Month end is when attendance mistakes cost money. A reliable attendance report is not a spreadsheet filled in the day before payroll: it is the result of a methodical close. Here is the method we recommend, whatever the tool.
1. Set the period and the cut-off date
Decide once and for all the payroll period (1st to last day of the month, or 26th to 25th…) and the date after which attendance is frozen. Tell team leaders: after that date, corrections go into the next month.
2. Settle every exception
List the days that need a decision over the period:
- missing clock-outs: a forgotten departure, to add with a reason;
- absences: justified (with their type) or not;
- impossible durations: a double punch, a wrongly assigned shift;
- unidentified events: an unknown face or an employee not linked on the terminal.
In Atlaxys Tempo, the Exceptions screen gathers these days; days without errors can be approved together, the others open one by one.
3. Approve overtime
Overtime should be approved before going to payroll, by the person named in your internal rule. Check at the same time that it is separated by time (day or night) and day (weekly rest, public holiday): payroll needs this to apply the right premiums (Labour Code reference points).
4. Reconcile leave
Compare approved leave with the calendar: leave entered but not approved, or an absence that should have been leave, shows up here. Check the balances of the employees concerned.
5. Run three cross-checks
- Planned vs worked hours by department: a large gap often signals a wrongly assigned schedule.
- Employees with no punch over the period: a leaver not archived, a missing enrolment on the terminal?
- Corrections report: re-read the month’s corrections — who, when, why. An unusual volume deserves an explanation.
6. Produce the documents
- Each employee’s timesheet (day by day, with totals), to keep and to show if questions arise;
- summary reports (hours by department, lateness, absences, overtime) for management;
- the payroll-preparation export in the format your payroll software or accountant expects.
Tempo produces 11 reports in PDF, Excel or CSV, consistent with the register, and a configurable export (columns, hour format, separators). These are attendance figures: pay is still calculated in your payroll software (reports and payroll).
7. Freeze and archive
Once the export is sent, do not change the period without a procedure. Archive the month’s reports. If a correction arrives afterwards, it must remain visible and be adjusted in the following period.
Month-end checklist
| Step | Done? |
|---|---|
| Exceptions settled | ☐ |
| Overtime approved | ☐ |
| Leave reconciled | ☐ |
| Cross-checks run | ☐ |
| Timesheets produced | ☐ |
| Payroll export sent | ☐ |
| Reports archived | ☐ |
The mistakes that most often distort this report are described in 10 common attendance management mistakes.
Frequently asked questions
When should payroll figures be exported?
After every day of the period has been reviewed. An earlier export contains days still to review; Atlaxys Tempo shows a warning in that case.
What about a correction that arrives after the export?
The corrected day goes back to 'to review'. Approve it, then adjust in the next payroll according to your procedure, keeping the record of the correction.
Written by the Atlaxys Consulting team from the product documentation and the sources cited.