Who, when and how much.
Selected employees, run dates, earning lines and calculated gross amounts.
PAYROLL PREPARATION & ACCOUNTANT EXPORTS
Ready for the next step.
With the records behind it.
Turn recorded time into a payroll run you can review, explain and hand over. Keep hours, rates, adjustments and supporting records together in a saved version.
PAYROLL PREPARATIONReview.
Save.
Hand over.
Save.
Hand over.
Illustrative packet
Not live payroll data
A record you can explain.
Saved run revisionThe decisions behind the pay.
Captured rates, documented overrides, gross adjustments and review notes.
The work behind the numbers.
Captured time, breaks, paid credits, work-site history and review evidence.
A format your accountant can use.
CSV, a CSV bundle, Excel or PDF generated from the selected saved revision.
Payroll preparation calculates gross pay. Taxes, deductions, net pay and employee payments remain with your accountant or payroll provider.
BUILT FOR MANAGER REVIEW
From source records
to a saved result.
Authorized managers enable built-in preparation under Company settings. Companies using provider integrations can keep that workflow separate.
Explore provider integrations →Create a draft from the period.
Select dates and employees. The draft captures settings, people, rates and relevant source records so you have a specific version to inspect.
Resolve the issues that affect pay.
Inspect employee earnings and supporting records. Resolve blockers through the time, correction, break, location and leave workflows. A pay adjustment cannot make invalid time ready for payroll.
Preserve the reviewed preparation.
Mark the run reviewed, then finalize it. Both actions recheck source freshness and blockers. Finalization freezes the preparation; it does not pay employees or submit payroll to a provider.
WHEN THE UNDERLYING RECORD CHANGES
Keep the old result.
Make the next decision clear.
Saved financial totals do not silently rebuild from current employee profiles. Changes have an explicit path, with earlier revisions retained for inspection.
A draft needs fresher data.
Check its sources, then explicitly refresh when needed. Refresh creates a new revision and clears current pay overrides, adjustments and review, so those decisions can be made against the updated records.
Refresh keeps the original payroll settings, period and employee selection. Create a new draft to use different payroll settings.
A finalized run needs a correction.
Create a linked correction draft with a reason. The original stays read-only. A finalized correction is a full replacement, with original and revised gross totals and their difference shown.
Use the replacement as a replacement. Do not add it to the original payroll as another run to pay.
PREPARE THE ACCOUNTANT HANDOFF
The same saved figures.
A choice of formats.
Use the standard layout or save a reusable layout with the summary columns, employee order and supporting sections your accountant needs.
| Format | What it provides |
|---|---|
| CSV | A flat employee summary with run and revision identification. |
| CSV bundle | Separate files for run information, totals, employees and selected supporting sections. |
| Excel | A workbook with typed, filtered worksheets and frozen headers. |
| A paginated packet with repeating run identification and readable summary tables. |
Generated files retain their original bytes and generation-time status. Check the latest run before using an older file. Ordinary live reports do not reproduce a saved payroll snapshot.
PAYROLL PREPARATION QUESTIONS
Know what is included.
Keep preparation, export, provider delivery and payment distinct so each handoff is deliberate.
Ask about your workflow →Can managers use historical hourly rates?
Yes. Hourly employees can use the captured profile rate or a documented rate schedule beginning on the run's first day. These overrides apply to the run and do not change the employee profile.
How is non-hourly pay handled?
Managers provide a documented fixed gross amount for the selected period, including an explicit zero where appropriate. Non-hourly pay is not inferred from clocked hours.
Can we add adjustments or accountant notes?
Yes. Itemized gross additions or corrections require a supporting reason. Separate accountant reference items can carry an amount or a note without changing gross pay or calculating deductions or net pay.
Does finalizing also approve time or lock the period?
No. Finalization preserves the payroll preparation without changing time entries, timesheet approval states, period locks, leave balances or manually recorded payment status. Those workflows remain separate.
Can an unfinished run be exported?
Exports of unfinished, historical, discarded or linked-correction runs require acknowledgement and carry their status. An export is not proof that the run is current, finalized, submitted or paid.
Do generated files change when a layout is edited?
No. The generated file and its layout definition are saved. Editing a layout does not change previously generated files, which can be downloaded again unchanged.
Do we need built-in preparation to use integrations?
No. Provider integrations can operate independently of this optional workspace. Integrations are available on every plan; individual providers have their own access requirements and supported workflows.
Does exporting send anything to the accountant automatically?
No. Generating and downloading a packet does not email it, submit payroll or pay employees. You choose how to hand over the file and complete the next step.