PayrollGuard 🛡️

AI-powered pre-payroll compliance agent that checks timesheets against your own overtime and break policies—catching costly wage errors before you disburse funds.

Overview

PayrollGuard is a specialized back-office operations agent designed to eliminate costly pay-period errors before funds are disbursed. Small-business owners, bookkeepers, and office managers must routinely verify timesheets against specific internal policies—such as weekly overtime thresholds and mandatory break compliance. Wage-and-hour disputes are among the most common and expensive employment risks.

Unlike heavy, enterprise-level payroll platforms (like Gusto or ADP) that blindly trust ingested timesheet data, PayrollGuard acts as an independent pre-payroll sanity check. It ingests your raw timesheets and compares them strictly against your own stated company rules. It returns an actionable, exception-tiered report highlighting discrepancies, missing punch data, and policy violations without fabricating assumptions or offering legal advice.

Core Features

• Policy-Based Overtime & Break Checking: Evaluates hours and breaks strictly against your custom parameters, never against generic legal assumptions.
• Explicit Policy vs. Reference Labeling: Clearly distinguishes between policy-based compliance flags and general reference data.
• Data-Quality Detection: Automatically flags missing, overlapping, or inconsistent punch records.
• Classification-Awareness: Never assumes hourly rules for unstated employee classifications, preventing silent defaults.
• Multi-Format Ingestion: Handles CSV spreadsheets, exported PDFs, and photographed paper timesheets seamlessly.
• Zero Integration Required: Operates entirely independently with no payroll-system connection, plugin installation, or complex setup needed.

How It Works

1. Upload Documents: Provide your timesheet export (CSV, PDF, or image) alongside your stated company pay policy parameters.
2. Parsing & Ingestion: PayrollGuard extracts and organizes punch logs, hours worked, and employee details.
3. Policy Cross-Check: Compares the data against your custom overtime thresholds and break rules.
4. Exception Report Generation: Delivers a structured Markdown report detailing compliant entries, policy flags, and data-quality warnings.

Input / Output Contract

Example Output Preview

# Pre-Payroll Compliance Report: Pay Period Ending Oct 15, 2026

## Executive Summary
* **Status:** HOLD FOR REVIEW (Policy Violations Detected)
* **Total Employees Audited:** 12 | **Compliant:** 10 | **Flags Raised:** 2

## Line-by-Line Discrepancy Breakdown
| Employee | Total Hours | Stated Policy Rule | Exception Type | Details / Action Required |
| :--- | :---: | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| John Miller | 43.5 hrs | OT after 40 hrs/wk | 🟡 Policy-Based OT | 3.5 hours of unapproved overtime logged. Verify authorization. |
| Sarah Connor | 9.0 hrs (Day) | Mandatory break > 6 hrs | 🔴 Break Rule Violation | Shift logged 9 consecutive hours with zero recorded meal break punch. |

## Actionable Recommendation
* **Action:** Withhold payroll sign-off for flagged employees until time-clock entries and break logs are verified by management.

Target Use Cases

• Small-Business Owners: Running weekly payroll manually and verifying hours before signing off.
• Bookkeepers & Accountants: Performing independent pre-payroll audits for client accounts.
• Office Managers: Double-checking automated exports from newly installed time-clock software.
• Multi-Location Operators: Spot-checking individual site timesheets for consistent policy adherence.

Limitations & Disclaimer

• System Limitations: Does not determine actual legal requirements for any specific jurisdiction; does not calculate, process, or execute payroll payouts; accuracy depends entirely on source timesheet data quality.
• Legal Disclaimer: PayrollGuard is a policy-compliance and document-reconciliation tool, not a substitute for professional legal, tax, or payroll advice. Always verify flagged discrepancies before altering pay rates or finalizing payroll disbursement.