--- title: "Academy S5. Specialist: HR and Payroll" description: "Specialist lesson 5: time, timesheet approval and leave, pay runs from draft to closed, pay plans, benefits and deductions, and working with your payroll service." url: "https://theasst.com/docs/academy-s5-specialist-hr-and-payroll/" updated: "2026-10-30" category: Academy --- # Academy S5. Specialist: HR and Payroll *TBA Specialist: HR and Payroll ยท about 10 hours* ## After this lesson you can - Set up time tracking, leave and overtime, and approve timesheets. - Take a pay run from draft through approval and export to closing, and say what each stage does. - Use pay plans, benefits, labor burden and deductions correctly. - Say what TBA does and what your payroll service does, and how results come back. ## Why it matters Payroll mistakes reach people's paychecks. TBA tracks time, pay and cost; it is not the system that withholds taxes or pays employees, so a specialist knows exactly where TBA's part ends. ## Read - [HR/Payroll Overview](https://theasst.com/docs/hr-payroll-overview/), [Personnel Overview](https://theasst.com/docs/personnel-overview/) and [Personnel Groups](https://theasst.com/docs/personnel-groups/) - [Timeclock and Kiosk](https://theasst.com/docs/timeclock-and-kiosk/) and [Time Tracking Calendar](https://theasst.com/docs/time-tracking-calendar/) - [Timesheet Approval](https://theasst.com/?post_type=docs&p=954) - [Leave Types and Policies](https://theasst.com/docs/leave-types-and-policies/), [Leave Requests](https://theasst.com/docs/leave-requests/) and [Leave Balances](https://theasst.com/docs/leave-balances/) - [Pay Codes Setup](https://theasst.com/docs/pay-codes-setup/), [Work Types Setup](https://theasst.com/docs/work-types-setup/) and [Overtime Rules Setup](https://theasst.com/docs/overtime-rules-setup/) - [Pay Runs](https://theasst.com/docs/pay-runs/) - [Pay Plans](https://theasst.com/?post_type=docs&p=919) and [Benefits and Labor Burden](https://theasst.com/?post_type=docs&p=920) - [Importing Payroll Results and Closing a Pay Run](https://theasst.com/?post_type=docs&p=951) - [Labor Cost by Work Type Report](https://theasst.com/?post_type=docs&p=950), [Timesheet Report](https://theasst.com/docs/timesheet-report/) and [Payroll Summary](https://theasst.com/docs/payroll-summary/) - [Payroll Walkthrough](https://theasst.com/?post_type=docs&p=921) ## People, time and leave Employees clock in at the **kiosk page** without signing in (badge QR scan or manual entry, with an optional PIN), or are clocked in automatically when they sign in while Out. The In/Out board shows who is in. Pay rates are kept on the personnel record, effective from a chosen date. **Overtime rules** say when hours beyond a threshold are paid at a premium. **Timesheet approval** has an administrator mode and a manager mode. A timesheet that was approved but whose hours have changed shows **Changed**, so it is approved again. **Leave** is earned under accrual policies, requested through TBA, and approved by the manager before the balance reflects it. ## Pay runs A pay run goes **Draft, Approved, Exported, then Closed**. Create it for a period (at most about three months, and never overlapping another run), and TBA calculates the lines: time lines from hours, salary lines for salaried people, plan lines from pay plans, and employer-cost lines. Manual lines are your own and are never changed by a recalculation; only manual lines can be removed. Employer costs are shown but are not pay and never form the gross. **Approving** locks the pay period so the hours and rates behind the run cannot change. If nothing has been done with it, a run can be **reopened** with the permission to do so, but not once the payroll service's results have been imported. Only a Draft can be deleted. A company can switch on a warning when a run includes hours from timesheets that are not approved; it warns and leaves the decision to you. ## Pay plans, benefits and deductions A **pay plan** adds commission, bonus or per-job pay to a run, and can be assigned to individual employees or to personnel groups. **Benefits and labor burden** are employer costs, calculated as a flat amount, a percent, or an amount per hour; labor burden is the extra cost of employing someone beyond wages. **Deductions** are recorded for information, as a flat amount or a percent of that person's gross on the run, and are capped at what the person earned. They are not lines of pay: the payroll service applies and remits them. TBA takes a snapshot of the deductions when the run is **approved** and drops it if the run is reopened. ## The payroll service, closing and posting The **payroll service** calculates and withholds taxes, pays employees and files the returns. A court-ordered garnishment is withheld and remitted there, and TBA records what the service reports back. TBA exports the run's pay lines in the format of the chosen interface; employees' payroll service IDs are held on each person, and a template and import can fill many at once. After the service runs payroll, **import its results**, then **close** the run. Closing compares TBA's estimate with the actual results (for employees whose results were imported) and records a **true-up**. A closed run's ledger entry cannot be voided, because the true-up depends on it. The Labor Cost report shows what labor cost, including employer costs. ## Try it 1. Set up a pay code, a work type and an overtime rule on a test company. 2. Record time for two people, approve their timesheets, and create a pay run. 3. Add a manual line, recalculate, and see that the manual line stays. 4. Approve the run, then reopen it and see what changes. 5. Add a percent deduction and a flat one, and check the cap when pay is small. ## Check yourself Explain to a colleague what each stage of a pay run does, which jobs belong to the payroll service and not to TBA, and why a closed run cannot simply be edited. A Specialist exam is planned for a later release; the areas it will cover are the four sections above.