Setup Considerations: Continuous Payroll Calculation
You can use this topic to help make decisions when planning your configuration and use of continuous payroll calculation. 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
You can automate the calculation of on-cycle payroll for regular run categories. The calculation runs every 5 minutes, updating workers' pay results as pay-impacting events occur. Continuous payroll calculation processes the same pay-impacting events as the smart calculation feature, and workers with these pay result statuses:
- Requires Recalculation
- Requires Recalculation Due to Retro
- Waiting to Pick up Retro Difference
Business Benefits
- You can run manual calculations less often and they’ll take less time to process, streamlining payroll processing.
- You don't have to wait for a batch calculation to see current pay results.
- By running smaller calculation jobs, you can free up processing resources for other jobs.
- You can reduce the time it takes to prepare for period-end audits.
Use Cases
Keep workers' payroll results up to date throughout the pay period as pay-impacting events occur.
Questions to Consider
Question | Consideration |
|---|---|
Do you run smart calculation frequently during the period? | If yes, consider enabling continuous payroll calculation. It processes the same pay-impacting events as smart calculation, so you don't need to run smart calculation to keep pay results updated. |
Do you receive integrations during working hours? | If yes, consider the impact of continuous calculations on other payroll tasks. While continuous payroll calculation processes the integration, Workday:
|
Do you use pay run groups, or have many pay groups with the same period schedule? | When you enable auto calculation of initial pay results, Workday runs the initial calculation only for pay groups that are complete by the scheduled start time.
You can run a smart calculation to start the period for any pay groups that you complete later. |
Do you need time after the last calculation each period to do final audits? | You can:
|
Recommendations
- When you want to stop a calculation, pause the pay groups that are in progress and let the current run finish. Aborting a continuous calculation job could cause errors in accounting and future payroll calculations.
- To prevent continuous calculation from processing a worker, put the worker's pay result onHold.
- When you need to restart calculations after the automatic stop time has passed, use theUpdate Continuous Payroll Calculation Statusreport.
Requirements
Run a full payroll calculation at period end to capture configuration changes and to pick up workers who don't yet have pay results.
Limitations
The continuous payroll calculation job:
- Processes only workers and pay components from regular run categories. You'll need to run payroll calculations manually for nonregular run categories.
- Processes only worker-based events. It doesn't process configuration changes or Workday maintenance updates.
- Omits workers with no pay results for the period, unless it finds a pay-impacting event for the worker.
Tenant Setup
Use the
Edit Tenant Setup - Payroll
task to enable continuous payroll calculation in your tenant. Security
Domain | Considerations |
|---|---|
Set Up: Tenant Setup - Payroll in the System functional area. | Users secured to this domain can enable continuous payroll calculation. |
Set Up: Payroll - Pay Group Specific in the Core Payroll functional area. | Users secured to this domain can access the Edit Period Schedule task to schedule when to automatically:
|
| Users secured to any of these domains can access the Continuous Payroll Calculation Pipeline report to view workers with unprocessed events. |
Process: Run Batch Calculations (Pay Calculation) in the Core Payroll functional area. | Users secured to this domain can access the:
|
Business Processes
If you use the
Pay Cycle Event
business process, evaluate how it fits with continuous payroll calculation. You can't initiate the business process for a pay group and period after continuous calculation creates on-cycle pay results.Reporting
Reports or Dashboards | Considerations |
|---|---|
Update Continuous Payroll Calculation Status
| You can use the report to:
|
Continuous Payroll Calculation Pipeline
| Use to see how many workers and events are waiting to be recalculated, before you pause continuous payroll calculations for your final audit. |
Integrations
You can use the
Put Period Schedule
web service to mass upload initial calculation and automatic stop settings for continuous calculation. Connections and Touchpoints
Features | Considerations |
|---|---|
Enterprise Interface Builder (EIB) integrations | You don't have to pause continuous calculations while EIB data uploads. Continuous payroll calculation processes time entries and other payroll inputs as Workday receives the data. |
Process Monitor for Continuous Payroll report | Workday processes accounting updates as part of the continuous calculation job. You won't see a separate accounting job. |
Period Schedules | As part of the period schedule, you can configure Workday to automatically:
|
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
As soon as you enable continuous payroll calculation in your tenant, Workday begins launching the continuous calculation job for all pay groups that have:
- The statusIn Progress.
- Had a full calculation run for the current period.