How to set up recurring task schedule for Payroll team?

Hello all! My company's Payroll team is seeking a task management solution to help them track recurring to-do's related to payroll processing. We are on a 24 period pay cycle (15th and last) and there are some tasks that need to happen every cycle, some that happen periodically or annually, as well as one-offs. They'd like to use Smartsheet to manage this work, but I'm having a hard time finding information on how to best create/represent recurring tasks. Recurring task due dates are relative to the pay period itself - e.g., PTO has to be approved three days before payroll is processed. Does anybody have suggestions for how to build a recurring schedule in Smartsheet incorporating relative due dates?

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kowal

Hi Katie,

Setup recurring tasks triggered by dates is one of the core functions in smartsheet.

It seems that you have a lot of tasks to be sent based on many dates so what I would do I would create a Date Column put there a date formula: like =DATE(2024, 10, 10) (in that case it will be 10th october 2024) and make entire column a formula. Based on this date you can set up reminders like 10 days before this date send message 1 or 4 weeks after this date send message 2 etc. etc.

hope it helps.

Katie White

Hi, I think there is a disconnect - I'm not asking about notifications. I'm looking for a means to autopopulate the tasks (rows on the sheet) on a recurring basis, so that our teams do not need to recreate the tasks on a monthly/yearly basis. I'm okay if we have to populate our payroll calendar itself, but would want new tasks to be able to be created automatically for the next pay period without having to manually create the tasks each time.

ChristianFinke

Hey @Katie White

If you're looking to auto-populate tasks for each pay period without manually recreating them, here’s what i would do:

Create a Template Sheet: Build a sheet with all your recurring tasks.
Use columns like "Task Name," "Due Date," "Frequency," and "Assigned To."

Use an Automation to Copy Rows: Set up Smartsheet Automations to copy rows from your template sheet to your working sheet.

Formula for Relative Dates: In your working sheet, use a formula in the Due Date column that’s relative to the pay period. Example:
=[Payroll Date]@row - 3 to calculate due dates like “3 days before payroll processing.”
This will keep the due dates aligned with each pay period.
This way, you won’t need to manually create the tasks each time—the automation will handle it, and the formulas will keep your dates accurate.

If you need more help getting it set up, feel free to see my signature!

Katie White

Christian, thanks for your guidance! This is the direction I was starting to head in on my own. However, in testing, the formulas in the Due Date column don't copy over, and I can't see how manually populating the column with relative date formulas each month is any more efficient than just copying and pasting the rows within the sheet itself. Thinking I might have to go the route of just building the calendar for the entire year (which is what the team does currently, anyway), and just using the formulas to autopopulate the dates for the initial month before copying the tasks. Thanks again!

ChristianFinke

Hey @Katie White

Good call on building the calendar for the year, it keeps things simple. One workaround is using automation to copy entire sheets from a template. This preserves any date formulas, so all you’d need to do is clear and reset tasks each cycle.

Let me know if you’d like to brainstorm more!

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