AI agent · HR & payroll · Compare period to period
Variable pay checks
Variable pay is decided in spreadsheets and approval emails, then entered into payroll. The agent compares what was approved with what payroll calculated, employee by employee and element by element, and explains every difference before payslips go out.
Typical volumes for this process, not a client figure.
Each month someone compares a spreadsheet to the payroll output.
Compared line by line; only the differences arrive, with an explanation.
Where the time goes today
Each month, variable elements reach payroll from several places: commission statements from sales operations, overtime and shift allowances from the time system, bonuses approved by managers in a spreadsheet, one-off payments approved by email. Someone in payroll loads them, runs the calculation, then compares the payroll output with the approved figures, usually by exporting both to a spreadsheet and looking for differences.
The comparison is where the time goes. Employee identifiers differ between sources, elements carry one name in the spreadsheet and another in payroll, and some differences are expected: a payment pro-rated for a leaver, a retroactive correction from last month, a cap applied by the payroll rules. Separating expected differences from errors takes knowledge of what happened this month, and it has to happen in the few days before the payroll cut-off.
Errors that slip through are paid, then recovered from employees or corrected the following month. Both cost time, and recovering an overpayment costs trust.
How the agent works
- Collect approved figuresThe agent gathers approved variable pay from the sources your process uses: spreadsheets, commission statements, time system exports and approval records.
- Align employees and elementsIt matches employees across sources on your identifiers and maps each element name to its payroll code, using a mapping your payroll team owns.
- Compare line by lineFor each employee and element, it compares the approved amount with the payroll output, and with the previous period to catch elements that appeared, disappeared or jumped.
- Explain the differenceWhere amounts differ, it tests the known reasons: pro-rating, joiners and leavers, retroactive adjustments, caps, currency conversion. It names the reason when one fits and marks the line unexplained when none does.
- Report before cut-offPayroll receives only the differences, grouped by reason, with unexplained lines first and the approving manager named for each.
What stays with a person
Payroll decides what to correct before cut-off and what to carry to next month, and whether an unexplained difference is an input error, a calculation issue or a change nobody told them about. Where the fix means changing an approved amount, the approving manager or HR business partner decides, not the payroll team and not the agent.
Individual circumstances stay with the people who know the case: a disputed commission, an employee on leave, a settlement agreement. The agent can see that a number differs; it cannot know whether a manager's promise was meant to be paid this month.
What it reads, what it produces
| It reads | It produces |
|---|---|
| Approved variable pay spreadsheets and approval records | A difference report by employee and element, with the reason |
| Commission statements | A list of unexplained differences, ranked by amount, with the approver named |
| Time and attendance exports for overtime and allowances | A period-on-period view of elements that appeared, disappeared or moved unusually |
| Payroll output at element level, this period and last | An audit file of every comparison made, including lines that matched |
| Joiner, leaver and change records from the HR system |
Controls that come with it
- The agent reads payroll output only; it has no permission to change payroll data.
- Differences above an amount you set are listed individually, even when a reason is found.
- The element mapping is owned by payroll and versioned, and each change is tested against last month's run.
- A payroll specialist checks a sample of lines marked 'explained' every cycle.
- Every comparison, matched or not, is kept for audit.
How you know it works
- Differences found by the agent against those found by the manual check, on past payroll runs
- Time spent on the variable pay check each cycle
- Corrections made after payment, before and after go-live
- Share of differences the agent explains correctly
Is your process ready?
- Written rules: the approval process, the element mapping and the known reasons for differences can be written down.
- Systems: payroll output can be exported at element level, and your payroll provider's terms allow automated access to it.
- Cheap check: a payroll specialist can confirm each difference against its approval in a minute or two.
- Volume: thousands of payslips with variable elements each month repays the build; a small payroll with few variable elements does not.
- Consistent process: variable pay is approved in a recognisable way, even if the formats differ between teams.
The five candidacy checks are explained, with an exam, in the free Module 01.
What goes wrong
- Approval spreadsheets whose layout changes every month, which need a stable template or a person to confirm the layout.
- Retroactive changes that make this month's figure look wrong when it is right.
- Explaining too many differences as 'expected', which hides real errors behind a plausible reason.
- Running the check so close to cut-off that nobody can act on what it finds.
Questions we get
Does it recalculate payroll?
No. The calculation stays in your payroll system, which holds the tax, social contribution and statutory rules. The agent compares what was approved with what payroll produced, and uses a defined set of known reasons to explain differences. Where a difference depends on a tax or statutory calculation, it says so and leaves that check to payroll.
What if approvals arrive by email, not in spreadsheets?
The agent can read approval emails and extract the employee, element and amount, but free-text approvals are the least reliable input. Many teams use the build as the moment to agree a simple approval template. Emails will still arrive; the agent reads them and flags any it cannot interpret with confidence.
How does it handle several countries or payroll providers?
Each payroll output has its own layout and element codes, so each is mapped separately and tested on its own past runs. The comparison logic is shared; the mapping and the known reasons differ by country, because pro-rating and retroactive rules differ. Adding a country means adding its mapping and its test set.
What access does it need to employee data?
Only the payroll and HR data the comparison needs, in your own environment, with every access logged. Where the task allows, it works on employee identifiers and amounts rather than names and personal details. Which language model it calls, and under what data terms, is agreed with you during design, before any payroll data is used.
Want this agent on your process?
Tell us about your version of this process — volumes, systems, what goes wrong. A person answers with an approach and a price, usually within two working days, or tells you it is the wrong project.