Understand Review & Finalise in the payroll wizard
Read each section of the payroll wizard's final review and understand what to check before finalising.
Start with a current preview4 sections
Review & Finalise is the third step of the regular and off-cycle payroll preparation wizards. It brings the calculation, employee outcomes, transaction lines, employer costs, and readiness messages together before the run is locked. The fourth step confirms the result after finalisation.
Start with a current preview
Select Preview payroll. If inputs have changed since the last review, select Recalculate preview or the displayed readiness action. Wait for a successful backend calculation. A Gross preview or Total payroll (Draft input) value is only a preparation estimate until the current payroll preview succeeds. Monetary results can be unavailable while a calculation fails or is blocked.
Check the selected organisation, run type, service period, included employees, close-by date, statutory tax date, and pinned statutory pack. The regular wizard shows Close-by date in the summary; the off-cycle wizard shows Intended payday. A close-by date is a deadline for completing the run, not the date employees are paid.
Read the readiness messages first
The issue area above the review card can show validation errors, Payroll requirements, employee-detail refresh, missing exchange-rate requirements, a stale preview, or Finalisation readiness. Follow the named action and recalculate when instructed. Profile and output notes are informational when the screen says they do not block finalisation. If a saved draft or finalisation response is still being confirmed, wait for its status check before trying the action again.
The Payment settlement readiness card tracks payment plans separately from payroll calculation. It can identify missing or incomplete allocations needed for payment outputs. Review the affected employee’s plan, source and destination currencies, and conversion evidence; payment readiness does not itself calculate or finalise payroll. The exchange-rate panel handles rates required by payroll inputs or payment conversion. Follow its displayed pair, direction, rate type, and effective date, then refresh the affected preview.
Review the summary and sections
| Area | What it shows | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Top totals | Both wizards show total payroll and included employees. Regular review also places close-by date, employee deductions, employer costs, and net pay in the top summary; off-cycle places intended payday there and shows its detailed amounts in the sections below. | Compare each amount with the approved source figures. Keep currencies separate where the screen displays separate currency views. Net pay is the calculated employee result; employer costs also include employer obligations. |
| PAYE method notice | The decision and lock boundary for annual PAYE methods. | Resolve any annual-method action before finalising. Finalisation can lock method history; a preview alone does not confirm an annual decision. |
| Tax, deductions, and company obligations (regular) / Statutory and payroll amounts (off-cycle) | Employee withholding and company amounts by tax type, plus calculated net pay, reimbursements, statutory remittances, and total employer cost. | Check PAYE, AIDS levy, NSSA and other displayed rows against the employee results and the statutory pack. Reimbursements and employer obligations have different purposes from employee net pay. |
| What Your Employees Worked & Take Home | Each included employee’s worked hours, gross cash, taxable income, PAYE, AIDS levy, NSSA, and net pay. | Find unexpected hours or pay, missing employees, and unusually high or low net pay. Regular runs can mark partial service coverage; check the covered dates for those employees. |
| Transactions in this payroll (regular) / Transaction Inputs (off-cycle) | Employee, transaction, source, input basis, reference, and amount. Regular review uses authoritative payroll-engine lines from the successful preview, including recurring and run entries. | Check that each approved recurring, controlled, override, or one-off input appears once with the intended value and source. If regular review has no successful preview, this table cannot show authoritative lines. |
| Payroll cost breakdown (regular) / Employer amounts and references (off-cycle) | Employer NSSA, employee net pay, statutory remittances or deductions, total employer cost, date, and reference. | Reconcile the employer obligation and total cost with the top summary. The payroll or submission reference may be generated on finalisation. |
The off-cycle review also shows a short policy summary for tax withholding, paystub work period, regular deductions, and employer contributions. Read those settings as the policy applied to this off-cycle run; they can differ from an ordinary scheduled run.
Finalise and inspect the result
- Resolve the named issues
Return to the owning wizard step or linked setup screen for any blocking message. Save changes and obtain a new current preview. Check the four expandable sections again after recalculation.
- Confirm the final action
Select Finalise payroll only when it is enabled and the employee set and calculated results are correct. Read Confirm finalisation, then select Finalise payroll again. If the footer says Finalisation requires payroll authority, use an authorised payroll account.
- Check the confirmation step
Verify the finalisation time and reference, run ID, snapshot reference, gross, deductions, employer costs, and net. Select View full summary to reopen the sections. The finalised calculation and pinned pack are read-only; the run is available in Payroll history.
Expected result: The wizard shows Finalised and a read-only payroll result.