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Guide
Hand off to payroll
Build one file for a pay period that tells whoever runs your payroll who joined, who left, whose pay changed and what approved time off was taken.
Before you start
- A role with the permission to build the payroll hand-off file. It is its own permission: being able to open employee files, or to view pay one record at a time, does not include it. The built-in HR manager role has it.
- Pay recorded on people’s files. The file reports what is on record; it does not work anything out.
- Start dates on joiners’ files and a last day on leavers’ files, since those dates decide who is in the period.
Check the records first
Step 1: Record pay and pay changes
Go to HR & TalentPeople, open the person and select the “Job & pay” tab. On “Compensation history”, click “Add”. Enter “Base pay”, the currency, “Pay period”, “Effective date” and, if you use them, “Target bonus %” and “Reason”. Click “Add record”.
This needs the permission to manage compensation. A record whose effective date falls in the period appears in the file as a pay change.
Typed a wrong figure? A record cannot be edited or deleted. Click “Void” on its row, say why, and click “Void record”. It stays in the history marked “Void” and is left out of the hand-off file. This cannot be undone, so add a new record with the right figures afterwards. The record that came from a signed offer cannot be voided; add a new record instead.Step 2: Check the leavers
On a leaver’s file, the “Leaving” tab shows the “Last day”, “Type” and “Reason”. A departure is created automatically when the person is offboarded. Fill in the type and reason if you want them in the file: see Record that someone is leaving.
Build the file
Step 3: Open Payroll Hand-off
Go to HR & TalentPayroll Hand-off. The banner shows when a period was last prepared and by whom, so the same period is not sent twice by accident.
Step 4: Choose the pay period
Set “Pay period” to the first and last day. It starts on last month. A period cannot be longer than a year.
Step 5: Prepare
Click “Prepare”. Nothing is loaded before you do, because each time the file is prepared is recorded in the audit log, with who prepared which period.
Step 6: Check the four sections
- “Joiners”: people who started in the period, with the pay on record for them at the end of the period.
- “Leavers”: people whose last day is in the period, with their unused leave.
- “Pay changes”: the previous and new base pay. A person’s first record shows as “Starting pay”. A record that was voided is left out.
- “Approved time off”: listed by the day it starts, with the working days of the whole request. Time off taken by the hour shows its hours instead.
Each heading carries a count. Unused leave is each leaver’s balance today, not on their last day.
Step 7: Download
Click “Download all” for one CSV file with each section under its own heading, or “CSV” on a section for that section alone. The CSV files carry more columns than the page shows, including employee ID, work email, legal entity and cost centre for joiners.
Step 8: Changed the dates?
If you change the period after preparing, the page hides the old result and shows “The period changed. Prepare again to see and download the new period.” Click “Prepare again”.
What you should see
A file named “payroll-handoff-…-to-….csv” with the period’s dates in its name. The banner on the page now names you and the period as the last one prepared.
If something goes wrong
- Payroll Hand-off is not in the menu.
- Your role lacks the permission to build the payroll hand-off file, or your plan does not include the HR module. Seeing People or the Job & pay tab is not enough.
- A joiner is missing.
- Joiners are picked by the Start date on their file. Set it with Edit details on the file, then prepare again.
- A joiner’s base pay shows a dash.
- There is no compensation record effective on or before the last day of the period. Add one on their Job & pay tab.
- A leaver is missing.
- Leavers are picked by the Last day on their Leaving tab. Check it falls inside the period.
- Time off someone took is missing.
- Only approved requests are included, and each is listed in the period its first day falls in.
- "A hand-off period cannot be longer than a year."
- Shorten the pay period and prepare again.
Still stuck? See When something goes wrong, or Contact Zonitix support.