The Start Payroll screen — also called the Payroll Readiness Dashboard — is the central hub you visit every time you run payroll. This session walks through each section: what it shows, why it matters, and how to use it.

Getting there & choosing a payroll

Navigate to Payroll → Process Payroll → Start Payroll. You’ll see two tabs: Scheduled Payroll (your regularly recurring payrolls) and Not Scheduled Payroll (off-cycle runs like bonus or one-time payments). Select a schedule and the dashboard shows your pay period, suggested check date, and payroll run date. If you manage multiple company codes, it’s good practice to label each schedule with the company code or name.

Timing & status

To the right, a countdown shows how long until payroll is due, with the submission date. Payrolls must be submitted by 3:30 p.m. Central Time on the submission date. Each payroll shows one of three statuses: Not started (not yet initiated), In progress (Start Payroll clicked, actively being worked), or Invoicing (submitted to Netchex, awaiting the invoice).

Readiness & key details

The readiness bar gives a quick snapshot of where you stand — your overall percentage plus the number of outstanding items. Beside it are key details: payroll run date, check date, and pay period start/end. All of these dates are editable and not locked to your schedule. The dashboard also surfaces demographics: total employees, active count, new hires or terminations, and a direct-deposit-versus-paper-check breakdown.

Outstanding Items

This is where you’ll spend most of your time before starting payroll. For each item you can view details, approve or decline right from the dashboard, or notify the responsible managers.

• Time and Attendance — pending punch requests, missing punches, unapproved time-off requests, and unapproved time cards.
• Compliance & Onboarding — Secure Act 2.0 alerts, I-9 information, and new hires with missing W-4 forms (navigate straight to the record to fix it).
• Tasks & Workflows — unapproved employee tasks and pending direct deposit setups.
• Employee Changes — address-based tax suggestions you can review and apply.
• Also watch for benefits awaiting approval and any payroll-inactive employees who have recorded time — activate them so they get paid.

The Information and Warnings section rounds things out with pay-rate changes, retirement contribution updates, and a view of your payroll-ready managers. As you work through items, your readiness percentage climbs; Bulk Actions lets you view all outstanding details at once. When everything looks good, click Start Payroll to move on to editing timesheets.

The Payroll section is your command center for everything related to running and managing payroll. This session is a high-level tour of how the pieces fit together; other sessions dive deeper into each one.

Getting there

From your sidebar, go to Payroll → Process Payroll → Start Payroll. That brings you to the One-Screen Payroll dashboard — a high-level view of your payroll readiness and the starting point for every payroll run.

The core workflow

Three screens make up your core payroll workflow:

• One-Screen Payroll dashboard — where you confirm readiness and start payroll.
• Edit Timesheets — where all of your payroll data comes together, whether you use a move-to-pay process, import time or payroll data, or enter it manually. It also displays the payroll groups and schedule tied to the payroll you started.
• Review and Submit Payroll — where payroll is calculated, reports are available to review, and you confirm everything looks accurate before submitting to Netchex.

On-demand payroll & voiding checks

Beyond regular runs, Netchex offers on-demand payroll. The process looks similar to a standard payroll, but on-demand payrolls do not initiate direct deposits or generate physical checks — they’re used to make corrections or add payments to an employee’s payment history. The Process On-Demand Payroll section also keeps a current list of on-demand and voided checks in one place.

The Void Paychecks section lets you search employees, locate specific checks, and void them. One important caution: some checks may not be voidable by an admin — particularly those crossing into a previous quarter or year, since that can affect payment history. In those cases (and for third-party checks), always reach out to your service team first.

Reports & settings

The Reports section gives you a wide range of reports, organized into primary, secondary, and year-end reports. (There’s also a set of preview reports on the Review and Submit screen for confirming accuracy before submitting.) Payroll Settings is where you view your payroll schedule and update timesheet and dashboard settings.

This session covers setting up payroll time imports and earnings imports directly within Payroll. From the Start Payroll screen, go into Edit Timesheets, where the import options live in the top-right corner.

Import Time

Import Time brings time data directly into the payroll. A few file types:

• Time Entry 2 — an advanced import for more complex time-entry needs.
• Time Entry 3 — used when labor distribution is included; comes in Option A (piped) and Option B (non-piped).
• Time Entry 4 — no longer supported, so you’ll use Time Entry 2 or 3.

Need the specification files? Check the Netchex Experience Hub first (from your dashboard, the Help icon → Knowledge Center); your service team can help if you can’t find them. One important note: if you’re unsure which employee ID type your account uses (former employee ID, clock number, social security number, batch number, or employee code), check with your service team — selecting the right one is essential.

Import Batch Data & Import Payroll Data

Import Batch Data is used specifically by Dealertrack clients (covered in a separate video). Import Payroll Data supports several third-party systems and proprietary formats. Two formats to know:

• Long format — one row per type-code entry (one row per earnings type and one per deduction, per employee). Supports temporary rates and distributed departments — good for complex structures.
• Payroll grid-wide format — one row per employee, each column a type code, earnings entry, or deduction. Does not support temporary rates or distributed departments — best for straightforward data.

Sample spec files download right from the import screen so you can match the structure before uploading.

Uploading & confirming

Select your employee identifier type, upload the document, and the data flows into your employees’ timesheets. Click into any employee record afterward to confirm it came through correctly. If you hit errors, common culprits are: forgetting to update the company code in the file, leaving the header row in, using the wrong employee identifier code, or picking the wrong import type.

When employees clock in and out using the Netchex app, a hardware clock, or the desktop version, that time flows to their time card. To bring it into payroll, use Move to Pay from the Edit Timesheets section.

Running Move to Pay

In Edit Timesheets, select Move to Pay. You’ll see the payroll schedules included in the open payroll, along with the associated date range — take a moment to confirm those dates are correct.

Important: once you start a payroll for a given date range, the time cards for that payroll group become locked — no further changes can be made directly on the time card. Once your dates are confirmed, select the checkbox and click Move to Pay.

Confirming

You’ll see a green check mark with an updated date and time showing when the move to pay was last completed for that group. Return to Edit Timesheets and the time from the employees’ time cards is now reflected directly in the timesheets within Payroll.

Sometimes you need to add an earnings or deduction code directly onto an employee’s timesheet within Payroll. The Edit Timesheets page gives you a few flexible ways to do it.

From the payroll grid

The earnings and deduction codes on your payroll grid are fully customizable through the Timesheet Settings page — add, remove, and rearrange them to fit your workflow (a real time-saver for codes you use every period). To add one, select the code, assign a sequence number (0–255) to control where it appears, customize the column heading if needed, and submit. Removing a code follows the same path — select and delete. Once the grid is set, you can key hours or amounts directly on the timesheet for any employee.

At the employee level

Click into an individual employee’s record to reach the timesheet details page — great for one-off items like retro pay. Use Add or the delete checkbox to manage earnings and deduction codes right at the employee level.

Separate checks & gross-up

Need an earnings item on a separate check rather than combined with the regular paycheck? Click New Check from the timesheet details page; you can toggle between the two checks, and both appear separately on the payroll detail register. This page also has a gross-up feature: to give an exact net amount (say a $250 employee-of-the-month bonus) and cover the taxes, enter the desired net and click Calculate Gross Up — Netchex figures the gross so the employee nets exactly that. When done, click Update and Return to Edit Timesheets. And a key reminder: anytime you key data on the timesheets page, hit Save Timesheets before moving on.

Non-discretionary bonus

The Add Non-Discretionary Bonus option (top of Edit Timesheets) lets you add a bonus that factors into overtime correctly. Choose whether it’s calculated weekly or monthly, enter a date range, then assign it to employees (import a list or select manually) and enter each amount. Netchex reviews time cards for any overtime premiums, then you pick the pay code, confirm the frequency, and attach the bonus to the current payroll.

Once all your time, bonuses, and payroll data are in Edit Timesheets — whether via move-to-pay, an import, or manual entry — you’re ready for the Review and Submit section. The Review Payroll page gives a comprehensive look before anything is submitted.

The payroll at a glance

Up top you’ll see key details — paycheck date, debit date, payroll number, payroll group, and total employees and hours paid — plus a financial breakdown: direct deposits, paper checks, third-party checks, employee- and employer-side taxes, gross pay, employee deductions, and your highest gross check. Beside it, an alerts section flags high, medium, or low exceptions to look at before submitting (and it can be downloaded).

Pre-submission reports

Netchex strongly recommends reviewing all the pre-submission reports — catching errors here is far easier than fixing them later.

• Payroll Detail Register Preview — the most detailed: a check-by-check breakdown of gross by earnings code, deductions by code, employee/employer taxes, and net pay.
• Payroll Summary Register — a higher-level view organizing employees by department.
• Also available: Labor Distribution, Accrual, Distributed Net Pay, and Deduction Variance previews.

Comparison & employee previews

Payroll Comparison lets you compare the current payroll to a previous period — great for spotting unusual variances from new hires, changed hours, or shifting labor costs. Employee Check Preview lets you notify employees to review their own check before processing, with a status bar showing what’s been sent. From this page you can also open an individual check or jump to a time card.

Corrections & submitting

The bottom of the page shows net pay totals, total tax liability, and total deductions at a glance. If you make corrections, click Recalculate to refresh all figures and reports (and resend check previews if needed). The pencil icon takes you back to Edit Timesheets anytime. When everything looks accurate, acknowledge that you’ve reviewed the listed exceptions and submit to Netchex.

Once you’ve created, edited, and reviewed your payroll for accuracy, it’s time to submit it to Netchex.

Getting to the submit screen

On the left, click Payroll → Process Payroll → Run and Review Payroll. Before submitting, review your preview reports for accuracy — making sure what you send is correct is what keeps employees paid right and avoids corrections later.

Acknowledge, then submit

After reviewing, check the red box in the middle of the screen acknowledging you’ve reviewed the exceptions in your payroll exceptions report. The Submit Payroll to Netchex button is in the middle of the screen — click it, then click OK on the confirmation pop-up.

After submitting

A Netchex associate processes your payroll, and you’ll get an email notification once it’s processed and invoiced — meaning your reports are finalized. You can then generate them from Reports on the left. That’s it — you’re done.

Most payrolls follow your regular schedule, but sometimes you need to pay an employee outside of it — someone left out of payroll, a correction, a bonus, or another one-off. Netchex offers two ways to do this.

On-demand vs. supplemental

• On-demand payroll — use it when you need to pay someone immediately and can’t wait for a bank deposit. You print and issue a paper check from your place of business.
• Supplemental payroll — you submit it to Netchex just like a regular payroll; Netchex processes it and sends payment by direct deposit (or can print and ship a paper check to your location).

Creating an off-cycle payroll

Click Payroll → Process Payroll → Start Payroll. At the top you’ll see two tabs; the Not Scheduled Payrolls tab is where off-cycle runs are created. Check the box next to the company, then choose Supplemental or On-Demand at the top.

Enter the check date. For a supplemental payroll the check date must leave enough time for Netchex to debit your account and pay the employee — usually a minimum of two business days. For an on-demand payroll you can use today’s date. Select the pay period start and end dates, then click Start Payroll.

Entering pay & finishing

An off-cycle payroll starts empty — no hours pre-fill, even for salaried employees. Select All Payroll Schedules and Show Employees, then enter the hours or earnings you want to pay (for example, 10 regular hours and a $100 bonus). Click Proceed to Run and Review Payroll and continue as normal.

To finish: for a supplemental payroll, review your preview reports and submit to Netchex just like a regular run. For an on-demand payroll, click Confirm Payroll — you’ll see the net amount of the check to write, and you issue it to the employee in your office.

A successful payroll starts with good preparation. This session covers the key steps to take before processing payroll so your run is accurate and smooth.

Make routine employee updates

Start with any changes since your last payroll — things like terminations, pay increases, direct deposit changes, or mailing address changes. Find an employee by typing their name in the search bar, or go to People → Employees and pick them from the roster.

On the employee’s profile you can make those updates: Demographics for a mailing address or phone number, Compensation for a pay increase, and Employee Status to terminate someone. Make these changes before creating your payroll.

Review the payroll dashboard

Next, click Payroll → Process Payroll → Start Payroll. Scroll down to see the items Netchex flags for review — for example, missing I-9s or missing income-tax withholding forms from onboarding. Click an alert to review it and send reminders to employees to complete the needed action; use the filters at the top to see more.

Near the middle, the payroll readiness bar shows how prepared you are and how many items still need review. Once you’ve prepped, you’re ready to create timesheets.

The Payroll section is your command center for everything related to running and managing payroll. This session is a high-level tour of how the pieces fit together; other sessions dive deeper into each one.

Getting there

From your sidebar, go to Payroll → Process Payroll → Start Payroll. That brings you to the One-Screen Payroll dashboard — a high-level view of your payroll readiness and the starting point for every payroll run.

The core workflow

Three screens make up your core payroll workflow:

• One-Screen Payroll dashboard — where you confirm readiness and start payroll.
• Edit Timesheets — where all of your payroll data comes together, whether you use a move-to-pay process, import time or payroll data, or enter it manually. It also displays the payroll groups and schedule tied to the payroll you started.
• Review and Submit Payroll — where payroll is calculated, reports are available to review, and you confirm everything looks accurate before submitting to Netchex.

On-demand payroll & voiding checks

Beyond regular runs, Netchex offers on-demand payroll. The process looks similar to a standard payroll, but on-demand payrolls do not initiate direct deposits or generate physical checks — they’re used to make corrections or add payments to an employee’s payment history. The Process On-Demand Payroll section also keeps a current list of on-demand and voided checks in one place.

The Void Paychecks section lets you search employees, locate specific checks, and void them. One important caution: some checks may not be voidable by an admin — particularly those crossing into a previous quarter or year, since that can affect payment history. In those cases (and for third-party checks), always reach out to your service team first.

Reports & settings

The Reports section gives you a wide range of reports, organized into primary, secondary, and year-end reports. (There’s also a set of preview reports on the Review and Submit screen for confirming accuracy before submitting.) Payroll Settings is where you view your payroll schedule and update timesheet and dashboard settings.

This session covers manually entering hours into payroll on the Edit Timesheets screen — the everyday path when your company doesn’t feed time in from Netchex Time & Attendance.

Opening the grid

On the left, click Payroll → Process Payroll → Edit Timesheets. Under Filter Criteria, set Payroll Schedule to All Payroll Schedules and click Show Employees. You’ll see each employee’s name, department, hourly rate, and columns for pay codes and deductions. Black columns are earnings codes; red columns are deductions. Salaried employees set to auto-populate will already show their regular hours.

Keying in hours

Enter hours right in the grid — for example, 10 regular hours for one employee, 80 regular and 10 overtime for another. The grid is customizable: add columns you use often and remove ones you don’t under Timesheet Settings.

The detailed employee view

The grid shows only some codes. To reach all of an employee’s earnings and deductions, click the employee’s name for a detailed screen. From an empty pay code drop-down you can pick any company earnings code — say 8 hours of sick — and see the total pay. Deductions work the same way: pick from the deductions drop-down (for example a garnishment) and enter the amount. Use Add (top-right, next to Earnings and Deductions) for more blank lines. Click Return to Edit Timesheets to go back to the grid and keep working.

Once you’ve created, edited, and reviewed your payroll for accuracy, it’s time to submit it to Netchex.

Getting to the submit screen

On the left, click Payroll → Process Payroll → Run and Review Payroll. Before submitting, review your preview reports for accuracy — making sure what you send is correct is what keeps employees paid right and avoids corrections later.

Acknowledge, then submit

After reviewing, check the red box in the middle of the screen acknowledging you’ve reviewed the exceptions in your payroll exceptions report. The Submit Payroll to Netchex button is in the middle of the screen — click it, then click OK on the confirmation pop-up.

After submitting

A Netchex associate processes your payroll, and you’ll get an email notification once it’s processed and invoiced — meaning your reports are finalized. You can then generate them from Reports on the left. That’s it — you’re done.

Most payrolls follow your regular schedule, but sometimes you need to pay an employee outside of it — someone left out of payroll, a correction, a bonus, or another one-off. Netchex offers two ways to do this.

On-demand vs. supplemental

• On-demand payroll — use it when you need to pay someone immediately and can’t wait for a bank deposit. You print and issue a paper check from your place of business.
• Supplemental payroll — you submit it to Netchex just like a regular payroll; Netchex processes it and sends payment by direct deposit (or can print and ship a paper check to your location).

Creating an off-cycle payroll

Click Payroll → Process Payroll → Start Payroll. At the top you’ll see two tabs; the Not Scheduled Payrolls tab is where off-cycle runs are created. Check the box next to the company, then choose Supplemental or On-Demand at the top.

Enter the check date. For a supplemental payroll the check date must leave enough time for Netchex to debit your account and pay the employee — usually a minimum of two business days. For an on-demand payroll you can use today’s date. Select the pay period start and end dates, then click Start Payroll.

Entering pay & finishing

An off-cycle payroll starts empty — no hours pre-fill, even for salaried employees. Select All Payroll Schedules and Show Employees, then enter the hours or earnings you want to pay (for example, 10 regular hours and a $100 bonus). Click Proceed to Run and Review Payroll and continue as normal.

To finish: for a supplemental payroll, review your preview reports and submit to Netchex just like a regular run. For an on-demand payroll, click Confirm Payroll — you’ll see the net amount of the check to write, and you issue it to the employee in your office.