Managing the Individual Retroactive Payroll Process

GENERAL DESCRIPTION: 
This user procedure describes the process for reviewing calculated retroactive
payments to employees and how to adjust incorrectly calculated payments. As
retroactive changes are made to Job Data, the retroactive payment adjustment will be
made on the following on-cycle payroll. Both positive and negative retroactive
adjustments may need to be made.

PROCESS CONSIDERATIONS:
Changes to Job Data will need to be communicated from HR staff to Payroll Coordinators to
know when to anticipate results for review.

 Retro pay will only process a payment for effective dated changes after payment(s) have
been made for pay periods in question. 
 Payment will not be generated for qualifying prior pay periods in which no payment was
originally made to an employee.  In the case where no prior payment was made, the
adjustment will need to be manually calculated. The adjustment details will need to
either be communicated to the Service Center staff for direct entry on the payline or be
entered on the UW Payline Adjustment Page.  
 Additionally, off-cycle payments are not considered by the payroll retro calculation
program.  Retro pay adjustments for off-cycle payments will need to be done manually.
 Every night, the retroactive pay calculation job runs.  This job picks up Job Data changes
that were made that day and triggered retro pay and calculates the amount of pay owed
to/needed back from the employee (viewable in the “Retro Pay Calc Summary” or “Retro
Pay Calculation Results” pages).
 If a zero dollar retro amount is calculated the retro pay will be cancelled by the system.
After that, information about the original request is only visible in the Retro Pay Request
and Trigger Summary.
 Payroll coordinators will have the opportunity to review the results of the retro pay calc
each day following the retro calculation batch job the previous night.  However, the job to
load retro pay to paychecks will only occur on Tuesday nights of a payroll calc week
(assuming a typical payroll calculation cycle schedule).  
NOTE: This means that retro pay will not appear on the Payroll Edit Report or Review
Paycheck until Wednesday of a payroll week. 
 Define retro pay programs.
 •Define earnings for a retro pay program.
 •Define retro pay fields.
 •Define trigger values.
 •Define retro pay trigger programs.
 •Define retro pay cancellation reasons.

Page Definition Name Navigation Usage

Name

Program RETROPAY_PGM_TBL select Set Up HCM, then select Product Describe a retro pay
Table Related, then select Payroll for North America, program and specify
then select Retroactive Payroll, then select paysheet processing
Retro Pay Program, then select Program options.
Table
******PROCEDURE STEPS:

1. Modifications to the following fields in Job Data (Workforce Administration > Job Information >
Job Data) create retro pay requests when the effective date of the change is earlier than, or
equal to, the pay period end date of the last paycheck paid to the employee:
o COMP RATE
o EMPL_STATUS
o COMP_FREQUENCY
o STD_HRS
o STD_HRS_FREQUENCY
o EFFDT
o EFFSEQ
o FLSA_STATUS
NOTE: not all types of changes that trigger retro actually result in a retro pay difference
that needs to be paid to the employee. Additionally, retro pay will not calculate for any
time period in which the employee wasn’t originally paid (i.e. backdated hire dates).

2. New in 9.2 - Changes to an employee’s POSITION (Organizational Development > Position

Management > Add/Update Position Info) that may affect pay (ie. FTE increase/decrease) and
which automatically flow to the Job Data page will now trigger retro pay.  

Retro Pay Request and Trigger Summary

Navigation: Payroll for North America > Retroactive Pay > Process and Review Requests >
Request and Trigger Summary

1. As soon as a retroactive Job Data change is saved, you can immediately review whether or not
retro pay has been triggered by this change on the Retro Pay Request and Trigger Summary.

2. This page will only show you if retro pay has been triggered, but will not show the amount of the
retro pay. 
NOTE: If you navigate to this page immediately after the Job Data change has been saved, and if
retro has been triggered, the record will show in "not processed" status.

3. This page can also be helpful in determining when and why Retro was triggered.

4. Important Fields:
a. Effective Date - This is the effective date of the retroactive job data row.
b. Record Name - Displays the record where the triggering event occurred (JOB).
c. Updated by User - Displays the user ID of the person who made the change that triggered the
retro request.
d. Action Date - The action date is the date that the data was saved, triggering the retro request.
e. Retro Pay Trigger Fields - This grid shows the specific field changes that caused the trigger
event including the old and new values.
Retro Pay Calculation Results

Navigation: Payroll for North America > Retroactive Payroll > Process and Review
Requests > Retro Pay Calculation Results.

The day after the retroactive Job Data change is made, you can view the calculated amount of
retro payEnter the employee’s empl ID on this page. 
NOTE: If the employee has had only one retro pay request, HRS will pull up the
calculated amount for that request. If the employee has had multiple retro pay requests,
a list of those requests will appear. If multiple requests appear, click on the link of the
request you want to view. The date of the request is the same as the effective date of

the retroactive change ma

de in Job Data.

1. Important fields to review on the Update Retro Pay Calc Results page include:
a. Earns Code and Earns Hours fields. Verify retro is calculating on the correct earnings
code(s) and the correct number of hours.
b. Earns Begin Date and Earns End Date fields show the period for which the retro pay is
being calculated
c. Original Value - Earns Amount is the amount paid to the employee prior to the retroactive
Job Data change.
d. New Values - Earns Amount field shows the amount that should have been paid to the
employee due to the retroactive Job Data change.
e. Current Retro Pay Amount is the difference between the Original Values - Earns Amount
and the New Values - Earns Amount and is the amount that will load to the employee’s
paycheck.
f. Retro Pay Process Flag field shows whether the retro pay has loaded to a paycheck or not. 
o "Calculated" status - the retro pay will load to the employee’s next paycheck. 
o "Loaded to Paysheets" status - the pay has been loaded to one of the
employee’s paychecks. This status will appear after the Tuesday night retro pay
load and prior to the payroll confirm of a given calc week.
o "Confirmed Payment" status - the payment has been made on a confirmed
paycheck. 

g. Paycheck Number field displays a hyperlink to the Review Paycheck on which the

retro payment was made. It will only appear if the Process flag is in "Confirmed
payment"

1. If the amount in the Current Retro Pay Amount field is correct and in "Calculated"
status, no further action is required; the pay will load to the employee’s next
paycheck.

2. If the amount in the Current Retro Pay Amount field is not correct, you may do
one of the following to correct the problem:
NOTE: These solutions will only work if the Retro Pay Process Flag is
"Calculated."
o Uncheck the OK to Pay box on the retro pay, and request a payline for the
correct amount from the Service Center (end users with access to the
custom UW Payline Adjustment Page can enter the payline themselves). 
 The payline request deadline is 4:30pm on the Tuesday of any given
standard payroll processing week.

o Override the incorrectly calculated amount with the correct amount.

Manually calculate what the New Values Earnings Amount should be and
enter it into the Earnings Amount Override field. When you save the page,
the Retro Pay Amount field will update with the new amount to pay the
employee. 
  DO NOT enter the actual amount you want to pay the employee in
the Amount Override field – this field is not what will load to the
 employee’s paycheck. The amount that will load to the employee’s
paycheck is always reflected in the Current Retro Pay Amount field.

3.  Retro amounts in "Calculated" status will load to the employee’s paycheck

on Tuesday night of a regular payroll week. After the amounts load to the
employee’s paycheck, the status should flip to "Loaded to Paysheets." You will
not see any calculated retro pay on an employee’s paycheck in Review
Paycheck or on the payroll edit report until after the Tuesday night load. Check
your employee’s pay on Wednesday of the payroll week to ensure the retro pay
has correctly loaded to their check.
o If a Job Data change is made after Tuesday of a payroll week, the retro
pay will load to the employee’s next paycheck and not the current one.
o If you notice that an incorrect retro pay amount has loaded to an
employee’s paycheck, you will need to contact the Service Center for
manual intervention.  Once retro pay has loaded to paysheets, it can no
longer be adjusted/fixed on the Retro Pay Calculation Results page.

Retro Pay Calc Summary Page

Navigation: Payroll for North America > Retroactive Payroll > Process and Review
Requests > Retro Pay Calc Summary

This page only lists the total lump sum amount of retro pay that is scheduled to be paid/has
been paid to the employee

Troubleshooting Retro Issues

1. Why didn’t retro pay load to the employee’s current paycheck?

a.  Was the retroactive Job Data change made after Tuesday of the payroll processing
week? If so, the job that loads the retro pay to the paychecks for the current payroll has
already run. The retro pay should still be in "calculated" status on the Update Retro Pay
 Calc Results page, and should load to the employee’s next paycheck.
b.  There may have been an error on the retro pay calculation.  The retro pay request
may be in an error status, such as "Action Required" which means the system ran into a
problem trying to load the calculated retro pay.  You can check retro calc errors by
navigating to the Retro Pay Calculation Results page and copy/pasting the Retro Pay
Seq# from that page. Then navigate to Payroll for North America > Retroactive
Payroll > Process and Review Requests > Retro Pay Messages. Enter the sequence
number you copied. If an error message appears, this error could have caused the retro
pay to calculate an erroneous amount and/or not even load to the employee’s
paycheck.  If the retro did not load, request a payline from the Service Center to pay it to
the employee (or if you have access to the custom UW Payline Adjustment Page, you
can enter it there for the next period).  

2. Why did retro pay calculate a $0.00 amount?

There may have been an error on the retro pay calculation. You can check retro calc
errors by navigating to the Retro Pay Calculation Results page and copy/pasting the
Retro Pay Seq# from that page. Then navigate to Payroll for North America >
Retroactive Payroll > Process and Review Requests > Retro Pay Messages. Enter
the sequence number you copied. If an error message appears, this error may have
caused the retro pay to calculate the $0.00 amount. This error may also cause the page
not to load to the employee’s paycheck, so overriding the retro pay to the correct amount
might not work. You may need to request a payline be manually entered by the Service
Center (or if you have access to the custom UW Payline Adjustment page, you can enter
the retro pay there).