Roster to payroll checklist
The checks worth making between the last shift of the week and the pay run, in the order that stops you doing the work twice.
1. Find the gaps before you look at the numbers
- Anybody who worked and has no finish time recorded.
- Anybody who was rostered and has nothing recorded at all.
- Anybody who worked a shift that was never on the roster.
Each of these has a person attached who remembers what happened this week and will not remember in three. Ask now.
2. Deal with the differences
Compare what was worked with what was rostered, and look only at the ones that differ by enough to matter. Five minutes either side is noise. Twenty two minutes, four days a week, is a real number and worth a conversation.
- Accept it, if the work was done and you would pay it.
- Correct it, with the reason written down.
- Ask, if you cannot tell. A quick question beats a quiet assumption.
The rostered against worked hours tool puts the two side by side for each person, with the difference in hours and as a percentage.
3. Take the corrections people asked for
Decide the requests rather than leaving them. Each one is somebody telling you the record is wrong about them, and the cost of ignoring it lands in the pay run.
4. Approve the week
Approve in one action once the exceptions are decided. What you are approving is hours worked, not pay: the rates, penalties and entitlements are applied in payroll, by whoever maintains them.
5. Send it, and check the other end
- Send the approved week to payroll, or export it for whoever runs the pay run.
- Check it arrived: the right people, the right hours, the right week. A draft timesheet in Xero is not a pay run until somebody processes it.
- If it failed, nothing is lost. The hours stay approved and can be sent again once the reason is fixed.
If approvals keep running into the pay run, the payroll cut-off planner works back from pay day to the day each week’s hours need to be approved.
6. Keep the record
Whatever you use, the week should leave behind who worked, when, what changed and why. Time and pay records are a legal obligation for Australian employers; what you have to keep and for how long is set out by the Fair Work Ombudsman, and your accountant or bookkeeper can tell you how it applies to your business.
Questions about the week before payroll
What should I check between the roster and the pay run?
First the gaps: anybody with no finish time, anybody rostered with nothing recorded, and any shift worked without being rostered. Then the differences between worked and rostered hours, the correction requests people sent, and finally the approval of the week.
How big a difference between rostered and worked hours matters?
Five minutes either side is noise. A difference that repeats, such as twenty two minutes over four days a week, is a real number and worth a conversation.
Does approving a timesheet approve somebody’s pay?
No. Approving confirms the hours worked. Rates, penalties and entitlements are applied in payroll, by whoever maintains them.
What time and pay records does an employer have to keep?
Australian employers have to keep time and pay records. What you have to keep and for how long is set out by the Fair Work Ombudsman, and your accountant or bookkeeper can tell you how it applies to your business.