How to Easily Create a Jira Payroll Template That Will Save Your Time

Introducing a simple template in Jira can reduce the time spent on payroll management by more than half. For a company with over 200 employees, spending 1 hour per person each month, this can amount to an impressive 175 working days per year. This example is not just hypothetical; it’s a real case of payroll management optimization conducted by Railsware, an IT product studio. This result was accomplished by utilizing Smart Templates by Titan Apps. 

In this article, we will explain how you can achieve a similar outcome by adopting a Jira payroll template. You’ll learn step-by-step how to create it and how to automatically generate Jira work items from this template on a schedule. 

What is a Jira Payroll Template?

In Jira, a payroll template is a reusable set of work items that represents a standard sequence of payroll-related tasks. The financial department needs to complete those tasks in order to distribute payments to the employees. This can include, for example, calculating compensation, making tax deductions, and collecting invoices, among other tasks.

As this is a recurring process that repeats every month, creating the same set of tasks manually would be inefficient. Implementing a Jira payroll template solves this issue. You can use Smart Templates for Jira to save any hierarchy of work items as a reusable template. Then, you will be able to generate identical sets of tasks automatically – for example, on the last day of every month.

Here’s what this can look like:

The high-level Payroll task is organized as an epic that includes several other work items, each representing a specific stage of the process. 

Depending on your workflow, this structure can also include subtasks (the example on the left) and/or checklists (the example on the right):

Smart Templates preserve a complete task hierarchy, along with the details of individual tasks, including descriptions and summaries, assignees, pre-filled fields, and more.

Using such templates is a great way to optimize repetitive tasks. This helps you save time by bringing in a structure, ?reducing the need for manual work, and minimizing human error. 

How to Build a Jira Payroll Template With Smart Templates

1. Create a reusable set of Jira tasks. Analyze your payroll management process and organize it as a structured hierarchy of Jira work items. For example, this can be an epic Payroll | {{month}} that includes all the main stages as separate tasks within that epic. Smaller steps in each stage can be added in checklists.
2. Install Smart Templates from the Atlassian marketplace. This will enable you to save this task structure as a template and utilize valuable features such as variables and the built-in Scheduler.
3. Add variables and pre-fill fields. Variables are elements of your template that are subject to change. For example, the month for which you are releasing the payment can be added as {{month}}. Then, every time you generate a new set of tasks from this template, you will be asked to provide a value for this variable. After this, everywhere in your generated task where you had {{month}}, this placeholder will be substituted by the actual month. In addition to variables, you can add task descriptions and pre-fill other fields, such as assignees, reporters, task priority, and others. This information will also be preserved in the template.
4. Add checklists to your Jira payroll template (optional). To do so, first, install Smart Checklist. Then, in the Smart Checklist section of your Jira work item, list the steps that need to be completed. Alternatively, copy and paste the checklist payroll template from the next section of this article. Use the Markdown guide to help you apply rich formatting, such as adding headers, setting deadlines or due dates, tagging people, or adding details to individual checklist items.
5. Save the task structure as a template. Open the main parent task in your hierarchy of work items – in our example, it’s the epic Payroll | {{month}}, which contains all the other work items. In the Smart Templates section of this parent task, press Save structure as a new template and name your Jira payroll template. After this, it will be available for reuse. 
6. Schedule automated task creation. Use the built-in Scheduler to generate your payroll-related tasks from your template automatically. In the example below, the schedule is set for the last day of the month, repeated monthly. On the right, you can see the list of the planned runs. This functionality is very convenient for managing any recurring payments or repetitive tasks.

Alternatively, you can manually create a set of Jira tasks from this template. To do so, go to the Smart Templates tab of your Jira project. Then, find the necessary template on the list and press Generate Issue. 

Smart Tools work seamlessly with both Jira Cloud and Jira Data Center. In particular, they can also be easily integrated with Jira Service Management. For example, if your employees submit Jira tickets via a self-service desk, you can choose to automatically apply specific templates to certain request types. Depending on your process, there can be other use cases involving JSM.

All this enables you to streamline your workflows, save time, and minimize human error.

A Reusable Jira Payroll Template in the Form of a Checklist

Here is what a checklist for your payroll template may look like. You can reuse this template or prepare your own checklists based on this example.

Preview Markdown view

## **Validate employee and tax information**
- Confirm employee records are up-to-date (names, bank details, tax forms)
- Collect new hire paperwork (e.g., W-4, direct deposit forms) and completed terminations
- Verify withholding information (federal, state/local taxes)
- Audit employee classifications (exempt/non-exempt) and benefit enrollments
- Ensure changes in status (promotions, raises) are recorded
## **Calculate compensation**
- Retrieve time and attendance data (hours, overtime, leave)
- Calculate gross pay: salary, hourly wages, bonuses, commissions
- Deduct mandatory items: taxes, social security, Medicare
- Deduct voluntary items: retirement, insurance, garnishments
- Perform spot checks: test payroll for a small subset to catch errors
## **Approval & Submission**
- Submit payroll summary to the finance/manager for approval
- Receive and document final approvals
- Compile payment batch (net pay, contractor, and vendor amounts)
- Schedule and execute payments (direct deposit, checks, transfers)
- Confirm successful transfers - no failures or holds
## **Reporting & Record Keeping**
- Distribute payslips to employees (via portal/email)
- File tax and social contribution reports
- Save payroll records and audit trail securely
## **Post-Payroll Review**
- Confirm successful transfers (no failed payments)
- Audit discrepancies (late filings, miscalculations) & track fixes
- Collect employee feedback on the payroll experience

Copy the template Copied

Here, the whole process is organized as a checklist template that can be a part of just one work item (such as a Payroll | {{month}} task). Different stages are grouped under H2 headers, creating several sections within the same checklist template. 

If you prefer such a linear hierarchical structure, you can use this checklist as a full-fledged Jira payroll template on its own. Smart Checklist allows you to save your templates for future use and even apply them automatically to the selected work types (Jira issue types).

One more valuable feature offered by Smart Checklist is linked templates. If you apply them to your Jira work items, these templates stay connected in real time. As an administrator, you can edit the template, and these changes will be applied automatically to all the linked templates in other Jira work items. 

At the same time, users without administrator rights can’t edit templatized checklists in their work items. They can only change the statuses of individual checklist items, marking them “In progress”, “In review”, and so on.

Add checklists to your Jira tasks

• Automate repetitive tasks
• Check progress at a glance
• Help your teams complete tasks
• Ensure that the delivered work meets compliance standards

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Alternatively, you can also document the payroll management process as a set of Jira work items where a separate item represents each stage. In this case, you will need to add a corresponding checklist to each work item (Jira issues). Then, you can save this whole structure as a reusable template. The details of individual tasks, including checklists, will be preserved. A smart checklist can be added to any work type, including an epic.

What Key Stages to Include in a Jira Payroll Template?

The exact stages you may need to incorporate depend on the specific process and best practices adopted in your organisation. In most cases, it makes sense to add phases such as:

• Employee and tax data validation
• Compensation calculation
• Obtaining the required approvals
• Invoice or payslip generation
• Payment processing
• Compliance checks
• Performance monitoring
• Reporting and gathering feedback

Benefits of Building a Jira Payroll Template with Smart Tools for Jira

Adopting a smart template for payroll management in Jira is advantageous for various roles, including the financial department, HR team, and employees, who benefit from faster handling of their requests. Here are some of the main Pros:

Standardize your financial processes

With a template, the whole process can be codified end-to-end as a sequence of easy-to-follow steps. This promotes consistency, improves standardization, and facilitates faster and easier onboarding of new employees.

Ensure compliance

If everyone follows a pre-defined action plan laid out in a template, this minimizes the risk of human errors and helps you enforce compliance. You can add links to internal policies and external regulations right into the task where they are needed. This ensures that the correct information is always readily available.

Additionally, you can use linked templates and instantly apply changes in your checklist template across all work items where they are used.

A single template for all payroll cycles

Smart Templates allow you to easily add variables, such as {{date-month}} or {{employee-name}}. This makes one template applicable to multiple cycles. In addition, you can pre-fill other fields, including custom ones.

A built-in Scheduler 

This feature enables you to automate task creation from your Jira payroll template. As this is a native feature of the app, it doesn’t consume Automation for Jira limits.

Complete transparency

Smart Templates have a History tab, where you can view a list of all Jira work items created from a specific template. This provides you access to the historical data, which can be useful for stakeholder reports. 

Better employee experience

A more efficient payroll management process ensures that all team members receive their payment on time. Additionally, using a template helps you avoid mistakes when handling the process. This also contributes to enhanced employee satisfaction.

Best Practices for Creating a Jira Payroll Template That Are Really Helpful

• Use simple language. Avoid using advanced terminology or internal jargonisms. Write instructions in simple, easy-to-understand sentences, and avoid vague directions. For example, instead of ambiguous “check data” say “Verify {{employee}} tax details for {{month}}.”
• Integrate with Confluence. Always provide more context and additional resources where they are needed. For example, add links to your knowledge base and FAQs in Confluence for more details on a specific task. This helps you speed up the onboarding process for new employees. 
• Use granular permissions to protect sensitive information. Ensure that confidential information is not accessible to unauthorized individuals. 
• Keep the template relevant. If there’s a change in your processes or compliance regulations, be sure to update the template accordingly. It’s also useful to review it from time to time – perhaps you’ll spot an opportunity to improve it or realize that some steps are no longer relevant.

Using a payroll template in Jira is an effective way to optimize time for financial professionals and HR specialists involved in this process. I hope this tutorial has been helpful!

Optimize processes with Smart Templates

• Spend less time on recreating or cloning recurring tasks
• Optimize your workflow with flexible templates and reduce human error
• Enforce company standards

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If you are interested in more templates that can be useful to the Human Resources team, check out our other useful publications:

• Recruiting Plan Template
• Position Opening Template
• Employee Onboarding Template
• Offboarding Template

Article by Olga Cheban

Content Writer at TitanApps. I love it when my writing helps people find smarter ways to manage their time. Whether for individual professionals or large companies, even small changes in managing daily tasks can have a huge impact. My goal is to share practical advice that promotes efficiency and facilitates growth.