In this article
We understand that sense checking payroll is often a time-consuming and laborious task, but it’s extremely important as it helps you understand where there are variances which help identify where mistakes may have been made.
To help make this easier, we’ve built the ability for you to download a report directly from Pento which calculates and provides you insight into any variances that have occurred in comparison to the prior month. This helps reduce the time you spend manually searching for differences while also giving you control to use the data how you want.
The variance report has three different tabs, which you choose to use will likely depend on what information you are concerned about and your preference for viewing data.
How to access the report
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Navigate to the Payrolls in the sidebar
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Click the three dots to the far right of the month you’re focusing on
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Click Download variance report
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The variance report is downloaded into Excel
Understanding the tabs
1. Summary
The summary tab displays all the pay items in the current and previous payrolls and the total value of each pay item. Both the monetary and the % difference will be displayed.
This tab is useful if you are interested in the payroll costs at a company level and will help you spot significant changes in costs. For example, if your total payroll costs are increased this month you could use the summary tab to see what has caused the increase, and you may see an increase in overtime costs or bonuses.
2. By Employee
The employee tab displays each employee from the current and previous payroll down the left hand side and displays the individual employee variances for each pay item across the page. The tab includes totals for each pay item.
This tab is useful if you want to look at individual employee variances in more detail.
3. By Pay Item
The pay item tab displays each pay item down the left hand side. This view is useful if you want to look at variances of a particular pay item in more detail. For example, you could filter the tab to see just one pay item in order to understand what individual changes are driving the variance. Some people also find this tab useful if you want to look a single employee and understand why their Net or Gross Pay has changed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why would I need to use this?
While you have control over how and what you do with this data, some common use cases are:
- To double check payroll and ensure it is correct by checking each individual pay item associated with each employee
- To share the data with an approver who is required to approve payroll and wants to see all pay items for each employee on payroll
- To more easily highlight variances across all pay items and employees to help identify mistakes
- To merge this information with information from a different system to create a report that offers broader insights