Issue
This was a production issue where KWD differential hours received from UKG were overpaid in PeopleSoft Payroll.
UKG (Kronos) sent the KWD licensed weekend differential hours, which were successfully loaded into PeopleSoft through PSHUP and processed by Payroll.
The hours were correct, and there were no issues with the inbound time data. However, the employee's paycheck amount was significantly higher than expected.
The issue was identified after Payroll Confirmation when the calculated earnings were reviewed.
Example
An hourly employee had:
- KWD Hours: 10 hours
- Expected KWD Differential Rate: $2.00 per hour
The expected payment should have been:
10 hours × $2.00 = $20.00
However, due to the incorrect Earnings Code configuration, the employee was paid using the employee's FLSA hourly rate.
For example, if the employee's FLSA hourly rate was $30:
10 hours × $30 = $300.00
Instead of the expected $20.00, the employee received $300.00 for the KWD differential.
The root cause:
incorrect Earnings Code configuration in PeopleSoft Payroll.
The Earnings Code associated with the KWD payment type was configured to calculate the payment using Hours/Amount rather than Unit/Override Rate.
Because of this configuration, PeopleSoft treated the KWD hours as hours that should be paid using the employee's applicable hourly/FLSA rate.
Incorrect Configuration
The KWD Earnings Code was configured to use:
Hours / Amount
This resulted in the calculation being based on the employee's hourly rate.
Expected Configuration
The KWD Earnings Code should have been configured to use:
Unit / Override Rate
with an override rate of:
$2.00
Calculation Comparison
Incorrect Calculation
For an employee with:
- KWD Hours = 10
- FLSA Hourly Rate = $30
PeopleSoft calculated:
10 × $30 = $300
This resulted in an overpayment.
Correct Calculation
The KWD differential should be paid at the fixed rate of $2 per hour:
10 × $2 = $20
Therefore, the employee should receive:
$20.00
rather than:
$300.00
Resolution
The KWD Earnings Code configuration was updated to use:
Unit / Override Rate
with an override rate of:
$2.00
The configuration was also updated with the appropriate effective date.
Using the appropriate effective date was important to prevent the configuration change from unintentionally triggering recalculation or retroactive processing for previously processed payroll.
For amounts that needed to be recovered from employees, the appropriate payback/recovery Earnings Code was used rather than allowing the configuration change to recalculate historical payroll.