ANTE User Manual

Payroll Summary

The Payroll Summary is the per-cutoff review screen where the actual payroll review, approval, and publishing happen. After you open a cutoff from the Payroll Center, this page shows every employee's computed salary for that cutoff period, lets you check the figures, and gives you the buttons to advance the cutoff through its workflow β€” Re-Compute, Submit for Approval, Approve, Publish, and (when needed) Return to an earlier stage.

A cutoff open on the Payroll Summary. The stepper (For Review, For Approval, Approved, Posted) shows where the cutoff stands, and the action buttons at the top right change with it.

Overview

You reach the Payroll Summary by opening a cutoff from the Payroll Center. The page is built around one cutoff at a time and shows:

  • A header with the cutoff name, processing date, period type, and a stepper that marks where the cutoff is in the workflow
  • The action buttons in the top-right β€” these change depending on the cutoff's current stage
  • A table of every employee in the cutoff with their full salary breakdown and a totals row
  • A separate Separated Employees (On Hold) table, shown only when the cutoff has separated employees

From this page you review the numbers, fix anything that's wrong by recomputing or returning the cutoff, and then move it forward one stage at a time.

Accessing the Payroll Summary

  1. Click Manpower in the sidebar
  2. Open Payroll
  3. Select Payroll Center
  4. Open the cutoff you want to review β€” the Payroll Summary opens for that cutoff

Use the Back arrow at the top of the page to return to the Payroll Center.

The Header and Workflow Stepper

The header card shows the cutoff details:

  • Cutoff label β€” the cutoff period name
  • Processing β€” the payroll processing date
  • Type β€” the cutoff period type

Below the details is a four-step stepper that shows the cutoff's progress through the workflow:

StepMeaning
For ReviewSalaries are computed and waiting to be reviewed
For ApprovalThe reviewed payroll has been submitted and is waiting for approval
ApprovedThe payroll has been approved and is ready to publish
PostedThe payroll has been published (finalized)

Completed steps show a check mark; the current step is highlighted. If the cutoff has been returned, a Rejected - Needs Attention badge appears above the stepper.

The Workflow Stages and What You Can Do

The buttons in the top-right of the page depend on which stage the cutoff is in.

They also depend on your permissions. Simply reaching this page only takes view access to the Payroll Center β€” the seeded HR Viewer role has exactly that, and opens a cutoff to review the figures with none of the buttons below. Advancing or returning the cutoff (Re-Compute, Submit for Approval, Return to Timekeeping, Return to Review, Return, Resubmit, Publish, and Cancel Posted) needs the Submit for Approval permission for Payroll Center β€” without it, none of them appear. Approve works differently: whether it's enabled has nothing to do with a permission β€” it's enabled only for whoever is actually assigned to approve that cutoff. A person with the Submit for Approval permission but who isn't the assigned approver still sees the button (so they can see the cutoff is waiting on someone), just disabled, with a tooltip that always explains why. Someone assigned as approver but holding no payroll permission at all can still use it.

A run can also reach For Approval with no approval flow attached at all β€” see No approval flow (stranded runs) below. In that case Approve does not appear at all; a Start approval flow button takes its place until someone starts one.

StageAvailable actions
For ReviewRe-Compute, Return to Timekeeping, Submit for Approval
For ApprovalReturn to Review, Approve
ApprovedReturn to Review, Publish
RejectedReturn, Resubmit
PostedPosted indicator, Cancel Posted

The Bank File Writers button is available at every stage β€” but, like Export below, it needs the Export permission for Payroll Center and is hidden without it.

Stale Salary Indicator (legacy data only)

Attendance can no longer change after payroll processing starts for a cut-off β€” see Timekeeping Freeze. This means a newly processed cutoff's salary can never go stale. The indicator below can still appear on older cut-offs that were computed before the freeze took effect.

If an employee's attendance was edited (in timekeeping) after their salary had already been computed for this cutoff, a warning icon appears next to their name in the Employee Name column. Hover over the icon to see why the salary went stale, for example "Leave approved (Jul 3)", "Attendance edited", "Holiday change", or "Overtime filing approved".

Above the table, a summary line reads "N employee(s) changed since their salary was computed". Click Show only affected to filter the table down to just the drifted employees (click Show all to remove the filter). Whether or not the filter is on, employees with a stale salary always sort to the top of the table.

Click Re-Compute to refresh the figures for every employee in the cutoff; once the recompute finishes, the indicator and summary clear. See Submitting or publishing with unresolved employees for what happens if you advance the cutoff while employees are still affected.

Days priced at a flat daily rate

When a payroll group prices a working day Per scheduled hour, each scheduled day is paid for the hours on that day's shift. If the shift frozen on a day has no scheduled work hours, ANTE cannot size the day, so it pays that day as one flat daily rate β€” never zero β€” and tells you:

  • An information banner above the table reads "N employee(s) have days priced at a flat daily rate".
  • A clock icon appears beside each affected employee's name; its tooltip gives the number of days.
  • On that employee's Salary Detail, the Day Breakdown marks the exact day with "priced at one daily rate β€” shift has no scheduled hours".

This is a notice, not an error: it does not block submission and no figure is wrong in itself, but an employee on a long shift is probably under-paid for that day. Open the shift in Configuration, set its work hours, then click Re-Compute; the banner and icons clear. Groups priced Per day, rest days, extra days and Fixed Rate groups never show it.

Submitting or publishing with unresolved employees

Clicking Submit for Approval, Approve, or Publish no longer fails outright when some employees have unresolved salary. Instead, a "Proceed with submission?" dialog opens, listing the employees involved in three groups:

  • Not yet computed β€” employees whose salary hasn't been computed for this cutoff (or whose computation failed)
  • Attendance changed since computed β€” employees whose attendance was edited after their salary was already computed (the same employees the Stale Salary Indicator flags; only possible on older, pre-freeze cut-offs)
  • Withholding tax needs review β€” employees whose fixed withholding tax setup was capped to their available net pay this cutoff, or whose setup's period no longer matches the payroll group's withholding-tax period

To fix the data first, close the dialog and click Re-Compute. To proceed anyway, tick "I understand the salary figures may be out of date β€” proceed anyway", then click Submit (or Publish, when publishing). Proceeding is recorded as an override β€” the cutoff still advances to the next stage with the listed employees' salary left as-is.

Re-Compute

Available at the For Review stage. Recomputes the salary for every employee in the cutoff. A confirmation dialog warns that this may take a while depending on the number of employees. While it runs, the table is replaced with a Computing Salaries message; the figures refresh automatically when it finishes.

When the recompute completes, a "Salary recomputation complete" result dialog appears showing:

  • How many employees were computed successfully.
  • How many employees failed (could not be computed).

If any employees failed, the dialog lists each affected employee by name with the specific error reason β€” for example, a stray attendance punch or an invalid schedule. A hint reminds you to fix the flagged data and recompute again. Failed employees are left uncomputed and are not included in the payroll figures until the underlying issue is resolved. Click Done to close the dialog.

Submit for Approval

Available at the For Review stage. Moves the cutoff forward to For Approval.

Before submitting, the system checks for unapproved filings (Overtime, Certificate of Attendance, Official Business, Leave, Schedule Adjustment, and Rest Day Work) that overlap the cutoff's dates:

  • If there are none, a simple confirmation message appears β€” click Submit to proceed.
  • If there are unapproved filings, a warning lists how many employees and filings are affected and shows them by type and by employee. Those filings will not be included in this payroll. You must tick the "I understand these filings will not be included in this payroll. Proceed anyway." checkbox before the Submit button becomes available.

Once you submit, the cutoff's attendance is frozen (see Timekeeping Freeze). If one of those unapproved filings (Overtime, Leave, Certificate of Attendance, Official Business, or Rest Day Work) is approved afterward, the approval still succeeds β€” it just doesn't change this cutoff. Instead its pay is carried into the employee's next open cutoff as a Carry-over line (see Salary Detail).

If any employees are uncomputed or have stale attendance, a confirmation dialog opens instead of an outright block, letting you recompute first or proceed anyway.

Approve

Available at the For Approval stage. Moves the cutoff forward to Approved.

If any employees are uncomputed or have stale attendance, a confirmation dialog opens instead of an outright block, letting you recompute first or proceed anyway.

No approval flow (stranded runs)

A run can reach For Approval with no approval flow behind it at all β€” this happens on a run that got there before your company's approval flows existed, or one whose flow was cancelled after it was submitted. Left alone, such a run is stuck: there is nobody it is routed to, so nobody can approve it.

When this happens, the page shows a warning banner, "No approval flow for this run," in place of the usual approval status card, explaining the situation. A Start approval flow button appears both in the banner and among the action buttons at the top of the page β€” it needs the same Submit for Approval permission as the other advancing actions, so a read-only viewer or the assigned approver alone cannot see it.

Clicking Start approval flow opens a "Start the approval flow?" confirmation explaining that it routes the run to the approver currently configured in Payroll Approvers, and that you are recorded as the person who started the flow rather than as its submitter β€” so starting it does not disqualify you from later approving the same run. (If your flow routes to a submitter's supervisor, it resolves against your own supervisor instead, since a run this old has no submitter on record.) Confirming does not change any payroll figures β€” it only creates the missing approval and routes the run to whoever should decide it, exactly as if it had been submitted normally.

Once the flow is started, the banner is replaced by the normal approval status card and the Approve / Send Back buttons behave as they do for any other run in For Approval.

Deciding outside the normal routing (override)

Normally only the approver a flow is currently routed to can approve or send back a run, and whoever submitted a run can never approve it themselves. One exception: someone with full system access, or whose role sits at the very top of your company's role hierarchy (level 0), may approve or send back a run even when they are not the assigned approver, and even one they submitted themselves. This exists so a company is never unable to run payroll just because an approver left, a flow is misconfigured, or the only qualified person is also the one who prepared the run.

This is never silent. When someone decides this way:

  • The approval status card and the Approve confirmation dialog both state it up front β€” typically "You are deciding in place of [name]. This is recorded, and they are notified."
  • If they also submitted the run themselves, an additional line discloses that approving their own submission is being permitted for their role, and is recorded and reported.
  • If they are the one who used Start approval flow to repair this same run and are now deciding it too, an additional line discloses that as well β€” repairing a stranded run does not by itself block you from approving it, since you did not prepare the payroll, but deciding it after repairing it is disclosed the same way.
  • The approver(s) whose decision is being overridden receive a notification.
  • The decision is written to the audit log.

Publish

Available at the Approved stage. Publishes (posts) the payroll. A confirmation dialog warns that once published, it cannot be modified. After publishing, the cutoff moves to Posted.

If any employees are uncomputed or have stale attendance, a confirmation dialog opens instead of an outright block, letting you recompute first or proceed anyway.

Returning a cutoff

You can send a cutoff back to an earlier stage when something needs fixing:

  • Return to Timekeeping (from For Review) β€” sends the cutoff back to timekeeping so employees' time records can be edited. After confirming, you are taken to the Time Keeping page for that cutoff.
  • Return to Review (from For Approval or Approved) β€” sends the cutoff back to the For Review stage; it will need to be resubmitted for approval.
  • Return / Resubmit (from Rejected) β€” a rejected cutoff can be sent back further with Return, or pushed forward again with Resubmit.

Returning to Timekeeping and carry-overs: if this cutoff had produced any Carry-over pay on a later cutoff (from a filing that was approved after this cutoff locked), returning it to Timekeeping cancels exactly those carry-overs β€” the filings then apply normally once this cutoff is reprocessed. This is blocked if a carry-over has already been paid out on a posted cutoff; that later cutoff must be un-posted (Cancel Posted) first.

Posted Payroll β€” Frozen Roster and Totals

Once a cutoff is posted, its list of employees, their assignment to the active or on-hold section, and all salary figures are locked at the moment of posting. Any changes made to employee records after posting β€” separations (even with a back-dated effectivity), deactivations, or rehires β€” do not affect what a posted payroll displays, what it exports, or what bank files it generates.

This applies to:

  • Who appears in the active employees table
  • Who appears in the Separated Employees (On Hold) table
  • All column totals and the totals row
  • Exported files (CSV, Excel, Excel Detailed)
  • Bank files generated from this cutoff

To correct a posted payroll you must first return it to pending using Cancel Posted (see below), which unfreezes the roster. Re-posting after the correction re-freezes the roster at the new moment of posting.

Attendance changed after posting (legacy data only)

Attendance is frozen for the entire payroll workflow, from For Review through Posted (see Timekeeping Freeze), so this can no longer happen on a newly processed cutoff. It can still appear on older, pre-freeze cut-offs.

If an employee's attendance was edited after the cutoff had already been posted, a notice appears above the employee table stating how many employees were affected. Unlike the Stale Salary Indicator on a cutoff still under review, this notice is informational only β€” it does not push you toward recomputing or cancelling the post. The affected employees are still flagged with the warning icon and reason in the table below, so you can review them and decide whether the drift needs to be corrected (via Cancel Posted).

Cancel Posted

Available only at the Posted stage. Reverses a published payroll and returns it to For Review. Because this permanently deletes the payroll's government contributions, tax records, allowance and deduction history, and loan payments, it requires a one-time passcode (OTP) for verification before it will proceed. This cannot be undone.

After cancellation the cutoff is editable again (salary recomputation, employee record corrections), and re-posting will capture the then-current roster.

Bank File Writers

Opens the Bank File Writers dialog for generating bank payment files for the cutoff. The dialog uses the same branch, contract type, department, and search filters currently applied to the table.

If any employee in the cutoff has a stale salary (attendance changed after their salary was computed β€” see Stale Salary Indicator), a warning banner appears at the top of the dialog: "Payroll figures may be outdated β€” N employee(s) have attendance changes since their salary was last computed." This is informational only β€” it does not block the export. The bank file is generated using the computed amounts as-is; recompute payroll first if you want the latest attendance reflected in the disbursement file.

If an export fails, the error message describes the specific reason (for example, a validation problem with the export) rather than a generic failure notice.

Year-End Tax Annualization (True-Up)

When Year-End Tax Annualization (True-Up) is enabled (see HR Settings), qualifying payroll runs reconcile each employee's withholding tax against their annual tax due under BIR RR 11-2018, and fold the difference straight into that employee's Tax figure for the cutoff β€” a shortfall is collected, an over-withholding is refunded. By default this happens only on the year's final payroll run (December); an earlier Annualization Start Month setting spreads it across every run from that month onward.

When at least one employee in this cutoff was reconciled this way, a "Year-end tax annualization applied" banner appears above the table, summarizing the total tax adjustment, how many employees received a refund (and the total refunded), and how many had additional tax withheld (and the total withheld). If any of those figures still rest on a projected 13th-month estimate (the employee's actual 13th month hasn't been released yet), the banner switches to a warning and notes that the amounts may change once the actual 13th month is released.

The same cutoffs also gain two extra columns in the employee table, Annual Tax Due and Tax Adjustment β€” see The Employee Table below. The adjustment is already included in the Tax column and the totals row; it is not an additional deduction.

A fixed withholding tax setup does not change this basis β€” the employee's gross taxable income and annual tax due are computed exactly as for any other employee. The true-up simply counts the fixed amounts withheld each cutoff as tax already paid, so a variance against the annual tax due is expected for an employee on a fixed plan and is settled here the same as a table-based shortfall or refund.

The Employee Table

The table lists every employee in the cutoff with their full salary breakdown. The Employee Name column stays fixed on the left and the Net Pay column stays fixed on the right as you scroll across the figures. A totals row sums every money column and shows the employee count.

ColumnDescription
Employee NameEmployee's full name. Shows a warning icon next to the name when this employee's salary is stale (legacy, pre-freeze cut-offs only) β€” see Stale Salary Indicator
Employee CodeEmployee code
BranchEmployee's branch
Payroll GroupPayroll group code
Basic SalaryThe employee's basic salary
LateDeduction for late
UndertimeDeduction for undertime
AbsentDeduction for absences
Basic PayBasic pay after time deductions
Allowance PayAllowances
Holiday PayHoliday pay
Overtime PayOvertime pay
Night Diff PayNight differential pay
Rest Day PayRest day pay
Manual EarningsManually added earnings, plus any Carry-over pay from a filing approved after a previous cutoff locked
SSSSSS contribution
PhilHealthPhilHealth contribution
Pag-IBIGPag-IBIG contribution
TaxWithholding tax. Includes any year-end true-up adjustment for this employee, folded in. A cutoff withheld under an employee's fixed withholding tax setup shows a Fixed chip here instead of the table figure, with a warning icon when the setup needs review β€” for example the fixed amount was capped to the employee's available net pay, or the setup's period no longer matches the payroll group's withholding period.
Annual Tax DueThe employee's computed tax due for the full year, under BIR RR 11-2018 annualization. Only shown when at least one employee in this cutoff has a figure here β€” see Year-End Tax Annualization (True-Up).
Tax AdjustmentThe reconciling difference folded into this cutoff's Tax β€” positive is additional tax withheld, negative is a refund. Shown alongside Annual Tax Due on the same cutoffs.
LoansLoan deductions
Manual DeductionsManually added deductions
Net PayTake-home pay

Click any employee row to open that employee's salary detail page, where you can see how each figure was computed.

Searching and filtering

Above the table you can narrow down the list:

  • Branch β€” filter to one or more branches (defaults to All Branches)
  • Contract Type β€” filter by contract type (defaults to All Contract Types)
  • Department β€” filter by department (defaults to All Departments)
  • Search β€” type to find an employee by name

When any filter is active a Clear All option appears. The totals row recalculates to match whatever is currently filtered.

Fullscreen view and load errors

The table's toolbar (top right, next to Search) has a Fullscreen button that expands the table to fill the whole screen β€” useful when you want to see every column at once. Click it again (or press Esc) to return to normal view; F11 toggles it too. Fullscreen remembers your choice for this table for as long as you stay on the same browser tab, so if you click into an employee's Salary Detail and then click Back, the table reopens exactly how you left it. It resets to normal view once you exit fullscreen, and a new browser tab always starts in normal view.

If the table fails to load β€” for example a network or server problem β€” it shows a Couldn't load data message with a Retry button instead of looking empty. Click Retry to try loading it again. This applies to both the main employee table and the Separated Employees (On Hold) table below.

Separated Employees (On Hold)

If any employees were separated during the cutoff period, a second table titled Separated Employees (On Hold) appears below the main table. Their salaries are computed, but their release is held. This section is hidden when there are no separated employees.

For a posted cutoff, this split is frozen at the time of posting. Separations filed after the cutoff was posted β€” even ones back-dated into the cutoff period β€” do not move anyone between the active and on-hold tables. See Posted Payroll β€” Frozen Roster and Totals for details.

Exporting the Summary

Use the Export button above the table to download the payroll summary. It needs the Export permission for Payroll Center β€” a role without it (view access alone) does not see the button. You can choose:

  • Export as CSV β€” comma-separated values
  • Export as Excel β€” Microsoft Excel format
  • Export as Excel (Detailed) β€” a more detailed Microsoft Excel format

The export respects the filters currently applied to the table.

Common Tasks

Review and submit a cutoff for approval

  1. Open the cutoff from the Payroll Center (it opens at the For Review stage)
  2. Review the employees' computed salaries and the totals row
  3. If anything looks wrong, click Re-Compute and confirm, then re-check the figures
  4. If the "N employee(s) changed since their salary was computed" summary is showing, click Re-Compute first to bring every employee's salary in line with their current attendance β€” click Show only affected to review just those employees first, if you like
  5. Click Submit for Approval
  6. If the warning lists unapproved filings, decide whether to fix them first; otherwise tick Proceed anyway
  7. Click Submit
  8. If a "Proceed with submission?" dialog appears (some employees are uncomputed or stale), either close it and Re-Compute to fix the data, or tick the acknowledgement checkbox and click Submit again to proceed anyway

Approve a payroll

  1. Open a cutoff sitting at the For Approval stage
  2. If the page shows a "No approval flow for this run" warning instead of the usual approval details, click Start approval flow and confirm β€” see No approval flow (stranded runs) above. Skip this step for a run that already has an approver assigned.
  3. Review the figures
  4. Click Approve β€” if you are deciding outside the normal routing, the confirmation dialog says so first; see Deciding outside the normal routing (override) above
  5. If a "Proceed with submission?" dialog appears (some employees are uncomputed or stale), either close it and Re-Compute to fix the data, or tick the acknowledgement checkbox and click Submit again to proceed anyway

Publish (post) a payroll

  1. Open a cutoff sitting at the Approved stage
  2. Do a final review of the figures
  3. Click Publish and confirm
  4. If a "Proceed with submission?" dialog appears (some employees are uncomputed or stale), either close it and Re-Compute to fix the data, or tick the acknowledgement checkbox and click Publish again to proceed anyway

Once published, the payroll cannot be modified.

Send a cutoff back to fix something

  • From For Review: click Return to Timekeeping to let time records be edited again
  • From For Approval or Approved: click Return to Review to put it back for review (it will need to be resubmitted)

Reverse a published payroll

  1. Open the posted cutoff
  2. Click Cancel Posted
  3. Complete the OTP verification

This permanently deletes the payroll's contributions, tax, allowance/deduction history, and loan payments, and cannot be undone.

Export the payroll figures

  1. Apply any filters you want (branch, contract type, department, search)
  2. Click Export
  3. Choose CSV, Excel, or Excel (Detailed)