Payroll records that close the month and stay closed
Right now the month is a spreadsheet somebody rebuilds from scratch — and last month’s version has already been overwritten by this one.
On Starter and up — not a baseline feature on every plan. Check what your tier includes.The figures that closed the month are what the month still shows afterwards.
The question never arrives in the month it was about.
Payroll’s failure mode is not operational, it is retrospective. Nothing goes wrong on the day. It goes wrong when somebody asks about a month that has already been copied over.
How was this person’s pay worked out back then?
Nobody here is careless. They are rebuilding a sheet every month because nothing holds it. The figures that closed the month are the only thing that can answer the question, so the answer has to live in the run itself.
The salary lives against the person, not in a separate file.
A pay run can only be as stable as the thing it reads from. In Shiftena that thing is the employee record, and it is the same record the rest of the workspace already uses.
- Base salaryinto the run
- Pay frequency
- Employment type
- Overtime rateinto the run
- Deductionsinto the run
- Payment methodstops here
- Base salary, pay frequency, employment type, overtime rate, deductions and payment method all sit against the employee.
- Set once, not re-entered every time the month turns.
- The monthly run reads these fields — it is not a sheet somebody retypes.
Who may open a salary profile is governed by roles and permissions, so a payroll clerk never needs to see what a team lead sees.
A month of pay, in a shape somebody can check
Base pay, overtime at the rate on the profile, the deductions listed on it, and what is left. Four parts, one subtraction, one total.
Illustrative figures. No currency, no month and nobody’s salary — the arithmetic is the point, not the amounts. The three input heights are to scale against each other; the dark band is a total, not a height.
Where each part comes from
- The tall blockBase salary, set once on the employee record
- The band under itHours at the overtime rate on the profile
- The notchThe deductions listed on the profile
- The dark bandWhat is left after the subtraction
Nothing in this shape is typed in monthly. It is composed from the employee record and the hours the month was made of — which is what lets a month’s pay be checked by somebody who was not in the room when it was decided.
Adjust it, recalculate it, then close the month on the figures you decided.
The lines are built from the hours. From there it is four actions, and the fourth is the one that ends the month.
The first three are the ordinary work of a month, and you do them in whatever order the month demands. Finalising is not a save button: it closes the month with the figures that were decided, and those figures are what the run still shows when somebody asks about it half a year later.
See which plans include itShiftena keeps the record. It does not move the money.
Payment method is recorded on the salary profile, so the record says how a person is paid. Marked paid is a state you set once the money has gone out — not an instruction Shiftena carries out. There is no bank connection and no transfer anywhere in the feature.
The month’s numbers are not assembled. They are already there.
Hours, leave and pay live in the same workspace, so the end of the month is not an exercise in making two tools agree with each other.
- The hours are the attendance the month was actually made of — the same records the board showed each day.
- Approved leave has already marked those attendance records, so an approved absence is not a gap somebody has to explain.
- The salary figure was set once on the employee record — the same figure a generated contract reads.
Payroll records start on Starter.
This is not one of the baseline features every plan carries, so it is worth being exact about it rather than letting you find out at month end.
Free Trial sits below that floor. If payroll records are the reason you are looking at Shiftena, the plan table is the place to confirm what your tier includes before you build a month on it.
What sits next to it
Payroll records are one page of the same workspace. These are the others.
Payroll records, answered
Does Shiftena pay my team?
No. Shiftena keeps the record — it does not move the money. The salary profile records how a person is paid, and marking a line paid is a state you set once the money has gone out. There is no bank connection and no transfer anywhere in the feature.
Can I correct a line after I have run the month?
Yes. Adjust the line, recalculate the run, and the figures follow. Finalising is the closing step: it ends the month with the figures that were decided, and those are the figures the month shows afterwards.
Where do the hours come from?
From attendance, in the same workspace. The hours are the check-ins and check-outs the month was actually made of, and approved leave has already marked those records, so nothing has to be reconciled across two tools at month end.
Who can open a salary profile?
Whoever your roles allow. Access is granted per resource rather than by a blunt admin-or-not switch, so a payroll clerk never needs to see what a team lead sees. Roles and permissions are a baseline feature on every plan, and they govern salary profiles like everything else.
Does it calculate tax or statutory deductions for my country?
No. It holds the deductions you set per person on their salary profile and applies them in the run. It is not a tax engine: there are no jurisdiction rules, no statutory tables and no filings. If your deductions are calculated elsewhere, this is where the resulting figures are recorded.
How is overtime handled?
The overtime rate is a field on the salary profile, set once against the person. The monthly run applies it, so overtime is part of the same arithmetic as base pay rather than a separate sheet someone maintains.
Is payroll included in the free trial?
No. Payroll records begin on Starter, so they are not one of the baseline features every plan carries. The plan page is the place to confirm what your tier includes before you build a month on it.
The month ends either way.
The only choice is whether anything of the decision survives it. Close the month once, and the figures that closed it are still there when somebody asks.
Payroll records on Starter and up · The record stays after the month closes · Shiftena does not move money.