Payroll Calendar

The Payroll Calendar separates the payroll processing runs into distinct pay periods and allows you to identify which earnings, deductions and storage bank transactions will take place per pay period.

Employees are selected for processing through a payroll run when the pay cycle code on the function line(s) has been defined in the payroll calendar.

Payroll deductions for the pay period are selected based on the deduction frequency code. When the deduction frequency on the employee's deduction has been included on the payroll calendar pay period that deduction will be taken. The reserved deduction frequency for suspending a deduction '*' does not apply. A suspended deduction will not be calculated.

The storage banks may be controlled using bank cycle codes. When a bank cycle code has not been applied to a storage bank table, that table is considered active. When a bank cycle code has been applied to a storage bank table then that bank cycle code must be defined on the payroll calendar pay period when you want that storage bank to be calculated. Bank cycle control only applies to the accrual and incrementing of storage banks and does not apply to storage bank withdrawals or deposits.

The pay out of accrual earnings banks and the clearing of storage banks is control on each payroll calendar.

Payroll calendar records must be defined to follow the calendar year and not the fiscal year. The first pay period of a year should be YYYY01 and each payroll calendar would be defined sequentially for each successive pay period.

NOTE: The payroll calendar displays the word 'Updated' followed by the actual date the payroll update was run for this pay period. Payroll tracking information per payroll calendar is available on the second screen. Updated payroll calendars cannot be deleted.

Pay Period

• Pay period number - YYYY = digits of current year, PP = 01 for first pay of year, and increment by one for subsequent periods.

In Additions if a pay period entered already exits you are prompted as follows:

Payroll Calendar Already Exists   

Do Payroll Calendar Copy   

• Enter 'N'o to return to the Pay Period field prompt.

• Enter 'Y' es to copy this payroll calendar entry to a special pay period calendar.

If you selected to make a copy of the current payroll calendar:

• EnterPayPeriodSpecial Character [A-Z]

• Enter the special pay period character to use to create this payroll calendar.

Acct Period

The accounting period, in the format YYYYPP, to which any GL entries are to be charged. Entry to this prompt is not required. It is used in the zero and rebuild process to determine the fiscal period range.

Cheque Date

The cheque or deposit date (YYYYMMDD). This is the actual date that appears on the payroll cheques and/or the date that direct deposits will be processed.

Deduction Frequencies

• Enter a list of the deduction frequency codes that are valid for this pay period. Deduction frequency codes are entered without commas or spaces. A maximum 8 deduction frequencies can be defined. Only deduction codes with the frequencies included here will be calculated when this pay period is run.

Bank Cycles

• Enter up to 8 valid bank cycle codes. Storage bank cycle codes are only required if you want to control when a storage bank table will be calculated. The default of a blank storage bank cycle indicates that storage bank is active. The reserved bank cycle code for suspending a storage bank table of '*' if not valid. Suspended storage banks will not be calculated.

Bank Clear

The clearing of storage bank table balances is controlled per payroll calendar period. The bank table balances can be rolled into another storage bank table (the rollover bank must be defined on the storage bank table) or the balance can be simple zeroed out. Limiting of the roll over hours and amounts can be enforced per storage bank table.

Clearing of a storage bank of type 'P'ay does not apply and is invalid.

Storage bank tables to be cleared can be defined using specific storage bank table code, ranges of tables or with the use of the wild card character '?'.

Examples:

NOTE: Pay outs of accrual earnings occurs after a clearing of storage banks. Do not define a storage bank table to be cleared and paid out on the same payroll calendar.

Bank Payout

The automatic pay out of accrual storage bank table earnings is controlled per payroll calendar period. This pay out option will pay out all employees with the storage bank/table defined. Additional options to control accrual pay outs, such as the pay code to be used, including current period accrued earnings etc., are defined per storage bank table. A storage bank table cannot be paid out if the payout pay code has not been defined on the storage bank table or an override Pay out pay code is defined on the payout definition.

Storage bank tables to be paid out can be defined using specific storage bank table code, ranges of tables or with the use of the wild card character '?'.

OLWB – By default employees that are On Leave With Benefits are included when the storage bank is paid out. Enter 'Y' to omit employee's set as On Leave With Benefits OLWB from the bank payout per definition.

PC – Enter an optional override pay code to be used for the storage bank payout. A pay code defined here will override or fill in for the Pay Out Pay code on the Storage Bank Table code.

EXAMPLE:

Bank Table to Table OLWB PC

01 00001 00012 Y 33

Pay out all bank 01 tables from 00001 up to and including table 00012, omit employees On Leave With Benefits and pay out using pay code 33.

Refer to storage bank clearing for further examples.

The Pay cycle Start and End dates form to a set of entries. Each pay cycle must have a start and end dates that truly represents the pay period. For Canadian payrolls, the system will validate the date ranges entered based on the EI table definitions per pay cycle code and inform you of any discrepancy. The system checking also applies to the last pay period entered. In order to add a second pay period that covers the same date range already used, you will need to remove the appropriate pay cycle code from the previous pay period.

Pay Cycles

Enter a pay cycle code to that is valid for this pay period. Employee's function lines that contain this pay cycle code will be eligible for pay on this pay period.

Pay Start Dates

• Enter the pay period starting date as it applies to the corresponding pay cycle code.

Pay End Date

Enter the pay period end date as it applies to the corresponding pay cycle code.

Working Days

• Enter the number of actual working days for the pay period.

Working Days is used by the Temporary Contracts, Contract Termination process and the Days Accrual storage banks only.

Salary Grid

The payroll projection run for commitment accounting will use the hours and rate from the indicated salary grid point for the specific payroll period. The default is always Grid point 1 if values are missing in the salary grid indicated.

OLWB Pay Cycles

Leave this field blank when employees should not be overridden to On Leave With Benefits during the payroll run (only).

• Enter one or up to 8 pay cycles codes. Employees with one of these pay cycle codes on their master function line will be overridden to On Leave With Benefits during the payroll run for this payroll calendar. Employees On Leave With Benefits can be paid by timesheet and can have their deduction arrear without deactivating the employees function line.

Override to Cheque

This field should normally set to 'N'o.

• Enter 'Y' es if you want to override the pay type on the employee master file to produce a cheque for all employees for this pay period run only. This option is a backup to protect customers who use electronic deposit in the event they need to issue cheques to meet payroll deadlines. NOTE: This field value must remain the same for all phases of the payroll stream including the payroll update.

Supplement to Mail

This prompt only applies when earning statements are emailed or created for web viewing.

• Enter up to 8 valid pay cycle codes. Employees with this pay cycle code on their master function line will automatically have 'M' added to the existing Earn Statement field value as defined on the employee's Pay screen. This will cause the creation a mail out version of the earning statement for the employee. The intent of this feature is to facilitate the production of paper earning statements for employees who will not be at their work location during periods of school closure.

Select the Messages icon or press M to access the Earning Statement Messages per pay period screen.

Select the Alternate Days icon or press Alt D to access the Alternate Days per pay period screen.

To view the payroll tracking information for a payroll calendar, select the Pay Tracking icon or <Page Down>.

Earning Statement Message Screen:

Attached to each payroll calendar you can defined any number of Earning Statement messages with a wide range of selection criteria. This option allows you to define, for example, a different message for different pay cycles or occupations codes. Selection is available based on most function line items as well as deduction codes and location codes. Wild carding on the selection is also available. The applicable message per employee will be printed on the employee's User Defined Earning Statement.

The original earning statement message defined under 2,5,3 is still available. That global message would apply if the employee does not meet any of the selection criteria. The individual employee earning statement will be applied, followed by either the applicable calendar message or global message.

Selection Criteria

• Enter the 2-character code to define the field to be used for the selection criteria.  Use look-up for a full list of possible selection criteria.  The selection criteria may be left blank, meaning the message will apply to all employees not already selected.

  • Location Code - LC

  • Cycle Code - CY

  • Pay Code - PC

  • Occupation Code - OC

  • Salary Grid - GR

  • Cost Center - CS

  • Employee Type - ET

  • Pay Type - PT

  • Shift Code - SC

  • Deduction Code - DC

After entering the selection criteria type, you will be prompted for the list of values to be matched against. Enter one or a list of values separated by a comma.  The employee must have this code or item for the employee to have this message applied to their User Defined Earning Statement.  The wild card character '?' can be used. For the Deduction Code selection, the employee must have the deduction code on their master deduction list.

You can have multiple selection criteria and the first one that matches for an employee will be applied to that employee.  If you have a message with no selection criteria as the last one in the screen list, that default message would be applied to any employees that do not match on any of the selection criteria.

Message

• Enter the message that applies for this selection criteria.   Use look-up to access a list of all messages by pay period. You can select and duplicate / load an existing message.

Alternate Working Days Screen:

Attached to each payroll calendar you can define any number of Alternate Working Days with a range of selection criteria. This option allows you to define, for example, a different number of Working Days for different Employee Type codes or Occupations codes. Selection is available based on the most likely function line items. Wild carding on the selection is also available. The Alternate Working Days will override the main calendar Working Days value where applicable.

Where applicable, this Alternate Days option is to be use in conjunction with the Annual Hours / Days field on the Employee Type Code data base.

Selection Criteria

Enter the 2-character code to define the field to be used for the selection criteria. Use look-up for a full list of possible selection criteria. The selection criteria may be left blank, meaning the message will apply to all employees not already selected.

After entering the selection criteria type, you will be prompted for the list of values to be matched against. Enter one or a list of values separated by a comma. The employee must have this code or item for the employee to have these Alternate Working Days applied. The wild card character '?' can be used.

You can have multiple selection criteria and the first one that matches for an employee will be applied to that employee.

Alternate Days

• Enter the Alternate Working Days that applies for this selection criteria.

Payroll Tracking:

Payroll Tracking records the time and date of when each phase of the payroll steam is started as well as when each phase ends, per payroll calendar. The tracking also records the job or log number of each run and how many times each phase is rerun.

A completion marker per payroll phase indicates if the phase completed successfully. A status of 'Y' indicates the phase completed while a status of 'A' indicates that a phase aborted and did not complete successfully.

Note some sort errors do not cause a crash but that is still an error. This type of error cannot be trapped by the payroll tracking so you must still visually check every log for all phases of the payroll.

Payroll tracking information is not stored with a payroll calendar, so if a payroll calendar is deleted the payroll tracking information will not be affected.

As each phase of the payroll stream is submitted the system records the phase under the payroll tracking as submitted. Once the submitted phase beings processing the status of the phase is marked with 'A' and the start date and start time are recorded. When the phase completes successfully the status will be set to 'Y' and the end date and time are recorded.

Should a Payroll Error be encountered during the Earnings Summary phase the payroll tracking will record that with a status of 'E'. A Payroll Error occurs when an employee has negative gross earnings and are not set to arrear. Payroll Errors must be corrected, and the payroll stream must be rerun.

Every time a phase of the payroll is run the payroll tracking information is refreshed based on the new results. Pay periods that have already been updated are ignored by the payroll tracking. The system allows you to rerun the three initial phases of the payroll for pay periods that are already updated but you can never actually Update a payroll more than once.

The Earnings Detail submission screen checks the payroll tracking for any pay runs outstanding. This will warn you in the event the last pay run has not been updated yet. This message is just a warning and will not prevent you from running the Earnings Detail. If you have forgotten to run a Payroll Update, exit the Earnings Detail screen and run the Payroll Update before starting the next payroll run.

NOTE, you should never run the payroll stream for more than one payroll period at a time. The only exception to this is when a month end is run ahead of time to determine the employee's net earnings for calculation of the advance pay.

The Earnings Summary submission screen checks that the Earnings Detail has at least been submitted for running. This check is to prevent you from running the Earnings Summary without first running the Earnings Detail. This check will also help if you accidentally entered the wrong pay period. The Pay Processing submission screen does the same checks on the Earnings Summary run.

The Pay Processing submission screen will also warn you if the Earnings Summary phase contained a Payroll Error. This warning can only be produced if the Earnings Summary phase has completed before the Pay Processing is submitted.

The Payroll Update will not allow you to continue if any of the initial payroll phases did not complete successfully. All three of the initial phases must have a status of 'Y' . The Payroll Update will also confirm, based on the start and end date and times that the three initial phases of the payroll were run in the correct order. This check will ensure that if an initial phase of the payroll was rerun that all subsequence phases are also rerun. The Payroll Update will also warn you that if you have run the initial phases of another payroll run that once the current payroll is Updated, you must rerun the initial phases of the payroll for the secondary period.

As mentioned, before it is not valid to run more than one payroll set at a time without updating. A secondary run of a payroll can only contain accurate year to date balances when all previous runs have been updated. Other errors can also occur when multiple payrolls are run without updating.

DELETE

A Payroll Calendar cannot be deleted once the Payroll Update phase has been run on the payroll calendar.

When the Payroll Calendar to be deleted has entries under the Messages screen and/or the Alternate Days screen, all phases of the Payroll Calendar must be selected for Deletion before the Payroll Calendar entry will be deleted. When you select the Delete Icon on the initial payroll screen, when Messages entries are attached to the payroll calendar, you will be moved to the Message screen where you must select the Delete icon on the Message screen. You will then be moved to the Alternate Days screen, if applicable where once again you must select the Delete icon.

When a Payroll Calendar has been selected to be deleted, and one or more of the initial 3 phases of the payroll stream have been run, the following screen will appear and you will be prompted to continue with the Payroll Calendar deletion with the understanding the process will do a clean up of the temporary information created by running the unwanted payroll phases. The delete process will archive any available payroll reports for the pay period before removing the payroll reports. Any earning statements and temporary work files will be automatically cleaned up. This process does record the payroll tracking details in the Calendar Audit during the deletion.

This auto cleanup of the unwanted payroll information in part supports the option to use a special pay run calendar definition as a secondary work area for selective employees. Thus, allowing multiple payroll clerks to be running the Pay Estimate on a pay period. One may use the main pay period while another may use a special pay period calendar. Running the special pay period with only selective employees also allows for reports to be generated for a selective group of employees. Since this is only temporary and the true payroll run would be used to process the payroll, this special payroll calendar would be deleted, and all unnecessary work information cleaned up.

Report

The payroll calendar report includes prompts for calendar start and end periods. The report also displays which periods have been updated. The default range is for the first pay period to the last pay period in the calendar database. The payroll calendar report will also include the payroll tracking information.

The 17.R Calendar Report includes the option:

Report Alternate Days Entries Only

• Enter 'N' to report all the payroll calendar details for the range of pay periods selected.

• Enter 'Y' to only include the Alternate Days details per payroll calendar, including the default Working Days for the pay period.