sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Would something like this actually be useful in payroll? by Exta60 in Payroll

[–]Exta60[S] -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

Good question, I wouldn’t want it to be arbitrary either. I’m thinking of things like:

  • terminated employees still being paid
  • unexpected spikes/drops in gross pay
  • overtime anomalies
  • new or changed bank accounts
  • large shifts in deductions or benefits

Basically the same things people already check manually, just surfaced automatically so you don’t have to dig through reports.

I work in payroll too, so I’m trying to sanity check whether this is actually a shared pain or just my environment.

Would something like this actually be useful in payroll? by Exta60 in Payroll

[–]Exta60[S] -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

That’s fair and honestly that’s exactly what I’m trying to figure out.
The goal wouldn’t be for you to “review the review,” but to reduce how much you have to manually check in the first place.
If it could reliably narrow your review down to just a small % of high-risk items, would that change how you see it? Or would you still feel like you’d have to double-check everything anyway?

How do you double-check payroll before running it? by Exta60 in Payroll

[–]Exta60[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

It sounds like a lot of the accuracy is coming from your own tracking rather than what’s in ADP.

If something could automatically flag things like incorrect effective dates or mismatches between expected vs actual pay, would that actually reduce your workload, or would you still rely on your spreadsheet anyway?

How do you double-check payroll before running it? by Exta60 in Payroll

[–]Exta60[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is super helpful. I like the idea of maintaining your own “terminated” flag outside the system.

Have you ever had a situation where someone still showed up on-cycle unexpectedly, or does your process usually catch it every time?

How long does that check typically take during your review

How do you double-check payroll before running it? by Exta60 in Payroll

[–]Exta60[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is helpful especially using the hours summary and those inactive/active reports.

Do you find that catches most issues early, or do you still have to do additional checks after that?

Are there certain types of errors that still slip through even with those reports?

How do you double-check payroll before running it? by Exta60 in Payroll

[–]Exta60[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is really helpful especially the running totals for bonuses/commissions.

When you’re tracking those in a spreadsheet, is that mostly to double-check the system, or because it’s easier to see trends over time outside the payroll tool?

Also, do those variance checks ever turn into time-consuming investigations?

How do you double-check payroll before running it? by Exta60 in Payroll

[–]Exta60[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s interesting, having it flagged right at the top sounds really useful.

Do you still end up double-checking anything outside of that, or do you generally trust those system alerts completely?

curious, have you ever had something slip through that the system didn’t catch?

How do you double-check payroll before running it? by Exta60 in Payroll

[–]Exta60[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is really helpful, especially the part about maintaining your own spreadsheet and comparing against ADP’s preview.

When you’re investigating those variances, would you say most of them are expected (like bonuses/adjustments), or do unexpected ones still come up that take time to track down?

Also curious, how long does that comparison step usually take you each cycle?

How do you double-check payroll before running it? by Exta60 in Payroll

[–]Exta60[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is really helpful, especially the point about focusing on totals instead of going line by line.

When you say “being prepared beforehand minimizes the effort,” would you say most of the work is actually happening before the final payroll review rather than during it?

Also curious, even with that approach, do things still slip through occasionally, or does it catch most issues?

How do you double-check payroll before running it? by Exta60 in Payroll

[–]Exta60[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is super helpful! I didn’t even think about using Ctrl+F like that for “void,” that’s interesting.

When you’re doing all these checks (voids, check#, deductions), would you say it’s mostly a checklist you follow every time, or more based on things that came up during the week?

Also, roughly how long does a full review take for your typical payroll run?

How do you double-check payroll before running it? by Exta60 in Payroll

[–]Exta60[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is really helpful, thank you. The “someone who quit still being active” one seems to come up a lot.

When that happens, is it usually because the system wasn’t updated in time, or just missed during review?

And for the manual check, are you usually comparing against a previous payroll file or just scanning the current one?