Setting Backward and Forward Retro Limits

In Global Payroll, you use the Pay Entity Retro Limits page to establish default backward and forward limits for retro processing. These defaults tell the system how far back in time to go to recalculate closed calendars that are associated with a pay entity, and how long after a payee becomes inactive he/she is eligible for retro processing.

To determine how far back in time to go to process retroactivity, the system compares the backward limit defined on the Pay Entity Retro Limits page to the following system dates:

• Trigger Effective Date.

  This date—the effective date of the change that triggers retroactive processing—establishes a theoretical goal for how far back in time to go to recalculate data. When the system determines which periods to process, the backward limit date takes precedence over the trigger effective date. For example, if the trigger effective date is January 1, 1990, and the backward limit date is January 1, 1995, the backward limit date stops all calculations prior to (and including) that date. By contrast, if the backward limit date is January 1, 1990, and the trigger effective date is January 1, 1995, then the trigger effective date establishes the number of periods to recalculate.

• No Retro Processing Before Date.

  This is the date that a payee enters the Global Payroll system. This date takes precedence over the trigger effective date and the backward limit date because no matter what these dates are, there is no historical data to recalculate before the No Retro Processing Before Date.

This diagram illustrates the interaction of the dates used to determine the number of past periods to recalculate.

The Global Payroll system determines the first recalculation period by comparing the trigger effective date to the backward limit date and comparing both dates to the calculation begin date.

The process for determining forward limits is less complex than for backward limits, because the system does not compare trigger effective dates to either the forward limit or the No Retro Processing Before Date. It only needs to determine whether payees are within the forward limits defined on the Pay Entity Retro Limits page. If a payee is within these limits, the system applies the backward limits to determine the number of past periods to recalculate.

For forward limits to apply, a payee must be inactive in all jobs (EMPL_STATUS on the Job record is used to validate the payee's status). A payee is considered inactive if the EMPL_STATUS value is D (deceased), R (retired), T (terminated), V (terminated pension payout), or X (retired-pension administration). If a payee has multiple jobs, the highest effective date of all rows that are returned is used as the inactive date.