Report library

Payroll & Time Card Audits

Automate payroll validation and time card exception tracking straight from your data.

Quick answer

When should a pre-payroll audit run?: Ideally twice: once mid-period so large problems surface early, and once the day before the approval deadline so the final list is short and actionable. Running only after payroll closes turns every finding into a retro adjustment.
Which exceptions cause the most cost?: Missed punches defaulted to full shifts, unapproved overtime, and meal break premiums. In most audits a small number of employees and one or two managers account for the majority of the dollar impact.

Why this reporting is hard

Payroll errors are rarely caused by the payroll system. They are caused by bad time data that reaches payroll unchallenged: missed punches, unapproved edits, missing meal breaks, and hours that never matched the schedule.

This page describes the pre-payroll audit pack: a set of exception reports that run before every close so problems are fixed while they are still cheap to fix.

Reports in this pack

Missed and mismatched punchesShifts with a clock-in but no clock-out, duplicate punches, and punches outside the scheduled window.
Meal and rest break exceptionsShifts over the state threshold with no recorded meal break, short breaks, and late breaks, flagged by the rule that applies at each location.
Overtime and double-time reviewHours crossing daily and weekly overtime thresholds, including seventh-consecutive-day rules where they apply.
Scheduled vs. actual varianceHours worked against hours scheduled by employee, department, and shift, with the largest variances first.
Manager edit auditEvery manual timecard edit with who made it, when, the original value, and the approval trail.
Unapproved time before closeTimecards still unapproved as the payroll deadline approaches, grouped by manager.

Metrics tracked

✓Exception count and rate per 100 timecards
✓Estimated dollar impact of unresolved exceptions
✓Overtime hours and cost by department and site
✓Percentage of timecards approved before cutoff
✓Manual edit rate per manager
✓Retro pay adjustments per pay period

How Praisidio builds it

Pull time, schedule, and payroll data into one dataset the day before the payroll deadline.
Run every exception rule and score the findings by dollar impact, not just count.
Route each exception to the manager who owns the timecard, with the fix required.
Re-run after corrections and keep the before-and-after record for audit.

Every report reads from your existing systems - payroll, HRIS, time, benefits, and finance - so there is no data warehouse project and no spreadsheet export step. Reports are scheduled, delivered, and versioned, and every number can be traced back to the source record.

Frequently asked questions

When should a pre-payroll audit run?

Ideally twice: once mid-period so large problems surface early, and once the day before the approval deadline so the final list is short and actionable. Running only after payroll closes turns every finding into a retro adjustment.

Which exceptions cause the most cost?

Missed punches defaulted to full shifts, unapproved overtime, and meal break premiums. In most audits a small number of employees and one or two managers account for the majority of the dollar impact.

Does auditing time data require replacing the time clock?

No. The audit reads the time data you already collect and compares it against schedules, pay rules, and payroll results. The clocks, the payroll system, and the approval process stay where they are.

See Payroll & Time Card Audits live

We will build this reporting pack against your own data on the call, so you can see the real numbers instead of a sample.

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Systems supported: ADP Workforce Now®, UKG Ready, UKG Pro, BambooHR, ADP Workforce Manager, and 40+ others. See the complete integrations list.