The payroll run (wizard)

The payroll wizard is the guided screen for running one pay period. It has five steps in a fixed order. Payroll administrators use all five steps. A user who only has the accountant role uses Step 4.

Before you start: the Timeclock & Payroll module must be on for your organisation, and the pay period must already exist (create it with New Period on Pay periods). Set up your payroll employees and rule groups before the first run, not during it. A rate or rule that changes halfway through a run means the figures you already reviewed no longer match.

Open the wizard for a pay period

1. Open the card of the period you want to run. Period cards are on the Payroll tab of the Admin Hub (the Payroll Management entry in the side menu opens it) and on the stand-alone Payroll Management page (/timeclock/payroll), not the sidebar entry of the same name. Both are described in Pay periods.
2. Select Wizard on the card.

The wizard opens on the step the period was left on. The left rail shows the period name, a tick beside every step behind you and a dot beside the current one. Back to Admin at the bottom of the rail returns you to the hub.

A locked period still has a Wizard button. Open it to look back at how the period was run, or to unlock or reopen it. If the period cannot be loaded, the wizard shows Period Not Found and a Back to Admin Hub button.

The five steps

Who can use which step

The wizard admits the Payroll Admin, Payroll Accountant and Administrator roles.

• Payroll Admin and Administrator: all five steps.
• Payroll Accountant only: the wizard opens on Step 4 and the other steps are greyed out. Step 4 has no Accountant Access panel and no Back to Preview or Continue to Finalize buttons.

To give an accountant access, either with the role or with a link that needs no account, see Giving your accountant access.

The wizard remembers where you were

Each time you change step, the wizard saves the step on the period. Whoever opens the period next continues on that step instead of starting at Setup. If you take over a run that someone else started, read the rail before you read the screen: the step you land on tells you how far the run got.

You can go back to any earlier step from the rail. You can go forward one step at a time. While you are on Step 2, the rail lists five sub-steps under Reconcile: PTO / Leave, Punch Issues, OT Approval, AI Review and Adjustments. The first four show how many items are still open.

Step 1: Set up the run

1. Check Period Details. Period Name, Period Type, Start Date and End Date are read only here. To change one, leave the wizard and select Edit on the period's card. Edit is available only while the period is not locked.
2. Check Payment Date. It starts as the period's payment date, or the end date when none is set. You can change it here.
3. Choose the employees in Employees.
4. Select Continue to Reconcile. This saves the payment date and opens Step 2.

Payment date and early payment

When the saved payment date is before the period ends, an Early Payment banner appears. The banner follows the payment date saved on the period, so it appears after Continue to Reconcile saves an earlier date, or when an earlier date was already saved. Hours after the payment date are projected. When you open Step 3 for a period that has not been calculated yet, the wizard fills in the projected days for all active employees.

A projected day is built like this:

• If the employee's schedule has fixed start and end times, the day uses them.
• With no fixed times, the day uses the average clock-in and clock-out times the employee worked on the same weekday in the last calculated period.
• Failing that, the day starts at 08:00 and is sized from the employee's expected weekly hours divided by six, plus the lunch hour. With no expected hours, the day runs from 08:00 to 17:00.
• Every projected day includes a one-hour lunch. A day that the schedule says the employee does not work is skipped, and so is a day that already has punches.

What that means for the run:

• Projected hours are estimates, and they are paid as if they were real. You can review and export provisional figures that include them.
• You cannot lock the period or make paystubs until the projected punches are cleared or replaced by real ones. Recalculating an employee replaces a projected day once real punches exist for it. See Payroll wizard: finalize and paystubs.
• Nothing in the wizard compares the projection with the hours actually worked after the payment date. Compare what you paid early with the final figures and settle the difference in the next period.

Choose the employees

The list shows your active payroll employees with their contract type and currency. Everyone starts ticked, and a count shows how many are selected.

• Use the filter above the list (All Groups or one rule group) to narrow the list.
• Select All ticks every active employee and Clear unticks everyone, whatever the filter shows.
• An employee with a termination date shows Terminated and the date.
• At least one employee must be ticked before Continue to Reconcile works.

The ticks choose which employees the AI check in Reconcile looks at. The pay calculation itself covers every active payroll employee whose hire and termination dates overlap the period, so unticking someone here does not take them out of the period's figures. An employee who left before the period started is not calculated. One who left during the period is.

What blocks you from moving on

The rail also lets you move forward one step at a time, and it does not make these checks. Use the Continue buttons so that each step is checked and recorded as complete.

A checklist for one run

1. Before you open the wizard, decide pending leave requests and clear punch exceptions on the timeclock supervisor screen. Anything still open is waiting for you in Step 2.
2. Open the period's Wizard, read the rail and confirm which step you are on.
3. Setup: confirm the payment date and the employees.
4. Reconcile: resolve leave, punch issues and overtime. Run the AI check if you want it. Add manual adjustments.
5. Preview & Audit: open the red and orange cards first. Correct punches where needed and mark each employee reviewed.
6. Summary & Export: compare the totals with your accountant's. Export the provisional Excel file, or generate an access link for an external accountant.
7. Finalize: review any edits made to the figures, lock the period and download the final report.
8. Generate the paystubs, open a few to check them, then send them.
9. If the run was an early payment, check the projected hours against the real ones in the next period.

Related

• Pay periods: creating and listing the periods the wizard runs.
• Payroll wizard: reconcile: Step 2 in detail.
• Payroll wizard: preview and summary: Steps 3 and 4.
• Payroll wizard: finalize and paystubs: Step 5.
• Giving your accountant access: the accountant role and access links.
• Payroll employees and Payroll rule groups: the rates and rules a calculation uses.