Closing a Period

Period close is the moment when accumulated configuration errors become payslips. A checklist run every time is what keeps that from happening.

Before locking

Missing entries. People with no time recorded who should have some — starters, returners from leave, anyone whose device failed.

Incomplete shifts. Clock-ins with no clock-out.

Outliers. Entries far outside a person's normal range, in either direction.

Unapproved time, and whether the policy is to chase or to pay as recorded.

Retrospective edits made near the cut-off, which is where deliberate and accidental problems both show up.

Rule exceptions triggered: overtime above a threshold, rest period breaches, unusual premiums.

Six checks, automatable, and each has a defined response.

Locking

Lock, do not delete the ability to correct. A locked period should still accept an authorised correction that leaves a record.

Record what locked it — a payroll run, a scheduled close, a person — and when.

Notify the people affected that their period is closed, which is both a courtesy and the last chance for someone to say their record is wrong.

The export

Generate, then reconcile before sending, not after.

Compare counts and totals per pay group against the system's own report. A mismatch between the export and the report that produced it is rare and catastrophic, and it happens after upgrades.

Keep the exported file with the period record. In a dispute, what was sent matters as much as what was recorded.

When a check fails

Missing entries: contact the person, record what they say, enter with a source marked as retrospective.

Never estimate on someone's behalf without telling them. An estimated entry that becomes their pay is the single most common source of grievance in this category.

Incomplete shifts: the same, with the additional note that a supervisor's memory is the weakest available evidence and should be recorded as such.

Outliers: ask before correcting. Half are real.

Rest period breaches: these are a working-time finding, not a data error. Report them rather than fixing the record.

After close

File the checklist result with the period.

Record corrections made after close, with cause.

Watch the trend. Rising corrections mean a configuration problem upstream, and the period close is where it becomes visible before anyone else notices.

A close that takes longer each month is telling you something about data quality that no dashboard will.

Never estimate silently

The single most common source of grievance in this category.

An entry invented on someone's behalf that becomes their pay.

Contact the person. Record what they say. Mark the entry as retrospective with its source.

Where they cannot be reached, record the estimate as an estimate, visible to them, correctable.

A supervisor's memory is the weakest available evidence and should be labelled as such in the record rather than entered as fact.

Close client work consistently

Retail and online operations often combine campaigns, fulfilment and support work in one period. An e-commerce time tracking workflow should still produce a locked, reconcilable record after approvals.