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Payroll & expenses

Customer ideas for Xero Payroll, employees, expenses and using Xero Me

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Payroll & expenses

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  1. If Reimbursements are meant to be used for certain allowances then we need to be able to set up units and unit rates in the same way as we do for allowances, otherwise the calculation becomes a manual one and leaves room for human error. It also means reporting is not clear on how the amount was calculated as even though you can enter a description on the payslip i dont beleive there is a report that summarises this.
    ie for overtime meal allowances you should be able to show how many you have paid and at what rate so…

    4 votes

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    0 comments  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →
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    Hi there, we appreciate you raised this a little while ago. This isn't something we have plans for in the near term.

    Not getting a lot of support from other members we’ll soon remove this from Product ideas. If it’s still highly valuable to you, welcome to start it again and see if it gets renewed interest.

  2. When a leave request comes in for approval and the employee can take leave in advance (the box is ticked), it should show you how many hours the employee has available. This amount should be the number available minus the leave balance that has already been approved in the system. The leave balance report is only useful when employees can't take leave in advance in their first year. It's a challenge each time (especially leading up to Christmas) to calculate leave that is available before approving the request because you have to review how much leave has been approved in…

    267 votes

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    42 comments  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →
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    Hi everyone, thanks for voting and your detailed comments on this idea.

    We understand the challenge of having to navigate away from the approval screen to find an employee's leave balance. Providing this information directly within the approval screen could streamline the process and reduce the risk of approving leave that results in a negative balance.

    The good news is that our product team's reviewed this idea and recognise the value it would deliver. It's something they’d like to work on in the long term. It's not on the roadmap just yet but we'll update you when we're able to bring more focus to this idea.

  3. Currently you can only view the official submission receipts and their associated IRmark via an XML file. It would be nice to see this in a more user friendly manner and without all the associated coding tags and data.

    7 votes

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    1 comment  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →
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    Thanks for sharing your idea about making the HMRC receipt easier to read and understand.

    We've reviewed your idea and now it's up to the community to get behind and support it. Make sure you share your idea with any colleagues that this could benefit so they can add their vote too!

    Along with votes, other members can now comment to share additional detail about how your idea could improve their experience with Xero.

  4. If I want to change the Payment Frequency for Superannuation from quarterly to monthly, I currently have to do it for each and every employee individually, A fair waste of time because there are many employees on the list to change, but I've done it. When it becomes mandatory in 2024 to pay all employees fortnightly, I'm hoping to be able to 'Select All' employees, and select to change the Payment Frequency' from Monthly to Fortnightly. Do you know if this has been discussed or is likely to become an option for us?

    17 votes

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    8 comments  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →
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    We can see you raised this a little while ago, so wanted to touch base with an update. The ATO are implementing Payday superannuation amendments in Jul 2026. This will significantly change the way Automatic Superannuation in Xero works. Whilst we don't have any specifics on how this will look in Xero payroll, our product team are working hard to make the necessary changes to keep our customers compliant in a user friendly way. As these changes may have an effect on this idea too, we've moved the current status to In Development for now. We'll be reaching out closer to July to let payroll customers know how PayDay super will work in Xero.

  5. An automatic monthly payroll tax report would be fantastic. I've noticed Xero cannot do an automatic calculation of Payroll Tax like MYOB can. MYOB allows you to select pay categories (pay items) to exclude and run a monthly payroll tax report.

    134 votes

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    30 comments  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →
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    Hi everyone, thanks for sharing your thoughts on having a payroll report that calculates payroll state tax. We understand some of you are required to calculate tax across multiple states.

    While we don't currently have a report which calculates earnings based on state, some of you have mentioned workarounds such as using the Payroll Activity Summary report. This report includes earnings totals and can be filtered by a date range and employee groups.

    We recognise the value a report of this nature could have for our customers and it’s been added to the wider pool of ideas for our product team to consider for future development.

    While it’s not on our immediate roadmap, we’ll be sure to keep you looped in if there’s any progress.

  6. Enable User Created Pay items to feed data into Pension filings and payroll expense journals. Currently, any additional pension pay items that aren't created by Xero automatically won't pull through to the pension file. The same happens for re-imbursements

    41 votes

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    10 comments  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →
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    Hi everyone, thanks for sharing your feedback on including manual pension pay items in the pension filings report.

    To help your idea gain traction, please share it with colleagues so they can vote for it too. The comment section is also open for all members to share how this feature would improve their Xero experience.

  7. Why can't the payroll be separate to Xero? I can't allocate Employee Groups because I've already got two tracking categories in use!

    5 votes

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    0 comments  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →
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    Thanks for sharing your idea, and letting us know the changes that matter most for you.

    We've reviewed your idea and now it's up to the community to get behind and support it. Make sure you share your idea with any colleagues that this could benefit so they can add their vote too!

    Along with votes, other members can now comment to share additional detail about how your idea could improve their experience with Xero.

  8. Xero recommends creating a new, duplicate employee record when a terminated employee returns to the organisation. This can also happen when an employee switches from permanent to casual, as they need to be terminated to pay out annual leave.

    Due to HR add-ons that make the issue of setting up a new, duplicate employee in Xero extremely complicated and almost unworkable, I would really like to see an additional workflow in Xero to handle this. When unterminating an employee, I'd like to see Xero asking whether we're doing this to fix something or because we're rehiring the same employee, at…

    27 votes

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    3 comments  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →
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    It's been a while since we've provided you with an update about this idea, so wanted to touch base

    We've reviewed your comments and can see the that this idea has been steadily gaining support.

    Whilst this idea isn't currently on our product team's roadmap, we're monitoring the activity and will continue to keep you updated along the way.

  9. Create the report "Leave Balances". This report is available in the AUS version of Xero and is useful when calculating annual leave expense

    178 votes

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    89 comments  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →
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    Thanks everyone for your continued feedback on the need for a Leave Balances Report in UK Payroll. We appreciate you all taking the time to vote, comment, and share how this feature would improve your workflow.

    Currently the options for viewing this information is via individual payslips or within each employee’s leave tab.

    As part of a wider review into improving UK Payroll reporting, we’re moving the status of this idea to Accepted. We agree a Leave Balances Report is a valuable addition and it’s something we want to address.

    While it isn’t on our immediate roadmap right now, it is formally on our radar for consideration as we plan future payroll updates. We will share another update here when we have more news on our plans.

  10. New Employee start date is part way through a pay week. The New pay run does not recognise the start day and calculates an entire weeks pay.
    This requires manual calculation and double check if the pay run has been recalculated. Open to errors and over payment

    40 votes

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    6 comments  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →
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    It's been a while since we've provided you with an update about this idea, so wanted to touch base

    We've reviewed your comments and can see the that this idea has been steadily gaining support.

    Whilst this idea isn't currently on our product team's roadmap, we're monitoring the activity and will continue to keep you updated along the way.

  11. Could Xero start looking at a drop down box on the allowance to have one as Not Reportable (alongside the other catagories eg. Meals, Tools, Car), and to have it out for STP reporting? or another checkbox down the bottom along with the withholding tax, super, and W1 questions?
    Instead of going through the long winding process of creating an ordinary earning, remove as deduction and do a reimbursement as per https://central.xero.com/s/article/Process-special-pay-items-like-living-away-from-home-allowance

    75 votes

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    38 comments  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →
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    Hi everyone, thanks for your continued feedback. To be upfront, we do not have any planned work to change how non-reportable allowances are processed at this stage. Currently, you need to use a reimbursement pay item to process these allowances. Our product team has confirmed that this remains a compliant solution with the ATO.

    However, we hear you. We know that relying on reimbursements involves workflow challenges. While it's not on our immediate roadmap, we will continue to monitor your feedback and will update this thread if anything changes.

  12. Add in ability to forward date when a superannuation payment is processed. I would like to submit the authority when I review the monthly super but have the payment not made until it is actually due, which would be a date in the future that I enter.

    47 votes

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    29 comments  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →
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    Hi there. With Payday Super changes coming soon, we know many of you will be thinking about how the new super payment timing will work for your business. It’s something we’re keeping a close eye on too.

    While this particular idea isn’t currently on our product team’s roadmap, it’s on our radar and we’re actively monitoring the feedback here.

    There are also a couple of related ideas focused on super payment timing that are already in development:

    AU Payroll: Superannuation > standardised payment date aligned with PayDay Super - In Development

    AU Payroll - Payday super reminders - In Development

    If either of these would help, we’d really appreciate you adding your vote.


  13. I have different managers responsible for different employee timesheets so therefore I would really like the ability to authorise specific managers to employees. Am still using mostly paper timesheets because of the massive deficiencies in the XeroMe ones (think is one of the many reasons).
    I don't think its appropriate that anyone authorised can access all timesheets as it does nothing but create confusion and the potential to authorise the wrong ones. Also unnecessarily time consuming.

    Is it possible to please add some tickboxes/controls to remove this hurdle?

    31 votes

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    9 comments  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →
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    Hey all, it’s been a little while since this was raised, so I wanted to check in.

    Payroll is definitely an area we know needs more permission controls. This is something our product teams are beginning to explore and do deeper research of.

    To help this idea gain traction, please share it with colleagues so they can vote for it too. The comment section is also open for all members to share how this feature would improve their Xero experience.

  14. Since the latest Payroll update there seems to be no functionality in Xero to change how the name of the Employee Summary report appears when saved. There are too many _ between words, for example: JoeBloggsPtyLtd-PayrollEmployee_Summary 4 June 2024.

    So frustrating. Bring back the old style PDF format.

    3 votes

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    1 comment  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →
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    Thanks for sharing your idea, and letting us know the changes that matter most for you.

    We've reviewed your idea and now it's up to the community to get behind and support it.

    Along with votes, other members can now comment to share additional detail about how your idea could improve their experience with Xero.

  15. Payroll admin create timesheets with start/end/break times on web.

    17 votes

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    7 comments  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →
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    Hi everyone 👋 we know managing and reviewing employee timesheets is a big part of your week. We’re working to make this easier for you in Xero Payroll.

    We’re updating the timesheet admin experience, including a new timesheet list and a redesigned details view to help you find what you need faster.

    Join our early access program

    We’d love your help to shape these improvements. We’re looking for customers who manage or approve employee timesheets to join an early access program. You’ll try the new interface and give feedback directly to our team.

    What you can expect:

    • Easier admin tasks: Navigate your list and details views faster (this only impacts admins, so there’s no change for employees)
    • Early access: Try these updates before they’re available to everyone
    • Quick feedback: Help us fine-tune the final product by taking short surveys within the new screens

    Help us build a

  16. It would be great if we could code annual leave to another account code other than salary and wages. Currently we manually journal these costs to another account in the ledger to separate them. This helps with reporting wages like for like.
    Thanks :-)

    28 votes

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    11 comments  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →
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    Thanks for sharing this idea on coding leave to an expense account other than the employee's ordinary earnings rate. It’s been a little while since this idea was raised, we can see it's been steadily gaining support.

    To help your idea gain traction, please share it with colleagues so they can vote for it too. The comment section is also open for all members to share how this feature would improve their Xero experience

  17. Xero Me App Leave Requests to show the total hours being requested by the employee. When Part Time Employees post leave requests there is no way for xero to know that they are only taking part time hours or days

    28 votes

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    13 comments  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →
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    Thanks for your patience, it’s been a little while since you raised this idea, so we wanted to check in. We've now reviewed this idea and have moved it to Gaining Support status.

    To help this idea gain traction, please share it with colleagues so they can vote for it too. The comment section is also open for all members to share how this feature would improve their Xero experience.

  18. Ability to specify a set approver for a specific employee for when they submit leave requests.

    Employees who are nominated as a leave approver should only be able to approve leave for the specific employees who have them nominated as their approver.

    Alternatively, employees who have the "Authorised to Approve Leave" checkbox ticked should only be able to approve leave by employees in the same Employee Group.

    Only payroll admins should be able to approve leave for all employees.

    400 votes

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    87 comments  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →
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    Thanks for the great discussion and all the votes on this idea. We know that without the ability to set specific leave approvers, it can be harder to keep governance clear, avoid self-approval and ensure requests go to the right person.

    While we’re not planning to develop dedicated approval workflows in the near term, we want to share a tip that many have found useful. You can help streamline the process by guiding employees to select their direct manager from the approver list. While all payroll admins and leave approvers are listed, this step helps make sure requests reach the right person and keeps oversight clear.

    Your feedback here is incredibly valuable for future planning and we’ll continue to keep an eye on this idea’s traction. We’ll keep it open for voting and will share any updates if plans change down the track.

  19. I have a client that needs to apply the Apprenticeship levy and this is not available on Xero Payroll as this is normally a function for large companies and not small companies that Xero are focusing on. This is a small company, but do form part of a large UK group therefore are sucked into reporting this to HMRC. Can this function be integrated into Xero payroll to be switched on when needed? I am sure it won't be a large effort for the Support Team at Xero. More and more clients are using Xero including larger companies and this…

    67 votes

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    15 comments  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →
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    Hey everyone, it’s been a little while since this was raised, so we wanted to check in.

    We've reviewed this idea and have moved it to Gaining Support status.

    To help the idea gain traction, please share it with colleagues so they can vote for it too. The comment section is also open for all members to share how this feature would improve their Xero experience.

  20. Why can't Xero make editing a timesheet easier by automatically showing bank holidays and any days off that have been entered as holiday?

    If the timesheet showed bank holidays or days where time-off has been allocated in a different colour or with an asterisk by the date then checking timesheets against time-cards would be much more straight forward.

    8 votes

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    2 comments  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →
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    Thanks for your patience, it’s been a little while since you raised this idea, so we wanted to check in. We've now reviewed this idea and have moved it to Gaining Support status.

    To help your idea gain traction, please share it with colleagues so they can vote for it too. The comment section is also open for all members to share how this feature would improve their Xero experience.

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