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Last Updated: 2026-07-10
Setup Considerations: Payroll Register

Setup Considerations: Payroll Register

This topic provides information for planning the payroll register configuration for these payroll countries:
  • Australia
  • Canada
  • Ireland
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
You can use this topic to help make decisions when planning your configuration and use of payroll register. It explains:
  • Why to set it up.
  • How it fits into the rest of Workday.
  • Downstream impacts and cross-product interactions.
  • Security requirements and business process configurations.
  • Questions and limitations to consider before implementation.
Refer to detailed task instructions for full configuration details.

What It Is

Workday provides you with a configurable framework that enables you to report payroll register as a preformatted PDF. You can produce an output that's optimized for readability and printing.

Business Benefits

The payroll register in Workday enables you to:
  • Configure reports with the latest payroll information.
  • Easily reconcile payroll results to ensure accuracy of your results.
  • Produce summarized results along with granular details, providing flexibility with viewing your data.

Use Cases

You can use the payroll register in Workday to:
  • Analyze worker results for on-cycle and off-cycle payroll.
  • Audit and reconcile payroll results internally or externally, before completing the pay period.
  • Check for errors in payroll results by reconciling accounting journals against bank statements.
  • Help reconcile ledgers for accounting.
  • Provide information to budget for bonuses.
  • Report worker rates and hours for managers to review.
  • Summarize and drill into specific payroll result for one or more periods and pay groups.
  • Understand payroll increase in 1 month compared to previous.
  • Verify adjustments and hours from timekeeping reports.
  • Verify HR data such as hire dates and termination dates.

Questions to Consider

Question
Considerations
How do you want to structure the payroll register report?
You can use the
Maintain Payroll Register Configurations
 task to determine:
  • The group of pay components you want to display on 4 different sections of the payroll register.
  • The names to display for each section and group.
For each section, you can display:
  • Only hours and rates for earnings in section 1.
  • Taxes in section 2.
  • Deductions in section 3.
  • Employer paid for benefits or taxes in section 4.
What detail do you want to include on the payroll register?
You can configure different details to view in the payroll register report based on the configuration of the
Payroll Register
 task. For 1 pay period, the report displays:
  • Payroll period results of any or all statuses.
  • Payment details, such as check or direct deposit.
  • Hours worked.
  • Rates.
  • Wages.
For a balance period, the report displays month-to-date, quarter-to-date, or year-to-date:
  • Pay balance amounts.
  • Payroll results for terminated workers.
  • Pay balance hours.
  • Wages.
Both period and balance period display the employee ID.
Do you want to report on data other than pay components and related calculations?
To display information other than pay components or related calculations, Workday recommends that you create a custom report instead of using the payroll register functionality. You can create a custom report that uses the payroll register configuration by copying these reports and applying a new business form layout:
  • Payroll Register - Report Design
  • Payroll Register for Balance Period - Report Design
Example:
Payment Date
 is included on the
Payroll Register - Report Design
.
In what format do you want to produce your report?
The
Payroll Register
 task produces a formatted PDF report. Workday enables you to generate a limited spreadsheet that's based on predefined pay component groups. When you select a balance period, you can only generate a formatted PDF report.
What payroll period or balance period do you want to report on?
You can report on either a pay period or balance period on the
Payroll Register
 task. To report on multiple pay periods or balance periods, Workday recommends that you use these alternative standard reports:
  • Payroll Register by Period
  • Payroll Register Summary

Recommendations

For best performance, run payroll register reports for pay groups of 20,000 or fewer employees.

Requirements

No impact.

Limitations

On the
Payroll Register
 task, you can't select multiple pay periods. When you select a balance period, you can only generate a formatted PDF report.
Workday Payroll for France doesn't support the
Payroll Register
 task.
You can only create a payroll register configuration that covers 1 country at a time.

Tenant Setup

No impact.

Security

Domains
Considerations
Set Up: Payroll (Reporting)
 in the Core functional area.
Enables you to configure the payroll register spreadsheet and PDF report.
  • Reports: Pay Calculation Results for Pay Group (Results)
     in the country-specific Payroll functional area. Example:
    Reports: Pay Calculation Results for Pay Group (Results) - UK
     in the UK Payroll functional area.
  • Worker Data: Payroll (Payroll Input)
     in the Core Payroll functional area.
Enables you to:
  • Run the
    Payroll Register
     task to produce a spreadsheet or PDF output.
  • Copy the
    Payroll Register for Balance Period - Report Design
     report.
Reports: Pay Calculation Results for Pay Group (Results)
 in the country-specific Payroll functional area. Example:
Reports: Pay Calculation Results for Pay Group (Results) - UK
 in the UK Payroll functional area.
Enables you to copy the
Payroll Register - Report Design
 and
Payroll Register for Balance Period - Report Design
 reports.

Business Processes

You can add the
Payroll Register
 task to the
Pay Cycle Event
 business process to add a reminder to review payroll results before completing the pay cycle.

Reporting

Reports
Considerations
  • Payroll Register - Report Design
  • Payroll Register for Balance Period - Report Design
  • Payroll Register Summary
You can copy these reports to create a custom payroll register. These reports have different report fields that enable you to configure additional payroll result details.
Payroll Register
You can add this report as a menu option on the Pay Cycle Command Center dashboard.

Integrations

No impact.

Connections and Touchpoints

Features
Considerations
Earnings and deductions
You can configure the payroll register based on the earnings and deductions you have set up.
Payroll register spreadsheet
You can use the
Payroll Register
 task to generate a spreadsheet. However, the output is predefined and based on earnings and deductions associated with several
Payroll Register Excel Group
 pay component groups.
Workday offers a Touchpoints Kit with resources to help you understand configuration relationships in your tenant. Learn more about the Workday Touchpoints Kit on Workday Community.

Other Impacts

While not part of the payroll register functionality, Workday delivers other standard payroll register reports that enable you to filter or sort through multiple periods. You can also create a custom report that is configurable based on delivered report fields, but doesn't produce a PDF.