Payroll inputs

What it means

Payroll inputs are all the data a payroll accountant needs to calculate the month’s pay. They include attendance with hours worked, overtime and night or weekend work, holidays, obstacles to work, sick leave and nursing benefit, bonuses, deductions from pay and contract changes.

They also include personnel changes: starters with their contracts and personal details, leavers, changes in hours or pay, new garnishment orders, tax bonus declarations and changes of health insurer. Without them pay cannot be calculated correctly.

Payroll is only as accurate and timely as its inputs. The payroll accountant cannot know that an employee stayed home with a child for three days unless someone says so. An error in the inputs flows into the payout, the contributions and the returns.

How it works in practice

We agree a fixed deadline with clients for handing over the inputs, usually in the first days after month end, and a single format, ideally an export from the attendance system. With a regular payday, that leaves enough time for calculation and checking.

A new starter must be reported before their first working day, because registration with the Social Insurance Agency has to be made before work begins at the latest. Late notice means a risk of a fine for illegal work.

After the calculation, the client receives the payroll summary and payslips to check. We recommend that someone at the company compares them with the inputs before payments go out, because correcting after payday is always harder.

What to watch out for

The most common mistake is reporting changes after the calculation, such as sickness or a bonus. Pay then has to be corrected and amended returns filed, and employees receive differing amounts, which undermines trust.

The second risk is inputs arriving through different channels: some by email, some by phone, some in messages. Something almost always gets lost. One channel and one responsible person at the company greatly reduce errors.