Retroactive payments
Sometimes work is approved after the payslip that should have paid it has gone. Retroactive payments are how that work gets paid on a later payslip, on the record, instead of by a manual adjustment nobody can trace.
Where: Payroll › the payroll run › Retroactive events You need: payroll rights for that batch cycle
When to use this, and when not to
| The situation | Use |
|---|---|
| Approved attendance arrived after its payslip was paid | Retroactive payment |
| A wage change takes effect mid-period | Mid-cycle wage change — a separate setting |
| An amount is simply owed and has no underlying event | An other payment |
| The payslip is not yet paid | Just recalculate it |
The distinction that matters: retroactive payments exist for events — actual attendance that was not paid. If there is no event behind it, what you want is an other payment.
How it works
You select events from the past that were not paid on the payslip they belonged to, and attach them to an employee's next payslip. At that payslip's calculation, the attached events are collected and paid at the regular working wage, appearing as an other payment.
Two consequences worth understanding:
- They are paid at the regular working wage, not re-priced against whatever the rates were at the time. If rates have changed since, the retroactive payment uses current pricing.
- They are tied to the payslip. If that payslip is deleted, the events are released and become available to attach again — nothing is silently lost.
You can also mark events to be skipped, so that work you have deliberately decided not to pay retroactively stops reappearing in the list every cycle.
How to pay retroactively
- Open the payroll run for the period you want to pay in.
- Go to Retroactive events.
- Review the unpaid past events. They are listed per employee.
- Select the events to pay, and skip any that should not be.
- Calculate or recalculate the affected payslips — the events are collected at calculation.
- Check the resulting other payment on each payslip before verifying.
What Happens Next
- The retroactive amount appears on the payslip as an other payment and is taxed accordingly.
- Because KAMI taxes annually, a large retroactive payment raises withholding for the remaining periods of the year, exactly as a bonus does — see Payslip tax details explained.
- The events are marked as paid and will not appear again.
- Skipped events stay skipped and stop cluttering the list.
Tips
- Deal with retroactive events every cycle, not quarterly. A backlog is harder to check, and the employee has been waiting.
- Check why the event was late. Repeated retroactive payments for the same team usually mean an approval bottleneck upstream, which is the thing actually worth fixing.
- Tell the employee what the line is. An unexplained extra amount generates a query even when it is in their favour.
- Use skip deliberately, not to tidy up. A skipped event is a decision not to pay for work; make it consciously.
- Watch the tax effect for large catch-ups. Several months of unpaid overtime landing at once is a noticeable withholding change.
Troubleshooting / FAQ
Q: I attached events but the payslip has not changed. Events are collected at calculation. Recalculate the payslip.
Q: An event keeps reappearing in the list. It has not been paid or skipped. Choose one.
Q: The retroactive amount does not match what the employee would have earned then. Retroactive events are paid at the regular working wage, so a rate change since means current pricing applies.
Q: We deleted a payslip that had retroactive events attached. They are released automatically and can be attached again.
Q: An employee's salary changed part-way through a period. That is a mid-cycle wage change rather than a retroactive payment, and it has its own setting. Check it is enabled before assuming the period will split.