1. Lock the payroll population
Confirm active employees, joiners, exits, transfers, unpaid leave cases and employees on hold. Every change should have an effective date, owner and supporting approval.
- Joiners activated with complete bank and payroll data
- Exits and last-working dates reviewed
- Transfers and cost centres updated
- Employees on hold or special status identified
2. Close time, leave and shift inputs
Review attendance exceptions by owner and location before cut-off. Pending regularisation should be resolved or explicitly carried through the approved exception process.
- Attendance period closed
- Leave impact validated
- Overtime approved
- Shift allowances reviewed
- Loss-of-pay cases confirmed
3. Validate compensation and variables
Check new salary structures, revisions, incentives, deductions, reimbursements and recoveries against approved source records.
- Salary revisions effective-dated
- Incentive and variable-pay files approved
- Reimbursements included in the correct cycle
- Loans, advances or recoveries validated
4. Run exception-led validation
Compare the current run with the previous approved payroll and explain material movement. Review unusual net pay, negative values, duplicate bank details, missing components and outliers.
- Gross and net variance explained
- New and zero-value records reviewed
- Bank and statutory identifiers checked
- Cost-centre totals reconciled
5. Record approvals and release outputs
Preserve reviewer and approver evidence, then publish only the approved version of payslips, bank advice, accounting data and employee communication.
- Payroll reviewer sign-off
- Authorised final approval
- Bank advice version controlled
- Payslips released
- Post-payroll corrections logged separately
This resource is operational guidance, not legal, tax or statutory advice. Validate current obligations and final configurations with qualified advisors and official authorities.