The Historical Payroll feature allows payroll administrators to record year-to-date payroll totals from a previous system or off-platform payroll history in Paiday Payroll. This ensures employee tax calculations, statutory withholdings, and reporting remain accurate when payroll is started mid-year or after a payroll system migration.
What Is a Historical Payroll?
Historical Payroll lets you enter prior earnings, taxes, and statutory withholding contributions that occurred before payroll was run in the system. These values are stored as historical balances and are included in year-to-date totals, without issuing payments or remitting funds again.
This feature is designed for data continuity, not payroll processing.
What Gets Recorded?
Payroll admins can enter historical totals for:
Gross earnings
Taxable allowances and benefits
Employee and employer statutory withholding contributions
Employee Federal and Provincial income tax withheld
Other payroll deductions as applicable such as union dues and garnishments
Vacation accrual balances
These values are added to the employee’s year-to-date totals and are treated as already-paid or deducted amounts.
What Historical YTD Payroll Does Not Do
It’s important to note that Historical YTD Payroll:
Does not generate payments to employees
Does not create remittances
Does not appear as a regular payroll run
Does not move money
It is strictly an accounting and reporting adjustment.
How It Impacts Payroll Runs
Once historical YTD values are entered:
Future payrolls calculate deductions correctly based on updated YTD totals
Statutory maximums and exemptions are respected
Year-end reporting reflects the full calendar-year payroll history
The system treats historical amounts as if they were already processed earlier in the year.
Important Things to Know
Historical YTD entries should be added before running the first payroll in the system
Values should match records from the prior payroll provider
Changes to historical YTD data can impact tax calculations and reporting
Accuracy is critical—incorrect entries may result in incorrect remittances or tax slips
Creating a Historical YTD Payroll
To create a Historical YTD Payroll, follow these steps:
Click on the company name from Paiday Hub.
Click the hamburger menu in the top left and choose Payroll.
On the Payroll Dashboard you'll see Historical as a tab option. Click this.
Select Create Historical Payroll.
Enter the required Effective From date, Effective To date, and Pay Date.
You may also add an optional note for reference.
Choose either 'Upload a CSV' or 'Add employees manually.'
Go to #6 if you chose 'Upload to CSV'
Go to #7 if you chose 'Add employees manually'
Download a YTD csv template by clicking 'Download Template', complete it with the appropriate year-to-date payroll values, then upload the file.
You may choose between two templates: Preset or All Types
If you've already created your Presets then choose Preset, otherwise choose All Types.
Click 'Add Employees' button to start choosing employees you've added to Paiday Payroll.
Select the employees from the list that pops up and click 'Add Employees.'
Click the ellipsis to the right of each employee and enter the correct amounts for each type of earnings on their YTD data.
Click 'Next - Benefits & Deductions', then go through the same steps as above to add your benefits and deductions for each employee.
Click 'Next - Review' to view the final version of your YTD upload.
Click 'Approve Payroll' to add your YTD totals.
Go to 'Historical' tab and you will now see the YTD totals you added. Click the ellipsis on the right and choose 'Finalize.' Your YTD's will now show up on employee paystubs.
💡 If you haven't added any employees yet then you can navigate to the hamburger menu > Employees and begin adding them. Then come back and complete the steps above in #7