What To Prepare Before Each Payroll Run

Know Your Calendar

Before anything else, know the dates. Run date, cutoff date, and any holidays that shift them. A payroll calendar that's mapped ahead of time means nobody finds out the morning of that the cutoff was actually yesterday.

Map the full year if you can — pay dates, holiday shifts, and quarter-end obligations — so the calendar drives the routine instead of the other way around.

• Run date and cutoff date for this cycle
• Holidays that shift either date
• Quarter-end and year-end dates flagged

Collect Approved Hours

Hours go in only after they're approved — by the person who manages them, in whatever system you use. Paying off an unapproved timesheet is how errors become paychecks.

Get the approvals in by the cutoff, and the run stays clean. Miss the cutoff and you're either rushing or pushing the run, neither of which is great.

• Timesheets approved by the cutoff
• Overtime and any rate-triggering hours confirmed
• Missing time flagged and resolved, not assumed

Confirm Employee Changes

Rate changes, status changes, new hires, and terminations all need to be in the run before it goes out. A raise that's missed this cycle becomes a correction next cycle — and a confused employee in the meantime.

Keep a running log of changes so nothing slips between the conversation and the paycheck.

• Rate changes applied and documented
• New hires set up before their first check
• Status changes (leave, end) reflected this cycle
• Reimbursements approved and attached

Run An Exception Check

Before the run goes out, scan for anything unusual: an odd number of hours, a pay amount that jumps, a name that shouldn't be there. A two-minute scan catches the kind of mistake that costs hours to unwind after the fact.

• Unusual hours or amounts flagged
• Expected people on the run, no extras or missing
• Deductions matching what you expect

Record And Hand Off

Once the run goes out, keep the records clean and retrievable — per employee, per run. Year-end is just a series of payroll runs stitched together, and the cleaner each one is, the cleaner the summaries are when it's time to file.

We keep the books organized; your designated payroll-tax filer handles the deposits and returns. The handoff is cleanest when the records are.

• Per-employee records kept for every run
• Change log maintained across cycles
• Wage summaries organized for year-end