The payroll reason, for example, regular payroll, periodical bonus for summer and periodical bonus for winter, specifies more precisely the type of payment to be made. Customer can define the payroll reason.

The payroll category defines the payroll processing type used in the payroll driver program and are pre-defined by SAP

Until 4.0B, the payroll type and the payroll ID were used to specify payroll-processing type. But as of 4.5A, the payroll type and the payroll ID are derived from payroll reason and category.

In the payroll accounting, the administrator has to specify the payroll reason for payroll run at the selection as a parameter.

Following payroll categories are pre-defined by SAP.

The payroll reason and category are used only for payroll accounting. They are used in the internal processing of payroll accounting and stored in the payroll cluster with payroll result. For evaluation reports, the payroll type and the payroll ID must be specified at selection screen of each report.