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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2025-02-21
Set Up Payroll Register

Set Up Payroll Register

Set up pay components and pay component groups.
This topic provides instructions for setting up a payroll register for these payroll countries:
  • Australia
  • Canada
  • Ireland
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
To help you reconcile your payroll results with impacted data from other areas of Workday or external systems, you can configure payroll register reports that provide:
  • Summaries of worker payroll results.
  • Report on a specific period or balance period for pay groups and organizations.
  • Organization subtotals and totals.
Workday provides a defined framework for payroll register reports that you can configure to display your payroll data. You can generate the payroll register as a:
  • Preformatted PDF that is optimized for readability and printing, through the
    Payroll Register
     task.
  • Custom report, by copying the
    Payroll Register - Report Design
     and the
    Payroll Register for Balance Period - Report Design
     reports.
Workday includes the same information in each output.
Depending on your payroll country, the
Payroll Register
 task is secured to these domains:
  • Reports: Pay Calculation Results for Pay Group (Results) - AUS
     domain in the AUS Payroll functional area.
  • Reports: Pay Calculation Results for Pay Group (Results) - CAN
     domain in the CAN Payroll functional area.
  • Reports: Pay Calculation Results for Pay Group (Results) - IRL
     domain in the IRL Payroll functional area.
  • Reports: Pay Calculation Results for Pay Group (Results) - UK
     domain in the UK Payroll functional area.
  • Reports: Pay Calculation Results for Pay Group (Results) - USA
     domain in the USA Payroll functional area.
  • Worker Data: Payroll (Payroll Input)
     domain in the Core Payroll functional area.
For best performance, Workday recommends running payroll register reports for pay groups of 20,000 or fewer employees.
  1. (Optional) Access the
    Edit Earning
     task to configure how to manage hours on the payroll register subtotals.
    In the
    Related Calculations
     grid, access a related calculation that returns hours.
    From the
    Result Line
     prompt in the
    Hours for Reporting
     section, select to
    Add
     or
    Subtract
     hours from payroll register subtotals.
    You can configure rates to Section 1 of the payroll register. The same pay components will aggregate into 1 payroll result line for scanability.
    Security:
    Set Up: Payroll (Calculations - Payroll Specific)
     domain in the Core Payroll functional area.
  2. Access the
    Maintain Payroll Register Configurations
     task.
    As you complete the task, consider:
    Option
    Description
    Payments Section Name
    Workday automatically displays settled payments in the far right column on the payroll register. Workday automatically displays Payments as the section heading. You can use this field to override the section name. This section displays only when you run the
    Payroll Register
     task for a period.
    Display Negative Values in Black
    Workday automatically displays negative values in red on the PDF version.
    As you complete the
    Sections
     grid, consider:
    Option
    Description
    Section Number
    You can configure 4 sections.
    For the PDF output of the payroll register, each section defines a column on the payroll register.
    Section 4 only displays on the subtotal and grand total pages of the payroll register PDF.
    Name
    Workday populates a recommended name for each section. Examples: Earnings, Taxes, Deductions.
    Group Number
    You can configure 2 groups for each section, except for Section 2, where you can only configure 1 group.
    For the PDF output of the payroll register, each group defines groups of data that display in each column.
    Group Name
    Workday populates a recommended name for each group. Examples: Other Taxable Income, Pre-tax Deductions, Post-tax Deductions.
    Pay Components
    You can select any pay component or pay component group. Workday recommends this configuration:
    • Section 1: Earnings that add to gross with hours and related rate calculations.
    • Section 2: Employee-paid taxes.
    • Section 3: Nontax deductions that reduce net pay.
    • Section 4: Employer-paid benefits and taxes.
    Rates
    You can only display rates in Section 1. Rates are only displayed when you run the
    Payroll Register
     task for a period.
    Wages
    For Section 2 only. On your payroll register PDF reports, you can report wages based on:
    • Either
      Subject Wages
       or
      Taxable Wages
       (CAN or USA)
    • GBR NIable Earnings
       and
      Taxable Pay to Date
       (UK)
    • IRL EE PRSIable Pay
      ,
      IRL ER PRSIable Pay
      ,
      IRL Taxable Pay
      , and
      IRL Taxable Pay to Date
       (IRL)
    You can view wage details at the worker, subtotal, and grand total level based on a pay period or a balance period (year-to-date, quarter-to-date, or month-to-date).
    Security:
    Set Up: Payroll (Reporting)
     domain in the Core Payroll functional area.
Access the
Payroll Register
 task to generate a PDF or Excel payroll register report.
You can further customize the payroll register report by copying these reports and attaching a custom business form layout in Report Designer:
  • Payroll Register - Report Design
  • Payroll Register for Balance Period - Report Design
When using the balance period report, Workday recommends you use the report fields in the data source together rather than using them independently for better performance.