If an employee is missing from a payroll export, find the first place their record disappears: the approved time source, the exact exported file, or the destination's accepted payroll detail. Compare the same employee key, employer, pay group and period at every stage. Correct that stage, then verify the final accepted records before treating the omission as resolved.
This guide gives the payroll specialist a trace record, a decision table and a worked example. It covers an hourly time-and-earnings handoff to a separate provider; it does not approve a complete payroll or replace the provider's import instructions.
Establish who belongs in this file
Start with an expected employee list for this specific transfer. Use approved time and other authorized earning inputs that the file is meant to carry. An active employee roster alone is not the expected population: someone with no transferable hours, a salaried employee handled elsewhere or a worker in another pay group may correctly be absent.
Write down the employer, pay group, period start and end, export format, file revision and destination run. Ask the supervisor to confirm missing time, HR to confirm employment and setup changes, and payroll to confirm the transfer scope. Give each unresolved record an owner and a deadline within your established payroll process.
Keep verified employee identifiers as exact text in their employer and pay-group context. Use the destination's required key; do not match by name alone or guess that two similar IDs are the same record. Resolve uncertain identity separately before moving hours.
Trace the first missing stage
Preserve the approved source output, the exact file actually sent and the destination acceptance or rejection detail. A fresh export may differ from the transmitted file. A saved report definition is also insufficient: TimeTrex documents that Saved Reports retain criteria, not generated output.
| Finding | Evidence to inspect | Owner and next action |
|---|---|---|
| Expected, but absent from the approved source | Original time records, period boundaries, approval status and report filters. | Supervisor confirms actual time; payroll checks scope and obtains the authorized correction. |
| Present in the source; absent from the file | Export criteria, selected population, earning-code setup and the actual file revision. | Export owner checks configuration against the intended scope and provider specification. |
| Present in the file; absent from accepted detail | Rejection reason, destination setup, identifier mapping, import history and run selection. | Payroll or provider support resolves the documented rejection or locates the accepted record. |
| Present in accepted detail; absent from a review report | Report period, employee/pay-group filters, run version and earning selection. | Reviewer checks the view before changing records that may already be correct. |
These are investigation paths, not diagnoses. An unchecked filter is a possibility to test; it is not proof of a product defect. Record which evidence confirms the cause and which alternatives were ruled out.
Compare membership, not just counts
At each stage, list the expected keys that are absent and the unexpected keys that are present. Equal employee counts can hide one omitted employee and one unintended employee. Keep employee counts separate from file row counts, since one employee may have several earning, date or job rows.
After the employee is found, compare the applicable hours and earning codes as well. Presence alone does not prove that all their inputs transferred correctly. Use the broader payroll import validation checklist for the complete batch comparison.
Fictional example · one employer, pay group and workday
48 approved hours, 40 exported, 32 accepted
Six hourly employees, A101 through A106, each have 8.00 approved hours for the same workday. All six belong in this transfer. Assume one earning row per employee, no other earnings and no rounding differences. The expected total is 6 × 8.00 = 48.00 hours.
| Record | Source | File | Accepted |
|---|---|---|---|
| A101–A104 combined | 32.00 | 32.00 | 32.00 |
| A105 | 8.00 | 8.00 | Absent |
| A106 | 8.00 | Absent | Absent |
| Total known hours | 48.00 | 40.00 | 32.00 |
A106 first disappears at export. The export owner compares the intended population with the file criteria and confirms an old branch filter excluded A106. The source time is already correct; adding another time entry would duplicate it.
A105 first disappears at destination acceptance. The provider's rejection detail confirms the required employee key was not configured in the destination. Payroll verifies the intended record and has its setup corrected through the provider's supported process.
The owner preserves the original batch and creates a controlled correction. Before sending it, they confirm whether the provider requires a rejected-row retry, a supported adjustment or another correction method. They do not resend all 48.00 hours into an append-only process when 32.00 hours are already accepted.
After correction, the reviewer confirms six intended employee keys and 8.00 accepted hours per employee: 6 × 8.00 = 48.00 hours. They also confirm no unexpected keys or duplicate accepted rows. The example validates this time transfer only; rates, taxes, deductions and payment outcomes need their separate reviews.
Keep a record the next reviewer can use
Copy this structure into an approved internal log. Keep sensitive employee and payroll evidence in access-controlled storage and reference it by ID. These are suggested operating fields, not a TimeTrex import specification or a saved approval on this page.
Handle the exceptions deliberately
- Zero hours or separate earnings: check whether the selected file is supposed to carry that record. Do not invent hours to make an employee appear.
- Rehire, transfer or multiple employment: confirm the effective record and employer/pay-group scope. Do not overwrite a prior employment or merge two valid records to force a match.
- Timeout or uncertain response: inspect accepted detail and import history before retrying. A missing confirmation does not prove that nothing loaded.
- Deadline approaching: escalate the unresolved employee to the payroll owner promptly for an authorized handling decision. The investigation must not quietly drop the employee from the run.
Verify the correction in accepted records
Use this checklist after the fix. The boxes are temporary reading aids; they do not save a record, release payroll or replace a reviewer.
A closed incident means the corrected destination result was checked. An owner saying “fixed,” a successful upload message or a balanced grand total is insufficient evidence on its own.
Check TimeTrex report criteria before changing time
TimeTrex's Payroll Export Report exports selected-period time and earnings for third-party payroll software. Its templates include employee, date and pay-period groupings. Choose detail that supports tracing the employee; confirm the receiving format's current requirements.
The report operation guide explains time-period criteria, display columns, grouping and additional filtering fields on Setup. Compare the report criteria with the intended population, then save the actual output used for the investigation.
If payroll is processed within TimeTrex, its documentation says this third-party export report is unnecessary. Trace the relevant timesheet and pay-stub records instead. Available reports, permissions and destination behavior must be checked for the actual configuration.
Review the complete handoff
Use the import validation guide to check the rest of the batch, and the payroll exception workflow for other unresolved issues. Bring a sanitized trace record and your receiving specification when discussing an integration with TimeTrex.
Product documentation checked November 6, 2026. The trace procedure and review labels are suggested organization-selected controls. All example employees, causes and figures are fictional. No legal deadline, universal provider behavior or compliance guarantee is asserted.
