> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.shorpay.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Payroll

> Process scheduled and upcoming payments for your team.

The **Talent → Payroll** page is where your team's money actually moves. It's a unified view of everything that's ready to pay: scheduled salary and fixed-rate payments, timesheet approvals, and anything already in flight.

## What You'll See on Payroll

The page combines three kinds of entries into a single list:

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Upcoming Payments" icon="calendar">
    For salaried employees and fixed-rate contractors, Shor auto-generates the next payment based on the contract's compensation and schedule. They appear as **upcoming** until you process them.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Submitted Timesheets" icon="clock">
    For pay-as-you-go contractors, submitted timesheets show up here for your review. Once approved, they become payments ready to process.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Existing Payments" icon="paper-plane">
    Payments that have been queued, are in flight, or have already landed. Useful for tracking status and reconciling.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Processing a Batch of Payments

<Steps>
  <Step title="Filter and Select">
    Use filters (employment type, contract type, payment type, keyword) to narrow the list to what you want to process. Select the rows via the checkboxes: one, many, or everything on the page.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Open the Confirm Dialog">
    Click **Process payments**. Shor shows a summary: how many payments, which currencies, total amount, and anything that requires attention (insufficient funds, missing tax info).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Confirm">
    Confirm to kick off the batch. Shor processes each payment: for upcoming entries, it generates the underlying payment first; for pending ones, it releases them.
  </Step>

  <Step title="See the Results">
    The dialog tallies successes and failures, with a specific reason for anything that didn't go through. Successful payments move to **Processing**; failed ones stay on the list with an error badge so you can fix and retry.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Payment Statuses on Payroll

| Status         | What it means                                                       |
| -------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Upcoming**   | A scheduled payment from a contract, not yet generated or processed |
| **Pending**    | Generated and queued, waiting to be processed or funded             |
| **Processing** | Funds are moving to the worker                                      |
| **Completed**  | Arrived in the worker's account                                     |
| **Failed**     | Didn't go through; see the error detail and retry                   |
| **Cancelled**  | Cancelled before being processed                                    |

## Insufficient Funds

If your connected bank doesn't have enough to cover a batch, Shor stops before initiating any payment and prompts you to fund. Any payments that started before the shortfall are already in flight; the rest stay pending until you add funds.

## Automating Payroll

For teams that don't want to manually process every cycle, Shor has two toggles in **Settings → Payments**:

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Automatic Funding" icon="building-columns">
    Automatically debits your connected bank account the evening before upcoming payments are due.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Automatic Payments" icon="wand-magic-sparkles">
    Processes upcoming salary and fixed-rate payments on their due date without manual confirmation.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

See [Automating payments](/employer/automation) for how to turn these on and the guardrails that come with them.

<Note>
  Milestone releases and timesheet approvals always need your sign-off, regardless of the auto-pay setting: Shor won't release a milestone or pay unapproved hours on its own. Once you approve a timesheet, the resulting payment follows your normal auto-pay setting like any other scheduled payment.
</Note>

## Common Scenarios

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="A Worker Starts Mid-Cycle">
    Shor generates a prorated first payment based on their start date, unless their contract opts for the full amount. The upcoming payment appears on the Payroll page like any other. If you backdate a contractor's start date to earlier in the current month, Shor also creates a held payment for each pay period that's already passed, which you'll review before it's paid.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Someone Leaves Mid-Cycle">
    Start an offboarding from the worker's profile. Shor calculates final pay, any owed items, and adds it to the payroll list for processing.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="I Need to Skip a Worker This Cycle">
    Leave them unselected when you batch-process. Their upcoming payment stays on the list until you're ready, or until you update their contract.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="A Payment Fails">
    Failed payments stay on the Payroll page with an error badge. Click in for the specific reason (usually a bank detail mismatch or insufficient funds), fix it, and reprocess.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Next Steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Automating Payments" icon="wand-magic-sparkles" href="/employer/automation">
    Set up auto-funding and auto-payments.
  </Card>

  <Card title="One-Off Payments" icon="paper-plane" href="/employer/one-off-payments">
    For payments outside the scheduled payroll flow.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Milestones" icon="flag-checkered" href="/employer/milestones">
    Release milestone payments as work is completed.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>