From emailed timesheets to payroll-ready records

Payroll work started with an inbox

Carers recorded their timesheets on paper, photographed them and emailed the images to a shared mailbox. Before payroll could work with the information, someone had to open the messages and save each attachment into a folder.

With around 500 carers submitting timesheets, that preparation took hours. Members of the payroll team worked through the mailbox from different ends to divide the work, while more submissions continued to arrive. Collecting and organising the records had become a substantial task of its own.

Give carers a simpler way to submit

We introduced Zoho Forms and a link that could be shared with staff. Carers could enter their timesheet information electronically, without first completing and photographing a paper form.

The approach made submission possible without relying on a particular tablet at a care location. It also gave the payroll team structured responses to work with, rather than having the information available only as an image.

Keep the records, remove the repeated saving

The first version retained the existing mailbox as part of the process. Electronic submissions produced PDF records, while the response data was also available in Excel. The PDFs mattered because the process needed to retain signatures.

We used Power Automate to take the PDF attachments from incoming messages and save them into folders for the payroll team to action. Instead of repeatedly opening emails and saving files, the team could work with records that had already been collected for them.

This changed how the information reached payroll while keeping a familiar place for staff to find and review the supporting documents.

Move from individual documents to usable data

As the process developed, we brought the form responses together in an Excel spreadsheet prepared for the payroll team to read and import. The value of the electronic form extended beyond replacing the paper: its responses could become a useful working record.

Payroll staff still needed to verify and action the submissions. The automation handled the collection and preparation around that work, with the PDFs retained as supporting records.

Less preparation before the payroll work could begin

The team no longer had to save every incoming PDF by hand. Records were filed automatically as submissions arrived, and consolidated response data made the information faster to work with.

For carers, there was a direct electronic route to submit a timesheet. For payroll, the process shifted from collecting files out of a mailbox towards reviewing the information and using it.

Improve the hand-offs one step at a time

The work developed in stages: make the form accessible, retain the required records, automate their filing, then prepare the response data for payroll. Each change addressed a specific part of the existing process.

It is a useful starting point for other administrative workflows. Look at where people are moving the same information between forms, inboxes and folders, and identify which of those steps can be handled automatically while keeping the necessary human review.