AutoPilot

AutoPilot prepares each payroll for you. The day after a cut-off, Sahora fills in the attendance from the time log and computes a draft payroll, then tells you it is ready to review. It never submits or approves a payroll: people still do that.

Before you start

• The pay group's pay periods exist (see Creating pay periods).
• AutoPilot works best when employees clock in on Sahora or you import your time clock's files, so the time log has each day's punches. See The time log and biometric files.

Turn AutoPilot on

AutoPilot is set per pay group.

1. Open Company setup → Pay groups.
2. In the pay group, switch AutoPilot on. The screen explains: "The day after each cut-off, Sahora prepares this pay group's payroll (attendance from the time log where none was entered, then a draft) and notifies you to review and submit it. It never submits or approves."
3. Click Save.

On the Free Plan the switch is locked with "AutoPilot comes with the paid plans."

What AutoPilot does

Every morning, for each pay group with AutoPilot on, Sahora looks for open periods whose cut-off has passed and whose pay date hasn't, and that nobody has computed yet. For each one it:

1. Fills in the period's attendance from the time log, but only for employees who have punches and no attendance row yet. Attendance you entered yourself is kept.
2. Computes the payroll as a draft.
3. Notifies Owner / Management and payroll officers: "AutoPilot prepared the payroll …", with the pay date and a link.

The payroll page then shows "computed … by AutoPilot" beside the status.

Review and submit

1. Open the notification, or Payroll and the period.
2. Check the register, the notes beside each employee and the checks at the top. See Computing a payroll and Before you submit.
3. Fix anything that needs it (attendance, requests waiting for a decision, pay items), then click Recompute payroll.
4. Click Submit for approval. See Submitting and approving a payroll.

When AutoPilot doesn't prepare a period

• Someone already computed it. AutoPilot never replaces a payroll a person computed.
• The pay date has passed.
• An earlier payroll of the pay group this year isn't approved yet, so the period can't be computed. AutoPilot tries again the next morning, until the pay date.
• The company is read-only, or new payrolls are paused because a billing statement is overdue.

If a period you expected wasn't prepared, compute it yourself on the Payroll page.

Good to know

• AutoPilot only prepares. Approving still needs a person other than the preparer, as for any payroll.
• Requests decided after AutoPilot ran (leave, overtime, time corrections) aren't in the draft. Refresh the attendance and recompute before you submit.
• You can switch AutoPilot off at any time; payrolls already prepared stay as drafts.