As a DSP owner or HR manager, preparatory payroll is the critical step before data is transmitted to your payroll provider (ADP or SD Worx). This article guides you through the key steps: reviewing employee data, preparing the interface, managing overtime and allowances, and closing the payroll run.

Check out our video on preparatory payroll – it covers everything you need to know for step 3 of your onboarding:

Tip: To enable English captions, click the settings icon in the video player, select Caption language, and choose English.

Overview: Preparatory Payroll

You can find the preparatory payroll in Kenjo in the left menu under Payroll. Here you can see all relevant data for the current month at any time – employee data, attendance, overtime, public holidays, and allowances – before they are transmitted to your payroll provider.

Activate payroll

If you have not already entered your payroll details during registration, you can activate payroll at any time from the main menu:

Click on Payroll > Activate in the left menu.
Under Configure payroll, select your payroll provider (ADP or SD Worx).
Fill in the missing details (payroll ID, delivery station, etc.).

Access payroll settings

Navigate to Payroll > Payroll settings > Employees. Here you can see all employees and their status in payroll.

Check general payroll settings

Under General, make sure the correct payroll provider is set and the payroll ID is entered correctly:

SD Worx: The payroll ID corresponds to your DSP code.
ADP: You receive a 5-digit payroll ID directly from ADP. Contact ADP directly if you need to request this ID.

Important for ADP users: Inform ADP immediately about the system switch or new registration with Kenjo. ADP needs to re-key the API interface and configure the data transfer correctly – without this step, no data can be transmitted.

Identify and correct incomplete employee data

Employees with incomplete data are flagged with a red error message in the payroll preview. Click directly on the red-bordered field "Incomplete", fill in the missing information, and click Save.

Important: Employees with incomplete data will not be transmitted to the payroll provider. The system automatically blocks the transfer – this prevents incorrect data from being sent.

Deactivate an employee from payroll

If an employee should not be included in this month's payroll run (e.g., an intern or a departed employee), you can remove them via Actions > Deactivate from payroll.

Tip: Go through all employees once and make sure only the employees who should be included in payroll are active.

Prepare the interface with the payroll provider

The interface between Kenjo and your payroll provider (ADP or SD Worx) must be set up once. It is a prerequisite for data to be transmitted automatically.

Important for switchers: If you are switching from another system to Kenjo, contact your payroll provider (ADP or SD Worx) as early as possible – setting up the interface takes time and is a prerequisite for the first payroll run.

Once the interface is set up and all employee data is complete and correct, you can work with the payroll preview.

Payroll preview: customize the view and review data

The payroll preview shows you all relevant data points of the current payroll run. The view can be customized individually:

1. Sort: Click on SORT BY and select a column – e.g., employee ID, name, contractual compensation, or recorded time. Sorting is alphabetical, numerical, or chronological, ascending or descending.

2. Filter: Click on the three-line icon to narrow down table rows – e.g., by period or employee status.

3. Payroll export: Export the current data as an .xlsx file – for your own review, not for transmission to the payroll provider.

4. Show/hide columns: Customize the visible columns to suit your needs.

5. Refresh data: Click REFRESH when you want to make sure the table reflects the latest state of your entries.

Note: If you cannot find an employee in the preview, first check which filters are set and adjust them if necessary.

Review employee details in the side panel

Click on any employee in the table – a side panel opens with the specific details for that employee. From there you have two options:

GO TO PROFILE: Navigates directly to the employee profile to adjust master data.
BACK TO PAYROLL: Takes you directly back to the table view of the preview after editing.

Tip: Use the Refresh button to ensure all last-minute changes are included. The question mark icon explains the meaning of the colored pencils and symbols.

Adjust overtime, public holidays, and meal allowance

In the payroll preview you can intervene directly in individual data points – identifiable by the colored pencils. The three most important areas:

Adjust public holidays

Click on the pencil icon for the relevant employee to review their public holiday data and adjust it manually if needed. Then click Save – the system applies the change immediately.

Manage overtime

Depending on the configuration from Session 2, you have the option to carry over or pay out overtime for individual employees. If overtime is not activated, this option does not appear in the preview.

Activate and adjust the meal allowance

The system automatically recognizes whether a meal allowance is stored for an employee. You can activate or deactivate it manually at any time and adjust the value individually.

Tip: Even if the system does not set the allowance automatically, you can activate it manually for each employee at any time. Then simply click Save.

Maintain salary and expenses in the employee profile

Salary and meal allowance must be stored in the employee profile – they are not automatically pulled from payroll.

Store salary

Navigate to the relevant employee's profile and select the Salary tab.
Click on Add salary.
Enter the amount and confirm with Add.

Important:

For salaried employees, enter a fixed salary.

For hourly employees, enter an hourly rate – only then can the system correctly calculate supplements and overtime. Without a salary entry, employees will not appear in the payroll preview.

Alternatively, you can also import salary data via Data import under Settings > Data import.

Store meal allowance (expenses) in the profile

In the employee profile under Salary, you can store an individual value for the meal allowance per employee.
This value serves as the default for that employee in payroll.

Important: Salary and meal allowance must be stored individually in every employee profile. If this data is missing, a red error message appears and the employee will not be transmitted to the payroll provider.

Time off in payroll

When payroll is activated, three payroll-relevant time off types are automatically created in the system. You can find these under Settings > Time Off > Time off type:

Annual leave (vacation days)
Sick leave
Overtime compensation

Important: These three mandatory types are marked with a blue checkmark icon and cannot be deleted or edited. Additional time off types can be added manually, but they do not automatically flow into payroll.

The calculation of time off days is based on the contractual weekly hours and contractual working days stored in the employee profile.

Example: An employee has 5 working days and 30 weekly hours stored. If they submit leave from Monday to Sunday, 5 working days are deducted – not 7 calendar days.

Send data and close payroll

Once all data is complete and correct, you close the payroll run in two steps:

Step 1: Send changes

Click Send changes. This transmits all data to your payroll provider (ADP or SD Worx). After sending, the button turns grey – this confirms that the transfer was successful.

Note: If you make changes to employee or payroll data after sending, these are displayed highlighted in yellow – so you can see at a glance what has changed since the last transfer.

Step 2: Close payroll

Click Close to close the current payroll run and start the next month.

Important: Only click Close when you are sure that all data has been sent and the payroll run is complete. Once a payroll run is closed, no corrections can be made for that month – all subsequent changes must be recorded in the next period.

Analytics

Under Analytics > Dashboards you will find helpful reports for the current payroll run:

Time off history: Filter specifically by employee, period, and time off type – ideal for reviewing before payroll.
Attendance report: Export attendance data structured by employee and period.

Next steps & checklist

Before sending the data, check the following:

Is payroll activated and the correct payroll provider (ADP or SD Worx) stored under General?
Is the payroll ID correctly entered (DSP code for SD Worx, 5-digit ID for ADP)?
Are all employees in payroll active and do they have complete data?
Is the salary (fixed salary or hourly rate) and the meal allowance stored in every employee profile?
Is the interface with ADP or SD Worx set up?
Were the three mandatory time off types (annual leave, sick leave, overtime compensation) automatically created?
Was the data transmitted to the payroll provider via Send changes?
Was the payroll run only closed via Close after a complete review?