Getting started with the Payroll Workbench
When the Payroll Workbench is enabled, the Export and Employee Pay Details pages will no longer be available. But, you’ll still be able to perform all tasks you could carry out using those pages.
The goal of this document is to make your transition to the Payroll Workbench as seamless as possible, and to help ensure you feel confident in using the new system when you prepare your first payroll export.
This topic covers the following:
- The features and benefits of the Payroll Workbench
- How you can use Payroll Workbench to run payroll like you did using the Export page
- Differences in behavior between the old system and Payroll Workbench
- What happens to your historical exports
Additional resources
If you still have questions feel free to contact Replicon Support directly, or post your questions in the Replicon community; we’ve created a special section in the community for questions and feedback on the Payroll Workbench.
You can also refer to the Payroll Workbench help topics and video for more information.
Payroll Workbench features and benefits
|
Feature |
Benefit |
|---|---|
|
Capture payroll data in a pay run |
Creating a pay run freezes the data, so any changes made to that data are saved as adjustments you can include in another pay run. This ensures you have the opportunity to review all data, even if someone makes a change at the last minute. |
|
Break down your data by timesheet period to see where data came from |
By breaking down data, you can clearly view prior period adjustments separate from current period payroll data. Plus, the ability to break data down by timesheet period, and even day, lets you see exactly where anomalies arose. |
|
Download payroll data for review prior to final export |
If you prefer to review payroll data in a spreadsheet, or printed out, you can download a CSV version of the data without having to do an export. This gives you a chance to review data in your chosen format before that data is finalized. |
|
Review previous pay runs on screen and in detail |
The ability to easily review past pay runs is useful when an employee comes to you asking how you arrived at their last paycheck. If this happens, you can easily view the relevant pay run, and add columns like Timesheet Period or Entry Date, to see exactly what hours were entered against each pay code. |
|
Revert an export if an error was made or additional data became available |
The ability to revert a pay run means you don’t have to create compensatory adjustments – that can confuse your records and invite more errors – if you find an error in a pay run. And, deleted pay runs are retained, so you retain a clear audit trail for your records. |
|
Define an export file format that’s automatically available to all your payroll managers |
Previously, each new manager preparing payroll would have to configure the export, choosing which columns to include and any fixed columns locally. Now, file configuration is managed in a central location, saving each manager time and hassle, and ensuring the export configuration is always correct. |
Using Payroll Workbench to run payroll
If you use the Export page to review and export payroll data, you can now carry out the same process in the Payroll Workbench by following the steps below.
If you use the Employee Pay Details page to select, review, or export payroll data, click here for more information on preparing payroll.
To prepare payroll:
- Set your filters
If you want to view payroll data that hasn’t yet been exported, ensure None is selected from the Pay Run Status filter.
The values you select will be remembered next time you go to the Payroll Workbench.
- Choose your columns
Your latest column selections should be retained. Be sure to include all the pay codes that are required in your export file, since columns on screen can be different than what’s required in file output.
For example, you could choose to display user names in the Replicon interface, but employee IDs in the export file. The only requirement is that you include any pay codes you want to export in the interface grid.
The pay codes might display in a different order than before. We’ll be adding the ability to choose the order sometime soon.
- Click the Refresh Data button.
Changes you make to filters, columns, or sort order only take effect when you click this button.
- Review the data in the pay run on screen or by downloading to CSV.
- Create a pay run to record and freeze the data for this export.
- Download using the file format required by your payroll provider.
A file format should already be created for you. If you need to add or modify a file format, select Manage File Formats.
- Mark the pay run as Complete to signify that you’ve finished processing it.
Differences in behavior between the old system and Payroll Workbench
You can do everything you’ve always been able to in Replicon, but there are a few changes you should be aware of.
You can re-export previously exported data
|
Previously... |
Now... |
|---|---|
|
You couldn’t re-export data you’d already included in an export |
We don’t prohibit you from including data in a second pay run, although a warning message will display if you include data that’s already in another pay run |
If you never want to export previously exported data, be sure to always set the Pay Run Status filter to None so you only see data that isn’t in a pay run
Only pay codes explicitly added to the data grid are included in a pay run
|
Previously... |
Now... |
|---|---|
|
If you excluded a pay code from an export, it would still be marked as exported when the export was completed. |
You must include columns for all pay codes you want to export for that data to be marked as exported (or, marked as included in a pay run) |
If you use ADP pay@work, pay data for review is organized differently
|
Previously... |
Now... |
|---|---|
|
If you use ADP pay@work, when reviewing your pay data, you’d see the data laid out as it was in your export file, with a single column for all pay codes, and each pay code displayed in its own row. |
You’ll see a column for each pay code in the pay data grid, though the ADP pay@work download file is organized as previously, with a row for each pay code. |
Adjustments are handled differently
|
Previously... |
Now... |
|---|---|
|
If you exported approved time, and later a timesheet you exported was reopened, you would get a negative adjustment equivalent to the exported hours, to clear out all the data for that entry. |
You won’t see an adjustment until the timesheet is re-approved. The adjustment will be the difference between the original exported value and the new timesheet value. |
Ensure reopened timesheets whose negative hour adjustments have been exported are re-approved and re-exported
If the following scenario applies to your organization, take note:
You only export approved time, and when a timesheet you’ve exported is reopened, you export the compensatory adjustment (e.g. -40 hours) before the timesheet in question has been corrected and approved.
If this applies to you, please re-export any timesheets with outstanding adjustments before the Payroll Workbench is enabled in your instance. If you don’t correct, approve, and re-export those timesheets using the old system, the original timesheet hours will not be recovered when the correction is exported using the Payroll Workbench.
