This article explains why it is important to approve the preliminary payroll regularly to ensure that highlighted data changes are displayed correctly, and no information is lost.

What happens when you approve the preliminary payroll

By approving preliminary payroll, you can:

• Freeze the Personal data tab: Fix the current status of all employee data in the Personal data tab at that point in time. An export based on the data in the table is then created.
• Refresh highlights from this date: For the next payroll period, only the relevant changes since the last approval are marked.
• See additional changes in the detail view: You can still view changes made after the approval in the detail view of each individual employee, and in any further export created.

When you approve the preliminary payroll regularly 

If you regularly approve the preliminary payroll, the highlights marking changes in the Personal info tab will be updated each payroll period. If the approval date shifts due to operational reasons and thus deviates from your defined payroll period, the changes marked will be reliably reset each time payroll is approved.

In the graphic below, the defined balance date for payroll is the 20th day of each month. The yellow bar shows the period for which data changes are marked. If you approve payroll before the balance date, for example on the 18th, the system will flag all changes occurring between that date and the next time preliminary payroll is approved, regardless of the payroll period. No changes are lost, even if you do not close your payroll until after the balance date, for example on the 21st.

When you never approve the preliminary payroll

If you create an export at the end of your payroll period but never approve the preliminary payroll, the flags in the Personal info tab will be updated on the first day of each defined payroll period. This means that if you create an export on another date than the end of the payroll period, you will lose all marked changes between the export date and the start of the new payroll period.

The graphic below illustrates what happens when payroll is not approved. In this example, the balance date for the monthly payroll is again the 20th of each month. However, payroll was never approved. If the payroll date now changes to the 18th, and an export is created without payroll having been approved, the system automatically refreshes on the 20th, and flags for data changes made between the 18th and the 20th will be lost.

If you then approve payroll at some stage, all subsequent changes will be highlighted in the Personal info tab and not refreshed until the next time payroll is approved. If you do not approve payroll again in the subsequent months, the flags will no longer allow you to identify which of the data changes are current.

What happens if payroll was approved and another change happens?

Once payroll is approved, the Personal info tab is frozen and will not reflect any subsequent data changes. This ensures that you will always know which information has already been transferred to internal or external stakeholders, like your payroll accountant.

If there are any subsequent changes that need to be included in the current payroll period, you need to create another export. While the changes will not be marked in the Personal info tab, the refreshed export will show them highlighted in yellow. Once the export has been created, these changes will no longer be marked as new in the subsequent month.