Everyday work
Payroll handoff
Each pay period, hand your payroll provider exactly what changed, once, in the file layout it reads.
Willow does not run payroll. Each pay period it gathers every change your payroll provider needs to know about and hands it over exactly once; the provider calculates pay, tax and payments. This page needs Prepare and hand off payroll changes and Read compensation.
Choose the file layout
The owner chooses the layout once, on Payroll under Owner layout mapping:
- Generic change CSV: map each Willow field to the column heading and order your provider expects.
- ADP RUN Time Sheet Import: enter the company code, pay frequency, rate code and an earnings code for each leave policy, from your ADP reports. This layout carries hours; starts, ends, changes of terms and reversals need the generic layout.
Prepare a batch
Under New change batch, enter the pay period start and end and press Prepare draft. The draft gathers every change effective by the period end that has not been handed off yet:
| Change | What it carries |
|---|---|
| start | a new employment period, with its role, pay and schedule |
| change | a new version of terms, with each field's old and new value |
| leave | approved leave in hours |
| leave reversal | cancelled or corrected leave |
| end | the last day of employment |
Exceptions lists anything a change cannot go without, such as a missing payroll identifier, with a link to fix it on the person's page.
Preview and export
Preview export file writes the actual file your provider will receive. Read it, then press Export this batch. Export freezes those exact bytes: Download CSV always returns the same file, and each change is handed off only once. If the mapping changed after the preview, Willow asks for another preview; if a record behind the batch changed, discard the draft and prepare a fresh one.
When your provider confirms the import, Record provider acknowledgement keeps their reference with the batch.