Reviewing Payroll

Once every payee's pay is entered, Payroll Summary is where you check the whole run before it goes anywhere near a bank account. For Admin and Payroll, it's the third step: Employees & Loan-outs and Vendors & Contractors come before it, and Union Reports and Submit Payroll after. A run with nothing union on it, at a company with no union contract, has no Union Reports step, so Submit Payroll comes next (see The steps of a payroll run). Approver teammates read this summary and continue directly to Submit Payroll once the run is In review.

What's on the Payroll Summary screen

The screen is headed Payroll review; the run's code, pay period and check date sit on the line above the step bar, which shows where you are. Top to bottom, it shows any banners, notices and warnings that apply to the run, then the run's cards.

Banners, notices and warnings

• Banners about specific payees, if any apply, above the heading. Each one counts the payees in its title, for example "(2 payees)", and lists them by name, each linked to the payee's setup page (or, for contract rates, their record). With more than three, the names sit behind Show the N payees; the certification banner always lists them.
  • "Manual payment certification needed before you send this payroll": a payee being paid manually (by paper check) needs a signed manual payment certification in their start-work packet. This one does block: the payroll can't be sent for approval or submitted until every certification is signed.
  • "Employer I-9 attestation pending": the employer's I-9 attestation in a payee's start-work packet isn't signed yet. Payroll can continue.
  • "Rates need review since a company contract changed": you can still approve and submit; review those payee records when you're ready.
  • "Policy acknowledgments pending": vendors or contractors still need to sign required policies in their start-work packets. Payroll can continue.
  • "Installments reduced": a lump-sum-target deduction was cut to fit the check; payroll can continue. Its lines aren't links (below).
• A funding-mismatch notice, if our tax partner's own pricing disagrees with Greenroom's. Unlike the warnings below, this one is a preview of a real block: submitting is refused later at Submit Payroll until it clears, because a real disagreement usually means something is mapped wrong. The same place shows Approval blocked — a deduction would be withheld for less than Greenroom recorded when a deduction is bigger than what is left of a payee's pay; see A deduction that can't be withheld in full.
• Warnings and notes, if any. Warnings are deterministic flags like a payee paid below their union's minimum, a non-union employee paid below New York's minimum wage, or a union payee missing an expected fringe contribution. Notes are facts rather than problems: a union rate change landing mid-period, or a union whose rates have not yet been checked against the agreement ("[Union] [agreement] rates have not yet been checked against the agreement. Confirm the [union] deductions and fringes with the union before remitting."). For Admin and Payroll, the confirmation that Continue opens counts the warnings only ("2 warnings above — review before submitting"). These calculation warnings and notes do not stop you moving forward, with one exception: a premium from the union's list that has no rate for this run's week was left out of the run, and approval is refused until it's fixed on the payee's Pay card. See Payroll Calculations for the full list.

The run's cards

• The funding card, Payroll funding summary: what the run costs, line by line, down to its total, which is what has to be in your account. The line under the title says so and when the money leaves: "Make sure [amount] is in your bank account.", then "Direct deposits and taxes are auto-debited from your account in one lump sum on [day], not on payday.", the day being the approval deadline's. Until our tax partner prices the run, the total is Greenroom's estimate. Once it has, the ledger ends in Total to fund, and a block under it shows Cash Required for This Payroll: the amount debited for this payroll, with a line saying how it differs from Total to fund. On a demo company's payroll the card reads "Demo estimate for the [date] check date. No money moves." Its header holds the tax chip (below) and Print / share.
• Paper checks, if anyone on the run is paid by paper check: a card showing what's registered and where check printing stands. The net pay by paper check itself is one of the figures on the funding card above it. On a demo company's payroll the card shows only estimates, with "Demo estimate. No paper checks or trust payments are sent." See Physical Checks.
• A summary card: total gross wages, employee & loan-out wages, contractor & vendor payments, and union fringe & benefit funds. Under the fringe figure, Review union reports for the full calculation opens the Union Reports step for Admin and Payroll. For an Approver, it opens the printable union reports in a new tab when the run has a union report. With no report to open, the sub-line reads No unions on this payroll. The union metric and zero union-money rows are hidden when the company has no union contracts and the run has no union activity or money; the other three metrics remain.
• Fee & tax breakdown, a collapsible card, closed until you open it, with employer taxes, reimbursements, and your platform fee.
• Coding summary ("General ledger account totals"), a collapsible card grouping every dollar by its accounting (GL) code — useful for bookkeeping, not something most productions need to check line by line.
• Payments by union and payment type — every payee, grouped by union (or by Production — Non-Union / Creative & Production Services / Accounts Payable for everyone else), with a running gross and net for each group. A payee our tax partner has flagged a problem with shows that warning right on their row, even before you expand it, and so does a payee carrying a duplicate automatic deduction. Click a payee to see exactly what makes up their number: pre-tax deductions, withholdings, and post-tax deductions each sit in their own block with their own total. A payee on a benefits-only week carries a Benefits only badge. See Payroll Breakdown and Details for how to read this section.

Deductions exceed pay

Deductions exceed pay appears at the top of Payroll Summary when an included payee's net pay is below zero. It names each payee and how much their deductions exceed their pay. Send for approval, Approve this payroll, and submission are refused until those deductions are corrected, even if the payroll's combined net is positive. With Admin or Payroll, use the row's edit pencil, lower Amount or use Remove line under Deductions, then Save & recalculate; edit recurring deductions on the payee's profile. A zero-net or excluded row does not trigger it.

A post-tax deduction with a Lump-sum target, such as initiation dues, never causes this block: it takes only what the check can still cover, and the rest stays owed for later checks (see Payroll Adjustments). A reduced one is listed instead under Installments reduced, which says "These installments were reduced to what each check can cover. The unpaid balance stays owed toward the target for later checks." and gives one line each, "[payee] — [deduction]: this check takes [amount] of the full [amount] per-check amount." That notice doesn't block anything. Every other deduction, a pre-tax one with a target included, can still take net pay below zero.

Are these tax figures real?

A chip in the funding card's header tells you where the tax numbers came from. The Calculate taxes, Resync taxes, and Retry sync controls are available to Admin and Payroll teammates. If your role is Approver, you see the status without those buttons; a failed sync tells you "Ask a Payroll or Admin teammate to resolve this before you approve the payroll."

An Admin or Payroll teammate sees the reason in Greenroom's words, including on Retry sync. A refused address names the payee and the address or ZIP problem. When there is no specific field to name, it says "Their record with our tax partner couldn't be set up. If syncing again doesn't fix it, contact Greenroom."

When a sync fails, the message says what failed, what it means for this payroll, and what to do next. Some examples of what you'll see:

• "We could not finish setting this production up with our tax partner, so the real tax figures could not be fetched. The amounts shown are our own estimates." The message asks you to sync again and contact Greenroom if it keeps failing.
• "Our tax partner would not confirm this production's work location … Make sure the business address in Settings → Company is complete, then try syncing again …"
• "Syncing this payroll with our tax partner took longer than its 9-minute limit, so it stopped before finishing and the amounts shown are our own estimates. Sync again; if it stops here again, contact Greenroom before approving this payroll." A sync that runs out of time says so, rather than blaming whichever payee it had reached. A second try is usually shorter, because what the first one set up with our tax partner is kept.
• "[Name] can't be paid on this payroll yet: our tax partner is still missing their personal details (date of birth or home address). This payroll was not sent. Complete [Name]'s payee record, give it a minute or two to reach our tax partner, then sync again — or remove [Name] with “Remove from run (keeps entries)” to send everyone else. If the record already looks complete, contact Greenroom support." This is the Payee setup needs attention case: nothing is sent until it's fixed or that payee is removed. Each missing step gets its own fix in the message: a missing EIN is entered on the payee record, unfinished tax forms mean asking the payee to finish them (with Send tax setup link on their page), and a step no Greenroom control can clear sends you to Greenroom support.

This isn't a tabbed page

For Admin and Payroll, Payroll Summary and Union Reports are separate steps in the wizard — where the run has it, Union Reports follows this one with its own per-union report grids. An Approver uses the printable union reports from the fringe figure instead. There's nothing to switch between here; everything above is on one continuous page.

Making changes

With Admin or Payroll, you can edit a payroll all the way through Payroll Summary and, where the run has it, Union Reports — nothing locks until you actually submit. Approver teammates have a read-only Payroll Summary, without the edit pencil or Edit payroll (back to draft). Once the run is In review, their footer offers Continue: Submit Payroll, which goes straight to the approval step without an advance confirmation or tax sync. While it is Draft, their summary has no Continue control.

• To fix one payee: click the pencil icon on their row to open an edit drawer for their wages, reimbursements, allowances, and deductions. Save & recalculate re-estimates that payee's taxes automatically (loan-outs and 1099 payees never trigger a tax recalculation, since they aren't withheld from the same way), and resets the run's approval: the drawer's note ends "Saving resets the run's approval." If your company has a chart of accounts, each allowance, reimbursement, taxable payment and contract pay line in the drawer has a GL code picker, so a line saved without a code can be coded here. A line already on the run is never refused for having no code; a new code has to be in your chart. A reimbursement added for this run can carry a receipt (Choose receipt: JPG, PNG, HEIC or PDF, up to 10 MB). A payee on a benefits-only week has no pencil; untick Benefits only this week on their entry (on the Employees & Loan-outs or Vendors & Contractors step) to pay them normally.
• To add or remove payees, or make larger changes: click Edit payroll (back to draft) at the bottom of the screen. This returns the whole run to Draft and drops you back on Employees & Loan-outs — every payee already entered is still there.

Note: If your company requires someone other than the preparer to approve a payroll before it's submitted, sending a run back to Draft clears any approval already recorded on it. See Payroll Run Status.

Moving on to the next step

For Admin and Payroll, the footer's Continue names the next step: Continue: Union Reports, or Continue: Submit Payroll on a run without Union Reports. It opens a short confirmation, "You're advancing to union reports" (or "You're advancing to submit payroll"), with a recap — payee and payment counts, total gross wages, union fringe & benefit funds, employer taxes, and whether any calculation warnings are still outstanding — before it moves you to the next step. On a run without Union Reports, the recap leaves out the union fringe line.

An Approver reviewing an In review run instead uses Continue: Submit Payroll to go directly to Submit Payroll. That link opens no confirmation and does not sync taxes; ask an Admin or Payroll teammate to resolve any estimated, out-of-date, or failed tax status before approving.

What to check before moving on

There's no enforced checklist on this screen itself, but before continuing it's worth confirming:

• Every payee you expected is included, with correct hours, rates, allowances, and deductions
• The headline totals look right against your budget or a prior, similar payroll
• Any Deductions exceed pay notice is corrected, other warnings are resolved or understood, and every manual payment certification the banner names is signed (negative net pay and missing certifications block sending)
• Union payees look right — Admin and Payroll teammates can review the Union Reports step where it is present; Approvers open the printable reports from the fringe figure

Tip: Compare this run's totals to a recent, similar payroll. The Variance toggle above the per-union tables (see Payroll Breakdown and Details) does this automatically, payee by payee.

Next steps

Continue to Payroll Breakdown and Details to drill into individual payee numbers, Payroll Totals for the funding math, or Processing Payroll for the Union Reports and Submit Payroll steps that follow.