⌛Understanding Time Format Displays Across Screens
The Dashboard and Time screens display time in an easy-to-read hours:minutes format (e.g., 2:04). However, when preparing payroll, time appears in decimal format (e.g., 2.07). Both represent the same amount of time, just displayed differently. Always use the decimal format for payroll calculations.
On the Dashboard and Time screens: 2:04 (2 hours and 4 minutes)
On Payroll prep screens: 2.07 (decimal hours)
✅Pre-Payroll Checklist: What to Do Before Closing a Pay Period
Before you start processing payroll, take a few minutes to verify key payroll settings. This ensures payroll is accurate and prevents costly adjustments later.
1. Check Overtime Settings
Proper overtime settings are critical for compliance.
Click the gear icon in the top-right for Settings.
Go to the Payroll tab and select Overtime Rules.
Confirm settings are correct
Click Change Settings to update:
Weekly overtime hour thresholds (varies by state/country).
Special rules for states like California that require daily and double-time overtime.
2. Confirm Employee Pay Rates
Pay rates are essential for accurate payroll and job costing. Without them, you won’t be able to track labor costs properly.
To find employees missing pay rates:
Go to People and switch to List View.
Look for employees without a listed pay rate.
Click an employee’s name to open their profile.
Go to the Pay Rates tab and click the pencil icon to:
Add or edit a pay rate.
Update Payroll ID and Dept ID if needed.
📋Review & Correct Time Cards
Payroll preparation starts before payday. You can review and correct time cards at any point during the pay period—why not do it daily?
How to Review Time Cards
Go to Time > click the first Open Pay Period.
Review issue tiles:
Red tiles indicate critical issues that MUST be fixed before processing payroll.
Yellow tiles are warnings that you can choose to clear but won’t prevent payroll from processing.
🔍Preview Pay Code Overrides
Some employees earn different rates for specific jobs (e.g., weekend shifts or security guards working armed assignments). Pay Codes in Chronotek Pro help manage these rate changes automatically.
To quickly preview shifts with Pay Code overrides:
Look for a gray round icon in the bottom-left corner of shift cells in the Schedule and Time screens.
Click the icon to see which pay code was applied, without manually checking every time card.
📤Payroll Prep: 4 Steps to Export Time Cards
Once all time card issues are resolved and payroll settings are confirmed, you’re ready to prepare the time data for payroll export.
1 - Approve Payroll
Click the Prepare Payroll button on the Time screen. The Payroll Summary window opens, and the Approve Payroll tab lists everyone with time cards.
Review each employee’s details:
Pay Profile (especially for contractors).
Pay Rates to ensure accuracy.
Select employees > Click Approve Selected.
(Optional) Lock/Unlock the pay period to prevent further edits.
🔹 Tip: Click column headers to sort data for a quick review.
⏳ Note: Early payroll exports can ONLY be processed for terminated employees.
2 - Create a Payroll Batch
Approved employees go to the Payroll Batch tab for further processing. Click the Payroll Batch tab.
Batch all employees for this pay period, create a batch to pay terminated employees early, or group employees and contractors separately.
a. Select employees and ‘arrow < >’ to move to the Create Batch side
b. Click the double arrows to move all employees
c. Click Create Batch to complete
Note: Select an employee and click Unapprove to reverse them out of batching.
3 - Export Payroll Data
After batching, select an export format and download the payroll file to your downloads folder.
Batches will move to Payroll Batch History for that pay cycle.
Click on a row in Payroll Batch History to view employee details.
🔹 Note: If a batch is deleted, employees return to the approved section and can be re-batched.
4 - Close the Payroll Period
Close your payroll, and you're done!
🚨 Important: What Happens When a Pay Period is Closed?
The system auto-closes pay periods if you don’t manually close them.
A max of 4 open Payroll Periods is allowed at a time.
Closed periods lock time cards, preventing any changes (including pay rate edits).
Pending batches (not yet exported) can still be exported.
Batches in closed pay periods cannot be deleted. (Future updates will include an adjustment process.)
Take a look at this article before closing your first pay period.
That is all there is to it! Congratulations!
Check out our Help Center for answers to other common questions. 😊