When the end date for a pay period is reached in ezLaborManager, you must run Prepare for Payroll for the associated pay cycle. During this process, the pay cycle is checked for errors, missing supervisor approvals, and other items and is then locked to prevent further changes to employees' time. You are also prompted to create a payroll export file (if required by your company and if one has not already been created). Prior to running Prepare for Payroll, make sure that all employees have had the opportunity to record their hours for the pay period.

If any errors are found, on-screen instructions are provided to learn how to correct them. After you complete the Prepare for Payroll process, you should exit ezLaborManager, go to your payroll application, import the payroll export file, and process your payroll. When you have received your payroll and verified it, you can then come back to the application and run Move to Next Pay Period. This process moves the pay cycle to the next pay period.

Note: If your company's payroll schedule requires you to run payroll before the end of every pay period, use the Projected Payroll feature. For more information, see Projecting Payroll. You can only use this feature if it has been enabled by an ADP Support Representative.

To prepare your employees' data for payroll:

1. From the Manager Home page, click the Prepare for Payroll icon. The Prepare for Payroll page opens, which lists all pay cycles that you have access to in your company. For each pay cycle, the following information is displayed:

3. Click the Start Preparation link for the pay cycle you want to prepare for payroll. While the Prepare for Payroll process is running, only the progress bar, the area currently being verified, and the name of the pay cycle are displayed on the page. If errors are found, the process stops. Click the following links for detailed information about the errors and exceptions that may be found:

• Pending events

  Prepare for Payroll checks for the presence of pending events, such as deferred timecards that have not yet been processed. If any pending events are identified, you must take action or wait for them to be completed.

  If any timecards are found that have not been processed, click the provided link to submit the timecards for immediate processing.

  If a message indicates that system events are in progress, follow the instructions given in the message. In most cases, the message recommends waiting a few minutes for the events to be completed.

• Payroll related exceptions

  Prepare for Payroll checks for any payroll-related exceptions. The most common payroll-related exceptions are: Payroll Approval Required, Exceeds Accrual Hours Available, and Employees with Unapproved Timecard. If any payroll-related exceptions are found, click the link indicating the exception type and number of exceptions. Details about the exceptions are displayed in the right pane, from which you can usually address the exceptions. When you have resolved all of the payroll-related exceptions that must be cleared before the pay period can be moved, click the Continue Prepare for Payroll button. Exceptions for Employees with Unapproved Timecards do not have to be resolved.

  Instructions for resolving the most common exceptions are given below.

  Note: The available solutions for each exception depend on the severity level assigned to each exception type by your company. The severity level can determine whether an exception can be cleared simply by noting it, or whether the timecard has to be edited to remove the condition that caused the exception. The severity level assigned to an exception also controls whether or not a pay period can be closed if the exception is not resolved.

  Payroll Approval Required exceptions

  If Payroll Approval Required exceptions exist, click the Payroll Approval Required link to view a table of the records requiring approval.

  • To view complete time pair detail information, including distribution and exception information, click the status icon next to a record. When you are finished viewing the detail information, click the Close button to return to Prepare for Payroll.

  • To clear the Payroll Approval Required exceptions by approving the timecard records listed in the Payroll Approval Required table, select the check box in the header row of the Solution: Approve column, and then click the Submit button. (You can also select individual check boxes if you do not want to approve every record.)

  • To resolve a Payroll Approval Required exception by editing a time pair, click the date in the Pay Date column of the Payroll Approval Required table. This opens the Timecard Manager, from which you can edit the time pair. When you are finished editing the time pair, click the Save & Calculate button.

  After you have addressed each Payroll Approval Required exception, click the Continue Prepare for Payroll button.

  Exceeds Accrual Hours Available exceptions

  This exception indicates that an employee has exceeded a negative threshold determined by your company for a certain accrual. For example, an employee may have taken a vacation day that brings his/her accrued vacation balance to -8.0 hours, but your company only allows 4 hours of negative vacation balance.

  If any exceptions of this type exist, click the Exceeds accrual hours available link to view a table of the records with this exception.

  • To view complete time pair detail information, including distribution and exception information, click the icon in the Status column for a time pair. When you are finished viewing the detail information, click the Close button to return to Prepare for Payroll.

  • To clear the accrual exceptions by noting them, select the check box in the Solution column for each exception and then click the Submit button.

  • To resolve an exception by editing a time pair, click the date in the Time column of the Exceeds Accrual Hours Available table. This opens the Timecard Manager, from which you can edit the time pair. When you are finished editing the time pair, click the Save & Calculate button.

  After you have addressed each accrual exception, click the Continue Prepare for Payroll button.

  Employees with Unapproved Timecard exceptions

  If your company allows employees to approve their timecards, ezLaborManager generates an exception for each employee who has not yet approved his/her timecard. You cannot resolve these exceptions, since they require employees to verify their own timecard data. You can only e-mail a reminder to the employees and/or their supervisors.

  Note: You do not have to resolve Employees with Unapproved Timecards exceptions. If you do not want to resolve them, click the Skip button.

  Click the Employees with Unapproved Timecards link.

  • To send e-mail notifications to all employees who have not approved their timecards and to those employees' supervisors, select All supervisors and all employees on all pages from the menu at the bottom of the page, and then click the Notify button.

  • To send e-mail notifications only to the employees who have not approved their timecards, select All employees on all pages from the menu at the bottom of the page, and then click the Notify button.

  • To send e-mail notifications only to the supervisors of employees who have not approved their timecards, select All supervisors on all pages from the menu at the bottom of the page, and then click the Notify button.

  • To send e-mail notifications to only some of the listed employees and supervisors, select the check box in the supervisor Notify column or the employee Notify column for each supervisor or employee you want to notify. If the list of employees and supervisors spans more than one page, use the Next> and <Previous links to view the other pages and make your selections. After you have selected all of the supervisors and employees you want to e-mail, choose Selected recipients only from the drop-down box at the bottom of the page, and then click the Notify button.

  Note: The icon indicates that no e-mail address has been defined for the supervisor or employee.

  When you have resolved all of the payroll-related exceptions, click the Continue Prepare for Payroll button.

• Time pair exceptions

  Prepare for Payroll checks for any time-pair-related exceptions, such as Supervisor Approval Required, Missing In/Out Punch, Clocked In/Out Early/Late, and other timecard exceptions. This step also identifies any supplemental earnings exceptions, such as Supplemental Earnings Supervisor Approval Required. If any of these exceptions are found, they are listed in an Employees with Exceptions in Current Pay Period table. As an administrator, you have two ways to address these exceptions:

  E-mail supervisors — If you do not need to complete Prepare for Payroll immediately, you can e-mail the supervisors of the employees with exceptions, and then wait for the relevant supervisors to resolve the exceptions.

  • To e-mail only selected supervisors, select the check box in the Notify column for each supervisor you want to notify. If the list of exceptions spans more than one page, use the Next> and <Previous links to view the other pages and select all of the supervisors you want to e-mail. After you have selected all of the supervisors you want to e-mail, choose Selected recipients only from the drop-down box at the bottom of the page, and then click the Notify button.

  • To e-mail all supervisors of employees who have exceptions, select All supervisors on all pages from the drop-down menu at the bottom of the page, and then click the Notify button.

  Note: The icon indicates that no e-mail address has been defined for a supervisor.

  Resolve exceptions yourself — If you cannot wait for supervisors to resolve the exceptions, you can resolve them yourself. To do this, click the button in the Edit Time Pair column for an employee listed in the Employees with Exceptions in Current Pay Period table. The employee's timecard is then displayed. Time pairs with exceptions are indicated with a   (Warning) or   (Error) icon, and a description of each exception is given underneath the time pair. Many time pair exceptions have common solutions that can be easily applied by making a selection from a drop-down menu. Other types of exceptions can only be resolved by editing the associated time pair.

  For each exception with a drop-down Solution box, select an appropriate solution. For example, to resolve a Supervisor Approval Required exception, select Approve. To resolve a Missing Out Punch exception, select Use Schedule. To resolve a Clocked Out Late exception, select either Note (to allow the late out punch) or Use Schedule (to replace it with the employee's scheduled out time). After you have selected solutions for each exception, click the Save and Calculate button. The employee's timecard refreshes. If other exceptions still exist that do not have a Solution drop-down box, or if you do not want to use one of the available solutions for some exceptions, you must edit individual time pairs to resolve the remaining exceptions (see below).

  For exceptions that are marked No Solution, or that you want to edit manually, edit the time pair as necessary and then click the Save & Calculate button. After the page refreshes, click the Continue Prepare for Payroll button.

  If Supplemental Earnings exceptions exist, click the button in the Edit Supplemental Earnings column to open the Supplemental Earnings page. Edit the supplemental earnings record as necessary, select the Supervisor or Loan Approval check boxes (if available) for each transaction, and then click the Save and Calculate button. After the page refreshes, click the Continue Prepare for Payroll button.

• Attendance exceptions

  Note: If your company does not use attendance tracking, the following information does not apply to you.

  If your company uses ezLaborManager's attendance tracking features, Prepare for Payroll displays the number of employees with pending Attendance events, runs the attendance processor, and then lists any employees who require attendance corrective actions. Depending on your company's configuration, any required attendance corrective actions may need to be completed before you can proceed with Prepare for Payroll. You can either e-mail supervisors to notify them to perform the necessary corrective actions, or you can record the actions yourself.

  E-mail supervisors — If you do not need to complete Prepare for Payroll immediately, you can e-mail the supervisors who have employees requiring attendance corrective actions, and then wait for the relevant supervisors to perform and record the attendance corrective actions.

  To e-mail only selected supervisors, select the check box in the Notify column for each supervisor you want to notify. If the list of employees requiring attendance corrective actions spans more than one page, use the Next> and <Previous links to view the other pages and select all of the supervisors you want to e-mail. After you have selected all of the supervisors you want to e-mail, choose Selected recipients only from the menu at the bottom of the page, and then click the Notify button.

  To e-mail all supervisors of employees requiring corrective actions, select All supervisors on all pages from the menu at the bottom of the page, and then click the Notify button.

  Note: The icon indicates that no e-mail address has been defined for a supervisor.

  Record corrective actions yourself — If you cannot wait for supervisors to perform and record the required corrective actions, you can do them yourself:

  In the Attendance Corrective Action table, click the link in the Event Date column for an employee requiring an attendance corrective action. An Attendance Infraction Requiring Corrective Action page opens and displays the necessary corrective action.

  • To view more information about the circumstances leading up to the infraction, click the Information link in the upper right corner and the Details link near the bottom right corner.

  • To record the corrective action using its default values, click the Submit button. The Attendance Corrective Action table opens again and shows any other employees requiring attendance corrective actions.

  If other employees require attendance corrective actions, repeat these steps.

  When no employees are listed in the Attendance Corrective Action table, click the Continue Prepare for Payroll button.

  Note: Corrective actions are events, such as verbal or written warnings, that must be performed by a supervisor or administrator with an employee. The ezLaborManager application does not perform these actions. It only stores corrective action records, which are entered by supervisors and administrators. A supervisor or administrator must ensure that the actual verbal warning or other event occurs. For more information about attendance, see Managing Employee Attendance.

• Payroll reconciliation exceptions

  Notes:
  Reconciliation is an optional ezLaborManager feature, even for companies using projected payroll. If your company has not been configured to use the Projected Payroll and Reconciliation features, this step is skipped. If Reconciliation is enabled, all reconciliations must be reviewed and either accepted or rejected before you can proceed with Prepare for Payroll.
  
  If you are processing your first projected payroll for a pay cycle, there will not yet be any reconciliation records. Reconciliation records are based on the previous pay period's projected payroll.

  Prepare for Payroll checks for any unreviewed projected payroll reconciliation records. If any reconciliation adjustments have not been either accepted or rejected, ezLaborManager displays an error message and provides a link to the Reconciliation page. You must reconcile all records before you can proceed to the next step. To do this, click the Reconciliation Page link. The Payroll Reconciliation Summary page opens for the first employee with an unreconciled record.

  Review and accept or reject each reconciliation adjustment for the pay cycle.

  • To accept all of the reconciliation adjustments for an employee, click the Accept All button on the Payroll Reconciliation Summary page. This has the effect of adjusting the employee's payroll so that he/she is paid for the exact hours he/she recorded during the last projected pay cycle. After you click the Accept All button, the Payroll Reconciliation Summary page refreshes and displays the unreviewed reconciliation adjustments for the next employee.

  • To reject all of the reconciliation adjustments for an employee, click the Reject All button on the Payroll Reconciliation Summary page. Clicking this button cancels the adjustments and results in the employee being paid according to the projected hours that were exported with projected payroll. No payroll adjustments are made in this case. After you click the Reject All button, the Payroll Reconciliation Summary page refreshes and displays the unreviewed reconciliation adjustments for the next employee.

  • To view more details about an employee's reconciliation adjustments so that you can accept and reject individual adjustments, click the Details link in the menu on the left side of the Payroll Reconciliation Summary page. On the Details page, click in the Accept or Reject column for each row to accept or reject each transaction. To accept all of the adjustments, click the All button in the header of the Accept column. To reject all of the adjustments, click the All button in the header of the Reject column. After you have reviewed and marked each adjustment, click the Submit button. The Payroll Reconciliation Summary page refreshes and displays the unreviewed reconciliation adjustments for the next employee.

  After you have reviewed all of the reconciliation adjustments, click the Continue Prepare for Payroll button at the bottom of the page.

• Payroll export requirements (EasyPayNet users only)

  When Prepare for Payroll stops on the Checking payroll export requirements page, you can create any additional reports that you need and then create a payroll export file for the pay cycle.

  Create Additional Reports

  1. If you want to create additional reports, click the Access reports to run payroll/timecard reports link on the Checking payroll export requirements page.

  2. On the Reports page, click the Administrator Reports link, and then click the View Report () button next to each report that you want to print or save.

  3. When the report opens in a new window, go to your browser’s File menu and select Print or Save As to print or save the report.

  Create and Download a Payroll Export File

  1. Edit the Description and Export Type fields (if needed) on the Checking payroll export requirements page.

  2. If you want an ezLaborManager Inbox message sent to a user when the export file has been created, click the Select button () next to the User to Receive Inbox Message on Completion field.

  3. In the User Lookup window, select a user.

  4. If you want an e-mail message sent to an individual when the export file has been created, enter an e-mail address in the E-mail Address for Additional Notification of Completion field.

  5. When you are satisfied with your selections for the payroll export file, click the Create Export button.

  Notes:
  When you click Create Export, the Exports page opens. Your payroll export file is displayed first in the list and has the Unprocessed icon () next to it. Click the Refresh button every few moments until the Exported icon () is displayed. When this icon appears, the export has been successfully created.
  
  If the Processed With Errors icon () is displayed, click the number in the Errors column to see detailed information for each error. If the errors are not critical to the exported data, you can continue with the Prepare for Payroll process. If you need to correct any of the errors in the exported data, delete the export record, correct the errors in ezLaborManager, and then create a new export file. Contact your ADP ezLaborManager representative if you need assistance.

  6. When you are satisfied with the export file that contains your pay cycle data, click the Download button () in the Action column on the Exports page.

  7. In the File Download window, click Run.

  8. If a security warning pop-up window displays, click Run again and then in the WinZip Self Extractor dialog box, make a note of the location where the file is unzipped. This is the file you will import to EasyPayNet.

  9. Click the Unzip button.

  10. Click the OK button.

  11. Click the Close button.

  12. Click the Continue Prepare for Payroll button.

4. When you reach the Preparation complete page, click the Finished button.

5. If you are a Teledata user, exit ezLaborManager and call in or fax your payroll.

6. If you are an EasyPayNet user, exit ezLaborManager and go to EasyPayNet and import your payroll export file and process your payroll. For instructions, review your EasyPayNet documentation.

7. When you receive your payroll, verify that it is accurate

8. Log back into ezLaborManager and complete the Move to Next Pay Period process.