Payroll in a manufacturing workshop lives and dies on the timesheets feeding it. If your shop-floor hours come from paper filled in from memory, your payroll is inheriting that inaccuracy — plus a pile of manual re-keying every pay run.
Why manufacturing payroll gets messy
- Inaccurate source data — paper timesheets are 15–30% off, and payroll can't be more accurate than its inputs.
- Manual re-keying — someone transcribes sheets into the payroll system every week, introducing errors and eating hours.
- No audit trail — when a pay query comes up, there's nothing solid to check it against.
Fixing it at the source
The fix isn't better payroll software — it's better time capture. When staff clock onto work from the floor, you get accurate, verified hours automatically. Those hours flow straight into your payroll system (Xero, MYOB, or your provider) without anyone re-typing them.
- Accurate hours — captured at the point of work, not remembered
- No re-keying — verified timesheets sync to payroll
- A clean audit trail — every hour tied to a job and a time
The bonus: the same data costs your jobs
Here's the compounding benefit — the exact same shop-floor time data that cleans up payroll also costs your jobs. One clock-on gives you accurate pay and accurate job costs. You're not choosing between the two; you get both from one system.
15–30%
Typical inaccuracy in paper-based time tracking — the data most workshop payroll runs on
The bottom line
Clean manufacturing payroll starts on the floor, not in the payroll software. Empower captures accurate time once and feeds both payroll and job costing. See time tracking, or run your numbers.
