Use this guide when processing payroll in the new UKG Ready payroll experience. The sequence follows the 25-minute Walkthrough Demo video and is supported by the New Payroll Processing Experience FAQ. Exact labels may vary based on company setup, security profile, and enabled payroll features.
Payroll Processing Flow At-A-Glance
| Phase | Payroll Admin Action | Move Forward When |
| 1. Pick up the payroll | Open Process Payroll and select the correct payroll card. | Pay period, pay date, payroll type, and employee count match the payroll you intend to run. |
| 2. Resolve time prep issues | Use Review and Resolve Issues to approve, reject, remind managers, or delete items that should not move forward. | No blocking issues remain, and any expected retro pay, corrections, or expenses have been reviewed. |
| 3. Move to payroll processing | Use Go to payroll processing after time prep is clean. The system moves you to Review pay information. | You can see pay statements, gross, deductions, taxes, net payments, alerts, and warnings. |
| 4. Validate payroll results | Review alerts, warnings, totals, employee rows, imports, manual entries, and supporting reports. | Errors are resolved, expected warnings are understood, and pay statements are ready to submit. |
| 5. Submit and/or Finalize | Use the Close payroll or Submit payroll action only after validation is complete. | Payroll has the expected status and there are no unresolved blocking conditions. |
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Before you begin Confirm you are working in the right company/EIN, payroll profile, pay period, and pay date. Do not rely on continuous processing alone. It reduces manual steps, but payroll still requires review, exception handling, and final payroll admin judgment. |
Step 1: Open Process Payroll and select the payroll to continue
Do this:
- Navigate to Payroll > Process Payroll.
- Review the payroll cards under Pick up where you left off.
- Confirm the pay period, pay date, payroll type, submit-by date, frequency, employee count, and pay statement count.
- Click Continue on the correct payroll card.
Verify before moving on:
- You are not opening an old, overdue, or wrong-frequency payroll by mistake.
- The pay date and pay period match the payroll calendar.
Screenshot 1: Process Payroll landing page with payroll cards and Continue action.
Step 2: Review and resolve time preparation issues
Do this:
- On the Process Timesheets page, start with Review and resolve issues.
- Use the left-side issue filters to narrow the list by issue type.
- Review each item before approving or rejecting it. Common issue groups include timesheet change requests, time off requests, unapproved timesheets, timesheet processing errors, timesheet corrections, retro pay, and approved expense reports.
- Use Expand all only when you need to review multiple issue details quickly.
Verify before moving on:
- All blocking time prep items have either been resolved, intentionally deferred, or handled according to payroll policy.
- You understand why any remaining item is still present.
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Payroll admin note Do not click Go to payroll processing just because the button is available. First validate the exceptions that will affect pay. |
Screenshot 2: Review and Resolve Issues page with issue filters and payroll navigation controls.
Step 3: Approve, reject, remind, or delete individual issues
Do this:
- Open View Details for an issue when the short description is not enough.
- For approval-based items, use the approve or reject action after validating the request.
- For manager-owned items, use the reminder option when the manager needs to act before payroll can proceed.
- Delete or dismiss only when the item should not be included and you are confident it is not needed for the payroll.
Verify before moving on:
- Approvals are appropriate and not being used as a shortcut to clear the screen.
- Rejected or deleted items have a business reason.
Screenshot 3: Expanded timesheet correction detail with approve and delete controls.
Step 4: Handle retro pay and historical timesheet corrections
Do this:
- Review retro pay and timesheet correction items before payroll processing.
- Confirm the employee, historical period, earning, hours, and dollar amount.
- Include the item only when it belongs in the current payroll.
- Exclude or defer only when that matches your payroll correction process.
Verify before moving on:
- The correction amount is expected and tied to a known prior-period change.
- Retro earning codes or correction earnings are being used as configured by the company.
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Payroll admin note The FAQ notes that corrections after a locked or finalized payroll are treated as historical timesheet corrections and can be included or excluded in the next payroll. Use that choice carefully. |
Screenshot 4: Historical correction example showing the prior period and amount that will be added.
Step 5: Confirm the time-prep side is clean before moving to payroll processing
Do this:
- Continue resolving issues until the page shows no remaining data to display, or until any remaining items are understood and acceptable under your payroll process.
- Confirm the pay period lock status. In the demo, once the pay period is locked, timesheets for that period can no longer be edited from that page.
- Click Go to payroll processing.
Verify before moving on:
- The page is not hiding unresolved items under a filter.
- You have reviewed expenses, retro pay, and timesheet corrections before leaving time prep.
Screenshot 5: Time prep view after issues are cleared and the pay period is locked.
Step 6: Review pay information in payroll processing
Do this:
- On the Review pay information page, start with the header details: pay period, pay date, employees with pay statements, and payroll status.
- Review the alert/warning banner before reviewing employee rows.
- Scan employee rows for status, type, total hours, gross, deductions, taxes, and net payment.
- Use View, filters, sorting, and row-level actions to focus on problem employees first.
Verify before moving on:
- Employee count and pay statement count look right.
- Total hours, gross, taxes, deductions, and net pay are in the expected range.
- Any warning banner has been opened and reviewed.
Screenshot 6: Review Pay Information page with warnings, employee rows, and payroll tools.
Step 7: Recalculate or sync time when payroll data changes
Do this:
- Use Recalculate pay statements when the page indicates pay statements need recalculation or payroll settings changed.
- Use Sync time when approved time needs to be refreshed into payroll.
- After recalculation or sync, wait for the process to complete and then recheck alerts, warnings, and employee totals.
- Do not submit payroll while recalculation, sync, or reopening activity is in progress.
Verify before moving on:
- The calculated-by timestamp is current enough for your payroll review.
- Any alert count, error count, and warning count has been reviewed after recalculation.
- Pay statement errors are resolved before submission.
Screenshot 7: Payroll alerts and recalculation options.
Step 8: Add, import, or void pay statements when needed
Do this:
- Click Import / add pay statements.
- Use Add pay statement when creating pay statements for a selected population.
- Choose the correct population, such as all employees in the pay period, all active employees in the EIN, specific employees, or saved filters.
- Select the correct pay statement type and processing option, such as Calculate All, Auto Records No Taxes, or Calculate None.
- Use Import when bringing in batch data. Use Void pay statement only when a prior pay statement needs to be voided and the date range/employee selection is correct.
Verify before moving on:
- The selected employee population is correct.
- The pay statement type is correct.
- The calculation option matches the business reason for the manual add/import.
- Voids are limited to the intended employee and date range.
Screenshot 8: Import/Add Pay Statements window showing pay statement population and calculation options.
Void pay statement reference:
Screenshot 9: Void Pay Statement tab with employee and date range filters.
Step 9: Review supporting reports before submitting payroll
Do this:
- Click View supporting reports.
- Use Pre-processing, Processing, and Review your data tabs to review reports at the right stage.
- Open alerts, pay statement errors, pay statement warnings, payroll batches, and imported data reports as needed.
- Investigate differences before closing or submitting payroll.
Verify before moving on:
- Reports match the issues and warning counts shown on the payroll page.
- Imported data appears in the correct payroll batch.
- The payroll register and review reports support the payroll you are about to submit.
Screenshot 10: Supporting Reports window with processing reports and payroll batch links.
Step 10: Close, submit, or finalize payroll only after validation
Do this:
- Use Close payroll or Submit payroll only when pay statements have been reviewed and required errors are resolved.
- Watch the payroll status during processing. The demo shows payroll moving between Open and Closed states.
- If you reopen payroll or trigger another processing event, wait for the activity to finish before continuing.
- Use View activity when you need to confirm what ran and when.
Verify before moving on:
- Payroll status is expected.
- No processing activity is still running.
- Warnings that remain are understood and acceptable.
- The final payroll action matches your internal payroll checklist.
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Payroll admin note Warnings do not always mean you must stop, but errors usually require action. Submit only after you can explain what remains. |
Screenshot 11: Closed payroll status and submit/activity controls.
Exception Handling Guide
| Issue Type | What to Check | Typical Action |
| Unapproved timesheets | Employee, manager, submitted status, missing approval, pay period. | Remind manager or resolve approval before processing. |
| Time off requests | Request date, hours, balance impact, approval status. | Approve or reject according to policy before payroll moves forward. |
| Timesheet corrections | Original period, corrected hours, earning, rate, amount. | Approve/include only when correction belongs in this payroll. |
| Retro pay | Effective date, locked periods affected, calculated difference. | Include in current payroll or exclude/defer based on payroll policy. |
| Expense reports | Approved status, amount, payment timing. | Include only if approved and intended for this payroll. |
| Payroll warnings/errors | Employee affected, error category, calculation status. | Resolve errors. Review warnings and document the decision if they remain. |
| Imported data | Batch, source file, employee mapping, earnings/deductions. | Validate import before submitting. Reprocess if the batch is wrong. |
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Controls that did not change in substance The existing manager approval workflows, multi-level approvals, timesheet locking, payroll imports, and standard reporting/export functions continue to be supported. The main change is the new processing experience, earlier issue visibility, and automatic recalculation/synchronization around payroll processing. |