Understanding Pay Calculation Parameters

This topic discusses:

  • Pay run ID.

  • Only Calculate Where Needed.

  • Continue with Errors.

The pay calculation is driven by the pay run IDs that you use to group pay groups together for payroll processing.

These are general guidelines for using pay run IDs:

  • Pay calendar entries that share a pay run ID have the same pay end date, but not necessarily the same pay frequency.

  • All pay groups processed under the same pay run ID must have the same Continue with Errors processing setup.

  • Set up different pay run IDs each pay period end date on the Pay Calendar Table page.

  • The pay run ID should be identical for the Paysheet Creation COBOL SQL process (PSPPYBLD), the Pay Calculation COBOL SQL process (PSPPYRUN), and the Pay Confirmation COBOL SQL process (PSPCNFRM)

When you run pay calculation with the Only Calculate Where Needed option selected, the system recalculates employees for whom there are changes since the last pay calculation in the following records:

  • Paysheet.

  • Additional pay.

  • Personal data.

  • Employment data.

  • Job (if Job pay is selected).

  • Job earnings distribution.

  • Federal, state, or local tax data.

  • Garnishment rule, schedule, or specification.

  • General deductions.

  • Health benefit.

  • Disability benefit.

  • Flexible spending account (FSA) benefit.

  • Life benefit.

  • Pension benefit.

  • Retirement benefit.

  • Savings benefit.

  • Vacation benefit.

  • Beneficiaries.

  • Canada federal or provincial tax data.

After your system is set up to continue with errors, follow these payroll calculation steps:

  1. Run preliminary calculations and correct errors as many times as needed.

  2. Recalculate with (Re)Calculate All Checks selected prior to the final calculation.

    If there are unresolved, untransferable errors, the system does not transfer any paysheets for the entire pay run ID.

  3. Run the final calculation, selecting Transfer Calc Errors.

    The Pay Calculation process moves paysheets that are flagged with bypassed messages from active paysheets to an off-cycle calendar. The system deselects the OK To Pay option on both the original paysheet and the new transferred paysheet. You must correct the error and select OK to Pay then process the additional payroll.

    Warning! After paysheets are transferred to an off-cycle calendar, do not recalculate the paysheets because the system will see that there are employees who are missing and recreate them, and error conditions will occur again.

  4. View a list of employees who were bypassed on the Employees Not Processed in Current Payroll report (PAY010).

  5. Process paysheets that were transferred to an off-cycle paysheet because of Continue With Errors so that they are confirmed before the next on-cycle payroll.

    If you selected the Off-Cycle Calendar option on the Pay Calendar Table - Pay Confirm Options page, you must process the pay calculation for the transferred paysheets using the run parameters on the left side of the run control page. If you did not select the Off-Cycle Calendar option, the system assumes that you are linking the transferred paysheets to an existing off-cycle paysheet that is linked to an on-cycle calendar.

    Note: There are payroll tax deposit issues to consider if you do not confirm the off-cycle paysheets with the on-cycle payroll (especially if this is the last payroll of the current quarter or the check date remains the same as the rest of the payroll).