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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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12 results found

  1. TOIL leave balance hours should be visible on the employee Leave page without having to click into the leave type. Small issue but very tedious as already have to input manually, so it would be good to see quickly

    6 votes

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    0 comments  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →

    Hi Nicole,

    Thanks for reaching out!

    You can view all leave type balances for an employee directly on their Leave tab—no extra clicks needed. Additionally, you can choose whether or not these leave balances are visible to employees on their payslips.

    If you need any further assistance with this setting, feel free to reach out to our support team!

  2. When will it be possible to lock in a preference in a pay run to sort by last name, not first name. I don't understand why this is not the standard display anyway.

    2 votes

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    1 comment  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →

    Hi Everyone, thanks for reaching out and sharing this suggestion!

    Good news—you can actually already sort your pay run by last name.

    To do this, simply open the pay run you're working on and click directly on the Last Name header. This will instantly sort all the employees in the pay run in alphabetical order based on their last name (clicking it again will flip the sort order if needed).

    If you need an extra hand you can raise a case with our Xero Support specialists. 😊

  3. When an employee is on Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) for the full pay period, Xero currently displays both the regular earnings (zeroed out with a negative adjustment) and the SSP lines on the payslip. It would be helpful if there was an option to hide the regular earnings lines so that only SSP appears on the payslip. This would make the payslip clearer for employees and reduce confusion.

    1 vote

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    0 comments  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →

    Hi Christina, thanks for sharing this feedback!

    Just to clarify how Xero handles this - earnings items with zero hours in a draft pay run do not display on the finalised payslips generated for employees.

    In this scenario, while an employee is on Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) for the full pay period, you will see the regular earnings line on screen while the pay run is still in Draft. However, once you Post the pay run, only the SSP line will appear on the employee’s copy of the payslip.

    Because this behavior is already supported on posted payslips, I'm going to mark this idea as Existing functionality. If you're seeing zero-hour lines appear on a posted PDF payslip for a specific pay run, please reach out to our Support team so we can take a closer look at your setup!

  4. On Payroll of Contractors, we are currently unable to use the items to correctly calculate Super for contractors based on the current ATO required rate. (image attached)

    Could you please create a new payroll item that calculates Super in the same way as Ordinary Time Earnings while ensuring it is excluded from all other payroll items that are not applicable to contractors? (image attached)

    This will help ensure contractor Super is calculated accurately and remains compliant with current ATO requirements.

    Thank you for your assistance with this matter.

    1 vote

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    0 comments  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →

    Hi Menandro, thanks for sharing this. I just want to clarify how this can currently be handled in Xero.

    In Xero Payroll, SGC for non-employee contractors is not automatically calculated, as non-employees cannot be paid regular wages through Xero Payroll. Because of this, you will need to manually calculate the 12% super amount and add it directly to the pay run as a fixed amount. We don't have any plans to change the process for paying contractors via Xero Payroll at this stage.

    As you're aware, the ATO requires Qualifying Earnings (QE) to be reported. For non-employees set up in Xero, QE is automatically calculated and reported based on the total super amount processed.

    Hope this helps clarify how to process non-employee super in Xero! If you need an extra hand, you can raise a case with our Xero Support specialists. 😊

  5. Can we please have the ability for employee salary to be posted automatically to their appropriate GL codes? We currently have to do a manual journal every payroll to assign employee salaries (a mix of direct costs and overhead) to the correct GL code, since currently Xero Payroll in NZ can only post a salary to the organisation wide setting (ie one GL code you select). In this day of automation it seems crazy that we have to do a seemingly simple thing manually.

    1 vote

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    0 comments  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →

    Hi Nikki, thanks for sharing this! Just to clarify, this functionality is actually already supported in Xero Payroll. You can assign individual pay items to specific GL codes to manage wage expenses, deductions, and other liabilities.

    If you want another layer of separation, you can use Tracking Categories to track costs by location, department, or work type.

    If we’ve misunderstood your suggestion or if you were looking for a specific enhancement to how this works, please reply with a few more details so we can better understand what you'd like to see!

  6. It was be good if Xero had a feature so that all employee details forms, TFN, super etc could be saved within Xero rather than storing externally

    1 vote

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    0 comments  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →

    Hi Jodie, thanks for sharing your feedback on this!

    Just to clarify, it is currently possible to save these specific employee details directly within the employee record in Xero Payroll.

    However, if you are looking for broader document management, we are actively working on a related feature that will allow you to upload and attach documents directly to the Notes tab in employee records.

    If that functionality would be helpful for your workflow, feel free to check out and support this idea:

    👉 Payroll | Employees - Upload/attach files in notes section

    Thanks again for helping us improve Xero!

  7. When approving a pay run, Xero should check whether any employees included in the pay period have leave requests that are still awaiting approval and inform the payroll officer.

    If pending leave requests exist, display a warning before the pay run can be completed, for example:

    "2 employees included in this pay run have pending leave requests awaiting approval for the selected period."

    This warning should work regardless of whether the business uses Xero Timesheets, enters payroll manually, or imports hours from a third-party timekeeping system.

    Why this is important

    In many businesses, leave approvals are performed by line managers…

    1 vote

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    0 comments  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →

    Hi Brendan, just to let you know, this capability already exists in Xero Payroll!

    If an employee has an unapproved leave request or timesheet for the pay period of a draft pay run, Xero displays a warning message directly in the draft pay run view:

    • "This employee has an unapproved leave request for this pay run. Approve it now."
    • "This employee has an unapproved timesheet for this pay run. Approve it now."

    This ensures you are alerted to any outstanding requests before posting your pay run.

    Hope this helps clarify how this functions! If you need any further assistance setting up or managing pay runs, feel free to reach out to our Xero Support team. 😊

  8. Earnings items - common ones such as overtime, bonus, commission, should have the option to untick pensionable. We need the rates overtime are paid, but also whether it is pensionable or not as a choice. Currently work arounds (using other earnings) does not give the rates, which is needed for overtime, and manual calculations are needed which takes longer and has a higher chance of errors. Surely this cannot be hard to adjust in Xero Payroll.

    1 vote

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    0 comments  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →

    Hi Steph, thanks for taking the time to share your feedback with us!

    I wanted to let you know it's actually already possible to set up a non-pensionable earnings pay item that allows you to enter hours and a rate.

    As you correctly noted, you can create this item using the Other Earnings category. Once you’ve added this pay item to an employee's pay template or directly into a pay run, the system actually allows you to enter Hours and a Rate for it, rather than restricting you to a fixed amount.

    Hope this helps clear things up!f you need an extra hand you can raise a case with our Xero Support specialists. 😊

  9. BrightPay ID have a feature where you can lock the payslips before submission (once you have processed them) and can "reopen" them on an individual or group bases to make any changes before making any submissions to HMRC.. It is a great feature and something Xero should seriously consider so no errors of automatic tax code changes can be pulled through whilst waiting for autorisation etc.

    1 vote

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    0 comments  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →

    Hi Sarah, thank you for sharing this feedback with us!

    Currently, HMRC tax code updates do not automatically flow into Xero if a pay run is already in draft status when HMRC issues the update. Draft pay runs lock in the active details at creation, any updates received while in draft won't automatically apply unless the paylips is reset.

    Looking into your account details, we can see that this was raised as a query directly with Xero Support and has since been resolved.

    We really appreciate you sharing your thoughts on how automatic updates in draft pay runs could streamline payroll processes. Community feedback like this helps us understand where we can improve efficiency for our users.

  10. Can we change the start date of timesheets, please? Timesheets are often completed after the fact and I do payroll up to 10 days ahead of the end of the month, so I have a cut-off date for timesheets so that they can be processed for payroll. This means that the last one or two weeks of the month have to be included in the following month's timesheet (on Xero) as a lump at the beginning of the month, labelled as "Previous Month". Some months include 4 weeks and some include 5 weeks, so it can't be a set date…

    1 vote

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    0 comments  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →

    Hi Alison, thanks for sharing this on Xero Product Ideas.

    I wanted to let you know that it is currently possible to change the period of your timesheets, as they are linked to the pay frequency you use.

    If your employees need to complete timesheets and you're paying them on the 15th of the month, you might like to change your pay frequency so that the pay period ends on, say, the 14th of the month. This will allow the employees to submit all of their timesheets before payday.

    If you need an extra hand, you can raise a case with our Xero Support specialists. 😊

  11. post gross wages and net wages to a specific nominal depending on group settings and staff settings. Have the ability to set the nominal codes in the individual employee settings.

    1 vote

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    0 comments  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →

    Hi Jackie, thanks for reaching out and sharing this suggestion on Xero Product Ideas.

    While assigning group tracking to nominal codes isn't on our roadmap, you can achieve this setup using a couple of existing methods:

    1. You can assign a specific expense account directly to an Employee Earnings Rate. Whenever wages are posted using a pay item tied to a specific nominal code, those costs will automatically post to that account in your Chart of Accounts.
    2. Alternatively, you can apply group tracking categories to your payroll setup. Assigning employees to specific tracking groups will allow you to break down and report on your wage expenses by tracking category (such as department, region, or project) in your financial reports.

    Hope this helps! If you need an extra hand you can raise a case with our Xero Support specialists. 😊

  12. Can we get a RTWSA payroll report that we can automatically open and it will give us all the information we will need when we update our remuneration

    1 vote

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    0 comments  ·  Payroll  ·  Admin →

    Hi Matt👋

    Thanks for sharing this suggestion! While we don't have a dedicated Return To Work SA Report built directly into Xero, you can easily pull all the necessary remuneration and worker details using our existing payroll reports:

    • Payroll Activity Summary: Filter this report by your SA Tracking Category to get a clean breakdown of earnings, superannuation, and rateable allowances for your SA staff.
    • Payroll Employee Summary: Use this report to verify individual employee totals

    If you have contractors who are "deemed workers" under RTWSA legislation, remember to check your ledger reports for those non-payroll payments as well.

    Hope this helps with your annual RTWSA declarations! If you need an extra hand you can raise a case with our Xero Support specialists. 😊

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