Running a Payroll Cycle
Review payroll calculations, approve employees and run payroll with confidence in Givver.
Givver automatically creates each payroll cycle and keeps employee payroll data up to date. Follow the steps below to review and approve the current cycle before running payroll.
Important: Once payroll has been run, you cannot make further changes to that cycle. Review all payroll information carefully before continuing.
1. Open the current payroll cycle
1. Log in to Givver.
2. Select Payroll from the sidebar.
3. Under Current, open the payroll cycle you want to process.
A payroll cycle that is still being prepared will have the status **In Progress**.
2. Make sure the payroll data is up to date
Givver automatically syncs payroll changes from the employee records. This includes information such as new starters, leavers, salary changes, bonuses, deductions and other pay items.
If changes were made recently, select Force Payroll Sync before reviewing the cycle. This refreshes the payroll calculations with the latest employee data.
Tip: Use Pay run notes to review or record information relevant to the current payroll cycle.
3. Review the payroll overview
The top of the payroll review displays three key totals:
- Gross Pay: total employee pay before deductions.
- Employee Deductions: total deductions taken from employees.
- Employer Cost: the organisation’s total payroll cost.
The percentage shown below each total compares the current payroll with the previous month. Use these comparisons to identify unexpected changes.
4. Review employee deductions
Select the Employee Deductions card to review values such as:
- PAYE income tax
- Employee National Insurance contributions
- Employee pension deductions
- Student loan deductions
- Postgraduate loan deductions
- Total deductions
- Net pay
Check any large or unexpected differences from the previous pay period.
5. Review employer costs
Select the **Employer Cost** card to review:
- Gross pay
- Employer National Insurance contributions
- Employer pension contributions
- Employer National Insurance savings
- Total employer cost
6. Review each employee
Use the tabs to manage your review:
- Needs My Action: employees who still require review.
- All: every employee included in the cycle.
- Approved: employees who have been approved.
- Sent Back: employees whose payroll information requires changes.
You can also search for an employee or use Filter to narrow the list.
Review the figures for each employee. Where available, select the AI Summary icon to see a concise explanation of the employee’s payroll calculations and changes.
7. Approve employees
1. Select one or more employees using the checkboxes.
2. Select Approve when their payroll information is correct.
3. Repeat the process until every employee assigned to you has been approved.
If your company uses several approval levels, employees move through L1, L2 and L3 in order, according to the configuration in Admin Settings. The approval progress at the top of the page shows the current stage.
With Any single approver, one approval completes that level.
With All approvers, everyone assigned to the level must approve before the employee moves forward.
Mark reviewed is optional and personal: it records that you have checked an employee, but it does not approve them or move them to the next level.
From Level 2 onwards, when available, Request changes sends the employee back to the previous level. A comment explaining the required change is mandatory.
For the complete multi-level process, see Payroll Approval Flow.
8. Confirm the payroll review
When every employee has completed every configured approval level, the final stage will show as complete and the Confirm button will become available.
1. Select Confirm.
2. Read the confirmation message carefully.
3. If all payroll changes are correct, select Continue to summary.
The payroll cycle will move to Approved, and Givver will display the payroll summary. Confirming the review does not run the payroll; you will run it from the summary after completing the final checks.
If you are viewing several entities together, open one entity before confirming its payroll review.
9. Review the payroll summary
Before running payroll, review the final totals, including:
- Salaries
- Additional pay items
- Total gross pay
- PAYE income tax
- Employee and employer National Insurance contributions
- Student and postgraduate loan deductions
- Pension contributions
- Total payroll cost
- Amount payable to employees
- Amount payable to HMRC
- Amount payable to the pension provider
You can also open Reports to access the available payroll reports before completing the cycle.
10. Run payroll
1. Select Run payroll.
2. Complete the final confirmation.
After payroll is run, the cycle is closed and can no longer be edited. Givver will complete the relevant payroll submissions and schedule payslip delivery.
Payslips
Payslips are sent to employees automatically on the configured pay date. Employees can also access their payslips from their Givver profile.
If needed, you can manually send or resend a payslip after the payroll cycle has been closed.
What happens next?
Once the payroll cycle is completed:
- The relevant payroll submission is sent to HMRC.
- Payslips are distributed to employees on the pay date.
- Payroll reports remain available from the completed cycle.
- The next payroll cycle is created automatically and appears under Current with the status In Progress.
💚 If you need help reviewing or running payroll, contact the Givver support team.