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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2023-06-23
Concept: Payroll Processing Positions (CAN, USA)

Concept: Payroll Processing Positions (CAN, USA)

When you have workers who hold multiple positions, Workday uses 1 position as the default for payroll processing. You can either:
  • Always use the primary position as the payroll processing position.
  • Use a position override. Workday then selects which position to use by comparing the values of attributes that you configure.
Use the
Maintain Payroll Processing Position Rules
 task to specify how you want to determine the default payroll processing position.

What the Default Processing Position Controls

The default processing position:
  • Displays in the header of pay results.
  • Determines the tax authorities used to calculate taxes.
  • Evaluates accounting configuration for labor costs.
When you use the primary position as the default processing position, Workday uses each worker's primary position on all pay results.
When you use position override, and a worker's positions:
  • Are in the same company and pay group, Workday uses the determined position override on a worker's pay result.
  • Are in different companies or pay groups, Workday uses information from each position on the corresponding pay result.

How Workday Determines the Default Processing Position

You select the attributes that you want Workday to consider, and the priority of each. When you calculate payroll, Workday compares the values of each attribute in priority order with the rules in effect at the end of the pay period or subperiod.If the highest-priority attribute is equal for all positions, Workday checks the remaining attributes for a position to use.
Attributes you can select include:
  • Calculated FTE
  • Paid FTE
  • Position entry moment
  • Position start date
  • Scheduled weekly hours
  • Working FTE
Position start date and position entry moment must be the lowest priority attributes.

Position Eligibility

When determining a worker's default processing position, Workday considers positions that were:
  • In the pay group being processed at any time during the pay period.
  • Terminated or ended in an earlier period, but had a pay-through date in the current period.
  • Terminated or ended in an earlier period, but had pay input or a one-time payment in the current period.
When the effective date for position rules falls within a pay period, the rules in effect at the end of the period apply to the entire period. However, if a worker has an event that causes gross-to-net proration before the effective date, Workday applies the previous rules to the subperiod that's before the effective date.

Gross-to-Net Proration (USA)

When the location of a worker's processing position changes during the current period, Workday creates subperiods if the new location is in a different state tax authority. Workday also creates subperiods for retro events in the period where the location change took place.
Workday creates subperiods when a worker's primary position changes locations midperiod, even when it's not the processing position. Doing so enables Workday to prorate the worker's State Unemployment Insurance (SUI) taxes and certain Local Other taxes that follow the primary position location.
Workday doesn't create subperiods when the new location is in the same state tax authority as the previous location.

Retro Payroll Processing

Workday supports retroactive changes to a worker's default processing position, but doesn’t consider these changes as retro events. When a supported retro event occurs, retro processing rederives the worker's processing position with the rules in effect at the end of the retro period.
Workday doesn't support retroactive changes to a worker's processing position that cause a change to the tax authority in the retro period. Examples:
  • Timothy has 2 positions in different tax authorities. You retroactively change a worker's position attribute that's used to determine the processing position when the positions are in different work states.Workday doesn't support retro.
  • Clarice has 2 positions, both in the same tax authority. Their additional position is the default processing position. You retroactively increase the scheduled work hours for Clarice's primary position, so that it becomes the default processing position for the retro period. Workday supports retro because the tax authority didn't change.
Retroactive changes to the default processing position could cause a worker to:
  • Lose eligibility for a pay component that Workday originally processed in the pay period.
  • Gain eligibility for a pay component that Workday didn't originally process.

Payroll Accounting

When you select the position override and have workers with multiple jobs in different companies, Workday:
  • Uses the default organization assignments associated with a worker’s processing position to allocate worktags to the liabilities and net pay lines of the Payroll Actuals journal.
  • Uses a worker’s processing position to evaluate payroll deduction and payroll net pay account posting rules.
  • Uses a worker’s processing position to determine the primary worktag balancing dimension on these transaction types if you have
    Default by Organization
     set as the
    Payroll Balancing Source
    :
    • Payroll Accruals
    • Fringe Benefit Actuals
  • Uses a worker's processing position to determine optional worktag balancing dimensions regardless of the
    Payroll Balancing Source
    .