Retropay Enhancements for Multiple Payroll Runs in a Period

Idea Lab

Retropay recalculates payroll results when an employee’s details are updated after the original payroll calculation. This enhancement improves how Retropay handles retroactive entries when an employee has multiple payroll runs in the same payroll period, such as a bonus run followed by a regular payroll run.

The enhancement:

  • Prevents duplicate retro entries and unnecessary offset adjustments
  • Improves payroll accuracy and auditability
  • Applies to recurring payroll elements configured to process once per period

Current-period Retropay

In some scenarios, Retropay is run in the same payroll period as an earlier payroll run.

For example, in the payroll period ending 31 August, a customer may:

  • Run a bonus payroll at the start of the period
  • Load time and absence data
  • Run Retropay
  • Run the regular payroll

In this case, Retropay recalculates the bonus run. With this enhancement:

  • Only entries included in the original payroll run are reprocessed. For example, only entries included in the original bonus run are included in the recalculation.
  • Recurring entries for the same payroll period that are loaded after the original payroll run are excluded from that run’s recalculation.
    • For example, applicable time and absence entries loaded after the original August bonus run are excluded from the recalculation of that run. 
    • The original time and absence entries are processed in the regular payroll. No retro entries are created for the earlier bonus run.

This prevents unnecessary retro entries in the same period and reduces the risk of overpayments.

Prior-period Retropay

This enhancement also improves Retropay processing for prior payroll periods with multiple payroll runs.

For example, in the payroll period ending 31 August, an employee has:

  • A bonus run
  • A regular payroll run

When Retropay is run in September, the system recalculates both August runs and generates any retro entries in the September payroll. With this enhancement, the system checks whether an entry was already processed in a later payroll run in the same payroll period.

For example:

  • When recalculating the August bonus run, Retropay identifies an absence entry that was not included in the original bonus run.
  • The system checks whether the absence was processed in the later regular payroll run for August.
  • If the entry was already processed in another run for the same period, no retro or offset entry is created for that entry in September.
  • If the entry was not processed in another run for the same period, a retro entry is created in September.

Reduces the risk of duplicate payments and unnecessary offsets when employees have multiple payroll runs in a period. Improves payroll accuracy, auditability, and data integrity.

Steps to enable and configure

This feature is disabled by default. To enable it, set an effective start date using the Set Late Recurring Retro Entry Earliest Date feature.

NOTE: It's recommended to complete all payroll processing for a period before setting the effective start date.
Choose an effective start date that's later than the date on which this enhancement was applied to your environment. The effective start date is compared with the creation date (submission date) of each payroll run that Retropay reprocesses. Payroll runs submitted before the effective start date use the existing functionality when reprocessed. Payroll runs submitted on or after the effective start date use the new functionality when reprocessed.
For example, after completing all payroll processing for the period ending 31 August, set the effective start date to 1 September, provided this enhancement was applied to your environment before that date. When Retropay reprocesses a payroll run submitted before 1 September, it uses the existing functionality. When it reprocesses a payroll run submitted on or after 1 September, it uses the new functionality.

Here's how you enable it:

  1. Run the Run Feature Upgrade flow for the Set Late Recurring Retro Entry Earliest Date feature.
  2. Enter the date from which Retropay should apply the new functionality in the Effective As-Of Date parameter. Use the YYYY/MM/DD format.
  3. Go to Setup and Maintenance > Tasks panel > Search > Manage Administrator Profile Values.
  4. Search for the Late Recurring Retro Entry Earliest Date profile option (ORA_PAY_STOP_RETRO_RECUR_ENTRY).
  5. Verify that the effective start date was updated correctly. The profile option value is read-only.

NOTE: The effective start date can’t be changed directly because the profile option is read-only. To change the date, submit a service request to Oracle Support.