The short answer
There are three ways to get hours from a clocking system into payroll: someone types them in, the system exports a file that payroll imports, or the two systems are integrated so the hours pass across directly. For most UK businesses an export is the right answer. Integration earns its cost when importing a file each pay period is a real job rather than a five-minute one.
Whichever route you use, the hours should be approved before they leave the time and attendance system. No route fixes hours that were wrong when they were recorded.
The three routes from clocking to payroll
Each route ends in the same place, with hours in your payroll software. The difference is how many times a person handles the figures on the way.
Re-keying from timesheets
Someone reads hours off a timesheet or a clocking report and types them into payroll. It costs nothing extra and it is where most payroll errors start: a transposed figure, an overtime hour in the wrong column, a late change that never made it across.
A payroll export
The time and attendance system produces a file in the layout your payroll package expects, and payroll imports it. Nobody retypes a number. It takes a few minutes each pay period and suits the large majority of businesses.
Direct integration
The two systems are connected, so approved hours pass into payroll without a file changing hands. It removes the import step entirely, which matters most where payroll is run often, across many staff, or by someone with little time to spare.
Export or integration: which do you need?
A useful test is how long the import takes now. If it is five minutes, an export is all you need. If someone loses half a morning to it every pay period, integration starts to pay for itself.
| Compared on | Re-keying | Export | Integration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who handles the figures | A person types every one | A person imports one file | Nobody |
| Risk of a typing error | High | Low | Low |
| Time each pay period | Hours | A few minutes | None for the transfer |
| Works with | Any payroll | The packages the export is set up for | The package it is built for |
| Best for | Very small teams | Most businesses | High volume or frequent payroll |
What has to be right before hours reach payroll
Most of the work in connecting time and attendance to payroll is agreeing rules, not moving data. These are the things worth settling with whoever runs your payroll before the first pay run.
Pay elements mapped
Basic hours, overtime at each rate, night or weekend premiums, holiday and sickness each need to land in the right element in payroll. A file that puts overtime into basic pay looks fine until someone checks a payslip.
Overtime and premium rules
When overtime starts, what rate applies, and how bank holidays and weekends are treated. These should be applied in the time and attendance system, so payroll receives hours already split by rate.
Approval and cut-off
A manager approves the period before anything goes across, and everyone knows the cut-off. Late changes after the cut-off are the commonest source of a payroll correction the following month.
Absence
Holiday and sickness taken in the period need to travel with the hours. Statutory sick pay has its own rules on qualifying days and waiting days, so sickness spells need to arrive in a form payroll can work with.
Starters and leavers
A new starter set up in one system and not the other is a missing payslip. A leaver left active is hours paid to someone who has gone. Both systems should agree on who is employed.
Rounding
Whether clockings round to the nearest five, ten or fifteen minutes, and in whose favour. Decide it once, write it down, and make sure the system applies it rather than a person.
Where payroll errors usually come from
In our experience the transfer itself is rarely the problem. The errors come from what happens before it.
- Missed clockings filled in from memory at the end of the month rather than corrected on the day.
- Overtime agreed verbally and never recorded against the shift.
- Absence booked in a separate spreadsheet that payroll does not see.
- Changes after the cut-off made in payroll but not in the time and attendance system, so the two disagree next period.
An export or an integration removes re-keying. It cannot correct hours that were wrong when they were recorded, which is why the approval step matters more than the transfer method.
How Computime gets hours into payroll
Both Computime systems include a payroll export, set up and tested for Sage, Pegasus, QuickBooks, BrightPay, Xero, IRIS and ADP. It is one export engine configured to produce the layout each package expects, rather than a generic spreadsheet. Computime records the hours; your payroll software still does the pay, tax and RTI.
Syncro Connect
Our cloud system. The payroll export is included in the £2 per employee per month excl. VAT. With Leave Connect, sickness spells and qualifying days are carried in the export for SSP.
Realtime
Our installed system. The export is included, and direct Sage Payroll integration is an optional module at £395 a year excl. VAT, flat per installation.
More detail on what goes across and what it works with is on our payroll export page.
Questions about getting hours into payroll
Can time and attendance software run payroll?
What is a payroll export file?
Is a CSV export the same as payroll integration?
Which payroll packages can Computime export to?
Do we still need to check the hours before payroll?
Can holiday and sickness go across with the hours?
How often should hours be sent to payroll?
What does it cost to connect time and attendance to payroll?
Not sure whether you need an export or integration?
Tell us which payroll package you run and how long the import takes now. If the included export would do the job, we will say so.
