How attendance data syncs to payroll comes down to one question: does the attendance system push, or does payroll pull? Most modern integrations push — the attendance platform sends approved hours to payroll on a schedule, with the payroll system as the receiver.
This guide breaks down how attendance data syncs to payroll across the South African payroll providers Realattend connects to: SimplePay, Sage Pastel Payroll, PaySpace, and SAGE 300 People.
The push model
Attendance platforms collect raw clock data: in time, out time, breaks, leave, overtime. Before any of that reaches payroll, it has to pass three gates:
- Shift rules — does the attendance match the rostered shift? Late, early, no-show flags fire here.
- Approval — a supervisor signs off the hours for their team, usually weekly or bi-weekly.
- Export — approved hours leave the attendance system in the format payroll expects.
The export step is where attendance data syncs to payroll. For SimplePay, that's a CSV import or an API push. For Sage Pastel Payroll, it's typically a flat-file format. PaySpace and SAGE 300 People both support direct API integration.
What gets sent
Not raw clock punches. Payroll doesn't care that someone clocked in at 07:58:23. It cares about:
- Total hours worked per pay period
- Overtime hours (split by rate where BCEA rates differ)
- Leave taken (annual, sick, family responsibility)
- Public holiday hours
Realattend pre-calculates all of this against your shift rules and BCEA requirements before the sync runs. Payroll receives finished numbers, not raw data to process.
Pay period alignment
How attendance data syncs to payroll depends on your pay frequency. Weekly wage staff sync after each weekly approval cycle. Monthly salary staff sync once at month-end with overtime and leave adjustments only.
When sync errors happen
Sync isn't always clean. Mismatched employee codes, missing leave types, format mismatches — these are the usual culprits. The full breakdown of common payroll sync errors covers each one with the fix.
Setting up your sync
Realattend's setup wizard walks through the attendance to payroll integration for your specific payroll provider. The full overview of attendance to payroll sync explains the end-to-end flow.
The push model
Attendance pushes, payroll receives. Three gates: shift rules, approval, export.
What gets sent
Finished numbers — hours, overtime, leave, public holidays — not raw clock punches.
Pay period alignment
Weekly for wage staff, monthly for salary staff with overtime and leave adjustments.