Payroll Definitions

Payroll definitions contain calendar and offset info, which determine when to calculate and cost payments.

Here's what's involved with defining payrolls.

What you want to do	How you do it
Choose a payroll period type	Payroll period types determine the interval at which you pay employees and retirees, such as weekly, biweekly, or semimonthly. Create at least one payroll definition for each payroll period type that you use to pay people. For example, to pay employees semimonthly, create a payroll definition using the semimonthly payroll period type, ensuring that tax calculations and other calculations produce correct results for those employees.
Create payroll definitions	When you create a payroll definition, the task generates the complete payroll schedule based on: Selected payroll period type Any offsets or calendar adjustments Number of years A common scenario for creating a payroll definition is to replace one that's expired or end-dated. Before you can create a payroll definition, you must have defined the legislative data group (LDG) and the consolidation group. To create a payroll definition: From My Client Groups, click Payroll. Click Payroll Definitions. Click Create. Select your US LDG, and click Continue. Enter the following in Basic Details. Name Each payroll in the schedule must have a unique name. Consolidation Group The payroll process requires each payroll to belong to a consolidation group. Period Type First Period End Date Default Payment Method Expand Calculation Default Values. Under Calculation Default Values, don't provide values in Use Information Hours From and Threshold Basis. Any values you enter are ignored. If needed, select an overtime period override. This defines the starting date and length of the overtime period used in the calculation of overtime. Select a premium calculation rate, if required. This determines if the payroll process uses the blended rate or the higher of the blended or normal rate for overtime calculations. Click Add Row in Valid Payment Methods, and add one or more organization payment methods (OPMs) that are valid for this payroll. You can select any OPM defined for the LDG that's linked to this payroll definition. The default payment method is Check. Click Next. Provide the required info on the Payroll Offsets page, including: Number of years for this calendar For further info, see Define the Payroll Definitions for the US in the Help Center. Any date configurations Review the info on the Payroll Calendar page. Provide the suspense and default accounts on the Costing of Payroll page. Review summary info on the Payroll Review page. Click Submit.
Assign people to payrolls	After you have saved a payroll definition, assign employees and retirees to it. From My Client Groups, click Show More. Under Payroll, click Payroll Relationships. Search for the person, and add them to a payroll definitions. You can use HCM Data Loader to assign multiple employees.
Modify a payroll definition	When you modify a payroll definition, the task adjusts the payroll schedule based on the values you have modified. A common scenario for modifying an existing payroll definition is to increase the number of years and generate more payroll time periods that extend the payroll calendar. Note: You can extend the payroll calendar by increments of 10 or fewer years. The names of the payrolls in the payroll schedule are unique. You can edit the generated payroll names, but you must ensure they're unique within the payroll definition.