This article explains how to open a payroll period on Pay and expenses > Payroll periods and prepare that month's data. It is done by a user with Payroll Manager Permission.
Before you start
Payroll setup must be complete: company information, at least one workplace and every employee assigned to a workplace (Setting up payroll).
To open a period you must be a payroll manager responsible for all branches.
Step by step
Opening the period
Go to Pay and expenses > Payroll periods in the left menu.
If you have no periods yet, click Open Period; the current month opens. You do not need to open later months yourself: when a period is calculated and closed, the next month becomes active automatically.
To open an earlier month retroactively, click the + item at the end of the period strip. When an earlier period is opened, the current active period moves to Draft.
The active period is always pinned at the left of the strip. Colors show the Active, Draft, Closed, Calculating and Selected states.
Moving between categories
When you select a period, the category menu opens on the left edge. Categories:
Category | Content |
Personnel Information | Employee Information, Salary Information, Marital Status and Family Information, Mandatory BES Information and Payroll Employee Information sub-tabs. The last one holds the document type, law no and incentive dates, occupation code and disability status. |
Benefits | Payments, Benefits and Deductions (advance, enforcement, alimony, union dues, etc.) sub-tabs |
Overtime | Overtime hours of the period |
Payroll Information | SSI and tax status, carried-over and cumulative bases, discount and R&D fields, cost center |
Timesheet and Leave Information | Normal work, weekend, public holiday, leave days, missing days and reason |
Excluded | Employees removed from the period or left out automatically (shown only if there are any) |
Preview | Results of the last preview (shown only in an open period after a preview) |
Payrolls | Calculated payslips (shown only if there is a calculated payroll) |
Correcting period data
Type the new value in the employee's cell in the relevant category. The value is saved automatically.
The cell you changed is marked; hover over it to see the Original Value. Click to restore to go back to the original value.
The information you enter here is only valid for this period's payroll; it does not change the employee's personnel record. For a permanent change, edit it in the source module (Personal Information, Benefits, Timesheet).
If you changed something on another screen (benefit, deduction, leave, personnel record), click Refresh Data. The list reloads with current data; values you entered manually are kept.
Removing an employee from the period and adding them back
Select employees in the table and click Remove from Payroll in the box at the bottom.
Removed employees are listed under Excluded. The Reason column shows why: Removed from payroll, Made passive before the period or Not included in payroll in Payroll Information.
To add them back, click Include on the row, or select them and click Add to Payroll. Employees left out automatically (Passive (automatic), Payroll information (automatic)) cannot be added here; fix the cause first.
Exporting the period to Excel
With Export to Excel you can download a file with the personnel, benefit, overtime, deduction and BES data of every employee in the period (file name Payroll_Period_year_month.xlsx).
Result
The period stays Active and the values you enter are used in preview and calculation. Next step: Previewing payroll.
Common issues
Symptom: "No employees in this period" is shown.
Cause: Employee data has not been loaded for the period yet.
Fix: Click Refresh Data.
Symptom: Nothing can be edited in a draft period.
Cause: An earlier period was reopened; the draft period is locked until that period is closed.
Fix: Calculate and close the open earlier period first; the draft period becomes active automatically.
Symptom: The top of the screen says "You only see employees of the branches you are responsible for" and there is no Open Period.
Cause: Your payroll permission is limited to some branches.
Fix: You can enter data; ask a payroll manager responsible for all branches to open, calculate and close the period (Branch-based payroll).