Payroll Action Center and Payroll Health Check

Purpose

UZIO scans your payroll data for anomalies: unusual, risky, or incomplete conditions such as shared bank accounts, a bank account changed right before payday, or an unexpected net pay swing. The results surface in two places. The Payroll Action Center is a panel on the Payroll Dashboard you can review any time. The Payroll Health Check is a pre-approval scan on the payroll summary step that asks you to review and acknowledge findings before you approve. This article explains both, plus the settings page where you configure which checks run and their thresholds.

When to use this: Check the Action Center whenever you open the Payroll Dashboard. Findings refresh automatically early each morning, so a quick look catches fraud signals and data gaps before they hold up a run. The Health Check is your last gate. It runs on the specific payroll you are about to approve, and everything you acknowledge or skip there goes into the audit trail.

Who can do this: Any user whose role includes the Payroll permission. This is usually the Employer Admin, but other admin roles can be granted the same access.

The four severities and what to do

The Payroll Action Center (dashboard)

The Action Center appears as a panel on the Payroll Dashboard. It shows the latest anomaly scan results across your payroll:

• Pay Group dropdown: narrow the findings to a single pay group.
• Count chips: All, Blockers, Critical, Warnings, and Alerts. Click a chip to filter the list to that severity.
• Findings, grouped by severity. The section captions read:
• Blockers · Data setup required — payroll cannot start
• Critical · Anomaly findings requiring review
• Warnings · Non-critical findings to review
• Alerts · Informational anomalies
• Each finding is a one-line summary of what was detected and how many records are affected, for example "Shared bank account detected for 3 employees."
• Footer: shows when the last scan ran (for example, "Last scan: 5 min ago · auto-refresh daily"). Findings refresh automatically once a day, early in the morning.
• Refresh icon: runs a new scan on demand instead of waiting for the daily refresh.
• Settings (gear icon): opens the Payroll Settings page where you configure the checks (see below).

Blockers are different from anomalies. The Blockers group holds data-setup problems (missing SSNs, missing payment methods, incomplete tax setup and the like) that stop payroll from starting for the affected pay frequency. The Start Payroll button enforces them. They must be fixed, not acknowledged. The full blocker list, with the exact messages, lives in Troubleshooting: I Can't Start or Approve Payroll.

Clicking a finding opens a detail popover. It lists the affected employees (each name links to the employee's record) and shows the detected values. For a bank-account change, for example, it shows the masked new account with the note "These employees changed their routing or account number since the last payroll run. Each change must be reviewed before approval." It offers an optional Notes field (up to 1,000 characters) and an Acknowledge button. Acknowledged findings disappear from the panel. The acknowledgement, who made it, and the note are recorded in the audit trail.

When nothing needs attention, the panel says so: "No anomaly found." (or "No anomaly found for the selected pay group." when a pay group is selected).

[Screenshot: Payroll Dashboard with the Payroll Action Center panel showing Blockers, Critical, Warnings, and Alerts sections; use demo data]

The Payroll Health Check (before you approve)

On the summary step of a Regular or Special payroll in Draft, UZIO runs a pre-approval anomaly scan of that specific run. It does not run for Daily, Quarterly, or Annually pay groups. A banner above the Approve button reports the result:

• Clean: "Payroll health check complete — No anomalies detected. All checks passed. You're good to proceed with approval." with a Re-run button.
• Findings: "Payroll health check complete — {N} findings for your review. Review and acknowledge before approving. Unreviewed anomaly findings will be recorded in the audit trail." with per-severity count chips and a Review Findings → button.

Review Findings opens a right-side drawer titled Payroll Health Check, sub-captioned "Pre-approval anomaly scan for {pay frequency} · {pay period}. Findings will be recorded in the audit trail." To work through it:

1. Use the filter chips (All, Critical, Warning, Alert, and Acknowledged) to move through the list.
2. Open each finding card. It names the check, the employee, and the detected values. A few checks get richer cards. Payroll cost trend shows a Current Run / Prior Period / 3-Period Average cost-and-headcount table with a bar chart. Terminated Employee Leaving with Outstanding Arrears breaks out each deduction's remaining balance and flags any deduction "not included in this run".
3. Investigate the finding. If the value is expected and correct, add an optional note and click Acknowledge on the card. Acknowledged findings move under the Acknowledged chip, keeping the note visible. If the value is wrong, fix the data (cancel and restart the run if the fix is to an earning or employee record) and re-run the check.
4. When you have reviewed the findings, continue to Approve Payroll.

[Screenshot: Payroll Health Check banner with count chips and the Review Findings drawer showing an Acknowledge card; use demo data]

Configuring anomaly checks and thresholds

Go to Payroll, click the gear icon in the Action Center, and open Payroll Settings ("Configure anomaly checks and thresholds."). The Anomaly Detection tab lists every check with a severity badge, its description, and an On/Off toggle: 17 checks in all. Locked checks sort to the top with a Locked badge.

The "Default" column is the out-of-the-box configuration for a new employer. Every non-locked check can be toggled to suit your company.

Two behaviors worth knowing:

• The two termination PTO checks work as a pair. While a terminated employee's balance payout is actually flowing through the current run (Critical), the standing "outstanding PTO balance" warning for that same employee is suppressed. The payout is already in flight, so you are not warned twice.
• Terminated Employee Leaving with Outstanding Arrears fires before approval when an employee terminated within the run's pay period still owes arrears on any deduction. It raises one finding per affected deduction. See Understanding Automatic Deduction Arrears for how those balances arise, including deductions set to Method "None", which never collect through payroll.

Common problems

Why can't I turn off a check?

It is one of the four Locked fraud-pattern checks (shared or changed bank account, shared or changed home address). They are always on by design and cannot be disabled.

Why is a finding still listed after I fixed the data?

The Action Center refreshes on a daily scan. After a fix, click the refresh icon on the panel (or Re-run on the Health Check banner) to re-scan immediately instead of waiting for the daily cycle.

There is a Blocker in my Action Center. Can I acknowledge it?

No. Blockers are data-setup gaps that stop payroll from starting. They have no Acknowledge action and must be fixed. Click the blocker to see the affected employees, fix the underlying data, and re-scan. The full list of blockers and their messages is in Troubleshooting: I Can't Start or Approve Payroll.

I acknowledged a finding by mistake

Acknowledgements cannot be undone from the panel. The finding simply reappears on a future scan if the condition is detected again. The acknowledgement (with your name, timestamp, and note) stays in the audit trail, so add a corrective note on the next occurrence if the original acknowledgement was wrong.

Expected outcome

• The Action Center keeps a daily-refreshed list of anomaly findings on the Payroll Dashboard, filterable by pay group and severity, with per-finding acknowledge and notes.
• Every Regular and Special pay run gets a Payroll Health Check on the summary step. Acknowledged findings, and any you leave unreviewed, are recorded in the audit trail.
• The checks and thresholds match your configuration in Payroll Settings (17 checks; 4 locked fraud checks always on).

Related articles

• Processing a Regular Payroll
• Setting Up Employee Payroll
• Understanding Automatic Deduction Arrears
• Troubleshooting: I Can't Start or Approve Payroll