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Importing Payroll History from a Spreadsheet

  1. Payroll
  2. Importing Payroll History from a Spreadsheet

    3. 6 min read
Jane Plan: Legacy, Practice, and Thrive
Add-on Required: Yes – Jane Payroll
Geography: Available in: 🇨🇦 Canada only

If you've been managing payroll manually in spreadsheets, this guide will walk you through how to gather and format your year-to-date payroll data and import it into Jane Payroll before your first payroll run.

Getting Started

Before importing your payroll history, make sure the following are set up in your Jane Payroll account. The import can't be mapped correctly without these in place first.

  • Staff members added to Jane Payroll — all staff who have been paid this calendar year, including anyone terminated mid-year. Make sure each employee's date of birth has been entered in their staff profile, as this is required for the payroll history import to process correctly. See our guide on Jane Payroll: Staff Member Onboarding Steps.
  • Pay Types created and assigned — create pay types that reflect how you've been paying your staff so your data maps correctly. See our guide on How to Set Up and Assign Pay Types in Jane Payroll.
  • Time off policies created and assigned — including vacation pay, sick pay, and any other time off policies, with vacation pay dollar balances and time balances that will carry over. See our guide on Jane Payroll: Managing Vacation Pay and Vacation Time.
  • Benefits created and assigned — any benefits you offer staff, such as health, dental, long-term disability, short-term disability, pension plan, and life insurance. See our guide on How to Set Up Benefits in Jane Payroll.

📣 Heads up: Before uploading your import file, reach out to the Jane Payroll support team at [email protected] to confirm your pay types, vacation policies, and benefits are set up correctly. This helps avoid mapping errors and delays before your first payroll run.

Preparing Your Payroll Data

Your import file should include all staff members paid during the current calendar year, including anyone terminated mid-year, organized by contractors and employees.

For independent contractors, include:

  • YTD gross wages
  • YTD collected GST/HST (if applicable, in a separate column)

For employees, include:

  • YTD gross wages
  • YTD employee and employer tax contributions
  • Benefits and voluntary deductions
  • Vacation balances
  • Sick time balances

The employee vs. contractor data requirements chart

For a detailed breakdown of all required fields, refer to the sample spreadsheet. The spreadsheet has separate tabs for contractors and employees — add your staff under the correct tab and upload everything as a single document.

🩵 Jane Tip: If you've been creating pay stubs manually and they include YTD amounts, the most recent pay stub for each staff member is typically sufficient, as long as it clearly shows the YTD totals.

Uploading Your Payroll History

Once your file is ready, upload it to your Jane Payroll account.

  1. Go to Billing > Payroll > Dashboard.
  2. Click Start next to Provide Payroll History.
  3. Upload your file.

The Dashboard showing the Provide Payroll History step with the Start button

📣 Heads up: Always upload payroll history through the Provide Payroll History step on the Dashboard rather than sending files by email. This keeps your information secure and notifies the Jane Payroll team that your file is ready for review.

Accepted file formats: CSV, JPG, PDF, PNG, TSV, TXT, XLS, and XLSX. If your file isn't in one of these formats, convert it before uploading.

What to Expect

Once your file is uploaded, the Jane Payroll team will review it before your first payroll run. The team will be in touch if anything needs to be corrected or clarified. You won't be able to run your first payroll until the import has been reviewed and confirmed.

Important Notes

  • Include all staff terminated during the current calendar year in your import file. This is required to generate T4s and T4As for them at year-end. Once added, you can mark them as terminated in their staff profile.
  • GST/HST amounts collected by contractors must be recorded in a separate column in your import file. If they're combined with gross pay, it can lead to inaccurate T4A filings.
  • Importing your year-to-date payroll data ensures Jane can calculate deductions accurately for subsequent payrolls, include correct YTD totals on pay stubs, and generate complete year-end tax slips.
  • If this step is missed, it can result in incorrect deductions, incomplete year-end reporting, and complications if you ever need to respond to a CRA audit or record-keeping request.

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