To protect the integrity of your payroll data, certain rules apply to changing earnings and deductions.
Information you cannot change
After you have added an earning/deduction, even if the earning/deduction is not assigned to any employees, you can no longer edit certain fields.
To change one of these fields after adding the earning/ deduction, you must delete the earning/deduction and enter its information again.
Active timecards and manual checks
The system displays a warning but allows you to proceed with modifications if an active timecard referencing the earning/deduction exists in the system. Keep in mind that if you proceed, certain kinds of changes affect the calculation of the earning/deduction when the timecard is processed or reprocessed.
Changes that affect calculations
Changes you make to earning/deduction fields that cannot be overridden at the employee level do affect current employee earning/deductions and, therefore, subsequent calculations. Examples of such fields would be the Level field, Annual Maximum field, Piece Rate Table fields, Base Earnings or Base Deductions Include fields, and so on.
Changes that do not affect calculations
If you modify one of the following fields, which can be overridden at the employee level, the changes you make do not affect current employee earning/deductions:
- Employee Rate/Amt/Pct
- Employer Amt/Pct
- Starts
- Ends
- Carry-over Date
Changes in these fields will be the new defaults as you add employees in the future.
Change levels with caution
Change an earning/deduction's level with caution. The level dictates whether amounts calculated for the earning/deduction can be included in the calculation base of another earning/deduction or tax. All calculation base earnings/deductions must have levels lower than the earning/deduction or tax whose base they constitute.
Deleting Earnings/Deductions
You can delete an earning/deduction from an employee's Pay tab provided no unprocessed timecards exist for the employee.
Before you can delete an earning/deduction from the payroll program, the earning/deduction cannot be assigned to any employees and must have no history.
If you delete an earning/deduction that is used in the calculation base of another earning/deduction or a tax (in other words, you entered the earning/deduction in a Base Hours, Base Earnings, or Base Deductions Include field), the system automatically deletes the earning/deduction from the calculation base as well.