Workday · Module
Payroll: the number finance actually checks
Headcount is interesting. Payroll is audited. This module keeps every pay line at its own level of detail, proves the total against the accounting system each period, and answers cost questions that today end in a spreadsheet.
◆ Start here
If you read one page, read the ledger tie. It shows where payroll detail is lost on the way to the accounting system, the four reasons the two totals drift, and one query that returns the proof and the department breakdown together.
◆ Pages in this module
Live
Where the person-level detail stops, why the totals drift, and the drill that proves the tie every period.
Live
The same earning can land in different accounts depending on who earned it and where. The mapping table nobody wrote down, written down.
Live
The model itself: one fact at person, pay component, and period, joined to the same department, company, and date tables the rest of the catalog uses.
Live
Four kinds of off cycle payment, which accounting entries each one creates, and how the wrong choice duplicates or drops cost.
Live
A backdated change recalculates a closed period; the versioned model keeps as-reported beside as-restated and names the delta.
Live
What the extract carries, the size and time limits to plan around, and the schedule that does not fight the close.
Live
The report the module exists for: cost by department, pay type, and month, with the unassigned money named instead of hidden.
Live
The three totals meetings mix up, each tied to its ledger account, with the May sample decomposed both directions to the cent.
Live
The month-over-month bridge: five named drivers that walk April to May exactly, each with its receipt in another module.
Live
The completeness control totals cannot be: active workers to run members and back, both directions, exceptions named per run.
Live
The working-day split for periods that straddle month end: accrue at close, reverse on the first, prove both landed.
◆ What this module answers
| Question | Who asks it | Answered by |
|---|---|---|
| Does payroll tie to the books? | Controller, auditor | The ledger tie, run on a schedule, result kept |
| Why did one department go over? | Finance partner, department head | The drill: account to department to person |
| What did overtime cost us this quarter? | Operations, finance | Cost by pay type by month, from the same fact |
| Whose cost is unassigned? | Controller | The unassigned row, named on every report |
| What did that correction do to the books? | Payroll manager, controller | Off cycle payments, each kind with its entries |
◆ The one rule underneath all of it
Keep every payroll line at its own level of detail, then prove the total against the accounting system every period. A line that arrives summarised cannot be taken apart again, and a total that is not proved is an opinion. Everything in this module is one of those two moves.
Use case
Problem
Payroll cost reaches the accounting system as totals. Departmental questions are answered by hand each month, and nobody can prove the two systems agree without redoing the work.
What we build
A payroll fact at one row per person, per pay component, per period, on the customer's cloud beside the ledger, sharing the department, company, and date tables the rest of the catalog uses. The tie runs on a schedule and its result is stored.
What you get
Cost by department, pay type, and month, drillable to the person. A tie that is proved rather than asserted, with unassigned amounts named. Every model, query, and runbook is yours, in your repository.
Want payroll cost that ties on its own?
We build the payroll fact, land the ledger beside it, and publish the tie, reconciled against Workday before go live.