Skip to main content

Payroll Workspace Overview

The main Payroll page is your control center for weekly payroll operations. It gives office and admin teams three fast outcomes:

  • See year-to-date payroll trends in KPI cards
  • Open and audit closed payroll periods
  • Start the next payroll period in one click

Who Can Access This​

RoleAccess Level (default role settings)
Administrator, Group AdministratorFull access, including closing and reopening payroll periods
Payroll AdminView, export, and employee visibility controls. Cannot close or reopen a period.
Office, Sales, HR AdminNo payroll access

Administrators and Payroll Admins can both open Payroll Summary, but only Administrators can run the close wizard to close a period. The other payroll tabs (Additional Pay, Bulk Additional Pay, Paid Time Off and Incentive Pay) and the Week in Review report are shown only to users with the Payroll Admin add-on.

note

Payroll pages are controlled by the Payroll feature. If Payroll is disabled for your company, the workspace is hidden.

Open the Payroll Page​

  1. In the left navigation, go to Office > Payroll.
  2. The page opens with KPI cards at the top and a historical payroll table below.

Read the KPI Cards​

The top KPI strip summarizes year-to-date performance from closed payroll periods:

  • YTD Payroll
  • Avg Weekly (YTD)
  • YTD Clock Hours
  • Active Employees
  • YTD Jobs Completed
  • Periods (YTD)

Use these cards for weekly payroll trend checks and quick operational context before reviewing period details.

Create a New Payroll Run​

Select Create New Payroll to jump into the summary workspace.

  • If your company has closed periods, Pulse calculates the next period from the most recent period end date.
  • If no closed periods exist, Pulse uses your tenant's configured payroll start day and opens the current payroll week.

Pulse then routes you to Payroll Summary with the correct startDate and endDate in the URL.

Work with Payroll History​

The history table lists closed periods with key audit columns:

  • Period range
  • Employee count
  • Job count
  • Total payroll
  • Clock hours and job hours
  • Leads, Quotes, Sales (recurring) and Sales Other (one-time)
  • Lost Customers, Lost Homes and Lost Service Sets
  • Date closed
  • Visibility status for employees

Select any row to open that closed period in the summary workspace.

Why doesn't Payroll in Payroll History match the payroll summary total?​

Payroll is gross pay for employees who worked jobs that period. It includes hourly and commission pay, additional pay, bonuses, overtime and paid time off, and leaves out tips. Employees with no job hours that period (office-only or additional-pay-only) are not counted, and Clock Hrs leaves out their clock hours too, so Efficiency and Avg $/hr count the same employees. Payroll % is Payroll divided by Revenue. The payroll summary's total includes tips and every employee, so it can be higher.

Pulse calculates Payroll when you close the period. If a closed period shows an older figure, reopen it and close it again to recalculate.

Why does Payroll History show no sales for a past week?​

Sales counts the recurring services booked during that week, whether or not they started as a lead. Sales Other counts the one-time services booked that week, such as a deep clean or a one-time clean. Lost Service Sets counts the recurring services cancelled that week. Lost Customers and Lost Homes count only the customers and homes left with no active recurring service.

Pulse calculates these numbers when you close the period. Weeks closed before this release can show 0 even though work was booked. To recalculate a week, reopen it and close it again.

What is the Imported period in Payroll History, and why can't I reopen it?​

When your location's cutover workbook is imported, its past jobs add one period with the Imported (paid outside MaidCentral) badge. It covers your history up to the day before your go-live date. That pay was processed in your previous system, so the period has no totals and no ... menu: it can't be reopened, sent to Inova or shown to employees, and its dates can't be paid again. Enter any correction as additional pay in your first MaidCentral pay period.

Control Employee Visibility​

In the row actions menu (...), choose:

  • Show to Employees to publish the period to employee portal views
  • Hide from Employees to remove employee access for that period

This action updates the period's visibility flag and does not recalculate payroll data.

Reopen a closed period​

To change something inside a closed period, such as a missing job clock, reopen it, make the fix, and close it again. Only an Administrator or Group Administrator can reopen payroll. See How to Reopen Payroll.

Close Payroll with the Close Wizard​

When you open a payroll period to close it, the Close Wizard guides you through every validation check before the period can be finalized. The wizard appears as a visual timeline across the top of the Payroll Summary workspace.

How the Close Wizard Works​

The wizard walks you through up to eight steps. It automatically opens on the first step that needs your attention. Each step shows a circular icon in the timeline at the top of the page. Steps with issues display a count badge; resolved steps show a green checkmark.

You can click any step in the timeline to jump directly to it.

Wizard Steps​

The wizard includes these steps, in order:

StepLabelBlocking?What It Checks
1Open Day ClocksYesEmployees still clocked in who need to clock out
2Timesheet IssuesNo (warning)Job clocks outside the day clock, and clocks on a different date than the job
3Change RequestsNo (warning)Pending time change requests that need review
4Missing TipsNoJobs with tips not yet added as additional pay
5Missing TimesheetsYesCompleted jobs where employees have not created timesheet entries
6Uninvoiced JobsYesCompleted jobs that have not been invoiced
7Payroll Summary--Full payroll summary with KPI cards, employee table, and charts
8Close Period--Final review and close action
note

The Missing Tips step only appears if tip validation is enabled for your company.

Three Blocking Validations​

Only three steps block closing. Each must reach zero before you can close a payroll period:

  1. Open Day Clocks -- All employees must be clocked out.
  2. Missing Timesheets -- Every completed job must have timesheet entries with a clock-out.
  3. Uninvoiced Jobs -- All completed jobs must be invoiced.

Timesheet Issues, Change Requests, and Missing Tips are warnings. Review them before you close, but they do not disable the close button.

Blocking steps are shown in red with an issue count badge. Warning steps display in yellow.

When all blocking issues reach zero, the Close Payroll Period button becomes active. Closing needs the full pay week selected; on a shorter range the Close Period step says so instead of showing the button.

Overlapping Period Detection​

When you attempt to close a payroll period, the system checks whether the date range overlaps with any previously closed period. If a conflict is found:

  • Exact match -- The period has already been closed. You will see a message to reopen it first before re-closing.
  • Partial overlap -- The dates overlap with a different closed period. Adjust your period dates or reopen the conflicting period.

This prevents accidentally double-counting employee hours or pay across periods.

Close-the-Week Reminder​

If your last closed payroll period ended more than 14 days ago, the Close Period step shows a Time to close the week reminder. At 28 days or more, Pulse also shows a pop-up titled Uh oh! You haven't been closing the week.

The reminder never blocks the close. It means payroll weeks have gone unclosed; close them to keep payroll, invoicing, and reporting accurate.

Walk Through the Close Wizard​

  1. Go to Office > Payroll and select Create New Payroll (or click an existing open period).
  2. The Close Wizard timeline appears at the top of the Payroll Summary page. It automatically opens the first step that has issues.
  3. Work through each step:
    • Open Day Clocks -- Review employees who are still clocked in. Clock them out from timesheets before continuing.
    • Timesheet Issues -- Fix invalid job clocks or clocks that fall outside the scheduled date.
    • Change Requests -- Approve or deny pending time change requests.
    • Missing Tips -- Add tip pay for jobs where tips were collected but not recorded in payroll.
    • Missing Timesheets -- Create the missing timesheets for completed jobs.
    • Uninvoiced Jobs -- Invoice the completed jobs.
  4. Select Payroll Summary in the timeline to review the full payroll breakdown, including total payroll, employee count, clock hours, tips, and overtime pay.
  5. Select Close Period in the timeline. The readiness banner tells you the current status:
    • Green -- "Ready to close payroll" with no remaining issues.
    • Yellow -- Warnings remain but you can still close.
    • Red -- Blocking issues must be resolved first. Click any listed issue to jump back to that step.
  6. Select Close Payroll Period. A Scope of Work Settings dialog opens where you choose which scopes of work to include in the close.
    • Scopes are organized by group with select-all checkboxes per group.
    • Default selections are pre-configured. Adjust as needed for this period.
    • These scope settings are temporary and only apply to this close operation.
    • Confirm & Close Payroll stays disabled until live payroll updates are connected. Wait for it to become available before confirming.
  7. Select Confirm & Close Payroll. The close begins processing in the background and a real-time progress overlay replaces the close button. See the next section for details.

Real-Time Close Progress​

Closing a payroll period runs asynchronously on the server. After you confirm, a progress overlay appears in place of the Close Payroll Period button and reports each processing phase in real time:

PhaseDescription
ValidatingFinal validation of period data
Processing job-based employeesCalculating pay for job-based employees
Processing hourly employeesCalculating pay for hourly employees
Processing clock-only employeesCalculating pay for clock-only employees
Processing additional payApplying additional pay items
Calculating statisticsComputing period-level statistics
FinalizingArchiving the period and locking records

A progress bar and percentage update continuously as each phase completes.

On success, the overlay switches to a green summary card showing:

  • Employees processed
  • Total payroll amount
  • Records created

Select Done to dismiss the card. The period is now closed and appears in the payroll history table.

On error, the overlay switches to a red error card with the failure message. Select Try Again to retry the close, or Dismiss to return to the close step and investigate.

tip

Progress is cached on the server for 15 minutes. If you close your browser or lose your connection, reopen the payroll period and the progress overlay picks up where it left off. Multiple users viewing the same period see the same live progress.

Period Summary on the Close Step​

The Close Period step shows a compact summary of the period before you finalize:

  • Payroll -- Total payroll amount
  • Employees -- Number of employees in the period
  • Hours -- Total clock hours
  • Tips -- Total tips collected
  • OT Pay -- Total overtime pay

Review these numbers before confirming.

Post-Close Actions​

Closing a payroll period recalculates employee productivity automatically, so you do not need to run Update Productivity after a close. If numbers change later, you can re-run either recalculation from the row actions menu (...) in the payroll history table:

  • Update Productivity -- Re-runs the employee productivity calculation from closed jobs in the 24 weeks ending on the period's end date. Use this if job data was corrected after the period was closed. The recalculation is complete when the Productivity Updated confirmation appears.
  • Update Efficiency -- Recalculates team efficiency metrics for the period. Use this when team assignments or job allocations have changed since the close. Efficiency percentages above 80% display in green in the history table.

Update Efficiency shows a confirmation toast when started. The updated values appear in the history table once processing completes.

tip

If you notice efficiency or productivity numbers look off for a closed period, run the matching update action rather than reopening and re-closing the entire period. This is faster and does not affect the payroll records themselves.

  1. Open Payroll and check KPI trends.
  2. Select Create New Payroll for the current run.
  3. Resolve issues and close in the Payroll Summary workspace.
  4. Return to Payroll and verify the period appears in history.
  5. Toggle employee visibility when ready.

Troubleshooting​

I cannot see the Payroll menu​

Common causes:

  • Payroll feature is disabled for your tenant.
  • Your role does not include payroll read access.

Ask an administrator to verify tenant feature enablement and role permissions.

Create New Payroll opened unexpected dates​

Pulse uses your latest closed period, or your payroll start-day setting if no history exists. Confirm your previous closed period end date and tenant payroll week configuration.

Reopen Payroll is not visible in row actions​

Only admin-level roles with reopen permission can perform destructive reopen operations. An Imported (paid outside MaidCentral) period can't be reopened.

Fixing Issues in the Close Wizard​

The wizard will not let you close payroll until a full pay week is selected and the blocking steps (Open Day Clocks, Missing Timesheets, and Uninvoiced Jobs) reach zero issues. Timesheet Issues and Change Requests are warnings: fix them for accurate pay, but they do not stop you from closing. Here is how to resolve the most common ones. For every step, see Payroll Errors and Validations.

Open Day Clocks (Blocking)​

What it means: One or more employees are still clocked in from a previous day and have not clocked out.

How to fix:

  1. Click the Open Day Clocks step in the wizard timeline.
  2. The table shows each employee with an open clock, including their clock-in time and hours elapsed. Entries over 12 hours show a warning icon.
  3. Click any row to open the Employee Time Clock drawer.
  4. Review the clock entry and add the correct clock-out time.
  5. Save the change. The wizard count updates automatically.

Common cause: An employee forgot to clock out at the end of the day, or a clock-out failed to sync from the technician app.

Timesheet Issues (Warning)​

What it means: This is a warning. It does not block closing payroll. Timesheet entries have problems that can produce incorrect pay. There are two types:

  • Invalid Clock — A job clock is not covered by the employee's day clock for that date (for example, the job clock ends after the employee clocked out for the day), or the job clock has no clock-out time.
  • Wrong Date — An employee clocked in on a different date than the job was scheduled. For example, a job scheduled for Monday has clock entries on Tuesday.

How to fix:

  1. Click the Timesheet Issues step in the wizard timeline.
  2. Review the table. The Type column shows whether each row is an Invalid Clock or a Wrong Date.
  3. For Invalid Clock rows, go to Office > Time and correct the day clock or job clock for that employee and date.
  4. For Wrong Date rows, click Update Job Date on the row to move the job to the date the employee clocked in.
  5. Repeat until all issues are resolved.

Common cause: A technician clocked in late (after midnight) for an evening job, or a timesheet was manually edited with incorrect times.

Change Requests (Warning)​

What it means: This is a warning. It does not block closing payroll. Employees have submitted requests to change their clock times (for example, correcting a missed clock-in), and these requests have not been approved or denied yet.

How to fix:

  1. Click the Change Requests step in the wizard timeline.
  2. The table shows each pending request with the employee name, request type (timesheet or day clock), original time, requested time, and reason.
  3. Click any row to open the Change Request Review drawer.
  4. Review the request details and either Approve or Deny it.
  5. Repeat until all pending requests are resolved.

Common cause: Employees submitted time corrections during the pay period and no one has reviewed them yet.