Difference between Regular Reversal and out-of-sequence reversal

Question

Can anyone help me understand the difference between Regular Reversal and out-of-sequence reversal? How does the system behave differently i these two reversals?
Thanks
Charlene

Answer 1

Sorry for the long reply, as here's some information that I have on Voids and Out-of-Sequence reversals.
On occasion, SAP payroll results can be created in error. In these cases, the payment never goes to the employee and the payroll result should never have been created. These cases are considered “reverse payments” in the off cycle workbench.
There are two forms of “reverse payments”: voids and out of sequence reversals. Notes 160515, 159701 and 337626 should be reviewed carefully.
An out of sequence reversal occurs when third party remittance has been run for the payroll result, or when the payroll result is not the most recent result in the cluster directory for the employee. Wage type /568 (total reversal amount) is created in the reversed result for posting purposes. Wage type /571 replaces any /559 wage types in the reversed result and the BT cluster is cleared.
Wage type /568 is created for posting purposes and it will not appear in any retros over the reversed result.
An out of sequence reversal should not occur when the employee receives the money unless the actual check is returned or the direct deposit is reversed by the bank.  Because of the tax when paid principle, even if an employee writes a check back to the company for the overpaid amount, this should be processed by retro master data changes and the employee check should be used to relieve any claims in the most recent period.  The claims processing guide gives details on how to relieve claims. Out of sequence reversals depend on third party remittance but not on posting to FI.
/568 - Total reversal amount - If you cancel a payroll result that A. Has had payments made to third parties or B. is other than the last one.  This is considered an out of sequence reversal.  If these two conditions do not apply, a true void occurs.     Wage type /568 is the total reversal amount.  Should be the sum of /569, /570 and /571.
/571 - Reversal of /559 - Wage type /571 is the reversal of /559 (bank transfer).  /571 will record the amount from wage types /559.  The /559 wage types will be deleted from the cluster that was reversed.  Wage type /571 will have the same sign as wage      type /559. 
In payroll reporting, the reversal amounts are evaluated in the next payroll period. The same is true for posting to FI.
The out of sequence reversal should have been accompanied by a master data change that forced a retro via infotype 0003.
This retro will fix FI postings in the posting process that accompanies the retro run.For this reason, out of sequence reversals do not need an entry in table T52OCG for processing by the off cycle batch process.
Regardless of if a ‘reverse payment’ is a void or an out of sequence reversal, there should be an associated master data change to perform this process properly. There had to be a reason that the payment should not have been made and this reason needs to be reflected in the employee’s master data. Both voids and out of sequence reversals can occur before or after the master data change, but the safest method is to perform the master data change first to ensure it occurs before the next payroll is processed.
In payroll reporting, voids are bypassed in the period for which they were originally paid. This means that if a payroll report is run for a specific period containing a void, the voided result will not be picked up. In FI, voids are bypassed in the period in which they were voided. This is possible because the off cycle batch process already reconciled any incorrect posting that occurred before the payroll result was voided.
A voided payroll result occurs when no money was given to the employee and no money was remitted through third party remittance.  A void is simply a check or direct deposit that was created in error.  The payroll control record was already exited and the check or direct deposit was already processed, therefore the payroll result can not be recalculated in the original period.
A void can only occur if the payroll result is the most recent result for the employee.
If the payroll result is not the most recent result, an out of sequence reversal occurs by default. It is irrelevant whether the transfer to FI has occurred or not with relation to voids.  Some OSS notes state that posting to FI does matter and these notes are in error.