Payroll Activity log

The Payroll Activity log records events such as period creation, processing, rejection, stored salary updates and deduction assignments. Use it to investigate who acted, when, and which values were recorded. It does not approve a run, repair a transaction or confirm a payment.

Access needed

Access depends on your assigned permissions and workflow scope.

Read/filter events, compare changes and export the loaded page: audit.read
Independent of payroll management/approval. The Activity log is not gated by the Payroll plan feature. Masked values remain withheld.
Role and permission labels
Typical responsibility: Authorized investigator. Role names alone do not grant access.
Read the service Activity log
Read the current period or transaction separately: payroll.read
Ordinary Payroll plan availability still applies to current payroll records. Activity-log access does not grant payroll writes or payment authority.
Role and permission labels
Typical responsibility: Payroll reviewer. Role names alone do not grant access.
Read payroll periods and results

Demo screenshots may show broader access than your account.

Open the log

Open Payroll processing → Activity log. Events appear newest first. Read Action, Entity type, Occurred, Actor, Entity, Subject and Changes together.

Populated Payroll Activity log with twelve fictional workflow events — Read action and record type together.

Actor identifies the account or automated process performing the action. Entity identifies the affected record. Subject can identify an employee or another recorded reference; do not assume every reference is an employee number. Automated salary or leave updates can appear under system actors because payroll receives those changes from other workflows.

Find a particular event

Choose the record context
Open Filter and use Entity type and Entity to identify a period, transaction or deduction record.
Narrow the action or person
Use Action, Actor or Subject as appropriate. Distinguish who acted from whose record was affected.
Set the date range
Use From date and To date, keeping the end on or after the start. Compare the displayed occurrence time with the related record.
Widen the search if needed
Remove chips or Reset, Refresh activity log and check other pages. A failed load does not establish that no events exist.

Payroll Activity log filter menu — Separate actor entity and subject scope.

Inspect references and details

Select an event and open Details. Check its action, time, actor, entity, subject and event ID. Keep the event ID when asking an authorized administrator to investigate the same occurrence.

Payroll rejection event Details showing references — Use the event ID to investigate the same occurrence.

A historical event does not establish the current record status. The demo rejection is followed by reopening; check the current period separately rather than treating an old Rejected event as today's state.

Compare recorded changes

Open Changes and search fields or values where needed. Expand Compare for a field to inspect Before and After. Not set means there is no value recorded on that side; it is common for creation events.

Payroll rejection event comparing Processing before and Rejected after — The period was subsequently reopened to Draft.

The fictional Request changes action records Status moving from Processing to Rejected. This is the earlier event; the current demo period was subsequently reopened to Draft. See Approve and finalize payroll for that correction cycle.

Recognize what an event proves

Event context	What to verify separately
Period creation or status change	Current period state, decision account and calculation review.
Transaction creation/update	Current employee result, currency and calculation time.
Employee salary event	Effective compensation history and whether a later calculation used it.
Employee deduction creation	Pending/Active state and eligibility, not just that an assignment exists.
Payment-file export	Authorized file handling; an export does not prove a transfer occurred.

Payroll setting changes may be recorded with shared organization settings rather than this service's history. Do not treat their absence here as proof that no setting changed.

Export the loaded page carefully

Export page CSV exports the loaded page of filtered events. It does not export every matching page, private source files or the complete comparison. Check filters and pagination and follow payroll-data handling rules before storing or sharing an export.

What was verified

The populated 12-event demo list, rejection Details, expanded Status comparison and filter menu were inspected in light theme. No history export, permission change or payroll write was executed in this review.

Troubleshooting

Problem	What to check
Activity log is unavailable	audit.read is separate from payroll read, management and approval.
A reference is not a person	Read Entity type and context; some events use record references as Subject.
The current status differs from an event	Later events may have changed it; open the current record.
A field says Hidden	The value is withheld and cannot be recovered from the log.
No events appear	Check scope, dates, pagination and load errors.
An export does not contain the full history	Export page CSV covers the loaded page only.