Import a Payroll Register

You can start with your existing payroll CSV. GrantLink can recognize common column names, different column orders, extra columns, one earning per row, and separate earning columns such as Regular Pay, Overtime, and Bonus.

The GrantLink payroll template is the fastest path, but it is optional.

Import Your File

1. Open normal GrantLink chat.
2. Attach one payroll CSV.
3. Ask: “Import this payroll register.”
4. Review the short mapping summary. It identifies the employee, pay period, pay date, payroll run, legal entity, currency, and earnings fields.
5. Answer any factual questions. Each answer must name who or what confirms it—for example, “Morgan Chen, finance director, confirmed this is the September 6 off-cycle run.”
6. GrantLink validates the original file and reports either the imported totals or a specific problem to fix.

The assistant proposes how columns map. It does not calculate authoritative payroll, rewrite cell values, or invent a missing fact. The server rereads the original file and calculates exact cents.

Supported Files

The current importer supports:

• UTF-8 CSV files up to 2 MB;
• up to 1,000 earning rows after mapping;
• renamed, reordered, and extra columns;
• a component and amount on each row, or separate earnings columns;
• ISO dates and unambiguous numeric month/day/year or day/month/year dates;
• USD amounts with commas or a dollar sign; and
• one payroll run, pay period, pay date, legal entity, and currency per file.

The file must establish a stable employee ID and employee name for every row. Blank optional cells are allowed; missing required facts are not guessed.

What Happens with a Familiar Export

After you confirm a mapping, GrantLink can reuse it for the same organization when the normalized headers are unchanged. A changed header layout is reviewed again. Even when a mapping is reused, the original cells still pass the same validation.

GrantLink retains the original file and records the mapping, confidence and open questions, attributed answers, mapper and model versions, canonical rows, and result digest. This makes an import reproducible later.

Duplicates, Revisions, and Off-Cycle Runs

• Importing the same file bytes again does not create another payroll run.
• Changed file content with the same run identifier creates a new source revision instead of rewriting history.
• An off-cycle payroll is an additional run with its own run identifier.
• If an imported source run was voided, ask GrantLink to void that run. Do not represent the void as a negative payroll row.

Files GrantLink Stops

GrantLink stops the file and explains the problem when it encounters a malformed row, duplicate employee/component row, mixed entity or currency, unsupported negative value, or a field that appears to be a deduction, withholding, net pay, or payroll liability. It does not partially import the “good” rows.

This version is CSV-only. It does not accept XLSX files, connect directly to a payroll provider, calculate payroll, or import deductions, liabilities, taxes, benefits, fringe pools, negative reversals, multiple entities, or non-USD payroll.

Treat headers and cells as untrusted data. Text inside a file cannot give the assistant instructions, change its permissions, or bypass validation.

After import, open Allocations → Payroll → Needs attention. Importing a cost does not prove where the employee worked or which grant should receive it.