Using the Payroll Reports

Only HR Admins can access this report. To access the report:

1. Click Reports in the main navigation bar
2. Visit the Payroll tab

Payroll reports are designed for regular use (every pay cycle) to provide an overview of recent changes in Workable HR. An HR Admin creates and customizes the report, saves it, and then accesses it each pay cycle to generate a CSV export of all data needed for the payroll provider.

 

Default payroll report

The Default payroll report is a "template" that payroll managers use to view, filter, and export data (to CSV) for submission to their payroll provider for processing payroll. You can adjust the time filter of the report to the pay cycle you wish to monitor changes for (e.g., weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, monthly).

Each line output of the Default payroll report constitutes either a new hire, a profile update, or an approved time-off request for the current month. More specifically:

Employee profile updates (including new hires)

The Default payroll report will track any profile changes on the following fields: 

• Employee name 

• Employee ID

• Address

• Pay rate

• Effective date

• Pay type

Only the new field values will be provided, as this is what payroll needs. If you wish to view both the previous and new values of an updated field, then you can use the Profile Updates report as an audit log. For new hires, there will be a new line for each new hire with all their data fields (a new hire counts as an update by default).

You can customize your data columns as explained below.

Time-off requests

The Default payroll report will track any approved time-off requests for the specified time range capturing the following fields:

• Time-off type
• Time-off start date
• Time-off end date
• Time requested

 

Custom payroll reports

Custom payroll reports enable you to create tailored payroll reports by selecting specific data columns, applying filters, and customizing formatting. Once you save your custom payroll reports, you can reuse and export them for your regular payroll tasks.

Data column customization

By clicking Customize data, you can choose which fields to track for the report by selecting/deselecting them accordingly. Available for selection will be all fields available under your default employee profile template.

While customizing the report data, you can also:

• Rename the data columns to use a common name with your payroll provider by clicking the pencil icon.
  
  This is particularly useful if the payroll provider uses different terminology (or even a different language) for the same field, but you do not wish to change the field in Workable.
• Reorder the data columns by hovering over a field and clicking the “up” or “down” arrows. This feature helps tailor the report's format to meet your provider's requirements.
  

Filters

A common use case is expected for HR admins to separate reports based on legal entities, but you can also apply filters on the following:

• Departments
• Entities & locations
• Employment types
• Time-off types

Saving your custom payroll reports

If you are creating a new custom report from the default payroll report, then click Save as a custom report and give a descriptive name, e.g., UK Payroll - Full time. Once done, you can view all your new reports under the Payroll report tab.

Actions in custom payroll reports

Clicking on the tile of a custom payroll report you can view it and make edits, if needed. If you are editing an existing custom report, you can Save changes there or save them as a new custom report. From the three dots menu on the right of each custom report tile, you can also rename, duplicate, or delete a custom report.

 

FAQs

What if I don't want to capture some fields (e.g., address, time off related fields)?

In your custom report, untick the fields from the data columns and save your changes. That way, all employees who had an update for the removed fields during this pay cycle will not show up in the report (that is, if they did not have any other profile updates).

By removing all time-off-related fields, the report will not fetch any approved time-off requests.

Are new hires included in the payroll reports?

For new hires, each one will have a separate line with all their information. New hires are considered updates by default, so they will always be included in payroll reports.

How can I track employment terminations in the payroll reports?

To track terminations, you can include the 'Status' from the data columns so that every time this changes from active to inactive, you can count the terminations for a specific pay cycle.

How is this different from the "Profile updates” & “Time-off requests” reports?

The following features are included with the payroll reports but not with the other reports:

• Time-off requests are trimmed along with the time filter. For instance, a time-off request spanning from August 30 to September 2, 2024 (two days in total) will only appear as August 30-31 and will count as one day in the August pay cycle report.
• Only approved time-off requests are included.
• Customizable report and column names
• Data column reordering
• Extra filters (Employment types, Time-off types)
• Shows only the new value and does not provide a history of changes (changed from -> to)