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Managing Employees in Payrun

In this guide, we'll walk you through the process of managing employees within a pay run in BlueOcean Payroll. You'll learn how to create and update employee records, manage employee information through individual and bulk actions, review historical changes, handle employee offboarding, and monitor employee field updates through audit logs.

These features are designed to help you maintain accurate employee data throughout the payroll cycle, improve visibility into employee changes, and streamline employee management across your pay runs.

1. Creating and Managing Employees in Pay Runs

There are two methods to add employees to a pay run: adding them one by one or using a bulk upload. Follow the instructions below for each method.

1.1 Access Employees in Pay Runs

  1. Got to Home.

  2. In Cycle Overview, click on the eye icon next to the pay run where you wish to edit employees. This will take you to the pay run details page.

  3. Select Employees

  4. The employees that belong to the selected pay run will show up

  5. You can download the complete employee data as an Excel file by clicking the Actions button in the top right corner and selecting Export Employees. If the data is filtered, only the filtered data will be included in the download.

1.2 Create Employees One by One

There are two methods to add employees to a pay run: adding them one by one or using a bulk upload. Follow the instructions below for each method.

1.2.1 Adding Employees One by One

  1. Click Actions and select Create New Employee.

  2. Complete the employee information in the available sections:
    ​• Basic Details

    • Contact Information

    • Employment Details

    • Payroll Information

  3. Once all required information has been completed, click Create.

  4. The employee will be added to the pay run.

    Note: The fields displayed within each section may vary depending on the Employee Fields configured for the selected country.

1.2.2 Contact Information and Addresses

Within this section, employee addresses can also be maintained. By default, Residential Address is available.


To add additional address types:

1. Click Add New Address.

2. Select the address type you want to add:

- Mailing Address

- Office Address

3. Once selected, a new address section will be displayed where the corresponding address information can be entered.

4. If applicable, select the Same as Residential checkbox to use the employee's Residential Address information.

1.2.3 Bulk Upload Employees

  1. Click Actions and select Download Bulk Upload Template.

  2. Open the downloaded Excel template and enter the required information into the appropriate columns for all employees. Please ensure that all mandatory columns (Employee Name and Pay Run Start Date) are completed.

    The downloaded template will include any Employee Fields configured for the selected pay run.

  3. Upload the completed template file by clicking on Actions and selecting Bulk Upload Employees.

  4. This will add all employees to the pay run simultaneously.

1.3 Edit Employees in Pay Runs

1.3.1 Editing Employee One by One

  1. Click the eye icon next to the employee you wish to edit.

2. Navigate to the section you want to update:

  • Basic Details

  • Contact Information

  • Employment Details

  • Payroll Information

3. Click Add New within the section you want to update.

4. Enter the updated information.

5.Enter the Effective Date.

6.If applicable, provide a Reason for Change.

7. Click Save Changes.

Note: The Effective Date determines when the new information becomes effective. Changes can be applied immediately by selecting the current date, or scheduled for a future date if the update should take effect later.

1.3.2 Employee History

Employee information is maintained using effective-dated records, allowing changes to be tracked over time.

When information is updated using Add New, a new record is created and becomes the active version of the employee information. Previous records are retained for historical reference.

To view historical records:

  1. Navigate to the relevant employee section.

  2. Click View History.

  3. Review the available records and their corresponding details.

  4. History records display information such as:

  • Status

  • Effective Date

  • Created At

  • Historical field values

  • Changed By

5. Records may display one of the following statuses:

• Active: The information currently in effect.

• Upcoming: Information scheduled to become effective on a future date.

• Ended: Historical information that is no longer in effect.
​

Note: Future-dated records with an Upcoming status can be deleted before they become effective. To remove an Upcoming record, click the Delete option in the Actions column.

​

1.3.3 As-Of Date

The As-Of Date field allows users to view employee information as it existed or will exist on a specific date.
To view employee information for a different date:

  1. Select the desired date in the As-Of Date field.

  2. The employee record will refresh to display the information effective on the selected date.

If a future-dated change has been created, selecting that future date in the As-Of Date field will display the updated information before it becomes active.

3. Click Reset to return to the current view.
​

1.3.4 Unique Employee IDs

Each employee in BlueOcean Payroll is assigned a unique BlueOcean Employee ID. This identifier is automatically generated by the system and cannot be edited.

The BlueOcean Employee ID provides a consistent reference for employee records across the platform and remains associated with the employee throughout their lifecycle.

The Employee ID is available within the employee profile and can be used when reviewing employee records, audit logs, integrations, exports, and payroll-related processes.

💡 Note
BlueOcean Employee IDs are system-generated and cannot be modified by users.

1.3.5 Bulk Edit Employees

  1. Click Actions in the top right corner and select Export Employees

  2. Open the downloaded Excel template and make the necessary updates to the employee information.

  3. Save the updated file and upload it back to the platform.

  4. Click the Actions button in the top right corner again and select Bulk Upload Employees.

  5. Choose the updated file to upload.

  6. Changes made to employee information will be reflected in the employee table.

💡 Note

The new bulk upload template doesn’t let you edit employee information directly. You can only edit data that you've downloaded. So, download the data first before making any changes.

💡 Note: Understanding the Pay Run Status

The Pay Run Status is based on the specific pay run cycle you’re viewing and indicates whether the employee had an active assignment during that period. It uses the employee’s assigned Pay Run Start and End Dates to determine their status.

  • Employees will appear as Active if their dates fall within the pay run period you're viewing.

  • They will appear as Inactive if their dates fall outside the pay run period.

The Employment Status reflects their current employment based on the Employment Start and End Dates.
​

This helps ensure more accurate visibility across both past and future payroll cycles.

1.4 Offboarding Employees from Pay Runs

Offboarding employees is done in a few steps and automatically reflects the leaver status of the employees in the pay run they are part of.

  1. Click the eye icon next to the employee you wish to offboard.

  2. Navigate to the Employment Details section.

  3. Click Edit.

  4. Enter the employee's Employment End Date.

  5. Click Save Changes
    ​

  6. A confirmation popup window will appear. Select any other date fields you want the system to update automatically.

  7. Click Yes, I confirm to finalize the changes.

  8. The employee’s details will be updated accordingly. The system will automatically deactivates the employee and excludes them from the next pay run after their employment ends.

  9. A 'leaver' label will be added for the employee in the payroll instruction table ensures visibility to the client.
    ​

1.4.1 Updating Pay Run Dates from the Employee Profile

1. Click the eye icon next to the employee you wish to offboard.

2. Navigate to the Payroll Information section.

3. Click Edit.

4. Enter the employee's Employment End Date.

5. Click Save.
​

The employee's employment information will be updated accordingly. Once the Employment End Date is reached, the employee will be excluded from future pay runs.

6. Alternatively, you can update the employee’s Pay Run End Date by clicking on the calendar icon next to the employee you wish to edit. Please note that this method will not prompt you to insert the employee’s Expected End Date. Be sure to manually enter the employee’s Expected End Date to ensure the system automatically deactivates the employee and excludes them from the next pay run after their employment ends.

💡 Note

If an employee has left this month (e.g., August) but still requires payment in the following month (e.g., September), we can manually update the Pay Run End Date to the next pay run month (September). This will keep the employee active for that pay run. The system will automatically exclude them from the subsequent pay run after their pay run concludes.

The employee’s Employment End Date should remain as August.
​

1.5 Employee Field Logs

Employee Field Logs provide visibility into changes made to employee information across the payrun. Logs can be used to review what changed, when the change was made, and who performed the action.

To access Employee Field Logs:

  1. Navigate to the relevant payrun from Main Settings Tab.

  2. Open the Employees tab

  3. Click Actions

  4. Select View logs

The Employee Field Logs page will open, displaying employee field changes as individual log entries.

Administrators can use available filters to review logs by:

  • Employee

  • Section

  • Status

  • Created Date

  • Effective Date

  • Employee Creation

Each log entry includes details such as:

  • Employee – The name of the employee associated with the change record.

  • Employee ID – The unique BlueOcean Employee ID assigned to the employee.

  • Field – The employee field that was updated, such as National ID, Job Title, or Personal Email.

  • Previous and Updated Values – Displays the value before the change and the new value after the update.

  • Effective Date – The date on which the updated value becomes effective.

  • Status – Indicates whether the change is currently active or has ended.

  • Changed By – The user who performed the update.

  • Role – The role of the user who made the change (for example, Internal User or Client User).

  • Method – Indicates how the change was made, such as a manual update, bulk upload, or integration.

  • Back-dated Indicator – Identifies whether the change was entered when effective date is before the current cycle payrun start date.

5. To export log data, click Export and download the logs in the available format.

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