Payroll Relief’s processing workflow is designed for accounting firms that need to run payroll reliably across many employer clients. A normal payroll moves from employer and employee setup into payroll entry, calculation, review and approval, after which payment, tax and reporting workflows can continue according to the client’s configuration.
The sequence matters.
Payroll approval is not just a visual “completed” status. Approved payroll can drive liabilities, electronic payments and downstream reports, so errors are much cheaper to catch during entry and review.
Employer Configuration Comes First
Each employer needs the payroll rules that define how its workforce is processed.
Those rules can include pay schedules, tax jurisdictions, pay types, deductions, departments, electronic-service settings and other employer-specific requirements.
Payroll Relief’s professional value comes partly from applying those structures consistently across recurring payrolls instead of rebuilding each payroll period manually.
Employee and Contractor Records
Employees and contractors then sit within the employer’s payroll environment.
Their records can contain compensation and payroll information, tax setup, deductions and payment instructions.
AccountantsWorld’s current public description emphasizes Payroll Relief’s ability to handle employees, contractors, third-party payments, multiple pay types and deductions and departmental/job-cost allocation.
This breadth matters because an accounting firm’s clients rarely share one identical payroll design.
Standard Payroll
IRIS defines a Standard Payroll as a periodic employee payroll based on a pay schedule.
When the processor enters the current Payroll Processing module, they can work on an unapproved current payroll or review a payroll that has already been approved.
Most recurring employer payrolls begin through this standard scheduled process.
Other payroll types can handle exceptional situations.
Worksheet Entry
The Worksheet is the default current Payroll Relief entry method.
IRIS describes it as a simplified spreadsheet that allows payroll information for multiple employees to be entered in one view.
That format is efficient for ordinary recurring payroll because the processor can review the workforce together rather than opening a separate screen for each worker.
Paychecks View
The Paychecks tab provides a more detailed employee-by-employee entry workflow.
This becomes useful when one employee has an unusual payroll event that needs more detail than the standard multi-employee worksheet provides.
Payroll firms regularly encounter exceptions such as special earnings, adjustments or third-party payments that cannot be treated as ordinary repetitive payroll.
Excel Upload
Payroll Relief also supports payroll-data upload through Excel.
This matters for employers or systems that already produce structured payroll input outside Payroll Relief.
Instead of asking the accounting firm to manually recreate that information, an appropriate upload can reduce re-entry.
The file still needs to contain correct data; automation does not make an inaccurate source file accurate.
Exception-Based Entry
AccountantsWorld emphasizes exception-based payroll entry as a major Payroll Relief efficiency feature.
If an employee normally receives the same hours or recurring amounts, the processor can focus on values that changed for the current pay period rather than re-entering everything.
That approach is particularly valuable when dozens of employer clients have stable recurring payrolls.
Most of the payroll does not require human attention every period.
The exceptions do.
SwipeClock Time Import
For clients using SwipeClock, Payroll Relief can import employee hours directly into the Payroll Entry worksheet.
IRIS’s current setup instructions require an accountant-level API secret key and relevant SwipeClock account identifiers before the integration is activated.
The business value is straightforward: employee time can enter payroll without being manually copied from one system to another.
That reduces data-entry work and one category of human error.
Calculate and Review
After payroll input is entered, Payroll Relief calculates the payroll according to the employer and employee setup.
Review should then answer questions such as:
Does gross pay look reasonable?
Did overtime change unexpectedly?
Is net pay materially different from the prior payroll?
Are employer taxes and direct-deposit totals consistent with expectations?
AccountantsWorld’s current product brochure emphasizes multiple levels of review and correction, including pre- and post-approval reports and diagnostics.
For payroll professionals, review is not wasted time. It is the control layer before transactions become harder to reverse.
Approval
Approval makes the payroll available for subsequent processing according to configuration.
Payroll Relief’s compliance system uses approved payroll to calculate payroll-tax liabilities and schedule their due dates.
Employers using electronic services can also have direct deposit and other transactions associated with the approved payroll.
Approval should therefore occur only after the accounting firm is comfortable with the payroll result.
Batch Processing
Payroll Relief’s accountant orientation becomes particularly visible through batch features.
AccountantsWorld says firms can approve payrolls and print checks in batch, and at year-end can print, email, e-file, archive and release W-2s and 1099s to employee portals in batch.
That reduces the overhead of performing the same administrative task separately for each employer.
For a high-volume payroll practice, batch tools are not cosmetic conveniences; they are part of the operating model.
Checks and Direct Deposit
Once a payroll is ready, employee payment can involve checks, direct deposit or other supported arrangements.
Direct deposit requires employer e-services approval and authorized employee banking information.
The payroll-processing screen and electronic-payment system are therefore connected but not identical.
A correct payroll calculation is necessary for a correct direct deposit, but it does not by itself establish that the employer has an approved ACH setup.
Accounting Entries
Payroll also produces general-ledger information.
Payroll Relief’s integrations can transfer payroll entries into Accounting Power and other accounting systems, and the current PayrollLink workflow supports aggregate journal transfers into desktop QuickBooks.
This lets the payroll workflow continue into the employer’s financial statements without forcing the accounting firm to reconstruct the payroll manually in the bookkeeping system.
Reporting and Archival
Payroll Relief produces the documentation needed by employers, accounting firms and compliance processes.
AccountantsWorld’s Cloud Cabinet integration can also automatically archive payroll report sets, connecting payroll output to the firm’s broader document-management system.
The result is a cleaner chain between processing the payroll and preserving evidence of what was processed.
Current Payroll Rules Can Change Quickly
Payroll processing is especially sensitive to legal updates.
The June 2026 Payroll Relief release introduced new functionality for qualified tips, qualified overtime, Trump Accounts and various state/local payroll changes.
A workflow that was correct in a prior year can therefore require new fields or calculations now.
Professional processors should use current product and agency guidance whenever regulatory treatment is involved.
A Better Mental Model
Payroll Relief processing is not one action.
It is a controlled sequence of employer setup, worker data, payroll input, calculation, review, approval, payment/compliance activity, reporting and accounting integration.
The quality of the final payroll depends on every layer before it.