Clear Balances

Use this option to clear monthly and quarterly balances for earnings, taxes, and deductions for selected employees. The option also allows you to accrue monthly leave to update employees' year-to-date leave totals. This option only applies to leave banks that have a Monthly accrual type.

The Clear Balances option should be run after you process the last payroll of the most recent month or quarter and before you run the first payroll in the new month or quarter. If you do not clear these balances, your to-date balances in the new period (month or quarter) will no longer be accurate.

For example, if you ran the last payroll for September and want to prepare your first payroll for October, you must clear the data for the JulyAugustSeptember quarter. Otherwise, employees' balances from the previous month and quarter will become part of the totals for the new month and quarter.

Caution

Before clearing these balances:

• Back up your database, so that you can restore your data in case of an error.
• Make sure no other users are in the Human Resources System.
• Run the following reports to verify that your current data is correct before clearing it: Monthly Deduction Summary and Salary and Deduction Data.

Clearing balances before processing your pay run

1. Click Clear Balances in the Pay Run Processing page to display the Clear/Update Balances page.
   If you are using the Payroll wizard, this page displays when you click Next in the Pay Run Setup - Additional Cycles page.
2. Select the desired checkboxes to clear balances or accrue leave:
   • Clear Monthly Balances
   • Clear Quarterly Balances
   • Accrue Monthly Leave (refer to the next procedure for details)

3. Click Next.
   The following pages display, depending on your selections in Step 2: 

   Clear Monthly Balances	Displays if you selected Clear Monthly Balances but not Clear Quarterly Balances.
   Clear Quarterly Balances	Displays if you selected Clear Quarterly Balances but not Clear Monthly Balances.
   Clear Quarterly & Monthly Balances	Displays if you selected both Clear Monthly Balances and Clear Quarterly Balances.
   Accrue Monthly Leave	Displays if you selected Accrue Monthly Leave.

4. Enter selection criteria in the following fields to identify the employees whose balances you want to clear:

   Employee Number	Select an employee, or leave the field blank to clear balances for all employees in the selected departments and pay groups. To select more than one employee, insert the pipe symbol between their ID numbers, for example, 12345|23456|34567.
   Department	Select a department, or leave the field blank to clear balances for all employees identified by the other two fields. To select more than one department, insert the pipe symbol between their codes, for example, 1010|2020|3030.
   Pay Group	Enter a pay group code, or leave the field blank to select all pay groups. While you can use the Employee Number and Department fields to select employees, the Pay Group field is probably more reliable. An example of how to use the Pay Group field follows the procedure.

5. Click OK when you finish entering your criteria.
6. In the Confirmation dialog, click Yes.
7. A message displays when processing is complete, indicating how many employees were included.
   Click OK.
8. If you are accruing leave, complete the next procedure. Otherwise, the Load Employee Time page displays.

Example: If you have three groups, W, B, and M, enter the asterisk symbol in the Pay Group field to accrue leave for employees in all three groups. If you have other groups but do not want to include them, insert the pipe symbol between their codes: W|B|M.

Accruing leave for the employees in your pay run

1. Complete the previous procedure for clearing employee balances. Be sure to select the Accrue Monthly Leave checkbox in the Clear/Update Balances page.
   When you complete the clear balances pages (if selected), the Accrue Monthly Leave page displays.
2. In the Accrue Monthly Leave page, enter selection criteria in the Employee Number, Department, and Payroll Group fields to identify the employees whose records you want to process.
   For information on these fields, refer to Step 4 of the previous procedure.
3. Click OK.
4. In the page's Leave fields, select leave codes identifying the leave banks you want to accrue. During processing, the system updates the Earned YTD and Balance fields in the leave banks selected. To select all leave banks, select All.
   The system only accepts leave codes that have a Monthly accrual type. Note, however, that the Leave field's drop-down list displays all leave codes regardless of their accrual types.
5. Click OK when you finish your entries.
6. In the Confirmation dialog, click Yes.
7. In the Print window, enter your report settings, and then click OK to accrue leave for the employees selected and generate an accrued leave report. The report's default file name is month_accrue.rpt.
   The report shows the number of leave units accrued and the employees and leave banks affected.
8. In the Monthly Leave Accrued dialog, click OK to display the Load Employee Time page.