Payroll: Lock/Unlock Payment Entries and Payroll Period
This article gives an overview of how to lock/unlock payment entries and payroll periods.
Functionality Description
Lock payroll entries functionality is used for setting a lock on the amounts that were already sent to the bank account. This is also used to see a date of payment on the payroll entry and payslip.
In case activity details change, for example, a person signed on later than expected, crewing managers update the activities, and so a new payroll calculation takes place to present the new number of payroll days, then the amount paid to the bank is already locked and remains unchanged, and during a calculation, a new entry of Net Wages will be generated to calculate the difference.
In the same case, if the money has been transferred to the bank, but the lock on the payroll entries has not been used, then the existing Net Wages entry will be recalculated and will include both the previous result and the difference deducted or added on it, meaning you cannot see anymore in the payroll entries what has been transferred and what is remaining to transfer.
In the case of advance bank transfers, it is also needed to lock the amount to have the possibility to add as many bank advances as needed and to avoid any overpayment.
Lock period functionality is used to block new calculations for persons when you've finalized the wages this month for the person, and when the salary has already been paid to the bank this month. If a lock period is not used, then the person will be included in any mass calculation performed, meaning if there were any changes to the person’s activities (on purpose or by mistake), the salary will be recalculated accordingly.
Setup
This step is required only if the Organization structure option for "Multiple Payment in Period" is enabled under the Company > Payroll > Payment tab. So locking payroll entries functionality is optional.
Payment entries
How to Lock Payment Entries
After you've run Payment/Advance list reports, exported the bank file, and closed the Telepay report, or when you exported the file from a plug-in interface (eg. Brightwell, Western Union, PeopleSoft), you will get the question if you want to:
Lock payment entries - if you agree, it will set a lock on advance pay or net pay entry, and in Text field on the entry you see PAID and date or payment.
The date of payment will normally be the date you selected in the dialogue window, or it can be that for your specific bank interface, it is always today's date used when creating the bank file.
If you select Yes to lock, you will not be able to process the same payment for this person again and you can at any time calculate a new person and make a new payment file, without persons already paid being included in the file.
How to Un-Lock Payment Entries
In case of a mistake you can always use functionality Unlock Payroll transactions under Payroll > Set button and unlock the payment entry to make corrections and re-generate the bank file.
Payroll Period
How to lock Payroll Period
After you've run the Payment/Advance list reports, exported the bank file, and closed the Telepay report, you will get questions if you want to:
Lock payroll period - if you agree, it will set the payroll period lock on a person. Meaning the person will not be included in calculations for this period.
This can also be done for multiple crews from Payroll → Set menu:
How to Un-Lock Payroll Period
If you made a mistake and realize you need to un-lock the payroll period again, you can do that either in person or by the Payroll → Set → Unlock Payroll Period pn all.