One pay period, narrated

The Payroll Tour

A real, completed payroll run — a client's biweekly payroll across two states, salaried and hourly staff, and California's meal-break premium — walked through out loud, stage by stage, in under two minutes.

5Employees
2States — CA / TX
$13,192.69Gross pay
~100 secNarrated run time
Or skip it — everything below reads on its own, no audio required.
1

Aug 10 – Aug 23 · Time & Attendance

Hours come in, premiums get caught automatically

Hourly staff log time as they work it. When Priscilla Yee's Sacramento shifts ran without a logged meal break, the system didn't wait for a manager to notice — it added the premium hour itself, under California's rule, before the sheet ever reached an approver.

Timesheet — Priscilla Yee · Customer Support · Sacramento, CA Meal-break premium detected
ComponentHoursNote
Regular80.0Worked, both weeks
CA meal-break premium10.0Auto-added — 5 missed breaks × 1h premium
Paid at regular rate — $26.50/hr 90.0h total
2

Manager & HR review

Sign-off is a click, not a reconciliation

Every entry for the period lands in one queue for Leon Brackett and Gwen Ashworth to review. Because the premium hour was already computed correctly, there's nothing to recalculate — approving is confirming, not auditing.

Time & Attendance — Approval queueAll caught up
15
Entries submitted
15
Approved
0
Pending review
3

Running in parallel · Benefits

Enrollment doesn't sit on the critical path

Medical, dental, vision, and 401(k) elections follow their own calendar — open enrollment windows and hire-date waiting periods — so a pay run is never blocked waiting on a benefits form, and a payroll deduction never goes out of sync with what was actually elected.

Benefits — Eligible this cycle5 of 5 covered
Medical
Dental
Vision
401(k) deferral
Basic Life & AD&D
Deductions sync into this pay run automatically for anyone with an active election — no separate file to reconcile against payroll.
4

Before a single dollar is calculated

The run checks itself before it checks out

Ridgeline pays people in two states. Before "Submit & Calculate" does anything, the platform confirms every state it's about to withhold and remit for is properly registered, and every employee has a valid pay rate on file. Miss one, and the run stops here — not after money has already moved.

Pre-run compliance checkRun unlocked
California state tax registrationActive
Texas state tax registrationActive
Pay rate on file5 of 5 employees
Workers' comp classification5 of 5 employees
5

Sep 2 submission · Pay date Aug 28

The run itself — every line, hand-checkable

Five people, two pay types, two states, one premium-pay exception — and one number at the bottom that ties out to the penny. This is the actual completed run, not a rounded example.

Payroll run — Aug 10–23, 2026Completed
EmployeePay typeHoursRateGross
Gwen AshworthHR Director · Sacramento, CASalary$112,000/yr$4,307.69
Leon BrackettWarehouse Ops Manager · Fort Worth, TXSalary$78,000/yr$3,000.00
Marcus DelgadoWarehouse Associate · Fort Worth, TXHourly80.0$22.75$1,820.00
Talia NgoWarehouse Associate · Fort Worth, TXHourly80.0$21.00$1,680.00
Priscilla YeeCustomer Support · Sacramento, CAHourly90.0*$26.50$2,385.00
Gross pay$13,192.69
Employee tax withholding−$2,820.00
Net pay — direct deposit$10,372.69
Employer taxes (SUTA + FUTA), billed separately$482.00
* 80 regular hours + the 10-hour CA meal-break premium from Stage 1 — carried through untouched.
6

After calculation

One debit in, everything else handled

Ridgeline funds a single amount. The platform is the one splitting it into net pay, employee withholding, and employer taxes — and standing behind every filing that comes due, in every state Ridgeline operates in, without a form landing on Gwen's desk.

Funding & tax remittanceCleared
Step 1
Funding debit reviewed against cleared evidence
Step 2
Net pay released by direct deposit — 5 employees
Step 3
CA & TX withholding + SUTA/FUTA remitted
Step 4
Run rolls into W-2 totals — no year-end scramble

Six stages, one submission, and a gross figure — $13,192.69 — that reconciles to the penny against five real people's actual hours and rates. Nothing on this page is a rounded example run for a demo; it's what the platform produced.

RIDGELINE OUTDOOR SUPPLY CO. · PAY PERIOD AUG 10–23, 2026 · PEO CO-EMPLOYMENT

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