Multi-period Payroll V12.30

This release introduces support for Multi-period Payroll (MPP) functionality in the Payroll module. MPP functionality allows a normal pay batch, which corresponds to the current (open) pay period, to include any unpaid/unprocessed historical timesheets and other pay transactions for any prior period in addition to timesheets and pay transactions that correspond to the current pay period.

The introduction of MPP functionality means that it is no longer necessary to process a separate adjustment pay batch for every prior pay period for which there are unpaid timesheets or transactions that are yet to be processed.

MPP replaces the interim solution that was available in prior versions of FastTrack360 that allowed a pay group to be configured so that late timesheets (i.e. unpaid timesheets for prior, closed pay periods) could be paid in a normal pay batch for the current, open pay period (for more information, see Removal of Include Prior Periods Pay Group Option). MPP expands on that functionality by:

• allowing any type of unpaid/unprocessed transaction, not just late timesheets, to be processed in a pay batch for the current period, without the need to process separate adjustment pay batches for each respective adjustment period

• facilitating payment of any type of payee, not just contractors who are not subject to tax, in a single pay batch by attributing tax, leave payments, leave accruals and other payroll-related transactions to the relevant corresponding pay periods where applicable

• allowing manual pay items to be added to a payee’s earnings for the current or any prior period in which the payee belonged to the pay group of the pay batch.

How Does MPP Work?

When a normal (non-adjustment) pay batch is created for the current (open) pay period, any payee who belongs to the pay group, as at the end date of the current pay period, is now included in the pay batch by default if they have any unpaid/unprocessed transactions that correspond to the following:

• the current pay period

• any prior pay period during which they belonged to pay group of the pay batch.

Payees who do not have any unpaid timesheets or outstanding transactions that require processing are excluded from the pay batch by default. However, they can be added into the pay batch at the Manual Items stage when the batch has been created if necessary.

At the Manual Items pay batch stage, manual pay items can be added for any date within or prior to the current pay period during which a payee belonged to the pay group of the pay batch.

At subsequent pay batch stages, the system processes any outstanding transactions related to that specific pay batch stage. For example, at the Leave Payments stage the system will pay any outstanding leave requests, irrespective of whether the leave requests relate to the current pay period or a prior pay period, assuming the conditions for paying the leave requests are met.

The table below summarises the main changes that apply to each pay batch stage because of the introduction of MPP functionality.

MPP and Payroll Reporting

Existing payroll reports that are available in the Payroll module can be run be run by pay period date ranges. Because a pay batch can now include payments for multiple periods, when running a payroll report by a pay period date range, the specified date range may only include part of the payments that were processed in a given pay batch, since a pay batch may include any number of periods. It is important to take this into consideration when running payroll reports in this release onward.

MPP and Employment Termination

There are some implications of the new MPP functionality that you must be aware of regarding terminating employment.

Leave Accruals Triggered by Leave Service

If a payee’s employment is terminated part-way through a pay period and the payee accrues leave that is triggered via the Leave Service, the payee may accrue leave for the entire final pay period during which they are employed, irrespective of whether they actually worked the full period. Therefore, a manual adjustment may need to be made to the payee’s leave balance at the Leave Accrual pay batch stage to reduce their final accrual accordingly.

To prevent this, an employment end date and termination reason can be selected directly on the Payroll > Payee > Payee Entry screen to terminate the payee’s employment, thereby preventing the need to terminate the payee in a pay batch.

Prior Period Termination Date

When a payee is terminated in a pay batch, the employment termination date must fall in the current period irrespective of any prior period transactions that might be included in the same pay batch for that payee. Therefore, if the employment termination date must be backdated to a prior pay period, the employment end date and termination reason must be selected directly on the Payroll > Payee > Payee Entry screen as opposed to at the Termination stage in a pay batch.

Payments Post Termination

If a payee is paid in a pay batch after their employment termination date, leave accruals will not cease automatically post the termination date. Because of this, it is important that any payments that are made post termination are paid using pay codes that are not included in leave Accrual Rules for any Leave Types that are configured in the Leave module.

Adjustment Pay Batches

The introduction of MPP functionality means that it will no longer be necessary to process adjustment pay batches (pay batches for prior, closed periods). The exceptions to that are as follows:

• when processing balancing payments

• when processing earlier tax year to date adjustments.

Because of this, changes have been made to how adjustment pay batches are processed. For more information, see Changes to Adjustment Pay Batches V12.30.