Payroll day, a pile of timesheets
Your social enterprise has thirty people on its payroll, and fifteen of them are trainees or supported employees on variable hours. Some work sixteen hours a week, some fewer, some build up gradually as part of a plan agreed with their job coach. Some weeks include training days, appointments, sickness or time on a work trial that is unpaid under the programme rules. Some people's hours must stay within limits linked to their benefits, which they and their advisers keep an eye on.
At the end of each month, supervisors hand in paper timesheets. The finance officer adds them up, checks them against the rota, spots three that do not match, chases the supervisors, and types the hours into the payroll software. Once a quarter a trainee is paid for the wrong hours, and correcting it takes a painful conversation and an adjustment the following month.
Why trainee hours are harder than staff hours
| Feature | Why it complicates payroll |
|---|---|
| Hours change as people progress | No standard contract pattern to rely on |
| Mix of paid work and other activity | Training, appointments and trials may be treated differently |
| Hours limits some people must watch | Going over can cause them real problems |
| Several supervisors across sites | Timesheets in different formats |
| Sickness and absence | Recorded on the rota, not always on the timesheet |
What counts as paid time, how pay is calculated and what limits apply to any individual are for your payroll provider, your accountant and the people themselves with their advisers. We do not give payroll, employment or benefits advice. We get accurate hours to the right place.
Paper also hides mistakes. A timesheet that says 4 when it should say 6 looks perfectly normal.
What payroll errors cost
For the trainee, an underpayment is a real hardship and an overpayment can be worse, because it has to be recovered and may affect other income. Either one damages trust in an employer that is meant to be a safe first step into work.
For the organisation, the finance officer loses days each month, and corrections create more work the month after. Supervisors get chased for signatures instead of supervising.
Hours captured once and sent to payroll
What we build takes hours from the shop floor to payroll without retyping.
- Each person clocks in and out on a tablet at the site, or their supervisor records it for them, choosing the type of time: paid work, training, appointment, trial or other categories you define.
- Planned hours from the rota sit alongside actual hours, so differences are flagged as they happen rather than at month end.
- Where a person has an hours limit they have asked you to help them keep to, the supervisor sees a gentle warning as they approach it.
- Supervisors approve their team's week on their phone. Anything unapproved is chased automatically before the payroll cut-off.
- At cut-off, approved paid hours are exported in the import format your payroll software uses, such as Sage, BrightPay, Xero Payroll or QuickBooks Payroll, or sent to your payroll bureau as a clean file.
- Absence and sickness are recorded the same way, so they reach payroll with the hours.
People who find a tablet difficult are not left out. Supervisors can record for them, and the record shows who entered it.
The next payroll
On the Friday before cut-off, the finance officer checks the dashboard: all supervisors have approved except one, who has had a reminder. Two differences between rota and actual hours were already explained by supervisors during the month. On Monday she downloads the payroll file and imports it. It takes less than an hour.
A trainee whose hours are building up gradually sees his week on the tablet at the end of each shift and knows what he will be paid.
Is this your payroll month?
- Trainee timesheets are on paper and retyped.
- Hours vary every week and are checked against the rota by hand.
- Different kinds of time are hard to separate.
- Payroll errors for trainees happen more than once a year.
- Supervisors are chased for signatures at month end.