UK payroll admins can now view, apply, and manage approved but unapplied time off requests directly from the pay run, without needing to switch to another system. You’ll also see new status icons for HMRC submissions, pay slips, and journal exports, giving you a clear, at-a-glance view of each pay run’s progress.
This article explains how to:
Manage time off requests in a pay run
This section covers how to view, apply, mark as manually applied, remove, and bulk apply approved but unapplied time off requests within a pay run.
Steps to manage time off requests in a pay run
- Log in to Employment Hero as an Admin, Owner, or a user with CSS pay run access.
- Go to Payroll > Pay Runs.
- Select the relevant pay run from the list.
- If there are approved, unapplied time off requests with a first day on or before the pay run’s period end date, you’ll see a Time Off Requests tab with a count badge. Select this tab.
- Review the list of outstanding requests. Each entry shows the employee name, time off category, first and last day, unit type, units requested, units, paid units, unpaid units, and applied status.
- To action a request, use the Actions menu for that row:
- Apply: Applies the request to the pay run. You’ll see a confirmation and a prompt to recalculate the pay run.
- Mark as applied manually: Flags the request as handled outside the payroll engine. No recalculation is needed.
- Remove from pay run: Reverses the applied or manually applied request, restores the original actions, and prompts a recalculation.
- To apply multiple requests at once, use the checkboxes to select the desired requests, then select Bulk apply. You’ll be prompted to recalculate the pay run after bulk actions.
- After applying or removing requests, follow the prompt to recalculate the pay run to update figures.
View pay run status icons
This section explains how to identify the status of HMRC submissions, pay slip publication, and journal exports using icons in the pay run list and detail view.
Steps to view pay run status icons
- Log in to Employment Hero as an Admin, Owner, or a user with CSS pay run access.
- Go to Payroll > Pay Runs.
- In the pay run list, locate the status icons for each pay run:
-
HMRC submission:
- Green: Submission successful
- Red: Submission failed
- Orange: Submission pending or scheduled
- Grey: Not submitted
-
Pay slips:
- Green: All published
- Orange: Scheduled or partially published
- Grey: Not published
-
Journal export (if accounting integration is connected):
- Green: Exported
- Red: Export failed
- Grey: Not exported
-
HMRC submission:
- To see more details, open a pay run and view the icons in the header. Hover over or focus on an icon to see a tooltip with status and next steps.
Further information
What types of time off requests appear in the Time Off Requests tab?
Only approved time off requests that have not been fully applied or marked as manually applied, and whose first day is on or before the pay run’s period end date, will appear. Pending, rejected, fully applied, manually processed, and future requests are not shown.
What happens if I remove a time off request from a pay run?
Removing (unapplying) a request reverses the action, restores the original options, and prompts you to recalculate the pay run to update figures.
Why don’t I see the journal export icon?
The journal export icon only appears if your organisation has an accounting integration connected. If there is no integration, the icon is not shown.
Are the status icons accessible for screen readers?
Yes, each status icon includes an aria-label matching the tooltip text, and tooltips appear on hover and keyboard focus.