As a COO exiting a service-trade platform, you get a clean payroll handoff: lock the final export, enforce a single rounding rule across all systems to stop cents drift, freeze CBA overrides with rollback capability, normalize fringe rates, and auto‑assign jobs with full audit trails. Run targeted QA that samples high‑cost crews and changes, keep grain‑level diffs and run checksums, and guarantee idempotent re‑runs so reprocessing never regresses. All changes are logged, auditable, and reversible if validations fail.
Lock payroll before a platform exit
The team prepares payroll for the final export. Short checks stop cost leaks. The steps below give a clear path. Each step leads to the next.
single-source rounding rule must be chosen and enforced. A single rule ends cents drift across systems.
Audit rounding
Export the ledger. Reconcile cents. Pick one rounding method and apply it everywhere.
- Export raw timesheet rows with cents to CSV or parquet.
- Recalculate pay with a 2-decimal rule. Use either banker’s rounding or half-up.
- Produce a grain-level audit log for every run. Keep ledger row id, input cents, calc cents, and diff.
Technical checklist (click to expand)
- Confirm export contains employee_id, job_id, start/end timestamps, hours (4-decimal), and cents.
- Recalculate with the chosen rounding rule. Flag any row with > $0.01 diff.
- Store diffs by run id. Keep run metadata: who triggered it, timestamp, and source export hash.
Freeze CBA overrides
Snapshot rules as JSON. Run tests. Cap and monitor overrides.
- Take a rules snapshot. Save the JSON file and a checksum.
- Run a controlled test dataset against the snapshot to measure pass‑rate and time‑to‑detect.
- Enable a rollback workflow: auto-disable overrides that fail validation and log who approved them.
Controlled test dataset details
Use a small sample of real rows: base cases and edge cases. Track expected vs actual result for each row. Measure pass rate as percent of rows matching expected pay.
Normalize fringe rates
Map fringe by job class and state. Validate across payroll periods. Log mismatches.
- Create a canonical map: job class → state → fringe rate. Store with effective dates.
- Compare fringe used in each timesheet row to the canonical rate for that period.
- Flag and sample mismatches. Produce one reconcile row per mismatch for review.
Sample reconcile row fields
- employee_id, job_id, pay_period, fringe_used, fringe_expected, diff_amount, notes
Auto‑assign jobs
Assign jobs by zip, shift, then tech fallback. Make re‑runs idempotent. Keep exception rollbacks.
- Primary rule: zip → nearest crew or region.
- Secondary rule: shift window → crew on that shift.
- Tertiary fallback: last-assigned tech or on-duty pool.
- On any automated change, write a change record. Allow an exception rollback per job id.
Edge case strategy
If a job has no matching zip or shift, tag it as manual review. Do not assign automatically. Keep the manual tag in the audit log so the final payroll export can exclude or flag it.
Run QA report
Diff payroll runs. Sample crews. Use a simple validation checklist per row.
- Checklist fields: employee_id, job_id, hours, base_rate, rounding_target, fringe_rate, CBA_override, state.
- Diff current run to prior run. Report unexpected deltas over threshold.
- Sample by crew and by outlier rows. Keep a per-run audit log with run id and checksum.
Sample QA sampling rules
- Cover top 20% of payroll cost by crew.
- Include all rows with a diff > $5 from prior run.
- Include 100% of rows with a new or changed CBA override.
Quick fixes table
| Issue | Fix |
|---|---|
| Unassigned jobs | Auto‑assign by zip and shift; mark manual exceptions and document them |
| Rounding drift | Pick one rounding rule; recalc ledger and adjust cents with a single journal entry |
| CBA override errors | Snapshot rules, run tests, and block overrides that fail validation |
| Fringe rate mismatches | Use canonical map by job class & state; reconcile mismatches with one-row sample logs |
| Considerations: always keep run-level checksums and grain-level diffs. Search keywords: timesheet disorder, fringe rates not calculated, cba override logic failed, payroll rounding rules wrong. | |
Key definitions
- Rounding rule
- Method used to turn calculated pay into two decimals. Examples: banker’s rounding or half‑up. Use one consistently.
- CBA override
- An exception to the normal pay rule set. Must be captured as JSON with a reason, approver, and expiry.
- Fringe rate
- Additional cost per hour tied to job class and jurisdiction. It changes by period and must match the payroll period.
- Idempotent re‑run
- A repeatable automation run that yields the same result when applied multiple times, unless new data arrives.
operational excellence, payroll accuracy, cost containment, risk management, governance and controls, auditability, data integrity, single source of truth, real-time visibility, scalable automation, idempotent re-run, change management, rollback capability, compliance, rounding standardization, CBA override governance, fringe-rate governance, job and time-tracking integrity, cross-system reconciliation, export validation, platform exit readiness, vendor independence, ROI, decision speed, enterprise-grade security, audit trail, traceability