---
title: "Payroll Runs"
description: "Prepare, review and approve each pay run, then post one balanced journal to your books. Overtime, holiday pay, deductions and payslip PDFs included."
url: "https://bareledger.app/guides/payroll"
category: "Team, roles & approvals"
updated: "2026-11-04"
publisher: "BareLedger (Syneria Technologies OPC)"
---

# Payroll Runs

> Prepare, review, approve: one balanced journal per run, maker-checker all the way to the bank.

**Who can use this page**: HR Officers prepare, HR Managers and Reviewers review, **only Approvers and the Accountant approve** — international payroll control: no one holds two consecutive steps, and the person who approves the cost never also releases the cash. Find it under **People → Payroll Runs**.

## Running payroll

1. **New payroll run**: pick the pay group (or all employees) and the period + pay date. The run computes one payslip per active employee: basic pay from their pay basis (a monthly salary pro-rated to the frequency, or daily/hourly rates × the **approved timesheet**), plus assigned pay items, then every statutory scheme and withholding — each payslip line pinned to the exact rate version that produced it.
2. **Time not worked (monthly-paid staff)**: a monthly salary assumes the person worked every scheduled day, so the run takes off what they didn't work — *no work, no pay*. Each comes out as its own payslip line with the count, at one day's rate (monthly pay × 12 ÷ scheduled workdays a year, e.g. 261 for a five-day week):
   - **Absence (2 days)**: a scheduled workday the approved timesheet marks absent, with no approved leave and no public holiday.
   - **Unpaid leave (0.5 day)**: approved leave of an *unpaid* type, half days pro rata. Paid leave types cost nothing — the salary already pays them.
   - **Late / undertime (45 min)**: minutes late past the grace period and minutes left early, at a day's rate ÷ the day's scheduled minutes. **Off by default**; switch it on under **Settings → Payroll** if your policy (usual in the Philippines) deducts tardiness.
   These reduce gross pay *before* contributions and withholding, so every statutory base and the tax follow the pay actually earned; the journal books the reduced salary. Days before hire or after termination are never charged (proration already left them out), a salary never goes below zero, and daily/hourly staff are untouched — they are paid from attendance to begin with. All three switches live under **Settings → Payroll**.
3. While **draft**, HR can fix inputs (timesheets, leave, registrations, pay items, the payroll policy) and **Regenerate**.
4. **Submit → Review → Approve**. Approving posts **one balanced journal**, in plain terms: *salaries and the employer's statutory cost become expenses; everything withheld plus the employer shares become money owed to the agencies; the net becomes money owed to staff (Salaries Payable).* Nothing is cash yet.
5. **Pay the staff**: record a normal Payment from Salaries Payable to your bank — with its own review and approval, so the payroll approver can't also move the money.
6. **Remit to agencies**: the remittance report (per scheme, per month) says exactly what to pay each agency; your mapped due days feed reminders. For PH, posted runs also fill the **1601-C** filing automatically.

## Delivering payslips

Once a run is **posted**, each payslip can be downloaded as a PDF from the run's detail (the download icon on each row), and **Email payslips** queues one email per employee with *their own* PDF attached — nobody receives anyone else's, and the email body itself carries no amounts in case it's forwarded. Employees who were skipped (no email on record) are listed in the confirmation. Employees can also download their own payslips any time from [My Workspace](https://bareledger.app/guides/my-workspace).

## Fixing a posted run

No deleting — request a **reversal** (the standard accounting undo). The reversing entry goes through review and approval like everything else; once it posts, the run is marked reversed, the year-to-date figures roll back, and you can run the period again.

## Who sees the money

Amounts on payroll pages need the *see compensation amounts* permission: HR, checkers and the Accountant have it; a plain Viewer sees runs and statuses with the figures hidden.

## Common mix-ups

- **"An employee's payslip is zero."** Daily/hourly staff need an **approved** timesheet inside the run period; monthly staff need a base rate on their record.
- **"I prepared the run and can't approve it."** Correct — and the HR Manager can't either. Final approval belongs to an Approver or the Accountant.
- **"Deductions look different mid-month."** Semi-monthly runs compute month-to-date: the halves always add up to the monthly table, so the second half takes whatever the first didn't.