When you process a payroll, you run a sequence of processes that each perform an action on the assignments.
The sequence in which you run the processes is critical to the success of processing, as each process uses, and builds upon, the results of the previous process in the sequence. The sequence of the processing is also determined by issues of data integrity. For example, the Pre-Payments process (which prepares the payments according to the payment methods) uses the results of the Payroll Run process (which calculates the gross to net payment).
It is essential for correct payments that the results cannot be changed without also changing the prepayment results. To prevent this from occurring (and for data integrity), Oracle Payroll uses assignment level interlock rules.
The payroll processes (such as Payroll Run and Costing) and action types (such as QuickPay) are classified as Sequenced or Unsequenced. The action classification determines how interlock processing rules are applied.
| Processes and Action Types | Classification | Insert Interlock Rows? |
|---|---|---|
| Payroll Run | Sequenced | No |
| QuickPay | Sequenced | No |
| Reversal | Sequenced | Yes |
| Balance Adjustment | Sequenced | No |
| Balance Initialization | Sequenced | No |
| Pre-Payments | Unsequenced | Yes |
| QP PrePayments | Unsequenced | Yes |
| Ext/Manual Payments | Unsequenced | Yes |
| Magnetic Tape Transfer | Unsequenced | Yes |
| Advance Pay | Sequenced | No |
| Cheque Writer | Unsequenced | Yes |
| Cash | Unsequenced | Yes |
| Costing | Unsequenced | Yes |
| Transfer to GL | Unsequenced | Yes |
| Retropay by Action | Sequenced | No |
| Retropay by Aggregate | Sequenced | No |
These actions exist at the same level and must be processed in strict sequence, for example, Payroll Run before QuickPay. The general rule is that you cannot insert a sequenced action for an assignment if there is another sequenced action in the future, or if there is an incomplete sequenced action in the past.
There are exceptions for Process Reversal and Balance Adjustment. And, there may be specific legislative requirements that have implications for this rule. For more information, see Pay Period Dependent Legislation.
The sequence rule uses the effective date of the payroll action. If there is more than one action with the same effective date, the action sequence number determines the sequence of processing.
You can insert unsequenced actions for an assignment even when there are other assignment actions for that assignment in the future or in the past. For example, you can run the Costing process before or after you run the PrePayments process.
The rules that govern the calculation of tax for employees with multiple assignments vary between legislations, and this determines how the rules for interlocking are applied.
For example, in the UK when you calculate tax, you must take account of all earnings for all assignments in a pay period. For this type of legislation, the interlock rules check the sequence of actions for all assignments and a failure on one assignment in a pay period may be caused by an action that applies to another assignment.
For example, if you process an employee who is on both a monthly and a weekly payroll, you cannot roll back the monthly pay run for that employee if you have subsequently processed and paid them on the weekly payroll. You would have to roll back the payments process for the weekly assignment before you could roll back their monthly payroll action.
In other legislations, for example in the US, each assignment is considered separately and interlock failure for one assignment does not cause failure for any others.
When interlocks are inserted for an assignment action, they lock the action that is being processed. For example, a pre-payment interlock points to the payroll run action to be paid, thus locking the run from being deleted. The existence of a sequenced action prevents the insertion of sequenced actions prior to that action. That is, sequenced actions have to happen in order.
There is one special rule for assignment actions that are marked for retry. If you attempt to retry a Payroll Run or QuickPay action, the system checks there are no sequenced assignment actions marked for retry existing in the past for any assignments (or people, in some legislations) that you are attempting to process.
An assignment action is not inserted if any of the following situations exist:
There is an incomplete sequenced action for the assignment with a date on or before the insertion date
There is a sequenced action for the assignment with any action status, at a date after the insertion date
There is a non removable action at a date after the insertion date
There are two exceptions:
Reversal
Balance Adjustment.
When a reversal or balance adjustment is inserted, the system maintains the action sequence by changing the action sequence numbers for any assignment actions that exist later in the pay period.
An unsequenced assignment action is not inserted if there is an interlock for the assignment action currently being processed from another unsequenced assignment action.
For example, if we had performed a QuickPay followed by a QuickPay Pre-Payment, a subsequent Pre-Payments process would not insert an assignment action/interlock to the QuickPay. This is because the QuickPay Pre-Payment would have inserted an action and an interlock, and Pre-Payments has the same action classification.
This table summarizes the rules for retry and rollback of payroll and assignment actions. For some processes, you cannot roll back actions only for an individual assignment. For example you cannot roll back an individual from the Magnetic Transfer process. This process actually produces the magnetic tape file so you must roll back the whole process, and then redo it.
| Action Type Name | Payroll Action - Retry | Payroll Action - Rollback | Assignment Action - Retry | Assignment Action - Rollback |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Payroll Run | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| QuickPay | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Reversal | No | Yes | No | No |
| Balance Adjustment | No | Yes | No | No |
| Balance Initialization | No | Yes | No | No |
| Purge | Yes | No | No | No |
| Pre-Payments | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| QP PrePayments | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Ext/Manual Payment | No | Yes | No | No |
| Magnetic Tape Transfer | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Cheque Writer | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Cash | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Costing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Transfer to GL | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Advance Pay | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Retropay by Aggregate | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Retropay by Action | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
You cannot roll back a sequenced action if there is a later sequenced action for the assignment, except for Balance Adjustments or Reversals. For example, you cannot roll back a payroll run in one period, if you have already processed another payroll run in the next pay period.
You cannot mark a sequenced action for retry if there is a later sequenced action for the assignment, except for Balance Adjustments or Reversals. However, you can do this if the future action causing the lock is itself marked for retry.
You can retry an unsequenced action if the locking action is itself marked for retry.