Payroll goes wrong for predictable reasons: attendance was not closed, a leave record never reached payroll, a salary change was applied late, or a statutory rate was stale. A fixed month-end sequence removes almost all of it, whether you run payroll in software or a spreadsheet.
Before you calculate
Everything below must be true before the first calculation, or you will run payroll twice.
- Attendance is closed for the period, with exceptions resolved and manual corrections approved.
- All approved leave is recorded, and unpaid leave is identified.
- Overtime is authorised and valued at the correct multipliers.
- Joiners, leavers and salary revisions are entered with the right effective dates.
- Loan and advance schedules for the month are confirmed.
- Statutory rates in force for the period are the ones your system will apply.
Calculate, then reconcile before approving
Run the calculation into a preview and compare it against something independent — last month’s totals, or finance’s own expectation. Investigate any movement you cannot explain in one sentence.
The most useful check is the delta rather than the absolute: headcount change, total gross change, and total deduction change month on month. A number that moved without a reason behind it is the error you are looking for.
The checks people skip
These are the ones that produce the awkward payslip conversation.
- Employees with zero net pay — usually a deduction error, occasionally correct.
- Anyone whose net moved more than a set percentage versus last month.
- New joiners paid a full month by mistake, or leavers paid after their last day.
- Missing bank details, which stop the transfer file rather than the calculation.
- Tax on anyone whose salary changed mid-year.
After approval
Once approved, treat the run as immutable. Corrections belong in the next period as their own entries, not as edits to a committed run — that is what keeps an audit trail meaningful and lets you answer questions about a period months later.
General information for Pakistani employers, not legal or tax advice. Statutory rates change with each Finance Act — verify current figures before relying on them.
Related reading
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