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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2025-03-14
Concept: Pay Group Lock Status

Concept: Pay Group Lock Status

Workday enables you to lock pay groups so that you can easily audit payroll results without having to recalculate before completing payroll due to worker-based events which cause results to flip to
Requires Re-calculation
.
Regardless of whether you enable or disable the
Lock Pay Groups To Block All Pay Calculations on Payroll Results
check box on the
Edit Tenant Setup - Payroll
task, once you lock a pay group for a current period; you can enter these events, but Workday no longer flips the payroll result status from
In Progress
to
Requires Re-calculation:
  • Add payroll input
  • Flexible payment and deduction options
  • One-time payments
  • Period activity pay
  • Switch primary job
When you enable
Lock Pay Groups To Block All Pay Calculations on Payroll Results
, Workday prevents you from running these tasks on locked pay groups while the current period is
In Progress:
  • Run Pay Calculation
  • Run Pay Cancel
  • Run on Demand Payment for Worker
  • Run Manual Payment
  • Run Off-cycle Pay Calculation
  • Related actions from a pay result > Pay Calculation
  • Payroll Calculation Processing Report
  • Cancel Off-cycle Complete
  • Cancel Off-cycle Complete for Group of Results
  • Prior Period Tax Adjustment on any completed result
  • Reversal on any completed result (AUS, CAN, FRA, UK, USA)
  • Schedule Pay Calculation
  • Run Retro Calculation
  • Schedule Retro Pay Calculation
  • Cancel Retro Complete
  • Run Pay Accounting
  • Run Payroll Fringe Benefits Accounting
Also, you can't complete individual on-cycle results, you can only run pay complete for the entire pay group.
Retroactive Payroll:
When you enter any of these events after you lock a pay group; and you don't recalculate the worker before you complete payroll, then when you run retro pay calculation, Workday processes these events in the next on-cycle pay period:
  • One-time pay input
  • One-time payment
  • Ongoing pay input
  • Period activity pay
When you lock a pay group, however; there are some scenarios where Workday does flip the on-cycle result status to
Requires Re-Calculation
as it's necessary for the accuracy of payroll results. Here are some examples:
Example 1:
Multiple job worker has positions in different pay groups (PG-A and PG-B). When you complete PG-A, this flips the result status in PG-B, even if PG-B is locked.
Example 2:
Single job worker has an on-cycle in their regular run category and an on-cycle in their non-regular run category. When you complete 1 pay result, the other flips to
Requires Re-Calculation
even when the pay group is locked.