Manage Payroll Definitions

When you create or modify payroll definitions, the Payroll Definition task generates a calendar of payroll periods based on your selections.

The choices you make for the following values determine the resulting schedule of payroll periods.

This option	How it impacts payroll period scheduling
Effective start date	This identifies when the payroll definition is available for person data. The start date must be on or before the earliest date of any historical data that you want to load.
First period end date	This is the end date of the first payroll period that the task generates for the payroll definition.
Number of years	This represents how many years of time periods the task generates, starting from the beginning of the first payroll period, which is determined by the first period end date.
Offsets	Depending on the payroll period type, you can elect for your payroll cycle events to occur on specific dates, or to have the task calculate dates based on offsets from period start or end dates.
Specific date adjustments	Once you generate the payroll time periods, you can further adjust any specific calendar dates, as needed.

For further info, see the following sections.

Effective Start Date

The effective start date is the first date that the payroll definition is available for person data. The start date must be on or before the earliest date of any historical data that you want to load.

For example, for a payroll starting on 01-JAN-2013 with 5 years of historical payroll data to load, you set the start date of the payroll definition to 01-JAN-2008.

The effective start date doesn't affect the generated calendar of payroll periods. The start date for the first payroll period is based on the first period end date.

First Period End Date

The first period end date is the end date of the first payroll period that the task generates for the payroll definition.

The first period end date is typically based on the date of implementation, tax year, benefits enrollments, or a particular payment cycle.

For example, if your weekly payroll work week is Saturday through Friday, and your first payment date is on 06-JAN-2012, you could use 30-DEC-2011 as your first period end date.

Number of Years

The number of years you enter represents how many years of time periods the task generates, starting from the beginning of the first payroll period, which is determined by the first period end date.

This table shows an example for a semimonthly payroll definition.

Effective start date	First period end date	Number of years	Generated time periods
01-JAN-1986	15-JUN-2014	5	01-JUN-2014 to 31-MAY-2018

Once you save the payroll definition, you can later only increase but not reduce its number of years because a calendar of time periods for the payroll was already generated.

Note: The task generates the calendar of payroll periods in increments of 10 or fewer years. For example, if you want a 12-year calendar of payroll periods, you first enter 10 years and submit your changes. Then you edit the payroll definition and change the number of years to 12.

Offsets

Depending on the payroll period type, you can elect for your payroll cycle events to occur on specific dates, or to have the task calculate dates based on offsets from period start or end dates.

Here's the predefined payroll cycle events you can offset.

Date	Meaning
Cutoff Date	Final date that payroll info can be entered for the payroll period.
Payslip Availability Date	Date on which payees can view payslips.
Payroll Run Date	Date the payroll calculation process uses to retrieve effective values, such as employee details. Override this value by specifying a process date when you submit a payroll process.
Date Earned	Date on which the payroll process processes element entries for the payroll run. The date earned must be within the effective dates of the payroll period.
Date Paid	Date the person is marked as paid. This is also the date used for tax purposes. For check payments, this is the date that the check is valid for cash or deposit. For electronic funds transfer (EFT) payments, it's the transfer date and used on the EFT file.

Dynamic Offsets

When creating a payroll definition, you can use dynamic offsets for payroll cycle events. All of the predefined payroll time periods you can use support dynamically generated dates for offsets. Using dynamic offsets, you can offset each payroll cycle event by a specified number days before or after the start or end date.

Offset day types	Offset value	Base date values
Number of calendar days	After	Period End Date

For example, you might want to set the cutoff date 3 work days before the payroll end date. This offset accommodates differences in the number of days in the payroll period and also accounts for weekends and holidays.

Fixed-Date Offsets

The predefined Monthly (Calendar) payroll time period supports using both dynamic offsets and fixed-date offsets. Using fixed dates, you can adjust the exact date of each of the payroll cycle events for the first payroll period. Any adjustments that you make are reflected in the payroll calendar for subsequent payroll time periods.

For example, if you set the cutoff date as the 25th of the month, then all payroll periods in the calendar inherit those offsets.

Specific Date Adjustments

Once you generate the payroll time periods, you can further adjust any specific calendar dates, as needed.

For example, if you know of a particular bank holiday that falls on a payment date, you can adjust the dates manually on the payroll calendar's time period. You can make these adjustments when creating a payroll definition or subsequently, as long as the time period is in the future.

Adjust the dates of an existing time definition on the Time Periods tab on the Payroll Definitions task.