A shift scheduled to finish at 6pm runs until 7pm. The employee records the extra hour, but their manager has not reviewed it when payroll closes. If the pay run uses only the original rota, an hourly-paid worker could be underpaid despite a perfectly sound calculation.
The risk sits in the handover between the employee, the manager reviewing their hours and the team preparing wages. Each needs to know which figures have been checked and which still need an answer.
Separate planned hours from worked hours
A rota shows intended cover. The employee’s time record gives an account of what happened, including late finishes, swaps and changes of location. Where they differ, a manager needs to establish why and decide how the change affects pay.
For the late shift, that means comparing the scheduled finish with the employee’s entry, confirming why the shift overran and checking the relevant pay arrangements. An entry awaiting approval calls for a conversation, rather than an assumption that the extra hour was never worked.
Breaks deserve similar attention. If someone worked through a break or took it at a different time, record what happened before deciding how the time should be treated. Separating the account of the shift from the pay decision makes a discrepancy easier to resolve.
Review exceptions before payroll closes
Managers can focus their pre-payroll check on entries that need an answer: a rostered day with no recorded hours, a missing finish time, a shift that differs from the plan or additional hours awaiting review. A blank entry might reflect a missed submission or an absence. Check the leave record before treating it as either.
Give staff a straightforward way to report a missed entry while the details are fresh. The date, hours worked and a brief explanation give the manager something specific to check against shift arrangements and other available records. If the entry changes, note why.
Set a submission deadline that leaves managers time to ask questions before payroll cut-off. Flag any unresolved discrepancy to payroll rather than letting a copied rota figure or blank entry pass through as though it had been checked. Payroll can then follow up on the outstanding item before finalising the pay run.
Make the handover explicit
Even approved hours can go astray when responsibilities are assumed rather than assigned. An employee submits a correction, the manager expects payroll to pick it up, and payroll works from an earlier set of figures. Agree who signs off amended hours, who answers payroll queries and which record is final for each pay run.
For teams with variable hours, time and attendance software can bring recorded hours and approved timesheets together before the figures reach payroll. Managers and payroll still need a clear handover between approval and processing.
Before the pay run, compare the hours signed off by managers with those entered for payroll. Pay particular attention to corrections made close to cut-off and submissions returned to employees for amendment. If a revised figure arrives after the first handover, label it clearly so the earlier version is not processed instead.
Trace a pay query back to its source
When an employee questions a payslip, ask which dates and pay items are in dispute. Compare the payroll input with the approved hours, then the original entry. Following that trail shows whether the difference arose during recording, review or transfer, without asking someone to reconstruct an entire pay period to explain one shift.
Give the employee a named contact and a date for an update. If a correction is needed, payroll can determine how to put the pay right and whether any related reporting also needs attention. Keep the original entry alongside an explanation of the change, so the decision can be understood later.
Tax, holiday pay and employee details can cause errors that call for different checks. But if missing entries or late approvals keep recurring, the next pay run is a chance to fix the handover rather than correct the same payslip problem again.