Setup Considerations: Pay Groups

What They Are

Pay groups are organization types that define which workers and pay components to process in payroll and retro payroll calculations, and the payment frequency. You can secure pay groups to roles in your company to control who can configure and run payroll and which workers the role can access.

Business Benefits

Using pay groups reduces manual processing by enabling you to process a set of selected workers in a single payroll or retro payroll run. Workday also provides the flexibility to restrict access to payroll results through configurable security on pay groups.

Use Cases

Define eligibility for the earnings and deductions to calculate for workers from different divisions, departments, companies, or supervisory organizations:

With different period schedules, such as weekly, biweekly, or monthly.

In different countries.

Whose payroll you want different roles in your organization to manage.

Refine calculations by also creating pay groups for subsets of workers such as:

Pre-hires receiving signing bonuses in advance.

Terminated workers receiving post-termination pay.

For Payroll for Canada, France, the UK, and the U.S., workers on unpaid assignments.

For Payroll for Canada, France, the UK, and the U.S., exempt and nonexempt workers across companies.

Select run categories for the pay group to indicate which types of workers to process, such as terminated workers or workers on leave.

Questions to Consider

Questions	Considerations
For Payroll for Canada and the U.S., which jobs do workers have that you process in payroll?	Single-job workers can only belong to 1 pay group. A worker can have multiple pay groups when: They have multiple jobs. They're on an international assignment to the U.S. from a non-Workday payroll system. They can have an external pay group for their home country and a U.S. pay group for the international assignment.
How many pay groups do you want to process in the same payroll run?	When pay groups share the same period schedule and country, you can process them together in pay run groups. When using Workday Payroll features, select those pay run groups instead of the individual pay groups. Example: Configure security for: Payroll partners to process and report on pay run groups only when they have access to all included pay groups. Payroll administrators to access all pay run groups.
How do you want to assign pay groups to workers?	You can assign pay groups: One at a time, using the Assign Pay Group task. For Payroll for Canada and the U.S., you can process workers with multiple jobs. In bulk. For existing employees, you can use the Assign Pay Group web service. Example: Reorganizations, seasonal promotions, or mergers and acquisitions. Automatically when you fill a position. Set up an assignment rule for each pay group, and configure the Assign Pay Group business process as a subprocess of staffing business processes. Example: Hire , Change Job . For Payroll for Australia, the UK, and France, you can assign a worker to only 1 pay group.
How do you want Workday to propose pay groups for workers?	You can set up: Pay group assignment rules based on worker characteristics. Example: Configure rules to assign a pay group automatically based on the worker's company and city. Position restrictions that assign pay groups based on position. Pay group assignment rules supersede pay groups resulting from position assignments. The Assign Pay Group web service doesn't refer to the assignment rules or position restrictions you set up in your tenant. You must submit the pay group for each worker.
For Payroll for Canada, what are the reporting requirements for workers who transfer pay groups?	Workday populates Record of Employment (ROE) data for workers: Whose pay group transfer results in a change in pay frequency or schedule. With insurable earnings for at least 1 pay period. You can create an ROE for those workers by accessing the Create ROE Data for Events task.
Who should have access to which pay groups?	Base your pay groups to the particular roles you want to secure them to. Examples: payroll partner, custom roles. You can assign 1 or more payroll partners to 1 or more pay groups. Payroll administrators can access and manage all pay groups in your organization. Configure security groups to determine who can view the pay groups and their members. You can also create more advanced security groups to combine factors and limit access based on those combinations. Example: Create security groups to grant a finance administrator and a payroll partner access to a pay group.
How many countries are you processing in payroll?	Create 1 pay group per country that you want to process because: Countries determine the default currency in payroll calculations for the pay group. After you run payroll for a pay group, you can't change the country. When you process a company whose currency is different from the pay group currency, Workday uses the default exchange rate.
What's your payroll schedule?	Create 1 pay group per payment frequency, because you can assign only 1 period schedule per pay group and run category. You can select a different: Initial payroll processing period at the pay group level. Example: When you implement Workday Payroll midyear. Payroll processing frequency at the earning or deduction level. Example: To pay biweekly wages based on an annual amount.

Recommendations

For best performance, set up:

Pay group detail eligibility on earnings and deductions when processing multiple pay groups. This configuration enables you to restrict calculations to a subset of workers in the selected pay group.

Pay groups to process 150,000 workers or fewer.

Automatic assignment rules for each pay group.

When loading history as a result of an acquisition, create a pay group for workers paid by the acquired organization. This pay group enables you to keep the workers separate for auditing until you confirm that the loaded data is accurate. After you complete that verification, you can move them to appropriate pay groups in the new organization.

For Payroll for Canada and the U.S., to avoid unexpected results from retro, proration, and Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) calculations when updating pay groups, don't change:

Pay group assignment dates. Instead, rescind the original assignment and reassign the pay group with the new date.

Pay group assignments after opening a period when pay components have a calculation proration method of None of the above
.

Requirements

Understand how to set up configurable security in Workday.

Assign companies to workers.

Limitations

You can't delete pay groups or pay run groups after you include them in a payroll run. You also can't delete or change the period schedule or run categories from those pay groups. You can inactivate pay groups after you move all of their workers to another pay group.

When workers transfer pay groups during a pay period, Workday doesn't apply the worker eligibility criteria used to process a pay component only once per pay period.

Workday doesn't support retroactive pay group changes, or pay group changes for workers with future-dated primary job switches.

To complete or cancel payroll or retro payroll calculations fully for a pay group, do so 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
.

You can't use the same pay group for both Payroll Interface and Workday Payroll. When external pay groups have the

Used in Payroll Interface

check box selected, you can't clear it. To use an external pay group configuration in Workday Payroll, create a new pay group with the check box unchecked.

Payroll for Australia, France, and the UK don't support multiple jobs. When workers have multiple jobs, only assign their primary position to a pay group.

For Payroll for Canada, Workday doesn't calculate Canada ROE for workers transferring to a pay group in the current period.

Tenant Setup

On the

Edit Tenant Setup - Payroll

task, you can enable:

Which countries are available for selection in payroll processing when creating pay groups.

Workday to process retro differences from another pay group in the workers' primary pay group.

Security

You can create role-based security groups (unconstrained). Then you can select the associated roles when creating pay groups to control who can access the related payroll data.

Domains	Considerations
Set Up: Payroll - Pay Group Specific in the Core Payroll functional area.	Enables users to configure: Pay groups. Run categories and period schedules to assign to pay groups.
Set Up: Tenant Setup - Payroll in the System functional area.	Enables users to configure: Automatic pay group assignment rules. Tenant-wide parameters.
Worker Data: Payroll (Pay Group Specific) in the Core Payroll functional area.	Enables users to view workers with a primary work address in a country that differs from the pay group country.

Business Processes

Business Process	Considerations
Assign Pay Group	You can configure this business process as a subprocess of: A staffing business process such as Hire or Change Job . You can view the full list of supported business processes on the Allowed Subprocess For tab. For Payroll for the UK, you can configure the Assign UK Payroll ID subprocess on the Hire business process after the Assign Pay Group step. It ensures that all workers have a Payroll ID. Supported business processes, in any order. Make sure that the pay group assignment doesn't change the workers' organization or position. When you configure automatic pay group assignment rules, you can also add the Review Pay Group Assignment action step to the Assign Pay Group business process. It enables payroll administrators to review the proposed pay group and override it as needed. When you configure the business process to autocomplete the Proposed Pay Group , Workday ignores the review step.
Create Position	When setting up job requisitions for commitments and obligations, configure the Assign Pay Group for Position Restriction subprocess on this business process to: Assign a pay group to a position. Prorate the planned payroll portion of the commitment calculation.

Business Process

Considerations

Assign Pay Group

You can configure this business process as a subprocess of:

A staffing business process such as Hire
or Change Job
. You can view the full list of supported business processes on the

Allowed Subprocess For

tab.

For Payroll for the UK, you can configure the Assign UK Payroll ID
subprocess on the Hire
business process after the Assign Pay Group
step. It ensures that all workers have a Payroll ID.

Supported business processes, in any order. Make sure that the pay group assignment doesn't change the workers' organization or position.

When you configure automatic pay group assignment rules, you can also add the Review Pay Group Assignment
action step to the Assign Pay Group
business process. It enables payroll administrators to review the proposed pay group and override it as needed. When you configure the business process to autocomplete the

Proposed Pay Group

, Workday ignores the review step.

Create Position

When setting up job requisitions for commitments and obligations, configure the Assign Pay Group for Position Restriction
subprocess on this business process to:

Assign a pay group to a position.

Prorate the planned payroll portion of the commitment calculation.

Reporting

Pay results display the pay group that workers belong to at payroll calculation, even when workers switch pay groups after the run.

Reports or Dashboards	Description
Audit - Country Exceptions for Pay Group	View workers with a primary work address in a country that differs from the pay group country.
Job History	View all workers' pay group assignments. You can also view a specific worker's pay group assignments by accessing the job history on their worker profile.
Tenant Analyzer	Verify your pay group configurations against Workday recommendations for best performance by viewing: Gross and net pay accumulations. Number of employees. Period schedules. Run categories. You can also display other statistics by pay groups. Example: The number of results per pay group can indicate run category configurations that don't meet Workday recommendations.
Test Pay Group Automatic Assigned Rule View Pay Groups	Test automatic assignment rules and select them for pay groups.

You can use these report data sources when creating custom reports to report on pay groups:

All Pay Groups

All Pay Group Detail In Progress X Days Before Payment Date

Pay Calculation Retro Result Lines for Pay Group

Pay Calculation Result Summary for Period and Pay Run Group

For Payroll for Australia,

Workers for AUS Pay Groups

For Payroll for France,

Workers for FRA Pay Groups

For Payroll for the UK,

Workers for UK Pay Groups

Integrations

To assign pay groups to multiple workers in 1 operation, use the Assign Pay Group
web service. The web service is the initiating step of the Assign Pay Group
business process, so it triggers the steps and approvals of the existing workflow. To complete the assignments automatically, bypassing the steps and approvals, select

Automatic Processing

on the EIB spreadsheet.

Connections and Touchpoints

Features	Considerations
Accounting	Workday Payroll converts the currency after net pay validation. When you set pay groups and company accounting to different currencies, Workday calculates payroll in the pay group currency and passes the results to accounting in both currencies. The results are then available for reporting.
Continuous payroll calculations	After you enable continuous payroll calculations in your tenant, Workday runs it for all pay groups that have: The In Progress status. Had a full payroll run for the current period. When you enable automatic calculation of initial pay results, Workday runs it only for pay groups that are complete by the scheduled start time.
For Payroll for France, DSN reporting	To ensure appropriate security configurations for DSN reporting, assign the same pay group to all workers from the same establishment.
Financials	You can filter journal lines to search for the ones using a worker's pay group worktag. You can also use pay groups in settlements in: Bank routing rules to determine which source bank accounts issue payroll payments. Filters to limit the settlement run to include payroll payments from 1 pay group.
Payroll inputs	When adding payroll inputs, you can: Use related calculations in a currency other than the pay group currency. Enable Workday to convert the value to the pay group currency.
Payslips	For each pay group, you can configure when to display payslips in employee self-service based on the payment date.
Period schedules Run categories	When configuring pay groups, define which period schedules and run categories to process. A pay group can have multiple run categories, but only 1 regular run category.
Proration	When workers with multiple jobs transfer pay groups or companies, Workday manages proration: With pay component proration instead of gross-to-net proration. By prorating only the position-based pay components, and not the worker-based pay components.
Retro pay calculations	You can configure a tenant-level setting to either: Forward retro differences to the workers' primary pay group. Treat the events as unsupported and process retro differences manually in the original pay group. After you run retro, you can update the target pay group to another based on worker eligibility.
Staffing	You can assign pay groups to workers when managing jobs and positions as part of HCM business processes. You can change the effective date for pay group assignments as part of the Request Worker Start Date Correction task when updating a worker's hire date.
Student	You can identify which pay groups to evaluate in work-study costing for student workers.

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.