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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2025-09-19
Concept: Off-Cycle Payments

Concept: Off-Cycle Payments

Off-cycle payment transactions occur outside of a regularly scheduled (on-cycle) pay run, and include:
  • Manual payments made to employees outside of Workday Payroll, such as check or cash.
  • On-demand payments that replace or add to an employee's on-cycle payments.
  • Reversals that back out an employee's completed pay calculation.
For Payroll for Canada, the UK, and the U.S., for periods with a forward accrual, Workday doesn’t calculate off-cycle results for on-demand or manual payments.
Payroll for France doesn't support manual payments or reversals.
Payroll for Ireland doesn't support on-demand replacement payments or payment reversals.

Common Uses of Off-Cycle Payments

For Payroll for Canada and the U.S.:
Usage
Manual Payment
On-Demand
Record advance or replacement payments.
X
Make advance or replacement payments.
X
Record third-party payments for sick pay or the exercise of nonqualified stock options.
X
Move taxes from 1 jurisdiction to another.
X
X
Correct payroll errors.
X
X
Record adjustments in the current or prior year.
X
X
Pay terminated workers.
X
Pay retroactive differences calculated by the
Run Retro Pay Calculation
 task.
X
Pay trailing payments for workers when they permanently transfer to another country (only through an additional payment).
X
For Payroll for the UK:
Usage
Manual Payment
On-Demand
Record advance or replacement payments.
X
Make advance or replacement payments.
X
Record third-party payments for the exercise of nonqualified stock options.
X
Correct payroll errors.
X
X
Record adjustments in the current or prior year.
X
X
Pay terminated workers.
X
Pay retroactive differences calculated by the
Run Retro Pay Calculation
 task.
X
Pay trailing payments for workers when they permanently transfer to another country (only through an additional payment).
X
For Payroll for Ireland:
Usage
Manual Payment
On-Demand Additional
Record advance payments.
X
Make advance payments.
X
Record third-party payments for the exercise of nonqualified stock options.
X
Correct payroll errors.
X
X
Record adjustments in the current or prior year.
X
X
Pay terminated workers.
X
Pay retroactive differences calculated by the
Run Retro Pay Calculation
 task.
X
Pay trailing payments for workers when they permanently transfer to another country.
X
For Payroll for France, you can use on-demand payments to:
  • Make advance or replacement payments.
  • Correct payroll errors.
  • Pay terminated workers.
  • Record adjustments in the current or prior year.
  • Pay retroactive differences calculated by the
    Run Retro Pay Calculation
     task.

Replacement Payments and Additional Payments

For Payroll for Canada, France, the UK, and the U.S., off-cycle payments enable you to:
  • Replace the on-cycle payment for a period or subperiod that's
    In Progress
     or
    Not Yet Started
    .
  • Replace the on-cycle payment for a worker that has no regular payment for the period. When the pay period has subperiods, you can run on-demand replacement payments only for subperiods where the worker is eligible. Example: When the worker is inactive for a subperiod, you can't run an on-demand replacement payment for that subperiod.
  • Enter an additional payment made separately from the on-cycle payment.
For Payroll for Ireland, off-cycle payments enable you to enter an additional payment made separately from the on-cycle payment.
For Payroll for Canada, the UK, and the U.S., you can only run trailing payments for single-job workers and pay them in their current position. Workday doesn't support trailing payments for workers who:
  • Are on international assignment.
  • Had multiple jobs in prior periods.
Workday applies the tax of the original country to trailing payments.
Workday tracks on-cycle, off-cycle, and retro usage of payroll inputs. Workday doesn't pull one-time inputs into payroll processing multiple times for a worker within a pay period.

Taxes and Other Automatically Calculated Pay Components

Workday automatically calculates these pay components for off-cycle payments:
For Payroll for Australia, Canada, and the U.S.:
Payment Type
Statutory Employer Taxes
Statutory Employee Taxes
Withholding Order Fees
One-Time Payments from Workday Compensation
Other Earnings and Deductions
On demand - additional
X
X
X
On demand - replacement
X
X
X
X
X (active employees only)
Manual - additional
X
Manual - replacement
X
For Payroll for the UK:
Payment Type
Statutory Employer Taxes
Statutory Employee Taxes
Court Order Fees
One-Time Payments from Workday Compensation
Other Earnings and Deductions
On demand - additional
X
X
X
X
On demand - replacement
X
X
X
X (active employees only)
Manual - additional
X
Manual - replacement
X
For Payroll for Ireland:
Payment Type
Statutory Employer Taxes
Statutory Employee Taxes
One-Time Payments from Workday Compensation
Other Earnings and Deductions
On demand - additional
X
X
X
X
Manual - additional
X
X
For Payroll for Australia, Canada, the UK, and the U.S., on-demand replacement payments for active workers include the employee's other earnings and deductions that you would have included in the original on-cycle payment.
  • For Payroll for Canada and the U.S., withholding order fees apply only when processing withholding orders.
  • For Payroll for the UK, court order fees apply only when processing court orders.
For Payroll for Australia, Canada, France, the UK, and the U.S., on-demand replacement payments for active workers include the employee's other earnings and deductions that you would have included in the original on-cycle payment.
For on-demand payments, you can use the run category associated with the worker's pay group to configure Workday to calculate pay components automatically based on:
  • A worker's status (
    Active
    ,
    Terminated
    ,
    On Leave
    ).
  • Other conditions.
For Payroll for France, Workday calculates withholding orders for on-demand replacement payments and on-demand additional payments.

Processing Rules for Off-Cycle Payments

An employee can have multiple consecutive off-cycle payments for the same period or subperiod, and pay group. These rules apply:
  • Only 1 manual payment and 1 on-demand payment can be in progress at a time. If you have an existing off-cycle payment, complete it before running another off-cycle payment.
  • Calculate and complete off-cycle payments 1 at a time.
  • Complete off-cycle additional payments for a period or subperiod before completing on-cycle calculations for that period.
  • When you complete retro for a retro hire in a subperiod, Workday creates a zero pay result for the subperiod. Therefore, you can't run an on-demand replacement payment for that subperiod.

Example: On-Demand Replacement Payments for Terminated and Rehired Workers (AUS, CAN, FRA, UK, USA)

The pay period is from January 1 to January 31. Jake is a short-term contract worker that you terminate, rehire, and terminate again in the same month.
Because you can have only 1 on-demand replacement payment in progress at a time, follow this specific sequence:
  1. Terminate Jake on January 5. Workday creates the first subperiod from January 1 to January 5.
  2. Run and complete an on-demand replacement payment for that subperiod.
  3. Rehire Jake on January 10.
  4. Terminate Jake again on January 16. Workday creates another subperiod from January 10 to January 16.
  5. Run and complete an on-demand replacement payment for that second subperiod.
You can't run an on-demand replacement payment for the subperiod from January 5 to January 10 when Jake is inactive.