Reversing Pays

MYOB Advanced Payroll includes the facility to reverse a pay run. This reverses the entire pay run, affecting all employees who were included in the pay run. All transactions related to the pay run are also reversed.
Note: Audit information is kept for reversed transactions - the name of the user who reversed the pay run is recorded, as is the date and time when it was reversed.
A pay run can be reversed if:
  • It is the most recently completed pay run in its pay group.
  • There isn't a new open pay run in that pay group.
Note: The status of superannuation or payment summary batches may prevent a pay run from being reversed—see Superannuation and Tax Batches below.
To reverse a pay, select Reverse from the Actions dropdown on the Pay Run Details (MP.PP.31.20) form (this option will be greyed out if the conditions above have not been met). The effects of reversing the pay are detailed below.

Pay Runs

When a pay run is reversed, it is assigned the "REVERSED" status, which means it can no longer be edited. A new pay run, which is identical to the reversed pay run, is created and given the "OPEN" status. The new pay run contains all changes from employees' Standard Pays that were in the original, including any leave entered. It also has the same pay period dates as the original, i.e. the same Physical Pay Day and the same Pay Period Start and End dates. You can then edit the new pay as necessary and process it in place of the reversed pay run.

General Ledger Transactions

All General Ledger transactions that were generated by the original pay run are reversed. The original transactions are locked and reversing transactions are created for them.

Each reversed GL transaction includes a link to the reversing transaction that was created for it, and each reversing transaction includes a link to the reversed pay run as reference.

Superannuation and Tax Batches

If payment summary batches that include the pay run have been submitted to the ATO via SBR, or if superannuation batches that include the pay run have been submitted using the Pay Superannuation service, the pay cannot be reversed. In all other cases, batches for superannuation, payment summaries, payroll tax and IRD reports that were created for the original pay are either deleted or voided:
  • Batches that have already been approved are voided—the batch records remain, but have the VOIDED status and cannot be edited or processed.
  • Batches that have not yet been approved are simply deleted.
When the new pay is processed, all batches relating to it will need to be re-created and re-submitted.
Note: When you reverse a pay, a warning message appears identifying all batches that will be affected. Details of the affected batches are written to the pay run's notes.
Figure 1. Batches that will be affected by a pay reversal


Payment Batches

While it is possible to reverse payment batches and their related GL transactions, the MYOB Advanced Payroll system has no control over what happens once payment batch export files are submitted to a bank so that employees' pays can be distributed. (Indeed, the system has no way of knowing whether or not the file has been submitted to a bank.)

The presence of payment batches does not prevent a pay run from being reversed; if you reverse a pay run that payment batches have been created for, the batches will be voided in the same way as other batches. However, if you have submitted export files to a bank, you should not reverse the pay run. Instead, make a new adjustment pay run to correct the payments.

Pay Documents

All documents that were generated for the reversed pay are deleted and links to them are removed from the reversed pay run:
  • Links to payslip PDF files are removed from the main grid of the Pay Run Details (MP.PP.31.20) form.
  • Links to payment summary PDF files are removed from the Files dropdown on the Pay Run Details (MP.PP.31.20) form.

Terminations

If the pay being reversed includes a termination, then all effects of the termination on the employee's record will be reversed—this includes setting the employee's record back to the "Active" status. In the new pay that is created to replace the reversed pay, all pay items from the termination will be present in the employee's pay—you can open the Termination (AU) (MP.PP.53.00) form to edit the termination details, or delete them altogether if you want to reverse the termination. If you keep the termination in the replacement pay, then when it is completed, the employee's record will be updated again, i.e. the record will be set back to "Inactive", etc.