University of Wisconsin–Madison
Human Resources

Preparing for Payroll – Reports to Run

Overview 

This guide provides recommended reports to run as you prepare for payroll calculations. For each report you will find:

  • security roles with access to run the report

  • what the report results will show you

  • what to do with results of the report

  • links to related job aids

  • notes and tips (as available)

Schools, Colleges, and Divisions may have their own internal practices to prepare for payroll, but the frequency for which the reports should be run is a recommendation.

Reports

   

Payroll Calc Week:  Run Daily

Run the reports listed below daily during a payroll calc week.

Invalid Time Clock Events (UW)

Invalid Time Clock Events (UW)
Security Roles: Manager, Timekeeper (Supervisory)
Use this report to see:

Any time clock events with errors associated. The report is filtered to exclude time clock events that were deleted.
What to do with the results: Review the error information and work with the manager or employee to correctly report time.
Related Job Aids:

Time Validation Alerts (UW)

Time Validation Alerts (UW)
Security Roles: Manager, Timekeeper (Supervisory)
Use this report to see: View timesheets that have time validation alerts in a pay period. Critical alerts must be resolved before time can be submitted. 
What to do with the results:   Review the critical alerts and notify the manager and/or employee to ensure time is entered and approved.
Related Job Aids:

Unmatched Time Clock Events (UW)

Unmatched Time Clock Events (UW)
Security Roles: Manager, Timekeeper (Supervisory)
Use this report to see: View Workers across organizations that have unmatched time clock events for a selected date range. It includes the position, manager, and supervisory organization for any check-in time clock events.
What to do with the results:  If time is already entered for these dates, delete the unmatched timeclock event. Unmatched timeclock events can only be removed within 90 days. After 90 days, they can no longer be deleted and will remain on the report.
Related Job Aids:

Biweekly Standard vs Approved Hours (UW)

Biweekly Standard vs Approved Hours (UW)
Security Roles: Manager, Timekeeper (Supervisory), Unit Timekeeper (UW)
Use this report to see: Review hourly employees whose hours in paid status are less than their regular FTE hours.
What to do with the results:  The “FTE should be” vs “actual approved” should be equal. If they are not equal, notify the manager or employee to make sure time is entered and approved.

Unapproved Time (UW)

Unapproved Time (UW)
Security Roles: Manager, Timekeeper (Supervisory), Unit Timekeeper (UW)
Use this report to see: Identify time entry requests based on the selected Status and Date Range report prompts. The report identifies approvers who need to be contacted to approve time entries on behalf of a manager, push back requests, or take other necessary actions.
What to do with the results:  Notify the manager to make sure time is approved.
Related Job Aids:
Notes and Tips:
  • Set the start date back 91 days to monitor for unapproved retro corrections.
    • If it is past 90 days and the employee needs a change to time worked, please submit a GetHelpUW ticket.
  • Users with the following security roles can manually advance the business process for Submitted Time Review Events from the report: Timekeeper (Supervisory), Manager’s Manager, Unit Timekeeper (UW).

All Student Hourly Time Entry Records over 25 Hours (UW)

All Student Hourly Time Entry Records over 25 Hours (UW)
Security Roles: Manager, Timekeeper (Supervisory)
Use this report to see: View student hourly employees in the selected organization who had week(s) with greater than 25 hours reported in the selected date range.
What to do with the results:  Notify the manager and/or employee and inform them of the hours and the policy.
Related Job Aids:
Notes and Tips:
  • Use the “Organizations” prompt rather than the “Supervisory Organizations” prompt to improve report performance.  
  • If using the optional “Workers” prompt, select only SH employees. If an employee is other than SH, no results will be returned.
  • The results do not include Work Study hours.

Unapproved Absence Requests (UW)

Unapproved Absence Requests (UW)
Security Roles: Manager, Timekeeper (Supervisory), Absence Partner (Supervisory)
Use this report to see: Identify absence requests that have been submitted and not approved that are effective within the selected date range. The results will identify approvers that need to be contacted for the absence requests that need to be approved on behalf of the manager or pushed back, etc.
What to do with the results:  Notify the manager to ensure the absence request is approved.
Related Job Aids:
Notes and Tips:
  • Set the start date back to the start of the prior fiscal year to monitor for unapproved retro corrections.  
  • This report is built into the Time & Absence Dashboard in the Time and Scheduling Hub, but it can also be run ad hoc.

Terminated Workers with Outstanding Time Off Plan Payout Balance (UW)

Terminated Workers with Outstanding Time Off Plan Payout Balance (UW)
Security Roles: Timekeeper (Supervisory)
Use this report to see: Identify terminated workers with an outstanding time off plan balance that is expected to pay out. The effective date of the report results uses the date and time of when it is run.
What to do with the results:  Time off balances should pay out automatically upon termination; however, in some situations the pay out balances may not be processed. For example, if the employee is transferring to another state agency (Termination Reason: Other State Agency), payouts will not automatically process. Review this report and enter payouts for any remaining balances.
Related Job Aids:
Notes and Tips:
  • The Leave Payout (UW) report is intended to review leave payouts that have already been paid out.
  • The report “Terminated Workers with Outstanding Time Off Plan Payout Balance (UW)” will help review terminating workers with an outstanding time off plan balance that is expected to pay out. 

Payroll Validation Dashboard Reports

The following reports are part of the Payroll Validation Dashboard, but they can be run ad hoc.

Earnings Register - Composite Payroll Validation (UW)
Earnings Register - Composite Payroll Validation (UW)
Security Roles: Payroll Partner, Payroll Analyst (Supervisory)
Use this report to see:
  • The view is summarized at the Supervisory Organizational level and broken down by each earning being paid in the pay period(s) selected.
  • You may run this report daily during the payroll processing to view all earnings, time off, and any bonuses paid to the employee.
  • It only shows earnings that are greater than $0, and that add to gross pay.
  • This report is the main report used to balance your payroll per supervisory organization.
What to do with the results: 
  • This report is run daily during Payroll Calc, this report assists in balancing payroll. Most Departments use this report and imports it into the payroll Spreadsheet.
  • Each of the blue hyperlinks can be clicked to open up the full report
Related Job Aids:
Notes and Tips:
  • Export the report to excel for easier filtering and review.
Proration Changes for Workers
Proration Changes for Workers
Security Roles: Payroll Partner, Payroll Analyst (Supervisory)
Use this report to see: This view shows the total number of completed employee transactions with a payroll impact for the period selected in the dashboard prompts.
What to do with the results:  This report displays changes that occurred during the selected pay period. These changes do not include monetary transactions.
Related Job Aids:
Payroll Summary
Payroll Summary
Security Roles: Payroll Partner, Payroll Analyst (Supervisory)
Use this report to see: Payroll Summary: This view is summarized at the Supervisory Organizational level and shows high level payroll information at the worker level.
What to do with the results:  This report allows you to determine whether an employee holds multiple positions across campus. It is not typically used for payroll balancing, as payroll should be balanced only for your department
Related Job Aids:
Active Employees with No Pay
Active Employees with No Pay
Security Roles: Payroll Partner, Payroll Analyst (Supervisory)
Use this report to see: Identify employees who are active but are not getting paid during the pay period.
What to do with the results:  If an employee shows up on this list, notify the manager/employee to ensure all time worked is entered and approved.
Related Job Aids:
Retro Pay Calculation Results for Worker
Retro Pay Calculation Results for Worker
Security Roles: Payroll Partner, Payroll Analyst (Supervisory)
Use this report to see: This advanced report enables payroll administrators to identify what retro HR actions are being picked up in the selected pay period. This is a double check to see if what HR entered retroactively pushes to payroll.
What to do with the results:  If an employee appears on this report, review the listed retroactive payroll entry to determine whether it will be processed in the next payroll. If the processed retroactive payroll results do not match the retro entries on the report, contact your HR department to review and resolve the discrepancy.
Related Job Aids:
Payroll Results Compare Periods - Payroll Validation (UW)
Payroll Results Compare Periods - Payroll Validation (UW)
Security Roles: Payroll Partner, Payroll Analyst (Supervisory)
Use this report to see: A comparison of the selected period(s) and corresponding prior period(s) displaying all earnings, as well as customer defined deductions for the specific period(s) and pay groups/pay run groups. The corresponding values along with the change amount and change percent are shown.
What to do with the results:  View more can be used to do comparisons down at the Pay Group Detail level (by selecting a subset of Pay Group Details) and/or for different selected Period/s.
Related Job Aids:

Time and Scheduling Hub Reports

The following reports are part of the Time and Scheduling Hub, but they can be run ad hoc.

Review and Approve Time
Important: When running the report By Manager, it will often result an error. Follow the steps outlined in Steps To View Employees From Units You Support to see the employees from the units you support. 
Review and Approve Time
Security Roles: Manager, Manager's Manager, Unit Timekeeper (UW), Timekeeper (Supervisory) 
Use this report to see: A single page overview of the time entries and time off for selected workers for a single week. 
What to do with the results: 

  • Filter workers with submitted time, no time entered, unsubmitted time, alerts, and incomplete time entries.

  • Compare total hours to weekly scheduled hours for the worker to see if they have less than their expected schedule hours and need time entered. 

  • Click on a worker to view additional details about their time entry.

  • Approve time and time off entries.
Related Job Aids:
Notes and Tips:

There are limitations as to what a user can do in this report:

  • Approvers can view and approve only one week at a time.

  • Approvers cannot submit, deny, or send back time.

  • Approvers cannot edit time in this report. 

    • To edit or Send Back time, click on a worker to drill down to their time entry details. 

    • Click the “Enter Time for Worker” button to edit time for the worker.

For Unit Timekeepers: Steps To View Employees You Support

Running the Review and Approve Time report By Manager will often error out, creating it difficult to review and approve time. Follow the steps below to see the employees from the units you support:

  1. Date: allows for the reviewing of time entered and submitted for the week in which this date occurs. It will default to the current date.

  2. Review my direct reports only: Uncheck the box. This will allow you to select which workers for you to review.

    A screenshot of the Review and Approve Time report, highlighting the prompt Review my direct reports only has the box unchecked.

  3. Workers:

    1. Select Employees by Organization.

      A screenshot of the Workers drop down list, highlighting the option, Employees by Organization.

    2. Select the Funding String (typically second option) to populate the list of employees.

      A screenshot of the Workers drop down list, highlighting the the FN funding string option.

    3. To review all employees, use the key stroke CTRL + A to select all, then the space bar to check the box to include the employee.

  4. Update the other prompts depending on what you’d like to review.
  5. Click OK.
Edit and Approve Time
Edit and Approve Time
Security Roles: Manager, Manager's Manager, Unit Timekeeper (UW), Timekeeper (Supervisory) 
Use this report to see:

A single page overview of the time entries and time off for selected workers for a single week, and submit unsubmitted time as needed. 

  • This report automatically sorts employees into grids with alerts and those without alerts.

  • Terminated employees who have time in the selected weeks will appear on this report.

  • Displays the assigned work schedule for the employee so that is may be compared to reported time.
What to do with the results: 

  • If an employee has an alert, drill into the alert to gain more information.

  • Edit time entries that need correction, or add new time entries by auto-filling based on the work schedule calendar.

  • Submit, approve, send back, or deny time entries.
Related Job Aids:
Notes and Tips:

There are limitations as to what a user can do in this report:

  • Approvers who are not an employee’s Manager may not be able to approve time or time off from this report.

  • Time blocks reported to Projects are not displayed at this time.
View Scheduled vs Actual Hours
View Scheduled vs Actual Hours
Security Roles: Manager, Manager's Manager, Unit Timekeeper (UW), Timekeeper (Supervisory) 
Use this report to see: The difference between a worker’s scheduled hours and their actual reported hours over a specific period.
What to do with the results:  If an employee has an unexpected difference in scheduled hours vs actual hours, notify the manager and/or employee so their hours worked are entered correctly.
Related Job Aids:
Team Absence Calendar
Team Absence Calendar
Security Roles: Manager, Manager's Manager, Unit Timekeeper (UW), Timekeeper (Supervisory) 
Use this report to see: An absence calendar with data from all workers in a supervisory organization.
What to do with the results:  A manager can approve, edit, or cancel time off from this absence calendar.
Related Job Aids:
Workers Approved Hours and Time Off (UW)
Workers Approved Hours and Time Off (UW)
Security Roles: Absence Partner (Supervisory), HR Analyst UW, HR Data Analyst UW, Manager, Timekeeper (Supervisory), Unit Timekeeper UW 
Use this report to see: Review a worker’s total hours (reported and calculated) by status (unsubmitted, submitted, approved), and time off (requested, approved). The report is designed to display the last 3 weeks plus the current week for the prompted supervisory organization. 
What to do with the results:  Click on any of the blue links, and this will open another window with the time block details and time off by date.
Related Job Aids:

Payroll Calc Week: Run Once During Payroll Calc Week

Run the reports listed below at least once during payroll calc week. 

Unprocessed Time Clock Events

Unprocessed Time Clock Events
Security Roles: HR Analyst UW, HR Data Analyst UW, Manager, Timekeeper (Supervisory), Unit Timekeeper UW
Use this report to see: View employees that may be listed multiple times for the same day punch.
What to do with the results:
  • If an employee shows up on the report, review the Clock Event Time and the Type. You may need to reach out to the manager and/or employee to correct or update. 
  • You may need to navigate to the employees timesheet to see which punches are missing or not registering.
Related Job Aids:
Notes/Tips: These are similar to the unmatched time clock events, saying it could not pair two punches together, so manual edit is required.

Business Process Transaction Status Report (UW)

Business Process Transaction Status Report (UW)
Security Roles: Various security roles may run this report, but what will return on the report will depend on the user’s security roles (example: HR Process Coordinators may run the report, but they will not see results about I-9 BPs unless they also hold the I-9 Coordinator role)
Use this report to see: View business processes of type awaiting a person in a date range based on either Initiated Date or Effective Date. Business Processes are defaulted to include Add Additional Job, Change Job, End Additional Job, Hire, Period Activity Pay, and Termination.
What to do with the results:

This is a helpful report to review for various reasons:

  • Upcoming terminations within a pay period to ensure that the leave payouts properly
  • Job changes with FTE changes to review the status of the business process
Related Job Aids:
Notes/Tips: This is the most comprehensive report available to monitor the status of business processes transactions. The report is defaulted to the business processes that mostly impact payroll but the user can add or remove business processes for monitoring. This report is generally available to HR and Finance roles responsible for initiating or approving transactions

Workers on Leave (UW)

Workers on Leave (UW)
Security Roles: Manager, Absence Partner (Supervisory), Unit Timekeeper (UW)
Use this report to see: View all workers on leave within selected organizations over a specified date range. You have the option to include workers returned from leave, terminated workers, and Pending (In Progress) leave requests. The reports gives all employees that are on a LOA, date range and amount of days, per sup org.
What to do with the results: Run along with “Workers Returning from Leave” report to ensure employees beginning a leave of absence have correct payroll and absence accruals
Related Job Aids:

Workers Returning from Leave (UW)

Workers Returning from Leave (UW)
Security Roles: Manager, Absence Partner (Supervisory)
Use this report to see: View all employees that are returning from a leave of absence, the date range, and amount of requested hours per sup org.
What to do with the results: Run along with “Workers on Leave” report to ensure employees returning from leave have correct payroll and absence accruals.
Related Job Aids:
Notes and Tips: Check the box “Only display records with Return from Leave Event” to confirm that payroll and absence accruals are correct for employees who have returned from leave on or before the estimated last day of leave.

Overused Time Off Balances (UW)

Overused Time Off Balances (UW)
Security Roles: Absence Partner (Supervisory), HR Data Analyst UW, HR Executive (Supervisory), HR Partner (Supervisory), HR Process Coordinator (Supervisory) UW, Manager, Timekeeper (Supervisory), Unit Timekeeper UW
Use this report to see: View employees that have overused any time off plans.
What to do with the results: If an employee has overused a time off plan, review their employee profile to see their time off entries, and consider adjusting the time off type as appropriate.
Notes and Tips: Run this report future-dated to June 30 to review employees who have negative time off balances and may need repayment.

New Hire Turnover (UW)

New Hire Turnover (UW)
Security Roles: Manager, Absence Partner (Supervisory), Payroll Analyst, Timekeeper (Supervisory), Unit Timekeeper (UW), HR Process Coordinator
Use this report to see: Shows employees who were hired and terminated within the same pay period (selected date range).
What to do with the results: Workers should then be analyzed to review whether manual absence payouts are needed, as the system is unable to process automatic absence payouts if the worker was not active as of either the period start or end date.
Related Job Aids: Termination Time Off Adjustments and Payouts

My Team's Upcoming Time Off (UW)

My Team's Upcoming Time Off (UW)
Security Roles: Absence Partner (Supervisory), HR Data Analyst UW, HR Executive (Supervisory), HR Partner (Supervisory), HR Process Coordinator (Supervisory) UW, Manager, Timekeeper (Supervisory), Unit Timekeeper UW
Use this report to see: View workers in your supervisory organization with approved time off in the next 7 days. Does not include workers on Leave of Absence or unapproved time off entered.
What to do with the results: Compare results to "Unapproved Absence Request (UW)” report to ensure time off is approved timely.
Notes and Tips: This report is included in a Manager’s Time & Absence Reports in the Time & Scheduling Hub.

Non-Payroll Calc Week

Run the following reports at least once during non-payroll calc weeks to help audit actions that may impact Payroll.

Invalid Time Clock Events (UW)

Invalid Time Clock Events (UW)
Security Roles: Manager, Timekeeper (Supervisory)
Use this report to see: Any time clock events with errors associated. The report is filtered to exclude time clock events that were deleted. 
What to do with the results: Review the Error information and work with the manager or employee to correctly report time. 
Related Job Aids: 

Unprocessed Time Clock Events 

Unprocessed Time Clock Events 
Security Roles: HR Analyst UW, HR Data Analyst UW, Manager, Timekeeper (Supervisory), Unit Timekeeper UW
Use this report to see: View employees that may be listed multiple times for the same day punch. 
What to do with the results:

  • If an employee shows up on the report, review the Clock Event Time and the Type. You may need to reach out to the manager and/or employee to correct or update. 

  • You may need to navigate to the employees timesheet to see which punches are missing or not registering.
Related Job Aids: 
Notes and Tips:  These are similar to the unmatched time clock events, saying it could not pair two punches together, so manual edit is required.

Workers Approved Hours and Time Off (UW)

Workers Approved Hours and Time Off (UW)
Security Roles: Absence Partner (Supervisory), HR Analyst UW, HR Data Analyst UW, Manager, Timekeeper (Supervisory), Unit Timekeeper UW 
Use this report to see: Review a worker’s total hours (reported and calculated) by status (unsubmitted, submitted, approved), and time off (requested, approved). The report is designed to display the last 3 weeks plus the current week for the prompted supervisory organization. 
What to do with the results: Select any of the blue links, and this will open another window with the time block details and time off by date.
Related Job Aids: 

Audits (Ad Hoc Reports)

Run the following reports at least one per month to help audit a variety of actions that impact time and absence.

Business Process Transaction Status Report (UW)

Business Process Transaction Status Report (UW)
Security Roles: Various security roles may run this report, but what will return on the report will depend on the user’s security roles (example: HR Process Coordinators may run the report, but they will not see results about I-9 BPs unless they also hold the I-9 Coordinator role).
Use this report to see: View business processes of type awaiting a person in a date range based on either Initiated Date or Effective Date. Business Processes are defaulted to include Add Additional Job, Change Job, End Additional Job, Hire, Period Activity Pay, and Termination.
What to do with the results: 

This is a helpful report to review for various reasons:

  • Upcoming terminations within a pay period to ensure that the leave payouts properly

  • Job changes with FTE changes to review the status of the business process
Related Job Aids:
Notes and Tips: This is the most comprehensive report available to monitor the status of business processes transactions. The report is defaulted to the business processes that mostly impact payroll but the user can add or remove business processes for monitoring. This report is generally available to HR and Finance roles responsible for initiating or approving transactions.

Leave Payouts (UW)

Leave Payouts (UW)
Security Roles: Security Role(s), Payroll Analyst (Supervisory)
Use this report to see: Review leave payouts that have happened on a given payroll. It returns all of the termination related earnings codes and their amounts and hours on the payroll result line for the given period or date range.
What to do with the results:  Ensure the payouts have been processed with payroll.
Related Job Aids:
Notes and Tips:

  • The report “Terminated Workers with Outstanding Time Off Plan Payout Balance (UW)” will help review terminating workers with an outstanding time off plan balance that is expected to pay out. 

  • The Leave Payout (UW) report is intended to review leave payouts that have already been paid out.

Worker Time Off Balances Details (UW)

Worker Time Off Balances Details (UW)
Security Roles: Absence Partner (Supervisory), HR Data Analyst UW, HR Executive (Supervisory), HR Partner (Supervisory), HR Process Coordinator (Supervisory) UW, Manager, Timekeeper (Supervisory), Unit Timekeeper UW
Use this report to see: Shows details of time off balances for an employee, including what the projected balances will be by the end of the year based on the effective date entered.
What to do with the results:  Employees with time off plans that will forfeit at the end of the fiscal year should be notified what hours will expire. 
Related Job Aids:
Notes and Tips:

  • Only plans with balances will show.

  • Deselect No Leave Taken from the time off plans to remove that from the report results.

Missing Leave Reports (UW)

Missing Leave Reports (UW)
Security Roles: Absence Partner (Supervisory), HR Data Analyst, HR Executive (Supervisory), HR Partner (Supervisory), HR Process Coordinator (Supervisory), Manager, Payroll Analyst (Supervisory), Timekeeper (Supervisory), Unit Timekeeper UW
Use this report to see: Shows whether or not an exempt staff has entered time off or reported No Leave Taken for any given month. 
What to do with the results:  Departments should notify employees about missing leave reports. 
Related Job Aids:
Notes and Tips: Workday notifications are sent the second Wednesday of each pay period if No Leave Taken has not been reported, or submitted but not approved by a manager.

Legal Holiday Accrued in Period (UW)

Legal Holiday Accrued in Period (UW)
Security Roles: Absence Partner (Supervisory), Timekeeper (Supervisory), Unit Timekeeper (UW)
Use this report to see: Shows employees' Legal Holiday hours accrued and used in the pay period selected. 
What to do with the results:  Run this report after payroll has processed for the period with the Legal Holiday, and after UWSS completed their accrual audit for employees on continuous leave, and for part time employees. If an employee is missing an accrual, submit a ticket to GetHelpUW with details of your findings.
Related Job Aids:
Notes and Tips: Run this report for the pay period that the Legal Holiday took place in.

Absence Audit (UW)

Absence Audit (UW)
Security Roles: HR Data Analyst, HR Executive (Supervisory), HR Partner (Supervisory), HR Process Coordinator (Supervisory), Manager, Timekeeper (Supervisory), Unit Timekeeper UW
Use this report to see: View and audit employees’ time off entries. The report shows all absence events and the status for a SupOrg, but it can also be run for a single employee. 
What to do with the results:  Depending on the results of the audit, the S/C/D may notify the manager/employee of issues, and adjust time off types as appropriate, or submit a ticket to GetHelpUW.
Related Job Aids:

Overused Time Off Balances (UW)

Overused Time Off Balances (UW)
Security Roles: Absence Partner (Supervisory), HR Data Analyst UW, HR Executive (Supervisory), HR Partner (Supervisory), HR Process Coordinator (Supervisory) UW, Manager, Timekeeper (Supervisory), Unit Timekeeper UW
Use this report to see: View employees that have overused any leave. 
What to do with the results:  If an employee has overused a time off plan, review their employee profile to see their time off entries, and consider adjusting the time off type as appropriate. 
Notes and Tips: Run this report future-dated to June 30 to review employees who have negative time off balances and may need repayment.

Payroll Summary

Payroll Summary
Security Roles: Payroll Partner, Payroll Analyst (Supervisory)
Use this report to see: Payroll Summary: This view is summarized at the Supervisory Organizational level and shows high level payroll information at the worker level.
What to do with the results:  This report allows you to view if your employee has multiple positions across campus. This report is normally not used to balance payroll since you are only balancing it for your Department.
Related Job Aids:

Additional Resources

Questions?

Contact gethelpuw@support.wisconsin.edu

.

Updated: Oct. 22, 2026
Source URL: https://hr.wisc.edu/hr-guides/for-hr-professionals/preparing-for-payroll-reports-to-run/

Did you find what you need?