the Benefits contribution tables BEN_BENEFIT_CONTRIBUTIONS_F and BEN_BENEFIT_CONTRIBUTIONS_S, which hold the dated contribution definitions and their secondary/translated attributes. On the Payroll side it queries PAY_ELEMENT_TYPES_F to confirm the contribution element type, PAY_ELEMENT_LINKS_F to verify that the element is linked to the appropriate payroll, PAY_ELEMENT_ENTRIES_F and PAY_ELEMENT_ENTRY_VALUES_F to reconcile actual payroll entry data, and PAY_INPUT_VALUES_F to validate input value definitions used by the contribution element. DUAL is used for single-row sequence and lookup operations. All access is through APPS synonyms.

Usage Notes

HR_BEN_BENEFIT_CONTRIBUTIONS is invoked indirectly rather than through direct user navigation. It is most commonly called from the Oracle Advanced Benefits setup forms when a user defines or updates a benefit plan's contribution, from Benefits concurrent programs that generate or maintain contribution records in bulk, and from the dependent Benefits package noted in the ETRM metadata. Custom extensions should not call the package directly unless they are extending Benefits setup, because the routines assume the caller has already established the HR_UTILITY message stack and the correct business group context. Error conditions are surfaced through HR_UTILITY.SET_MESSAGE and HR_UTILITY.RAISE_ERROR, so callers must include standard error-handling to capture and translate HR_13107_BEN_DUPLICATE_CONT and related messages. Because the package writes to the _F and _S tables, any customization must respect the DateTrack effective-dating conventions used throughout Oracle HRMS and Payroll.