Which payroll CSV export format should I use?

Summary CSV
Standard Payroll CSV
Standard + NRH CSV
Punch Import CSV
Paycor Punch Import CSV
Paycor Time Hours CSV

Summary CSV

Designed for payroll review and reconciliation rather than a direct, system-specific import. It includes the broadest employee-level detail, such as hourly and overtime rates, potential and paid bonuses, DOL additional overtime, time-off pay, commissions, and footer totals. It may also include employees with no payroll activity, and the summary rows at the bottom may need to be removed before importing.

Employee Name: The employee’s name.
Employee ID: A unique identifier used by some payroll systems. Adding an employee’s payroll ID helps match records during payroll imports and reduces manual data entry.
Role: The employee’s position in Per4mance.
Total Hours: The sum of regular, overtime, and non-revenue hours.
Normal Hours: The sum of regular and non-revenue hours. Overtime is excluded.
Overtime Hours: Total overtime hours. Regular and non-revenue hours are excluded.
Hourly Rate: The employee’s current hourly wage, excluding bonus adjustments.
OT Rate: The employee’s current overtime rate, excluding bonus adjustments.
Total Pay: Total hourly pay for the week, including regular, non-revenue, and overtime hours.
Potential Bonus: The bonus allocated to the employee for the week that has not yet been marked as collected.
Paid Bonus: The bonus allocated to the employee for the week that has been marked as collected.
DOL Additional OT: Additional overtime pay calculated using the employee’s bonus and overtime hours, as required by Department of Labor rules. Per4mance calculates this amount automatically, and the feature can be enabled or disabled upon request.
Time Off Hours: Total hours recorded for paid benefits such as PTO, sick leave, and holiday pay.
Time Off Pay: Total pay due for the recorded time-off hours.
Sales Commission: Commission payouts for sales employees who use sales incentives.

The bottom of the CSV contains a summary section showing the pay period, week number, total employees, total hours, total pay, bonuses, and sales commissions. These rows are included for reference and are not individual employee records. If your payroll system expects every row to follow the employee-column format, remove the blank separator and all summary rows—from “Pay Period” through “Total Sales Commission”—before importing the file.

Standard Payroll CSV

A compact employee-level export that separates normal hours and pay, overtime hours and pay, PTO, bonuses, and sales commissions into straightforward columns. It works best when the payroll system accepts summarized weekly amounts and does not require individual time punches, job-level detail, or provider-specific labor codes.

Name: The employee’s name.
EE Code: The employee code used by your payroll system. This helps match each row to the correct employee during import.
Earning Code: The payroll earning code associated with the payment. Your payroll provider may use this code to identify the type of compensation being imported.
Bonus: The employee’s collected bonus amount for the selected week.
Normal Hours: The employee’s regular and non-revenue hours, excluding overtime and paid time off.
Hourly Pay: The employee’s total pay for normal hours.
OT Hours: The employee’s total overtime hours.
OT Pay: The employee’s total overtime pay.
PTO Hours: The employee’s total paid-time-off hours, including applicable benefits such as PTO, sick leave, and holiday pay.
PTO Pay: The employee’s total pay for the recorded paid-time-off hours.
Sales Commission: The employee’s sales commission for the selected week.

Standard + NRH CSV

Adds operational detail to the employee-level payroll summary by separating on-job pay from non-revenue-hours pay. It also includes crew assignments and an effective hourly rate, making it useful when payroll review needs to distinguish revenue-generating work from meetings, training, shop time, and other paid non-revenue activities.

Employee: The employee’s name.
EE Code: The employee code used by your payroll system. This helps match each row to the correct employee during import.
Crew(s): The crew or crews the employee worked with during the selected week.
Reg Hrs: The employee’s total regular hours, excluding overtime and paid time off.
OT Hrs: The employee’s total overtime hours. A dash indicates that no overtime hours were recorded.
On-Job Pay: Pay earned for hours worked on revenue-generating jobs.
Bonuses: The employee’s collected bonus amount for the selected week.
NRH Pay: Pay earned for non-revenue hours, such as meetings, training, shop work, or other paid activities not assigned to a revenue-generating job.
PTO Hrs: The employee’s total paid-time-off hours, including applicable benefits such as PTO, sick leave, and holiday pay.
PTO Pay: The employee’s total pay for the recorded paid-time-off hours.
Eff. Rate: The employee’s effective hourly rate after applicable pay components, such as bonuses, are included.
Total Pay: The employee’s total compensation shown in this export, including applicable hourly pay, bonuses, paid time off, and sales commissions.
Sales Commission: The employee’s sales commission for the selected week.

Punch Import CSV

Exports individual clock-in and clock-out records instead of summarized hours or pay amounts. It is intended for payroll systems that calculate worked hours from punch pairs and use a general time-punch import structure rather than a provider-specific format.

employeeId: The employee’s unique identifier in the payroll system. This field helps match each time punch to the correct employee.
lastName: The employee’s last name.
firstName: The employee’s first name.
date: The date of the time punch.
time: The time of the punch, including AM or PM.
recordType: Identifies whether the record is a clock-in or clock-out punch. IN indicates the start of a shift, and OUT indicates the end of a shift.
hoursDollars: The number of hours or dollar amount associated with the record when required by the payroll system. This field is typically blank for standard IN and OUT punches.
EmployeeNote: A note attached to the punch by the employee, when applicable.
supervisorNote: A supervisor note or related supervisor information attached to the punch, when applicable.
Paylevel: The employee’s assigned payroll pay level, labor level, or earning classification, when required by the payroll system.

Paycor Punch Import CSV

Formats individual clock-in and clock-out records specifically for Paycor. In addition to punch dates and times, it provides Paycor fields for client and employee identifiers, departments, labor categories, activities, and work locations. Use it when Paycor should calculate hours from the imported punches.

action: Indicates the action Paycor should perform with the record. A means the punch should be added.
ClientId: The company or client identifier assigned by Paycor.
EmployeeNumber: The employee’s unique number in Paycor. This connects the punch to the correct employee.
LastName: The employee’s last name.
PunchDate: The calendar date of the time punch.
PunchTime: The time of the punch in 24-hour format. For example, 13:30 represents 1:30 PM.
Status: Identifies whether the punch is an In or Out record.
Activity: The activity associated with the punch, such as Work.
DepartmentCode: The Paycor department code associated with the employee or time punch.
LaborCategory1LaborCode: The labor code assigned to the first configured Paycor labor category.
LaborCategory2LaborCode: The labor code assigned to the second configured Paycor labor category.
LaborCategory3LaborCode: The labor code assigned to the third configured Paycor labor category.
LaborCategory4LaborCode: The labor code assigned to the fourth configured Paycor labor category.
LaborCategory5LaborCode: The labor code assigned to the fifth configured Paycor labor category.
LaborCategory6LaborCode: The labor code assigned to the sixth configured Paycor labor category.
PunchNotes: Notes or additional information associated with the punch.
workLocation: The Paycor work-location code associated with the punch, when applicable.

Paycor Time Hours CSV

Send Paycor calculated hours and earnings instead of individual punches. Each row identifies a date, amount, and earning code—such as regular hours or bonus dollars—along with Paycor’s department, labor-category, policy, and work-location fields. Use it when the hours or earnings have already been calculated and Paycor does not need the underlying clock-in and clock-out records.

action: Indicates the action Paycor should perform with the record. A means the record should be added.
clientId: The company or client identifier assigned by Paycor.
employeeNumber: The employee’s unique number in Paycor. This connects the record to the correct employee.
lastName: The employee’s last name.
date: The date associated with the hours or earnings record.
amount: The quantity being imported. How this value is interpreted depends on the earning field. For example, it represents hours for regular time and a dollar amount for a bonus.
earning: The Paycor earning code associated with the record, such as Reg for regular hours or Bonus for bonus pay.
departmentCode: The Paycor department code associated with the record.
laborCategory1LaborCode: The labor code assigned to the first configured Paycor labor category.
laborCategory2LaborCode: The labor code assigned to the second configured Paycor labor category.
laborCategory3LaborCode: The labor code assigned to the third configured Paycor labor category.
laborCategory4LaborCode: The labor code assigned to the fourth configured Paycor labor category.
laborCategory5LaborCode: The labor code assigned to the fifth configured Paycor labor category.
laborCategory6LaborCode: The labor code assigned to the sixth configured Paycor labor category.
activityType: The Paycor activity type associated with the record, when applicable.
applyAllPolicy: Controls whether Paycor applies the employee’s configured policies to the record. Yes indicates that applicable policies should be applied.
startTime: The starting time associated with the hours or earnings record, shown in 24-hour format.
notes: Additional information about the record, such as a supervisor reference or an earnings description.
workLocation: The Paycor work-location code associated with the record, when applicable.

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Which payroll CSV export format should I use?

Payroll apps can think about paying your employees in many ways, sometimes similarly and sometimes vastly different. We made it easy to get the information you need, in the style you need it.

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