Payroll automation: from three days to two hours

The same scene repeats at the start of every month. The accountant assembles the timesheet, chases department heads for clarifications, calculates bonuses on a calculator, and spends three days on it.

Then the staff arrive: "my hours are wrong", "the bonus wasn't counted", "last month it was different".

Payroll is not complicated in itself. It is simply assembled from several sources, and those sources do not talk to each other.

Why it takes so long

The cause is not the calculation but the data gathering.

Attendance. The timesheet is kept on paper or in a spreadsheet. A department head fills it in at month end, and some days have to be recalled from memory.

Output. On piece rates this comes from the shop floor, usually in a separate book with no link to attendance.

Bonuses and deductions. In a manager's head or a separate sheet. The rules shift slightly every month.

The accountant brings these three together. Every join is a chance for an error, and those errors are what turn into disputes later.

The four most common errors

The timesheet is filled by hand. Arrival times are recorded from memory. Late starts and early finishes usually go unrecorded.

Overtime is unverified. An employee says they worked Saturday and there is no record confirming it.

The bonus rule is undocumented. "Worked well" is interpreted differently every month.

Advances are not carried through. A mid-month payment is forgotten in the final calculation and corrected afterwards.

What the system changes

The last row has an unexpectedly large effect. When employees can see their own hours and calculation, queries drop sharply — because they spot an error the same day rather than at month end.

Attendance capture: three approaches

The choice depends on company size and working conditions.

Cards. Cheap, but a card can be handed to someone else. Control quality is low.

Fingerprint. Reliable, but awkward on a shop floor — hands are dirty or gloved. In catering there is also a hygiene question.

Face recognition. Contactless, fast, and gloves are not an obstacle. In manufacturing and services this is usually the most practical option.

Our own Face ID System works this way and is used by over 20,000 people.

How to define a bonus rule

This is the hardest part, and it is not technical.

If a bonus is paid "for working well", it cannot be automated. The rule has to be measurable.

A working formula:

• Each criterion must be measurable: output, quality, attendance, deadlines
• Each criterion carries a weight: for example output 50%, quality 30%, attendance 20%
• There must be a threshold: below the norm, no bonus applies
• There must be a ceiling, so the budget stays under control
• Exceptions must be written down: illness, leave, enforced downtime

Once the rule exists, entering it into the system is a day's work. Writing the rule can take several weeks — and that is a management task, not a system one.

How the rollout runs

Will staff resist

Yes, and more strongly than on most projects.

The reason is obvious: lateness is now visible. Five minutes that used to pass unnoticed now sit in a record.

What works:

Announce the rules in advance. Before the system is switched on, not after. How lateness is counted and where the threshold sits should be stated openly.

Apply no deductions in the first month. Data is collected but does not affect pay. That gives people time to adjust.

Show the upside. Overtime is now confirmed by a record, which favours the employee. Bonuses follow a rule rather than a manager's mood.

Give the portal early. When employees can see their own data, the system reads as transparency rather than surveillance.

What to measure

The first is the most visible, but the second matters more. Fewer queries is a sign of trust, and it feeds into staff turnover as well.

What it costs

Terminal hardware is a separate cost and is usually not included in the price. Face recognition terminal pricing varies by model — ask about it separately when you receive a proposal.

In summary

It is not the calculation that takes time, it is the gathering. When the sources sit in one system, the calculation itself takes seconds.

Practical steps:

1. Count payroll queries over the last three months — that is your baseline
2. Start with the attendance terminal; it captures data at source
3. Write the bonus rule — that is management work, not a system task
4. Apply no deductions in the first month while data accumulates
5. Release the employee portal early — that is when queries fall