The First Payroll Begins Before Anyone Enters Hours
A new employer’s most important payroll may be the payroll that has not happened yet.
Initial setup determines what later payroll runs assume about:
- the company;
- its pay schedule;
- employees;
- banking;
- taxes;
- prior payroll history;
- permissions.
A mistake repeated every two weeks is more expensive than a mistake caught during setup.
Step 1: Establish the payroll calendar
Payroll Relief uses Pay Schedules for recurring Standard Payrolls.
Official documentation says a Standard Payroll’s period dates and pay date are calculated from the assigned pay schedule.
Before implementation, document:
- pay frequency;
- period start;
- period end;
- normal pay date;
- groups paid on different schedules;
- holiday practices.
If hourly employees are paid weekly but administrative employees are paid semimonthly, that distinction belongs in the payroll design rather than being improvised each cycle.
Step 2: Decide how the employer will participate
Will the employer:
- send payroll information to the firm;
- enter payroll directly;
- upload a spreadsheet;
- calculate but not approve;
- receive broader finalization rights?
Current IRIS documentation allows an accounting firm to activate employer access and assign specific permissions.
Decide that model before training users.
Otherwise employees may learn functions they will never be authorized to use.
Step 3: Build the employee population
Payroll Relief requires employee records before those employees can be included in payroll.
Current IRIS documentation supports manual employee setup as well as importing employee information from supported sources or appropriately formatted Excel data.
The employer should verify:
- legal name;
- address;
- employee identifier;
- employment status;
- department/location where applicable;
- compensation setup;
- applicable deductions;
- payroll schedule assignment.
Sensitive data should move only through approved secure methods.
Do not email employee Social Security numbers merely because email is convenient.
Step 4: Decide whether Employee Self Service is part of onboarding
Payroll Relief also offers Employee Self Service as an add-on.
Current AccountantsWorld material describes ESS as a way to digitize onboarding and ongoing employee-data management.
An employer using it should still define who reviews employee-submitted information before relying on it for payroll.
Self-service changes the path by which information arrives.
It does not eliminate the employer’s need to verify payroll inputs.
Step 5: Handle electronic services and banking early
Direct deposit and other electronic payroll services may require setup that should not be left until the day before the first payroll.
IRIS’s current documentation describes employer-level electronic-service configuration and application requirements for functions such as direct deposit and electronic filing.
The implementation timeline should therefore distinguish:
software setup complete
from:
banking/electronic services ready
They are not necessarily the same milestone.
Step 6: If switching midyear, account for prior payroll
A business implementing Payroll Relief in the middle of a tax year cannot simply pretend January through June never happened.
Payroll Relief includes a Prior Payroll type for entering employee earnings, taxes and deductions from payrolls processed earlier in the year before the employer began using the system. Official documentation says accurate prior information is important for later payroll forms and compliance.
For a midyear switch, identify:
- year-to-date employee wages;
- taxes;
- deductions;
- employer payments;
- completed quarters;
- outstanding liabilities.
The employer and accountant should agree who is responsible for reconciling that history.
Step 7: Run a controlled first cycle
Do not treat the first live payroll as a routine cycle.
Create extra review time.
Compare:
- expected gross payroll;
- employee count;
- unusual deductions;
- net payroll;
- direct-deposit totals;
- employer tax amounts.
Payroll Relief includes pre-approval reports and payroll comparison information that can assist with this review.
Step 8: Document what was learned
After the first payroll, write down:
- what information arrived late;
- what the accountant had to correct;
- what the employer could have caught;
- which permissions caused confusion;
- which deadline needs to move earlier.
The best outcome from a first payroll is not merely that employees got paid.
It is that payroll number two becomes boring.