Calculate and pay a payroll period

Take a payroll period from calculation through approval to payment, with statutory deductions, approved commissions and advance recoveries all applied.

WorkforceFor HR administrator · Finance manager6 steps

Where this lives

Employees › Payroll
/dashboard/employees/payroll

Permissions needed

Employees · Payroll
Employees · Payroll · Approve

Any one of these grants access. Ask an administrator if the screen is not visible to you.

Before you start

Compensation profiles effective for the period
Current statutory rules
An open accounting period to post into

Complete the workflow

1
Open the period
A payroll period covers a date range and begins as a draft. Everything below is repeatable while it stays in draft.
2
Calculate
Calculation produces one entry per employee from their compensation profile, applies the statutory rules, and pulls in commission earnings that have been approved for transfer.
3
Review deductions and recoveries
Check the deductions on each entry, including recovery of any outstanding employee advance. An advance recovers across periods until it is settled.
4
Approve the period
Approval needs its own permission and fixes the figures. From here the period is what will be paid, not a working calculation.
5
Pay and post
Recording payment settles the period and posts it to the ledger, which is why the accounting period has to be open before you start.
6
Correct by voiding
A period is corrected by voiding and recalculating rather than by editing entries, so that what was approved and what was paid stay legible afterwards.

Useful tips

Change a compensation profile and you must recalculate — an approved period keeps the figures it was approved with, deliberately.
Commission earnings only reach payroll once they have been approved; unapproved earnings are simply absent from the run.