GA
Help Desk Agent
Answers employee questions from policy and the system of record.
75%1 (modeled outcome) of HR case volume deflected
HR agent
GAPayroll Agent
The Payroll Agent is a governed AI agent that finds the errors before the payroll run, not after.
How it works
What the Payroll Agent does
Checks the pre-run register for missing data, configuration errors, and rule changes across every jurisdiction you pay in. Proposes the fix; your payroll team approves it.
- 01
Connect payroll, HRIS, and time
The agent reads the payroll register, employee master, time and attendance, and benefits deductions. It maps pay groups, jurisdictions, and GL accounts.
- 02
Run pre-cutoff checks
Three days before cutoff it validates the register: missing elections, garnishment caps, deferral limits, FLSA status changes, retro pay, negative net, and prior-period variances above your threshold.
- 03
Route fixes for approval
Each exception becomes a ticket with the record, the rule, and the proposed correction. Payroll specialists approve, edit, or dismiss. Dismissals are logged with a reason.
- 04
Reconcile and report
After the run, the agent ties the register to the GL posting, drafts accruals, and reports exception counts and time-to-clear by pay group in the Registry.
app.meridian.example/agents/payroll/cycle-2026-09-15
Pre-run checks · cycle 2026-09-15
Run held5 checks
| Check | Records | Severity | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Missing W-4 elections | 3 | Blocking | Cycle 2026-09-15 · Bluepeak Energy |
| Unverified I-9 records | 2 | Blocking | New hires starting 09-08 |
| Colorado minimum wage update | 118 | Applied | Effective 2026-09-01 |
| Direct deposit pre-note failures | 1 | Warning | Routing number rejected |
| Duplicate earning code | 0 | Clear | Checked 41,208 lines |
Payroll manager approval required before the run resumes.Review 5 items
The agent contract
Six terms, applied to this agent
Every Meridian agent runs under the same six terms, enforced at the Gateway below the agent. Here is what each one means for the Payroll Agent.
Scoped to one workflow
Audits the register before cutoff and queues rule updates. It never processes payroll.
Reads only permitted data
Read-only on payroll systems, scoped to the pay groups you assign.
Every action logged
Each check logged with the record inspected, the rule applied, and the outcome.
Consequential actions require human approval
Never edits pay rates, elections, or bank details. A named approver posts every fix.
Measurable outcome
Exceptions cleared before cutoff and time to clear reported per pay group.
Runs on your chosen model
Model choice per workspace. Jurisdiction rules come from a maintained library, not the model.
Scope
Data, actions, and approvals
What the Payroll Agent reads, what it does on its own, and where a person signs.
Data it reads
- Payroll register, pre-run and post-run, and prior-period results
- Employee master: pay rate, FLSA status, work location, tax jurisdiction, pay group
- Time and attendance, including overtime and shift differentials
- W-4 and state withholding elections, I-9 status
- Garnishment orders and 401(k) deferral elections and limits
- Benefits deductions and general ledger account mapping
Actions it takes
- Reconcile the pre-run register against the prior period and flag variances above threshold
- Detect missing W-4 or state withholding elections for new hires and relocations
- Validate garnishment deductions against federal and state caps
- Check 401(k) deferrals against the annual IRS limit and project year-end breaches
- Queue minimum-wage and overtime rule updates by jurisdiction with effective dates
- Draft correction tickets and the post-run GL posting summary and accrual
What needs approval
- Never edits pay rates, elections, or bank details; it proposes corrections for a named approver
- Jurisdiction rule updates pass through a review queue with the source citation and effective date
- Segregation of duties preserved: the agent cannot both propose and approve
- Every check is logged with the record inspected, the rule applied, and the outcome
- Access is read-only on payroll systems and scoped to the pay groups you assign
Outcomes
Numbers the Payroll Agent is accountable for
Modeled outcomes from design-partner deployments. The Registry reports your actuals from the first week an agent is live.
4x
faster resolution of payroll compliance issues1
92%
of pre-run exceptions cleared before cutoff1
−35%
off-cycle payroll runs1
5 days
or less from a rule's effective date to a queued update
- 1.Modeled outcome from design-partner deployments. ↩
“Our HR partners used to start every case by asking the employee the same four questions. Now the case arrives with the answers attached. The deflection number is real, but the bigger change is what the team spends its day on.”
71%
of HR cases resolved without a human at Halvorsen Health1
In production at
Integrations
Systems it works with
Connected through prebuilt connectors and zero-copy warehouse access in Data Fabric. The agent acts as the user and inherits each system’s permissions on every read.
- Payroll providers
- HRIS
- Time and attendance
- ERP and general ledger
- Benefits administration
- Retirement plan recordkeepers
Credits
What the Payroll Agent costs
Included on every plan: Starter with 5,000 credits per month, Growth with 30,000, and Enterprise with custom pools. Credits are consumed per completed action, never per message. Usage beyond the plan is billed at $0.12 per credit.
| Action | Credits |
|---|---|
| Exception detected, documented, and routed | 2 |
| Jurisdiction rule update prepared for approval | 5 |
| Pre-run register reconciliation, per pay group | 20 |
Questions
Questions about the Payroll Agent
Answered the way buyers ask them. Each answer is also published as structured data.
It audits the payroll before it runs. The agent reads the register, the employee master, and time data, applies the rules for each jurisdiction, and lists the exceptions: missing elections, capped deductions, limit breaches, unusual variances. It proposes the fix and routes it to a payroll specialist. It does not process payroll and does not change pay on its own.
No. It sits in front of your provider. Payroll still runs where it runs today. The agent improves the inputs and reconciles the outputs.
The agent monitors a maintained library of federal, state, and local rules with effective dates. When a change affects employees in your pay groups, it opens a queued update with the rule text cited. Your payroll manager approves the configuration change. Nothing changes without that approval.
Yes for the United States and Canada at general availability. UK and EU rule libraries are in early access. Multi-entity and multi-pay-group setups are supported; each pay group can have its own thresholds and approvers.
Read access to the payroll register, employee master, time data, and deduction elections. It never needs write access to the payroll system. Corrections are applied by your team through your existing process, or through an approval-gated API write if you choose to enable it.
Related agents
Agents most often deployed alongside the Payroll Agent, on the same data and the same approval policy.
Get started
Put the Payroll Agent to work.
Start with one workflow, one approver, and one number to move. Most design partners were live in five weeks.