AI agent for payroll preparation
An agent that gathers hours, leave, overtime and changes every pay period, prepares the payroll in your software or spreadsheet, and shows a variance report to a person before any payment is approved.
- Attendance and leave read for 86 employeesDone
- Overtime from 3 managers enteredDone
- One employee's pay is 40% above last monthAsks a person
- Payroll and payment file ready for approvalAwaiting approval
An example. Your agent is built around your own work.
How it works
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Gather the period's inputs
The agent collects hours from your timekeeping tool or timesheets, leave and bonus records, and new starters and leavers from the HR system or the files your managers send.
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Validate
It flags what looks wrong before calculating: missing bank details, a pay rate change nobody announced, overtime above your limit, someone paid who has left.
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Prepare and compare
It calculates or fills the payroll using the rules and rates your payroll software or accountant already uses, then compares every employee with the previous period.
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Approve
The payroll admin reviews a variance report listing new, removed and changed amounts and approves the run. The agent then prepares the payment file and the accounting journal. A person releases the payment.
New to AI agents? How they work, in plain words
Real examples, setup steps and tool connections for this agent
An example conversation
An example of how a conversation runs. The grey lines show what the agent does in your systems meanwhile.
- CustomerHi, start the October payroll please. Hours are in the timesheet folder.
- Read the October timesheets for 86 employees. Read leave records and 3 bonus approvals from the HR system. Compared with September's payroll.
- AgentInputs are loaded for 86 employees. Four things need your eyes before I prepare the run: two new starters have no bank details, one employee's overtime is 62 hours against your 40-hour limit, and one person on last month's list has a leaving date of 12 October.
- CustomerThe overtime is approved, the plant had a shutdown. Bank details will come from HR tomorrow.
- Recorded the overtime approval with your name and the time. Held the two new starters until bank details are verified by HR.
- AgentPrepared the run for 84 employees. Total gross is up 3.1% on September, and the report lists 9 people whose pay changed: the overtime, 3 bonuses, the leaver's part month and 4 rate changes already in the HR file.
- CustomerWhy does the leaver show a part month?
- AgentTheir last working day was the 12th, so the sheet pays 12 days. I applied your rule for unused leave and it adds 1.5 days. Please confirm that matches the contract.
- CustomerYes, approved. Send the run for sign-off.
- Sent the variance report to the finance director for approval. Prepared the bank file and the payroll journal, not released.
How it is built
- Where the inputs come from
- Hours, leave and employee changes come from your HR or timekeeping system through its API or an export, or from the spreadsheets managers send. Each file is stored with its date, so every pay run can be traced to its inputs.
- Rules, not guesses, do the calculation
- Gross-to-net calculation, overtime and leave follow explicit rules for your country and contracts. The language model reads messy inputs such as emails and notes and drafts explanations. It does not decide pay. Edge cases go to the payroll admin.
- Tax and rate tables carry a date
- Rates and tables are loaded from your payroll provider, your accountant or a maintained source, with a version date. A run that would use an expired table is blocked. If you pay through payroll software, the software keeps doing the tax calculation and the agent works around it.
- Variance check against last period
- Every employee is compared with the previous period. The report lists new, removed and changed amounts, and any change above your threshold is highlighted with the reason found in the data.
- Fixed actions, and no payment
- The agent can read inputs, validate, fill your template or prepare the run in your software, build the variance report, and prepare a bank file and a journal. It cannot release money. Bank detail changes need a verified process outside the agent.
- Privacy of personal data, and local hosting
- Access is limited by role. National ID numbers and bank details are masked in anything the model reads and in logs, and data can stay in the country where it must be held. The whole agent can run on your own servers: the agent, its database, its logs and the language model itself, using open models such as Llama, Qwen or Mistral, so documents never leave your network. Open models you host yourself are smaller than the largest cloud models. For checking inputs, comparing periods and drafting explanations they are usually enough, and we test on your own cases before choosing. Payslip email and the bank upload still go through your mail provider and your bank.
- Approval and audit trail
- Nothing is released without the admin's approval. Every input change and every approval is logged with who and when, which helps for tax filings and audits. The agent runs in the cloud or on your servers.
What you can connect to it
- Gusto
- Reads employees and time off and prepares payroll data through its API. Pay-run approval stays in Gusto.
- ADP
- Reads worker and pay data through its developer APIs where your plan provides them.
- Paychex
- Reads worker and payroll data through its developer APIs where your plan provides them.
- Workday
- Reads worker and compensation data through its web services.
- BambooHR
- Reads the employee directory, leave and new starters through its API.
- Xero
- Reads employees and pay data and writes the payroll journal to the accounting side.
- QuickBooks Online
- Writes the payroll journal and reads employee data through its API. Payroll approval stays in QuickBooks.
- Timekeeping and attendance tools
- Reads hours and overtime by exports or API.
- Excel or Google Sheets
- Fills and checks your payroll template, and stores the variance report and the approval log.
- Bank file
- Prepares the payment file in the format your bank asks for. A person uploads and releases it.
Connects to your tools. You stay in control.
- Works with what you have
- Gusto, ADP, Paychex, Workday, BambooHR, Xero, QuickBooks Online, timekeeping tools, bank payment files, Excel and Google Sheets.
- A person approves what matters
- Payments, orders, discounts or anything you choose wait for approval. Every action is logged.
- Can run on your own servers
- The agent, its data, its logs and even the language model (open models such as Llama, Qwen or Mistral) can run on your servers, so documents and customer data stay inside your network. How that works
What it does not do
- It does not pay salaries. A person approves the run and releases the payment.
- It does not change anyone's bank details or pay rate. Those changes follow your own verified process.
- It does not decide pay disputes, terminations or contract terms. Edge cases go to the payroll admin.
- It does not replace your accountant's tax judgement. It applies the rates and rules already in your payroll software or set by your accountant.
- It does not guess missing hours or leave. It asks the manager.
Questions
Does the agent pay salaries?
No. It prepares the payroll and the payment file, and a person reviews and approves every payment. Releasing money is not one of the actions the agent has.
Does it know the tax and labour rules?
It applies the rules and rates your payroll software or accountant already uses, each with a version date. It does not replace your accountant's judgement, and anything outside the rules goes to the payroll admin.
We run payroll in Excel. Can it help?
Yes. It can fill and check your Excel template and compare it with last month. The tax tables in a workbook must be kept up to date by hand, which is the main risk, so for more than a handful of employees we would suggest moving to payroll software later.
Can it work with Xero, QuickBooks or Gusto?
Yes. It reads employee and time data and writes journals through their APIs. The pay run itself stays in your payroll product, with its approval.
What does the payroll check catch?
Missing bank details, unusual overtime, pay rate changes, people who joined or left mid-period, and any employee whose pay differs from last period by more than your threshold. A person sees each of them before approving.
Is employee data safe?
Access is limited by role, national IDs and bank details are masked in what the model reads and in logs, and every access is logged. The agent can run on your own servers so data stays in your country.
What happens if hours or leave are missing?
The agent asks the manager and holds that employee until there is an answer. It does not fill gaps with estimates.
How much does an agent like this cost?
It depends on the task and the systems it connects to. After a first call we give you a clear estimate of cost and time.
Want this agent built around your work?
Tell us in a few lines what the job looks like today and we will set up an online intro call.
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