How Do I Use the Retrospective Tool to Change Past Pays in Bulk?

The Retrospective Tool lets you apply the same change to a group of completed pays in one operation. You can update allowances, deductions, departments, income streams (AU only), or payslip information across multiple employees and pay periods at once.

In the desktop app

1. Open the Tools menu and select Retrospective Tool.
2. On the first page of the wizard, set the Start Date and End Date to cover the pay periods you want to edit. Tick Show Terminated Employees? if you need to include employees who have since been terminated.
3. On the second page, select the employees whose pays you want to change, then choose what you would like to edit using the What would you like to change? dropdown. The options are: Allowances, Deductions, Departments, Income Stream (AU only), and Payslip information.
4. Select the individual pays you want to include, then click Confirm Pay Selection.
5. Click Edit to open the relevant editor for the chosen attribute. Make your changes, then confirm to apply them to all selected pays.
6. A Bulk Edit Successful message confirms the changes have been saved.

In the online (web/mobile) app

1. Go to Tools >> Retrospective Tool.
2. Step 1 ÔÇö Date range: Set the start and end dates to cover the pay periods you want to edit, then click Next.
3. Step 2 ÔÇö Select employees: Choose the employees whose pays you want to include, then click Next.
4. Step 3 ÔÇö Select pays: Use the What would you like to change? dropdown to pick the attribute you want to edit (Allowances, Deductions, Departments, Payslips, or Income Stream for AU companies). Optionally use Filter by Employee to narrow the list. Tick the individual pays you want to include, then click Next.
5. Step 4 ÔÇö Edit: The relevant editor opens. For allowances and deductions, use Filter by Description to find specific items. For departments, use Save Changes to confirm edits within the editor. For payslips (AU), you can tick Bulk edit payslip company information? to update company details across the selected pays.
6. When you are ready to apply all changes, click Next on the final step. A Confirm Retrospective Changes dialog asks you to confirm before saving. Click Close on the success screen to finish.

The Retrospective Tool edits the stored attributes on each pay record without recalculating tax. If you need to edit a single past pay individually rather than in bulk, see How Do I Enter or Edit Past Pays?