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Payroll needs one thing: hours per person for a fixed period, in a file. Build that report once, save it, and schedule it. After the first time it takes about two minutes a month.
The example: Northwind Studio exports March. Daniel Okafor (Finance) builds and sends the file.

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Before you start

Plan requirement. Exporting a report is Pro. Reports themselves are available on every plan – what Pro adds is depth: custom reports, scheduling and taking the file out of the product. See Free vs Pro.
You need report.view to read a report, report.create to build one, and report.export to download it. Finance, Project Manager, Admin and Owner have export. Contractors cannot build or export reports at all. → Report permissions · Roles and permissions matrix

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Get the hours right before you export

An export is only as good as the hours underneath it. Do these two first.
1

Every week is submitted and approved

Unapproved time is unreviewed time. Do not pay against it.→ Weekly timesheet routine · Approve a timesheet
2

The period is closed

Closing locks the month so the numbers cannot move after payroll has been run against them. This is the whole reason the feature exists.→ Close a period

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Build the report

1

Start a new report on the time entry source

The source decides what the report is about. For payroll you want time entries – one row per recorded hour, which you then group.→ Build a report · Report sources
There is also a timesheets source, which reports on whole submitted weeks rather than individual entries. Use it if your payroll works off approved weeks rather than daily hours.
2

Set the date range to the payroll period

March 1 to March 31. Use a relative range like “last month” if you plan to schedule the report, so it moves with the calendar instead of staying stuck on March.→ Date ranges and periods
3

Filter to what payroll should see

Common filters:→ Report filters
4

Group by person

This is the shape payroll wants – one row per person, with their total hours.If your provider needs a daily or weekly breakdown, group by person and then by date. The report engine builds the tree; you choose the levels.→ Grouping and pivots
5

Add the columns payroll asks for

Keep it to what they need. A payroll file with thirty columns gets rejected.→ Metrics reference · Report metrics
Cost is sensitive. Seeing it needs time.viewCost or rate.viewCost, which Members and Contractors do not have. Only include it if the person receiving the file is meant to see what people cost.
6

Check the totals against something you already know

Before you send it anywhere, sanity-check the number.March at Northwind:Jonas is on a 40 hour week. The period covered 20 working days, so 160 hours is exactly right. Sarah is 8 hours short of that, which matches one day of leave. Ana is part time, and 44 hours fits her pattern.If a number looks wrong here, it is wrong. Fix it before it becomes someone’s pay.
7

Save the report

Save it as Payroll – monthly hours. Now it is one click every month, and it always has the same shape.→ Saved reports
8

Export it

Three formats:A small report downloads immediately. A large one is built in the background and you are told when it is ready.→ Export a report · Export formats
9

Schedule it so you stop remembering

Have the saved report emailed to Daniel on the first working day of every month, covering last month.→ Schedule a report · Share a report

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Contractors are paid differently

Ana is a contractor, and she invoices you rather than being on payroll. Run a separate report filtered to contractors, and work from their cost rate, which is what you actually pay them. That is a payables number, not a payroll number, and it usually goes to a different person. → Manage contractors · Cost rates

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Other exports you may need

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Common questions

No. Exports are Pro. You can build and read reports on screen for free, but taking the file out of the product needs a paid workspace. See Free vs Pro.
It depends what you pay for. Tracked time is hours against work. Time Clock records presence at work. If you pay for attendance, use timecards. If you pay for project hours, use time entries. See Timecards.
Payroll counts every hour. An invoice counts only billable hours. The difference is your non-billable time, and it should be. See Billable vs non-billable.
Almost always the filter. Check whether the report is filtered to approved time and the person’s week was never approved. See Report problems.
Yes – leave the cost column out of the report. Cost visibility is also controlled by capability, so a person without time.viewCost cannot see it whatever the report contains. See Rate permissions.
Large reports build in the background and you are notified when the file is ready. Narrow the date range or the filters if you need it faster. See Export a report.

Month-end close

Do this before you export anything.

Weekly timesheet routine

Clean weekly hours make a clean export.

Manage contractors

Paying freelancers is a separate run.

Offboard an employee

Their final hours for the last run.

Monitor project profitability

The other report worth scheduling.