This is step 2 of 2 in the implementation module Salaries and preliminary payroll.

Learn how to configure your preliminary payroll to manage employee information and work together with a payroll accountant.

What are the benefits?

Setting up your preliminary payroll allows you to:

• Manage your monthly preliminary payroll: Review and approve payroll-relevant personal data, salary data for all compensation types, and periods of absence for each employee per payroll period. 
• Stay on top of data changes: Data changes are flagged, so you only need to review changes relevant for each payroll period and don't miss out on important details.
• Export the preliminary payroll data: Generate exports in Excel format at any stage and send them to your payroll accountant, to finalize payroll.

Step 1: Configure the payroll settings

The general settings for your preliminary payroll define how and which payroll data is displayed, as well as the timeline for your monthly payroll process. To set up your preliminary payroll, follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings > Payroll > Salary & Payroll > General. 
2.  Select all the attributes and personal compensation types to be included in your payroll table. Consult our overview of available payroll attributes and our best practice examples.
3. Choose if salary data shall be displayed in a separate tab in the payroll table. If you decide not to display salary data in a separate tab, ensure you have added all relevant salary attributes in step 2, so they are displayed in the payroll table.
4. Add absence types you would like to review in the Absences tab of the Payroll table.
5. Decide if prorated salary calculation shall be based on 30 days or days of the month.
6. Specify on which day of the month, employees with administrator rights shall be reminded to review payroll information. Ensure Administrators have activated the notification for the Payroll review in their Personal Settings.
7. Define an attribute by which accounting Payroll groups are built. You can select any attribute of the type List of options. 

   Note
   Ensure that for any chosen attribute for the Payroll groups, there is a value added for each employee. Example: If you decide to build Payroll groups by office, ensure that each employee is assigned to an office.

8. Click Save.

Step 2: Add payroll periods

Payroll periods are based on the Payroll groups you have selected in the general settings. They define the time frame over which the tracked hours and leave periods are added up, if you have added them as attributes to be exported. You have the option to set one Payroll period per Payroll group. To set this up, follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings > Payroll > Salary & Payroll > Payroll periods. 
2. Select a payroll group and click on Add payroll period.
3. Choose the timeframe of the payroll period from the drop-down menus.
4. Click Add. The payroll period is then set from the following month.

Step 3: Activate notifications for administrators

If you have set a monthly notification for Administrators reminding them to review payroll information, they must activate the notification for their accounts. To do this, they need to follow these steps:

1. Go to the Avatar > Personal Settings. 
2. Select Notifications. 
3. Under Payroll review, activate the notification for the Dashboard and, if enabled, via Email.
4. Click Save.

Note
Check if everything is set up correctly in Quality check: Salary data and preliminary payroll before moving on to the next step.