Running payroll: prepare, approve and pay

A payroll run is one pay period for everyone: Prepare → Review → Approve → Paid. Set up pay and leave first (see Payroll setup).

Prepare

Open Team → Payroll. The card at the top shows the period (the last finished one if nobody has run it yet, otherwise the current one) and a button such as Run payroll for Sep 2026. Tap it to create a draft. AirQR builds one payslip per person from clock-ins, the roster, overtime, leave and their pay. Two runs can't cover the same days. You can prepare a draft of the current period to see where it stands, but you approve it only once the period is over.

The tiles on the overview show people on payroll, the gross so far this period, overtime and missed shifts. Needs attention lists people with no pay, clock-ins that were never closed, and a draft waiting to be approved.

Review

Open the run to see a row for each person: pay type, days or hours, overtime, gross, deductions, net pay and a status (To pay, Paid, On hold). Search, or filter to Needs a look or Not paid yet. Tap a row for the payslip with the earnings and deductions, the attendance behind it and a day-by-day list that links to Attendance.

Some flags stop you approving:

• Clock-in not closed: someone is still clocked in, or forgot to clock out. Fix it on Attendance, then recalculate.
• No pay set: they worked but have no pay. Set it on Staff pay, or put the payslip on hold.
• Net pay is negative: deductions are bigger than pay. Change the deduction or the adjustment.

Information flags don't block: Edited by a manager (someone fixed their attendance) and Pay changed this period.

A draft keeps itself up to date: if attendance, leave or pay changed since it was worked out, opening it refreshes it and says "Updated with the latest attendance". You can also tap Recalculate. Adjustments and holds are kept.

Adjustments and holds

On a person's payslip (while the run is a draft) add an adjustment: a bonus, an advance recovered, a correction from an earlier month. Choose Add to pay or Take off pay, give it a name and an amount. Hold this payslip leaves that person out of this run; release the hold to bring them back. Held payslips are left out of the totals. Your own payslip is adjusted, held or marked paid by an owner, not by you. Mark all paid leaves your own payslip for an owner.

With Round take-home pay on, the payslip shows a Rounding line between the totals and the take-home pay: gross pay, minus deductions, plus or minus the rounding.

Approve

When the period is over and the run looks right, Approve and lock (needs permission to approve). Until the last day of the period has passed the button says when you can approve: hours clocked after approval would otherwise never be paid. AirQR checks the numbers once more; if attendance changed while you were looking, it refreshes the draft and asks you to look again.

Approving locks the period: nobody can add, edit or delete time entries, add or remove leave, or change past roster shifts dated inside it. You'll see "This period is in an approved payroll (Sep 2026). Reopen it in Payroll to make changes." Staff can still clock in and out live. If you approve a run that has your own pay on it, you need to be an owner.

With Staff can see their own payslips on, staff with a login now see theirs in My pay.

Mark paid

After you pay people, open the run (or a person's payslip) and Mark paid: choose cash, UPI, bank or other, add a reference such as the UPI or bank transaction number, and the date. Mark all paid does everyone who is still unpaid. When every payslip that isn't on hold is paid, the run shows Paid. AirQR only records this; it sends no money.

Reopen, and corrections

If something was wrong, Reopen an approved run (give a reason; it's kept in the audit log). It goes back to a draft and the period unlocks. Once any payslip is marked paid the run can't be reopened: put the correction in the next run as an adjustment such as "Correction for Aug 2026".

Payslips and the register

• Payslip PDF on a person's page (the PDF is in English only, and names in other scripts may show with missing letters) (Share sends the file through your phone's share sheet). All payslips PDF on the run has a page for each person.
• Register CSV has one row per person with every earning and deduction, gross, net, status, payment method and reference, for your accountant.
• The Payroll section of Settings → Export includes pay settings, leave, runs and payslips. Only people who can see pay get it.

Owners' payslips are confidential

An owner's own payslip is shown only to owners. Managers and accountants see the rest of the run, with totals that leave the owner's pay out and a note such as "1 confidential payslip not shown". The owner's line is also left out of their downloads and export, and they can't change it or mark it paid. Owners see and handle everything.

Common questions

• Why can't I approve? The period isn't over yet, or a flag is blocking it (the red box at the top of the run says which and links to the fix), or you don't have permission to approve, or your own pay is on the run and you aren't an owner.
• Can I edit attendance in an approved month? Not until the run is reopened (and not at all once it's marked paid).
• I approved a month too early. Reopen it (if nobody is marked paid yet), fix it and approve again.
• Do old payslips change when I change someone's pay? No. An approved payslip keeps the pay and attendance it was approved with.