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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2025-09-19
Setup Considerations: Retroactive Payroll Results

Setup Considerations: Retroactive Payroll Results

You can use this topic to help make decisions when planning your configuration and use of retroactive payroll results. It explains:
  • Why to set them up.
  • How they fit 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 They Are

Retroactive payroll results enable you to iteratively:
  • Review retro results.
  • Pay the calculated differences.
  • Make necessary payroll adjustments.

Business Benefits

Workday helps reduce manual processing and improve payroll efficiency by providing a centralized report that you can use to:
  • Review retro results and understand their impact on workers' regular pay.
  • Take action on those results for 1 or multiple workers at a time.

Use Cases

You can review retro results for workers:
  • With high-value retro differences in earnings or deductions.
  • Who transferred companies in prior periods.
  • With bonuses from pay groups other than their current primary pay group.
  • With negative retro differences.
You can take action on some or all results, such as:
  • Processing them in on- or off-cycle payments.
  • Suspending them when you don't want to process the retro differences in payroll.

Questions to Consider

Questions
Considerations
Which retro results do you want to look at?
The
Retro Calculation Processing Report
 provides filters for common characteristics that you can use to select workers to review. Examples:
  • Retro transaction types such as payroll inputs or retro terminations.
  • Retro statuses such as unsupported or unprocessed events.
  • Earning and deduction difference amounts such as negative or zero net differences.
  • Source of retro differences such as from other pay groups or companies.
  • Worker types such as active or on leave.
After you filter the workers, the subreports provide detailed information to help you make decisions on how to resolve unexpected results. Example: You can analyze differences that retro calculates but doesn't process in the workers' on-cycle payroll in the
Payroll Results Report
.
How do you want to resolve retro differences?
Depending on whether you react to retro results for subsets of workers or a whole pay group, you can use the
Retro Calculation Processing Report
 or dedicated tasks. On the report, you can:
  • Complete retro results and pay the differences as part of the workers' regular on-cycle pay or using on-demand payments.
  • Suspend retro results and bring them back later by canceling them and running retro again.
  • Cancel retro results, and make necessary adjustments before running retro again.
Using dedicated tasks, you can:
  • Cancel or complete retro results for an entire pay group.
  • Move the workers' No Retro Processing Prior To (NRPPT) date to exclude from retro events occurring before that date.
Example: You run retro for a pay group, and some workers have unexpected earning differences. To pay the differences to the other workers in the pay group, you can either:
  • Suspend the unexpected results and complete retro for the pay group. When you run regular payroll, Workday pays the retro differences you didn't suspend.
  • Complete only the expected retro results and pay those differences as off-cycle payments to the corresponding workers.
Do you need to pay retro differences for unprocessed retro events?
For Workday to generate retro results for a supported event, it must occur:
  • After the workers' NRPPT date.
  • In a prior period where there's no unsupported event. When workers have unsupported retro events, Workday moves their NRPPT date to the day after the last period with completed pay results.
If any of these conditions aren't met, Workday assigns the
Unprocessed
 status to the results. Example: You run retro for a bonus effective in a period where the worker has no existing pay results.
You can:
  • Change the effective date of the retro event to fall in a period where the workers have a pay result or after the workers' NRPPT date.
  • Move the NRPPT date in the past so that Workday considers the event. You can't move the date before an unsupported retro event. When you modify a deduction that you processed in retro, set an NRPPT date that's after your edit. Otherwise, you can create a new effective-dated snapshot for the deduction.
  • Run prior period off-cycle payments for the period you want to process in retro to generate pay results.
Do you need to pay retro differences for unsupported retro events?
When workers have an unsupported event, Workday:
  • Doesn't calculate retro differences and advances the workers' NRPPT date to the last completed period plus 1 day.
  • Assigns the
    Unsupported
     status to the results.
  • Doesn't consider any other events, supported or unsupported, in the period processed in retro.
You can enter manual adjustments for unsupported events such as with a payroll input or off-cycle payments.
Workday doesn't consider these changes as retro events:
  • Definition of effective-dated pay components. Example: Changing the pay group detail eligibility.
  • Effective date of compensation changes. Example: Backdating a change to a compensation plan.
To process these changes, you can enter a supported retro event for the worker such as payroll input with a zero amount.
What's your timeline for running retro (CAN, IRL, UK, USA)?
Depending on your retro run timeline in relation to payroll, these retro results can require manual adjustments in the target period:
  • A worker transfers companies, pay groups, or tax authorities after you run retro and before you complete payroll. You can run the
    Retro Results Report
     of the
    Retro Calculation Processing Report
     to identify these results.
  • You create reversals after you run retro and before you run payroll in the current pay period. You can run the
    Reversal Results with Retro
     report to identify these results.
    Payroll for Ireland doesn't support retro result reversals.
Do you need to resolve negative net pay results?
Some retro events can result in negative net pay, such as retro terminations or retro leaves of absence. You can resolve a negative net pay by either:
  • Creating an earning or deduction of the same amount that resolves the pay period to zero net pay.
  • Canceling the retro result and setting the NRPPT date after the termination date.
  • Suspending the retro result.

Recommendations

Review which events you can and can't process in retro in these reports:
  • All Supported Payroll Retro Transaction Types
  • All Unsupported Payroll Retro Transaction Types
Complete or cancel retro payroll calculations for pay groups at the pay group level. Example: Canceling retro results for each worker individually doesn't update the pay group retro pay calculation status to
Not Yet Started
.
When you create off-cycle payments by completing retro results using the
Retro Calculation Processing Report
, create new batch IDs to help track those payments.
After you close the ledger period, don't run the
Cancel Retro Complete
 task to avoid unexpected accounting impacts.
For Payroll for Ireland, Revenue recommends that you don't process retro differences when a retro termination crosses tax years. Workday recommends you suspend the retro result to ensure the values aren't processed in the current tax year.

Requirements

No impact.

Limitations

You can't:
  • Cancel completed retro results by worker.
  • Manage individual retro events from the same retro worker result; you can only do so by worker, subsets of workers, or pay groups. Example: A worker has a compensation change and a spot bonus. To cancel the bonus, you also have to cancel the compensation change.
  • Have more than 1 retro worker result per worker in 1 open retro calculation.
  • Unsuspend completed retro results. You can cancel the completed result and recalculate retro for the workers.

Tenant Setup

No impact.

Security

Configure the
Change No Retro Processing Prior To
 business process and security policy and these domains in the Core Payroll functional area:
Domains
Considerations
Self-Service: My Pay Dashboard
Enables users to configure the
Pay Cycle Command Center
 dashboard to add reports or tasks.
Set Up: Payroll (Reporting)
Enables users to view the lists of supported and unsupported retro events.
Configure these domains in other functional areas:
Domains
Considerations
HCM All Organizations
 in the Staffing functional area
Enables users to run the
Audit - Workers with Multiple Jobs having Different Organization Assignments
 report to identify workers who might require manual payroll adjustments due to multiple jobs.
System Auditing
 in the System functional area
Enables users to run the
View Audit Trail
 report to understand the chain of events for a worker.
Worker Data: Historical Staffing Information
 in the Staffing functional area
Enables users to run the
View Worker History
 report to identify workers who might require manual payroll adjustments due to unsupported retro events.

Business Processes

You can add the
Review Payroll Input by Worker(s)
 action step to the
Pay Cycle Event
 business process to identify payroll inputs that you include in retro results. You can also add
To Do
 steps as reminders to run the:
  • Retro Calculation Processing Report
     to take action on retro results for 1 or more workers.
  • Run Retro Pay Calculation
     and
    Run Retro Pay Complete
     tasks to recalculate and complete retro after you reviewed retro results. You can't add those tasks directly as action steps.
You can use the
Change No Retro Prior To Date
 business process to change a worker's NRPPT date.

Reporting

You can use the
Payroll Retro Worker Results
 report data source to create custom reports on retro payments.
You can use this dashboard and these reports to manage retro results:
Reports or Dashboards
Considerations
Pay Cycle Command Center dashboard
You can add the
Retro Differences
 worklet to the dashboard to gain insights into retro differences in earnings and deductions:
  • Targeted to selected pay periods.
  • Targeted and picked up by a payroll result in selected pay periods.
  • Targeted and not yet picked up by a payroll result in selected pay periods.
You can also add the
Retro Calculation Processing Report
 as a menu item for quick access to its subreports.
Retro Calculation Processing Report
Enables you to:
  • Review and troubleshoot retro results by filtering results using facets.
  • Take action for selected workers, such as complete or cancel results.
All Earnings
 and
All Deductions
 reports
Enables you to identify which pay components you configure to recalculate during retro.
Audit - Workers with Multiple Jobs having Different Organization Assignments
 report
Enables you to identify workers with multiple jobs in different pay groups and companies, which can generate unprocessed retro results. Those results then require manual processing such as with payroll inputs.
Payroll No Retro Processing Prior To Date for Group of Workers
 report
Enables you to view the NRPPT date for workers by pay groups that Workday applies the next time you run retro. This report can help understand why retro doesn't generate results for some supported events.
Reversal Results with Retro
 report (CAN, UK, USA)
Enables you to identify workers with retro differences when you reverse the source or target period after running retro.
View Audit Trail
 report
Enables you to view a chain of events made for workers over a period of time to understand their retro results.
View Payroll Event Categories
 report
Enables you to access the
Payroll Retro Event Categories
 tab to identify the individual payroll event types that retro processes. This report provides more details about retro triggering events. Example: A retro company transfer can include these payroll event types:
  • Change Organization Assignments for Worker
  • Move Worker (By Organization)
  • Move Workers
  • Switch Primary Job
View Worker History
 report
Enables you to view the worker's staffing history to help identify unsupported events that other users might have entered such as a retro company change.

Integrations

You can use these web services:
  • Change No Retro Processing Prior To
    : To change the NRPPT date by worker for multiple workers at a time. Doing so enables you to exclude periods with retro results you can't process, such as because of unsupported retro events.
  • Import Payroll Off-Cycle Payment
    : To pay retro differences through off-cycle payments.

Connections and Touchpoints

Features
Considerations
FLSA calculations (USA)
When retro impacts FLSA adjustments, FLSA pay results don't display until you complete retro and recalculate results.
Off-cycle payments
After you verify the retro results, you can process payment to:
  • Subsets of workers by creating on-demand additional payments with the
    Retro Calculation Processing Report
    .
  • Individual workers by creating on-demand additional or replacement payments with the
    Run On Demand Payment for Worker
     task.
    Payroll for Ireland doesn't support on-demand replacement payments.
For Payroll for the U.S., you can also use these tasks to pay differences as on-demand additional payments from companies that both:
  • Go through a merger.
  • Aren't predecessors of the workers' current primary job company.
On-cycle pay calculation
When you complete regular payroll for a pay group whose retro results aren't all complete, Workday assigns the
Complete with Exceptions
 status to the on-cycle payroll.
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.