Get the Recurring Payroll Processing Pipeline to automate your payroll workflow

Go to Templates > Marketplace > Pipeline templates, then search for "Recurring Payroll Processing" and click Get free.

Also download the "Recurring Payroll Processing Proposal" separately — this is sent once to establish the service agreement, while the pipeline repeats for each pay period.

The same pipeline works for all payroll frequencies — the difference is in how you set up the job recurrence. Go to Workflow > Job Recurrences > New Job Recurrence, select your client(s) and pipeline, then set the repeat interval:

Pro tip: Set jobs to start on Sunday night so they're ready for you Monday morning.

When creating a job recurrence, you can select multiple clients who share the same pay schedule. This saves time if you have several clients on biweekly payroll, for example — set it up once and all their jobs will be created automatically on the same cycle.

The timesheet organizer asks clients to upload their timesheets, then asks if anyone is due a bonus or requires deduction changes. If they click "yes," they get a section to upload those documents. If they click "no," that section is skipped. This keeps the organizer simple for routine pay periods.

If a client hasn't uploaded everything you need, you can manually change their client-facing job status to "missing information." This lets them know you're still waiting on something without having to send a separate message. Once you have everything, the pipeline continues forward.

Before processing payroll, you send the reports to the client for approval. They receive a message with a task they must mark complete. Until they check it off confirming everything looks correct, the job won't move to the processing stage. This ensures you have written approval before running payroll.

The proposal/engagement letter is a separate template because you only send it once to establish the service agreement. The pipeline itself repeats every pay period — if the engagement letter were part of the pipeline, clients would receive it every time. Send the proposal first, then set up the recurring job.

The engagement letter includes a recurring invoice option. For example, you can set it to bill $250 every month for 12 months. If you use Stripe, you can enable automatic payments so it charges their card automatically. With CPA Charge, clients will need to pay manually each period.

When sending the proposal, you can link it to the client's job. This keeps the signed engagement letter in the job card — your "manila folder" — so all payroll-related documents stay organized in one place.