Setup Considerations: Payroll Run Categories

Run categories define which workers and pay components to process in payroll and retro payroll calculations.

When you create a pay group, you indicate which run categories and period schedules are available for payroll calculations. For each pay group, you define 1 run category for regular payroll, but you can set up additional run categories for nonregular payroll. Example: Configure separate run categories for regular and bonus payroll calculations.

Run categories provide control over who and what to pay in a payroll calculation, while saving you the time and effort of manually entering what to pay each worker. They’re a key component to payroll processing. You must create at least 1 run category to process payroll in Workday.

You can also use run categories to manage the performance of nonregular payroll calculations. Example: For bonuses that impact only a subset of employees, create a separate run category to only process the impacted workers.

Use run categories to indicate which types of workers to process in payroll. Examples:

Active workers with payroll inputs.
Terminated workers with retro differences or retro events.

Include multiple types of workers in the same run category, and then define what to pay each type of worker.

Examples:

Regular payroll for workers who are active, terminated, or on leave.
Severance pay or vacation payouts for eligible terminated workers (CAN, FRA, IRL, UK, USA).
Short-term disability for eligible workers on leave (CAN, FRA, IRL, UK, USA).
Benefit and retirement deductions for workers on leave (CAN, FRA, IRL, UK, USA).
Retirement deductions for bonus payments (CAN, FRA, IRL, UK, USA).
Termination payments including unused leave for eligible terminated workers (AUS).
Worker's Compensation payments for eligible workers on leave (AUS).
Superannuation or other payments for workers on leave (AUS).
Superannuation salary sacrifice deductions for bonus payments (AUS).

Question	Considerations
Who do you want to process?	For nonregular payroll, you can maximize payroll calculations by only processing the impacted employee groups.
Do you need to automatically calculate any additional pay components with bonuses or intermittent payments?	If yes, configure the Off Cycle (On Demand Additional, Manual) tab to support on-demand additional pay. For Payroll for the U.S., if you regularly have a large number of bonuses to process with supplemental tax rates, consider creating a separate nonregular run category and selecting the Non Regular Taxation option. You can then process the bonuses as on-cycle payroll.
What pay components do you need to process for terminated workers or workers on leave?	Include any pay components for terminated workers or workers on leave on the Nonactive (On Cycle, On Demand Replacement) tab. Workday automatically processes several pay components for non-active workers. Examples: Retro differences, one-time payroll input.
How do you want to handle recurring payments on a schedule different from your regular payroll? Example: Quarterly bonuses.	You can create a separate run category to use with a different period schedule.
How do you want to handle recurring payments that require separate checks or deposits, without processing them as on-demand additional payments?	Set up a separate run category for each separate recurring payment.
What kinds of payment elections do you want to offer your employees?	Define different payment elections for each run category that the worker is associated with.

Use the most specific payroll processing status that applies when identifying workers to process, to produce better performance than a generic status with selection criteria. Example: On Leave with One-Time Payroll Input.

Understand how Workday applies processing statuses to workers. Example: When a worker is active on the period start date but terminated midperiod, Workday processes them as an active worker. See Reference: Payroll Processing Statuses for Run Categories.

No impact.

Users secured to the

Set Up: Payroll - Pay Group Specific

domain in the Core Payroll functional area can set up run categories.

No impact.

You can run the

Tenant Analyzer

report to verify your run category setup against Workday recommendations.

You can use the

All Run Categories

report data source when creating custom reports to report on run categories.

No impact.

You can only run a pay calculation for 1 run category at a time. As a result, workers have separate payroll results for each run category that they’re processed in. When you create a separate run category for a bonus, workers receive:

A separate check or direct deposit for the bonus.
A separate payslip for the bonus.

To reduce the number of separate payments or payslips a worker receives, consider grouping workers in the fewest number of run categories possible.