Monday, eleven o'clock
Payroll needs the file by lunchtime. Your office has a list of last week's shifts and a pile of timesheets, some via the app, some photographed, some still not in. A handful are signed by someone the trust will not accept. Two nurses worked longer than booked and nobody has approved the difference. One nurse, paid through an umbrella company, needs her hours in a different file.
By two o'clock the file goes, with a list of 'will pay next week' nurses who will ring on Friday wanting to know why.
Why the pay run is always tight
The pay week depends on dozens of small approvals from people outside your agency, all needing to land in a short window. Nothing tells you early which ones will not.
- Nurses submit timesheets late, especially after nights.
- Ward sign-off is chased on the day payroll is due.
- Differences between booked and worked hours are found at the last minute.
- Nurses paid through PAYE and through umbrella companies need different outputs.
- There is no single view of which shifts are ready to pay and which are not.
How nurses are engaged and what your pay terms say are decisions for you and your advisers. The problem this solves is the mechanics of getting a complete, correct pay run out on time.
What the scramble costs
Nurses paid late or short ring your office and lose confidence in you. Office staff spend Monday on payroll instead of bookings. Errors made under time pressure mean corrections the week after. And timesheets that miss the pay run often also miss the invoice run, which hits cash flow.
The pressure also produces workarounds that cause trouble later. A timesheet is paid on the nurse's word because the ward has not signed yet, and then the trust disputes the hours. Or an unapproved overrun is paid in full to avoid a Friday phone call, and the agency absorbs the difference because the client will only be charged for booked hours.
| Shift state | What happens before cut-off |
|---|---|
| Timesheet not submitted | Nurse reminded after the shift and again before cut-off |
| Submitted, not signed off | Ward signatory reminded, agency alerted |
| Hours differ from booking | Flagged for approval, with the difference shown |
| Approved and priced | Ready for the payroll file |
| Late after cut-off | Your late rule applied, nurse told when it will be paid |
How we build the pay week
- Every booked shift appears in a pay week view with the state of its timesheet: missing, submitted, signed, queried or approved.
- Nurses get a reminder after each shift to submit, and again before the cut-off if they have not.
- Ward signatories get reminders for unsigned timesheets, and your office sees which wards are slow.
- Differences from booked hours are flagged for someone with authority to approve, with the booking and timesheet side by side.
- At cut-off, approved shifts are priced by your pay rules and put into the right output: your payroll software or provider's file, or each umbrella company's format.
- Anything that missed the cut-off is handled by your late timesheet rule, and the nurse is told automatically when it will be paid.
- The same approved shifts feed the invoice run, so pay and billing match.
Mondays afterwards
Most timesheets are in and approved before Monday, because reminders went out through the week. The morning is spent on a short list of exceptions. The payroll file and umbrella files are generated, not assembled. Nurses who missed the cut-off know why and when they will be paid before they ring.
Your bookers spend Monday booking, which is what the agency is for.
Is your Monday like this?
- Payroll files are assembled by hand on the day.
- Timesheets are chased on the morning of the pay run.
- Nurses ring on Friday about missing pay.
- Umbrella company files are built separately.
- You cannot see mid-week which shifts are ready to pay.