FS-DOC-03Operations
Process Runbook / SOP
Payroll Processing
[YourCompany.com] · Finance Department · Prepared by FullSpec · [Today's Date]
This runbook is the day-to-day operating guide for the automated Payroll Processing workflow. It tells your finance team exactly what the automation handles, what the one human step is, how to deal with exceptions, and who to call when something needs attention. FullSpec has built and configured every automated component described here. Your team's job is to review exceptions, approve the payroll summary, and keep the contact list and maintenance log up to date.
01Process overview
Every pay period, a scheduled trigger fires automatically on the configured close date. Three agents then run in sequence: the first pulls approved hours from Deputy and chases any missing timesheets; the second reconciles those hours against the schedule, applies leave and deduction rules, and builds a payroll summary in Google Sheets; the third routes that summary to the business owner for approval via Gmail, then pushes the approved data to Gusto and posts a confirmation to Slack. The finance manager's workload drops from roughly five and a half hours per cycle to approximately one hour spent reviewing any flagged exceptions before the run proceeds.
Process name
Payroll Processing
Trigger
Pay period close date reached on the configured payroll schedule (bi-weekly or monthly)
Final output
Confirmed payroll submission in Gusto, journal entries staged in QuickBooks, and a Slack confirmation posted to the finance channel
Agents running
Timesheet Collection Agent, Reconciliation and Calculation Agent, Approval and Submission Agent
Tools involved
Deputy, Google Sheets, QuickBooks, Gusto, Slack, Gmail
Weekly volume
~26 payroll runs per year (bi-weekly cycle); roughly one run every two weeks
Human checkpoint
Finance Manager reviews and resolves exception flags in Slack; Business Owner approves the payroll summary via Gmail before submission
Process owner
Finance Manager
Process Runbook / SOPPage 1 of 4
FS-DOC-03Operations
02Step-by-step: what happens and who acts
What you actually need to do: There is one step in this process that requires your attention every pay cycle. After the Reconciliation and Calculation Agent posts its exception report to Slack, the Finance Manager must review any flagged items, correct the figures where needed, and confirm the data is ready to proceed. Everything else, from pulling hours out of Deputy, through to pushing the final data into Gusto and notifying the team, runs without manual input.
Step
What happens
Who acts
Type
1
The configured payroll schedule reaches its close date. The automation platform fires a scheduled trigger that starts the entire payroll workflow without any manual action required.
Automation
Automated
2
The Timesheet Collection Agent calls the Deputy API and retrieves all approved shift hours for the closed pay period. If any manager has not submitted or approved their timesheets, the agent sends automated reminder messages via Slack and Gmail and flags those employees as outstanding.
Timesheet Collection Agent
Automated
3
Once all hours are confirmed as received, the Reconciliation and Calculation Agent compares them against the published Deputy schedule. It identifies discrepancies, unapproved overtime, and leave conflicts, then writes a structured exception list and posts it to the designated Slack finance channel.
Reconciliation and Calculation Agent
Automated
4
The Finance Manager opens the Slack exception report, reviews each flagged item, makes any necessary corrections directly in the payroll data, and marks the exceptions as resolved. Once confirmed, the workflow continues. This is the only step requiring hands-on action from your team each cycle.
Finance Manager
Human
5
The Reconciliation and Calculation Agent applies all leave balances and deduction rules from the HR record to each employee, calculates gross pay and withholdings, and writes the completed payroll summary, including net pay per employee and corresponding journal entries, to a structured Google Sheets tab.
Reconciliation and Calculation Agent
Automated
6
The Approval and Submission Agent generates an approval request email and sends it to the Business Owner via Gmail. The email includes a link to the Google Sheets payroll summary and a one-click approve link so the owner can review the run and confirm it without logging into any other system.
Approval and Submission Agent
Automated
7
The Business Owner reviews the payroll summary and clicks the approve link in the email. The Approval and Submission Agent monitors for this approval signal and proceeds as soon as it is received.
Business Owner
Human
8
On receipt of the approval signal, the Approval and Submission Agent pushes the finalised hours, deductions, and adjustments to Gusto via API, triggering the payroll run and direct deposit processing for employees.
Approval and Submission Agent
Automated
9
Journal entries for the payroll run are staged in QuickBooks automatically, ensuring payroll expenses are reflected in the general ledger without the Finance Manager needing to re-enter figures.
Approval and Submission Agent
Automated
10
A confirmation message is posted to the Slack finance channel showing the total payroll value for the period and the submission timestamp. This serves as the team's confirmation that the run has completed successfully.
Approval and Submission Agent
Automated
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FS-DOC-03Operations
03Handling exceptions
Situation
What the system does
What you do
One or more timesheets are missing or unapproved when the pay period closes
The Timesheet Collection Agent sends automated reminder messages via Slack and Gmail to the manager responsible. It flags the outstanding employees in the exception report and holds the workflow at the collection stage for up to 24 hours while waiting for the submission.
If the manager does not respond within 24 hours, contact them directly to get the timesheet submitted or approved in Deputy. If the timesheet cannot be obtained in time, you may enter a manual estimate in the Deputy record and flag it in the exception report for review next cycle. Contact support@gofullspec.com if the hold is blocking the run.
A duplicate timesheet entry appears for the same employee and period
The Reconciliation and Calculation Agent detects duplicate records during the schedule comparison step and flags both entries in the exception report rather than processing either. The run does not proceed for that employee until the conflict is resolved.
Open the Deputy record for that employee, identify which entry is correct, and delete or correct the duplicate. Once resolved, confirm in Slack that the exception has been cleared. The agent will recheck and continue.
An employee's leave balance or deduction rule is missing or misconfigured
The Reconciliation and Calculation Agent cannot apply the deduction rule and flags the employee in the exception report with a note indicating which rule is absent. It excludes that employee from the calculated summary and waits for resolution.
Locate the employee's HR record and add or correct the missing leave balance or deduction configuration. Once the record is updated, notify support@gofullspec.com so the agent can be prompted to reprocess that employee's data for the current cycle.
The Business Owner does not respond to the approval email within the expected window
The Approval and Submission Agent sends a follow-up reminder email after 4 hours of no response. If no approval is received within 24 hours of the original email, it posts an alert to the Slack finance channel and pauses the workflow to avoid a missed pay date.
Forward the approval email to the owner directly or contact them via phone. If the owner is unavailable, follow your internal escalation process to identify an authorised approver. Do not click the approve link on the owner's behalf. Contact support@gofullspec.com if the deadline is imminent and the workflow needs to be unblocked.
The Deputy API is unavailable or returns an error during the timesheet pull
The Timesheet Collection Agent retries the Deputy API call up to three times at 10-minute intervals. If all retries fail, it sends an alert to the Slack finance channel and logs the error. The workflow pauses at the collection stage.
Check the Deputy status page for any reported outages. If Deputy is down, note the expected recovery time and contact support@gofullspec.com to coordinate a manual trigger of the collection step once the API is back online. If data is urgently needed, you can export hours from Deputy manually and provide the file to the FullSpec team for a manual run.
The Gusto API rejects the payroll submission after approval
The Approval and Submission Agent logs the rejection error with the response code and posts an alert to the Slack finance channel. It does not retry automatically, as a rejected Gusto submission may indicate a data conflict that requires review.
Review the error message in Slack to identify the cause. Common causes include mismatched employee IDs, a Gusto pay schedule conflict, or an API permission issue. Correct the underlying data if possible, then contact support@gofullspec.com to manually resubmit. Do not attempt to enter data directly in Gusto before confirming with FullSpec, as this may cause a duplicate run.
04Who to contact and when
Fill in once your team is confirmed. The rows marked with placeholders below should be completed before the first live payroll run. Keep this list current whenever team members change roles or leave the business.
Role
Name
How to reach them
Process owner (Finance Manager)
[Your name]
[Rep email] / [Phone number]
Payroll approver (Business Owner)
[Your name]
[Rep email] / [Phone number]
Deputy system administrator
[Your name]
[Rep email]
Gusto account administrator
[Your name]
[Rep email]
FullSpec builder
FullSpec team
support@gofullspec.com
FullSpec support
FullSpec support
support@gofullspec.com
For any issue where the automation has paused, an API has failed, or a payroll run is at risk of missing its deadline, contact the FullSpec team at support@gofullspec.com immediately. Include the pay period date, the step where the issue occurred, and the Slack alert message if one was posted. Response times are faster when this detail is included in the first message.
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FS-DOC-03Operations
05Ongoing maintenance
Whenever employee data changes (new hires, terminations, role changes)
Update the relevant employee records in Deputy and Gusto before the next pay period closes. Ensure leave balances and deduction rules are set correctly in the HR system of record so the reconciliation agent has clean inputs. Notify FullSpec if a new deduction type or pay category needs to be added to the agent's rule set.
Finance Manager
Whenever leave rules, deduction types, or pay rates change
Update the configuration in both Deputy and the Google Sheets deduction reference tab. Any change to the calculation logic itself, such as a new overtime rule or tax rate, must be communicated to FullSpec at support@gofullspec.com so the reconciliation agent's logic can be updated to match.
Finance Manager, then FullSpec
Monthly spot-check (after each payroll run for the first three months, then quarterly)
Compare the Google Sheets payroll summary against the confirmed Gusto submission and the QuickBooks journal entries for the same period. Confirm that totals match and that no employee records are unexpectedly excluded. Log the result of the check in the audit tab of the payroll Google Sheet.
Finance Manager
Monthly error-log review
Review the Slack finance channel for any exception alerts or retry notifications posted during the last pay cycle. If any errors recurred more than once in the same month, report them to support@gofullspec.com for investigation. Do not wait until a run is affected to escalate a pattern.
Finance Manager
Whenever a team member changes (new finance manager, new approver, or admin leaves)
Update the contact table in Section 04 of this runbook. Update any email addresses used in the approval email routing and Slack notification settings. Contact FullSpec to confirm that the approval signal is correctly mapped to the new approver's email address before the next pay period.
Finance Manager, then FullSpec
Quarterly volume review
Review employee headcount and pay frequency against the automation's current configuration. If headcount has grown significantly, if you have moved from bi-weekly to monthly payroll, or if you have added a new entity, contact FullSpec to assess whether the agent capacity and API rate limits remain appropriate for the new volume.
Finance Manager, then FullSpec
The single most common maintenance issue for this process is leave balance and deduction rule drift. When HR records are updated in one system but not reflected in the Google Sheets deduction reference tab or in Deputy, the reconciliation agent flags employees as exceptions every cycle even when there is no real payroll problem. Keeping the deduction configuration in sync across all three sources, Deputy, the Google Sheet, and the HR record, prevents the majority of false exception alerts and saves significant review time over the course of a year.
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