HERC: Personnel and Accounting Integrated Data System (PAID)
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Personnel and Accounting Integrated Data System (PAID)

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The Personnel and Accounting Integrated Data System (PAID) features detailed information about individual employees. The data fall in several categories: salary and benefits; education, training, and professional licensure; and job and funding classifications (job function code, fund control point, subaccount, and others). The data are highly confidential. PAID data present both payroll and human resources information at the employee level. For each VA employee, the PAID datasets contain pay period data such as salary, hours worked, and vacation and sick leave. These data are quite detailed; for example, the information on shift differentials are specific to the type of shift differential (nights, weekends, etc.). The data also contain employee-level human resources information such as educational background, years of VA service, birth country, and clinical licensing. The time and leave unit allows each employee to be matched to work unit, the specificity of which varies for different types of employees.

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Using PAID vs. ALBCC

The main difference between the labor information contained in the PAID datasets versus the Account Level Budgeter Cost Center (ALBCC) datasets is the level at which the data is presented (person-level versus labor unit). The PAID data present labor information at the employee level while the ALB data present information at the level of ALBCC. The PAID data also include much more detailed information about the hours worked (e.g., shift differentials) and data about the characteristics of each employee (e.g., hire date, education, age, etc.).

The ALB data provide information on labor hours and cost for each type of labor, tracked at the Budget Object Code level, for each ALBCC. The ALB data provide monthly summaries of the labor allocated to each ALBCC. In addition to containing labor hours and cost information for these different units of labor, the ALB also splits the information into regular hours, overtime hours and vacation, holiday, and sick time.

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Requesting PAID Data

The PAID data are part of the Corporate Data Warehouse (CDW) and can be requested for research projects. First, the project must explicitly state the use of VA PAID data in their IRB protocol. This needs to include a clear description of the intent to access PAID data, including the types of data needed from the PAID domain and why they are necessary for the study.

Then, request the PAID data using the Data Access Request Tracker (DART) process. The DART process will include (1) on the Data Sources page selecting 'CDW Raw Data'; (2) on the CDW Checklist including 'PAID Data' under "CDW Raw" sources; and (3) on the DART research request memo including a description of the specific types of data that will be needed from the PAID domain and the reason why those data are necessary for the study.

Details on the CDW data request process can be found on the VHA Data Portal site at https://vaww.vhadataportal.med.va.gov/Data-Sources/CDW and details on the DART process can be found on the VHA Data Portal site at https://vaww.vhadataportal.med.va.gov/Data-Access/DART-Request-Process. 

Last updated: September 1, 2023