Financial tables - Payroll overview dashboard
Budget: $30 – $250 USD
Payroll Dashboard (For Dummies - my hope is anyone can view the dashboard and immediately identify payroll issues - for example: our overtime increase does not align with our employee increase, more new OT than new employees)
Create a dynamic, auto-updating Excel Payroll Dashboard that pulls key payroll insights from a growing data set. It must support both hourly and salary employees and provide a high-level overview for leadership at each pay period.
Data Structure (Input Sheet: PayData)
Data is entered continuously for each biweekly pay period and includes both hourly and salaried employees. The input columns should be:
Employee #
Pay Period
Regular Hours
Overtime Hours
Pay Rate (blank for salary employees)
Job
Vacation
Missing Hours
Source (either "Hourly" or "Salary")
Flat Rate (used only if salaried)
2. EarningsAndDeductions
Used to track bonuses, commissions, reimbursements, and other earnings/deductions per pay period.
Columns:
Employee #
Pay Period
Bonus
Commission
Phone Reimbursement
Auto Reimbursement
Mileage
Laundry
Other Reimbursement
Advance Deduction
Cash Advance Deduction
Output Sheet: Dashboard
1. Metric Comparison Section (Previous Pays vs Current Pay Period)
| Metric | Previous Pays | Current Pays | Change | Flag | Notes |
Employee Count
Total Hours
Avg Hours per Employee
Total OT Hours
OT % (OT ÷ Total Hours)
Missing Hours (hours employees claim are missing that we add)
Raises This Period (#)
Cost of Raises ($) (how much of our payroll total is raises)
Flag icons (✅ ⚠️ ❌) and short notes
2. Pay Period Summary Table
| Pay Period | Employee Count | Total Hours | OT Hours | OT % | Raises | Missing Hours |
3. Employee Detail Table
| Employee # | Hours Worked | Estimated Pay | Missing Hours | Raise This Period? |
Estimated Pay =
(Reg Hrs × Pay Rate) + (OT × Pay Rate × 1.5) for hourly
Flat Rate for salary
all values from EarningsAndDeductions (bonus, reimbursements, etc.)
4. Top 10 Jobs by Hours Logged
| Rank | Job Name/Number | Total Hours Logged (across all pay periods) |
5. Key / Legend
✅ Growth aligned with staffing
⚠️ Needs review
❌ Hours rising faster than staff
OT % = OT ÷ Total Hours
Avg Hours/Employee = Total Hours ÷ Employee Count
Automation Requirements
Dashboard should automatically update as new pay periods are added to PayData and EarningsAndDeductions.
Must calculate and compare the two most recent pay periods.
Raise tracking should identify employees with increased Pay Rate or Flat Rate across periods and summarize:
Number of employees who received raises
Total cost of raises
✅ Deliverables
Excel file (.xlsx or .xlsm if macros are required)
All calculations working and formulas in place
Dashboard reflects all metrics for hourly and salaried employees
Formulas for Estimated Pay must pull from both data sheets
Ready to grow with additional pay periods (26+ total over the year)
I asked chat GPT to help bring the info together but essentially this is not set - I want a dashboard that I can provide a certain criteria of information that is easily accessible (not a lot of work to update) and then we can identify all potential issues with payroll - red flags, everything.
Create a dynamic, auto-updating Excel Payroll Dashboard that pulls key payroll insights from a growing data set. It must support both hourly and salary employees and provide a high-level overview for leadership at each pay period.
Data Structure (Input Sheet: PayData)
Data is entered continuously for each biweekly pay period and includes both hourly and salaried employees. The input columns should be:
Employee #
Pay Period
Regular Hours
Overtime Hours
Pay Rate (blank for salary employees)
Job
Vacation
Missing Hours
Source (either "Hourly" or "Salary")
Flat Rate (used only if salaried)
2. EarningsAndDeductions
Used to track bonuses, commissions, reimbursements, and other earnings/deductions per pay period.
Columns:
Employee #
Pay Period
Bonus
Commission
Phone Reimbursement
Auto Reimbursement
Mileage
Laundry
Other Reimbursement
Advance Deduction
Cash Advance Deduction
Output Sheet: Dashboard
1. Metric Comparison Section (Previous Pays vs Current Pay Period)
| Metric | Previous Pays | Current Pays | Change | Flag | Notes |
Employee Count
Total Hours
Avg Hours per Employee
Total OT Hours
OT % (OT ÷ Total Hours)
Missing Hours (hours employees claim are missing that we add)
Raises This Period (#)
Cost of Raises ($) (how much of our payroll total is raises)
Flag icons (✅ ⚠️ ❌) and short notes
2. Pay Period Summary Table
| Pay Period | Employee Count | Total Hours | OT Hours | OT % | Raises | Missing Hours |
3. Employee Detail Table
| Employee # | Hours Worked | Estimated Pay | Missing Hours | Raise This Period? |
Estimated Pay =
(Reg Hrs × Pay Rate) + (OT × Pay Rate × 1.5) for hourly
Flat Rate for salary
all values from EarningsAndDeductions (bonus, reimbursements, etc.)
4. Top 10 Jobs by Hours Logged
| Rank | Job Name/Number | Total Hours Logged (across all pay periods) |
5. Key / Legend
✅ Growth aligned with staffing
⚠️ Needs review
❌ Hours rising faster than staff
OT % = OT ÷ Total Hours
Avg Hours/Employee = Total Hours ÷ Employee Count
Automation Requirements
Dashboard should automatically update as new pay periods are added to PayData and EarningsAndDeductions.
Must calculate and compare the two most recent pay periods.
Raise tracking should identify employees with increased Pay Rate or Flat Rate across periods and summarize:
Number of employees who received raises
Total cost of raises
✅ Deliverables
Excel file (.xlsx or .xlsm if macros are required)
All calculations working and formulas in place
Dashboard reflects all metrics for hourly and salaried employees
Formulas for Estimated Pay must pull from both data sheets
Ready to grow with additional pay periods (26+ total over the year)
I asked chat GPT to help bring the info together but essentially this is not set - I want a dashboard that I can provide a certain criteria of information that is easily accessible (not a lot of work to update) and then we can identify all potential issues with payroll - red flags, everything.