Payroll automation template
This template prepares a pay run. It gathers the period’s hours, leave and changes, checks them against your rules, explains what moved since last time and holds the run for a named approver before anything reaches your payroll provider.
Last reviewed 7 October 2026
Designed
No template covers payroll. The only related library item is a sample Marketplace listing for expense checks, which has no template behind it, so the steps below are the shape you would build in Studio.
No template covers this job yet. The steps below are the shape we would build and the shape you can build in Studio yourself.
What this template does
Payroll sits with a payroll lead or a finance manager, and most of the work is checking. Hours arrive late, a leaver is still on the list, a rate change agreed in a message never reached the system. The danger is rarely the arithmetic. It is a wrong input reaching a run that is hard to reverse.
By hand, the checks depend on one person remembering last month, and the approver often sees a total and little else. This flow gathers inputs on a fixed date, applies the same rules each period and shows the approver what changed since the last run. Your payroll provider still calculates gross to net, tax and payment. This flow prepares what goes in and reconciles what comes back.
The workflow, step by step
Steps marked as approval gates pause the run until a named person approves. Nothing after a gate runs before that decision, and the decision is recorded.
- 01
Collect the period inputs
On the cut-off date the workflow pulls logged hours from the time tool, leave, starters and leavers from the HR system and approved expenses from their list. It writes them to one input table for the period and stamps each source extract with the time it was read. The next step receives the table. - 02
Check inputs against your rules
A code step applies the rules you set: hours missing, hours above your limit, a leaver with pay lines, a rate change without a form. Failures are listed with the employee and the rule. Nothing is corrected silently. The next step receives the input table and the exceptions list. - 03
Resolve each exception
Each exception goes to the line manager or payroll officer named for it. They correct the figure at its source or confirm it as it stands, with a reason. The run pauses until every exception has an owner’s answer. The next step receives the corrected table and the answers.Approval gate: a named person approves before the next step runs. - 04
Explain the variances
An agent reads this period beside the last one and writes short notes: new names, large changes, pay lines that vanished, totals that moved by more than your review level. The notes are for the approver. They do not alter any figure. The next step receives the table, the answers and the notes. - 05
Approve the pay run
The payroll approver sees the table, the exception answers and the variance notes on one sheet, then approves or rejects. You assign a different person from the one who resolved exceptions, since the platform does not enforce that. Rejection returns the run to step three with the reason attached.Approval gate: a named person approves before the next step runs. - 06
Hand off and reconcile
After approval the workflow sends the approved input file to your payroll provider, which calculates gross to net, tax and payment. When the provider replies, the workflow compares its totals with the approved inputs, flags any difference to the payroll officer and stores the whole run under the period.
What it can do, cannot do, needs approval for, and records
Can
- Pull hours, leave, starters and leavers on a fixed date
- Apply your validation rules and list every failure
- Write variance notes against the previous period
- Send the approved input file to your payroll provider
Cannot
- Calculate tax, deductions or net pay
- Pay anyone or release a bank file
- Change a salary, a rate or a bank detail
- Approve its own variance notes
Requires approval
- Each exception answer, by the named owner
- The pay run, by the payroll approver
- Any change to bank details, by a named person you set up
Records
- Source extracts and the times they were read
- Rules applied and the exceptions raised
- Variance notes as shown to the approver
- Each decision, who took it and when
What the library holds for this job
| Asset | Type | Covers | Role in this flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| Expense audit pipeline | Marketplace sample listing | Sample listing, no template behind it | A sample listing for receipt checks against policy. Expenses that feed a pay run could follow its shape, but nothing is seeded behind it. |
| Data Cleaning Suggestions for CSV | Prompt | Used inside the flow | Suggests clean-up rules for a messy timesheet export before the checks run. |
| Toggl | Integration | Used inside the flow | A source of logged hours if your team tracks time there. |
| BambooHr | Integration | Used inside the flow | A source of leave, starters and leavers. |
Integrations this flow uses
- Toggl: A source of logged hours, if that is where your team records time.
- BambooHr: A source of leave, starters and leavers for the period.
- QuickBooks: A possible home for the payroll journal after reconciliation, if it is your ledger.
The full list of tools Studio connects to is on the integrations page.
What you supply, and what this page does not cover
- You supply the validation rules, the variance level that triggers review (<approval threshold - set by the process owner>), the approvers and the cut-off dates.
- Studio does not calculate payroll. Tax, social contributions and statutory returns belong to your payroll provider or software, and the rules differ by country.
- Payroll data is personal data. Decide which fields the agent step may see, and which model it uses, before you build. The trust page explains what Swfte provides.
- No payroll template exists today. This page describes a design, not a shipped workflow.
Common questions
- Can Swfte run my payroll?
- No. Swfte does not calculate pay, tax or deductions and does not pay anyone. This template prepares the inputs, checks them, explains what changed and holds the run for approval. Your payroll provider or software still does the calculation and the payment.
- Which systems can feed the pay run?
- Any system with an integration in the library, or an export the workflow can read, such as a spreadsheet. Time tools, HR systems and expense lists are the usual three. The integrations hub shows which connectors exist. Reading a source needs credentials that you provide and control.
- Who approves the pay run?
- A named person you assign, for example the payroll lead or finance director. The approval step pauses the run until they decide. Making that person different from whoever resolved the exceptions is your assignment choice, because the platform does not enforce separation of duties.
- Does employee data go to a model?
- Only what the workflow passes to the agent step, and only to the model you connect. Pass the summary fields the variance notes need rather than full records, and choose the model with your data protection lead. The trust page covers the controls Swfte provides.