Amendment Runs (Correcting a Paid Payroll)

Once a payroll has been paid, you can't go back and edit it directly — that record is final. To fix a mistake in it, you create an Amendment: a new run that corrects the paid one while leaving the original untouched and fully intact for your records.

What an Amendment Does

In Greenroom's own words: "Correct a previously processed payroll run. Greenroom recalculates wages, taxes, dues, pension, and other payroll obligations based on the changes."

An amendment is its own payroll run, linked to the paid run it corrects:

When to Use an Amendment

Use an amendment any time you discover a payroll needs a correction after it's been paid — a wrong rate, a missed payment, a deduction that should or shouldn't have applied, and so on. There's no separate approval or company setting that gates this: any paid run can be amended.

The create-run screen has a short explainer behind the "Off-cycle vs amendment — which do I use?" link right under the run-type cards, with the same rule of thumb as above: off-cycle issues a brand-new payment, an amendment corrects a historical record. It also spells out how an overpayment (an amendment with a negative payment line) actually gets collected back — a regular-payroll offset, an ACH debit with the payee's authorization, external repayment, or an employer write-off.

Creating an Amendment

You need the Admin or Payroll role to create or edit this run and send it for approval. An Approver can review and approve a run they did not prepare. The approval that completes your company's required approvals submits the run automatically; see Processing Payroll.

1. Choose Run Payroll in the sidebar (or Run payroll on the History page).

2. Choose Amendment as the run type.

3. Under Run to amend, pick the paid run you're correcting — the period fills in automatically from that run.

4. Enter a Purpose explaining why this correction is needed. This is required before you can continue.

5. In Employees & Loan-outs (and Vendors & Contractors, if the correction involves a vendor or contractor payment), re-include the specific payees you're correcting — everyone else stays excluded.

6. Add a payment line for each correction:

   • A positive amount pays out the difference owed.
   • A negative amount claws back an overpayment.

   If your company has a chart of accounts, Add payment line also asks for a GL code, the same as for a contractor's payment: required until Expense — uncoded earning lines is confirmed in Settings → QuickBooks (see Vendors & Contractors).

7. Continue through Payroll Summary, Union Reports where the run has it, and Submit Payroll, the same as any other run.

A negative correction line can leave that payee with negative net pay. That payroll cannot be sent for approval, approved, or submitted: Payroll Summary shows Deductions exceed pay with the payee and shortfall. This guard applies to amendments too; another payee's positive net does not offset it. See What can block submitting.

How the Numbers Recalculate

• Dues and pension recalculate based on the correction amount (the delta), not the full original pay. If our tax partner voided the original payroll, it paid nothing, so the amendment works from zero rather than subtracting the original's pay.
• Flat fringes (health insurance and similar flat employer contributions) don't re-fire on an amendment — they were already charged once on the original run.
• Taxes settle through our tax partner along with the rest of the correction.
• Recurring items — profile premiums and union initiation dues — never start or re-fire on an amendment. Add those on the payee's next regular run instead.

Fees

An amendment waives your tier's weekly minimum, but is otherwise billed normally — the base and per-payee charges still apply. The reasoning: the original run already met the minimum for that week, so applying it again would charge twice for one payroll.

In practice that means a Broadway amendment bills $10 per payee with no $250 floor underneath it. Off-Broadway and Development have no weekly minimum in the first place, so an amendment on those tiers is priced exactly like any other run. If Greenroom has set a custom or complimentary fee for your company, that fee applies to an amendment instead of the rate card. As with any run, the fee is fixed when you submit the amendment, and History shows that figure. See Platform Fees & Billing for the full schedule.

Viewing Amendments

Amendments appear in Payroll History like any other run, labeled Amendment. Opening one shows which original run it corrects; the Union Reports step on an amendment shows a "Correction report" banner noting every row is amending that reference run.

Best Practices

• Write a clear, specific purpose — it's the only explanation anyone reviewing the audit trail will see
• Re-include only the payees you're actually correcting; leave everyone else excluded
• Use a negative payment line to claw back an overpayment, a positive one to pay out an underpayment
• If the underlying issue is a wrong standing rate, fix the payee's rate separately so it doesn't recur on future runs
• Review the original payroll's numbers before entering the correction, so the payment line reflects the actual difference owed
• Catch errors before the original run is submitted whenever possible — it's simpler than amending afterward

Troubleshooting

Next Steps

See Payroll Adjustments for the (differently-named) concept of allowances, deductions, and premiums on a payee's own record, or review Payroll History to find a run to amend.