Corrective Actions for Payments

Once you determine the cause of the error and status of the process, you can choose the best corrective action to take.

Void a Payment

Void a payment simply updates the payment status of the record to Void and doesn't reverse or delete any payment calculation information.

The most common reasons you would void a payment would be:

  • A check/cheque payment that was lost, stolen, or destroyed.

    Tip: Unless the check/cheque is in your possession, contact the bank that holds the source account to stop payment on the check/cheque.
  • An electronic funds transfer (EFT) payment was sent to a bank account that's now closed.

To void and reissue a payment:

  1. Select the Void Payment action from the drop down on Person Process Results or Person Results page for the payment.

  2. Reissue the payment in the next payment run.

    Once you have voided a payment, the application reissues it automatically the next time you run the payments process for the same payment type, payment method, and payment date as the voided payment.

Reverse Payroll Calculations

You can reverse a payroll calculation after generating a payment. The reversal process generates a negative run result to offset the original run result, and maintains an audit trail. The reversal doesn't affect the payment itself, only the payroll run results and costing results. This is different from the Roll Back action performed when a payment wasn't issued.

The most common reason to reverse a payroll calculation is to adjust a payroll overpayment. For example, your payroll department isn’t notified that an employee is leaving the company and continues making payments after their termination date.

You can a reverse a payroll within the same period the payment was generated. You can also reverse a payroll from a previous payroll period, before or after processing the payroll for the current period.

To reverse the payroll run results and costing results you can either:

  • Select the Reversal action from the Person Process Results or Person Results page to reverse the calculation for an individual employee.
  • Submit the Reverse Payroll Calculation process from the Submit a Flow task to reverse the payroll calculation for a group of employees, based on the parameters you select.
Note: Only use reversals to correct payroll calculations after a payment has been issued to the employee. If a payment hasn't been issued to the employee, rollback the payroll run and perform any necessary corrections.
When you submit a reversal, you can control whether the next prepayments process, which covers the date of the reversal, includes the negative net pay value, as shown in this table.
Note: Don't reverse the calculation between running prepayments and running the payment process because the process will still issue payment.

Include or Exclude the Pay Value in the Next Prepayments Process

Scenario

You Reverse

Negative Net Pay Option Selected

Result

Payslips

On April 30 you incorrectly pay a temporary employee for the hours of another employee.

The temporary employee agrees to have the overpayment deducted from the next pay check/cheque.

Temporary employee's payment in the May payroll run.

Include in Pay.

Next prepayments run that includes the reversal date reduces the temporary employee's payment.

A payslip will be generated for the original payroll run and the reversed payroll run.

An employee terminates on April 30, but the information isn't communicated to the payroll department.

The employee contacts the payroll department, informs the payroll manager of the overpayment, and returns the check/cheque.

Employee's April payroll run using the same process date for the reversal as you did for the payroll run.

Exclude from Pay.

Next prepayments run that includes the reversal date doesn't reduce the employee's payment.

A payslip will be generated for the original payroll run only.

Error Prevents Process from Completing

When an error prevents the payroll calculation or payment generation process form successfully completing, correct the underlying data. Depending on the status of the process, the standard payroll actions, Mark for Retry and Retry are available for you to use.

Incorrect Results

When a process completes successfully but the results are incorrect, use the Roll Back action to negate the results of the process and leave no audit trail. This effectively lets you start over with no trace of the action.

Note: Once the process issues a payment, you can't roll it back.

Corrective Actions in Reports

Some reports, such as the Periodic Payroll Activity and Payroll Register, include a submission parameter for Balances Reported. This parameter determines whether the report includes payment and nonpayment balances for reversals and balance adjustments. For example, you might process a reversal and include the negative net payment in the next prepayments process. You submit the Payroll Register report and select the option to include payment balances only. Use this report to review payroll results and compare balances with other reports you have run.

Note: For some tasks that generate files, such as reports, checks/cheques, and EFT payments, you can retry or roll back the entire task but not individual results.