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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2025-03-14
Examine Pay Anomalies

Examine Pay Anomalies

  • Calculate payroll using the
    Run Pay Calculation
     task.
  • Security: Reports: Pay Calculation Results for Pay Group (Audits)
     domain in the Core Payroll functional area.
The instructions in this topic apply to:
  • Payroll for Australia
  • Payroll for Canada
  • Payroll for the UK
  • Payroll for the U.S.
After you run a payroll calculation, including on-cycle, off-cycle (excluding historical payments), on demand, and recalculations, Workday runs the Pay Anomalies service to analyze all the current in-progress pay results. Pay Anomalies then predicts the confidence level of each pay result being abnormal and warranting further investigation. Where possible, the report attempts to provide a potential reason for identifying a payroll result as an abnormality.
Use the
Pay Anomalies
 report to view the prediction results, including their confidence levels of high, medium, low, or N/A (unable to predict), and mark them as normal or abnormal.
In addition to predicting if payroll results are potentially abnormal, you can use the various facets and any saved searches on the report to search for and triage your results as part of your audit process.
Workday recommends that you don't opt out of the innovation service once you run the Pay Anomalies report to view predictions. Opting out disables the feature and causes data synchronization issues.
  1. Access the
    Pay Anomalies
     report.
  2. Use
    Current Search
     to select 1 or more facets to fine-tune your search results.
    Example: You can use
    Pay Rate Type
    and
    Gross Amount
     facets to search for
    Salaried
     workers' paid
    Over 10,000
    .
    To reuse your search in future searches, click
    Save
    . Workday lists your
    Saved Searches
     at the top of the report. Example: High Salaries
    Saved searches don't persist across different users.
    When using the report for the first time, Workday recommends that you use saved searches to set up 5 to 10 of your most frequently used audits. This helps you easily consolidate your audit results and familiarize with the report.
  3. Review the payroll
    Results
     that Workday displays matching your search criteria.
    Use the arrows at the right of the report to display an overview of why the results are included in the report.
  4. Select the check box next to 1 or more results and click:
    Option
    Description
    View Details
    Workday displays more details for each selected pay anomaly, including links to various areas associated with that result.
    Use the report to search for workers predicted with a higher confidence of abnormality by the model but not detected by the configured audit rules.
    Mark as Abormal
    Workday is more likely to include similar results in future Pay Anomalies reports. Similar results will be assigned a higher confidence level of being abnormal.
    Tag Result
    Select or create tags to label your results into meaningful categories. This provides you the ability to separately tag results without requiring you to mark as normal or abnormal. You can also add comments or analysis you want to include in the
    Comments
     field. Workday recommends that you don't include any Personal Identifiable Information (PII) in this field.
    Use the
    Maintain Pay Anomaly Custom Tags
      to create custom tags and group pay anomalies results together such as:
    Requires manager approval
    , or
    Missing hours
     based on your business needs. Tags can be used to provide feedback for Pay Anomalies. Once you assign a tag to a pay anomaly, you can't delete it. Workday provides a set of common tags. For consistency, it's important to reuse tags. Tags are searchable on the report.
    Security: Reports: Pay Calculation Results for Pay Group (Audits)
     domain in the Core Payroll functional area.
    Mark as Normal
    Workday is less likely to include similar results in future Pay Anomalies reports. Similar results will be assigned a lower confidence level of being abnormal.
    Sync Pay Anomalies
    Select the Pay Anomalies that are out of sync with the latest payroll result. You can see the Sync or Out of Sync status of the pay anomalies on the expanded view of the search results.
    When you click the
    Sync Pay Anomalies
     button, you can view the
    Selected Payroll Results
     count on the
    Sync Pay Anomalies Results
     page. You may notice that the
    Selected Payroll Results
     count might be different from the selected pay anomalies on the facet. This could be due to a worker having multiple payroll results in a pay period .
Use the
Historical Pay Anomalies
 report to view the prediction results for previously completed and current periods, including their confidence levels of high, medium, low, or N/A (unable to predict), and mark them as normal or abnormal.
This report works in the same way as the
Pay Anomalies
 report. When you run the report, you can select 1 or more of these filters to reduce the number of results shown:
  • Period
  • Pay Run Groups
  • Pay Group Details
  • Confidence Level
  • Worker