Walk the loop

Bills and payroll: what to check before the call

Bills and payroll.

Why it matters: The money that leaves on a schedule is the money that decides whether the month works.

Answer it and see your picture.

What lives here

Vendor bills and their due dates
Payroll runs and the tax deposits behind them
Recurring charges nobody looks at
The one file where all of it lands

What good looks like

Bills posted in one file before they are paid.
Payroll set up right, run by you with the provider you picked.
No deposit ever late.

Do this yourself

List every recurring charge from last month's statement.
Mark the ones you could not explain.
Check the date of your last payroll tax deposit.

See it on a company like yours

Here is the payroll page for Cinder Mesa Landscape, the fictional company in our worked examples.

Payroll

Illustrative composite. Not a real client.

Cinder Mesa Landscape LLC · October 18, 2026

Who is paid in the extract

27 people appear on the roster. 20 are paid in October. People paid moved from 13 in January to 20 in October. Gross pay in the extract is $612,173. The October run rate for people still active is $65,038 a month. Payroll on this page is setup only.

Monthly gross run rate by department, people active in October.

People receiving pay each month of the extract.

Swipe the table to see every column.

Person	Dept	Year to date	Months	3-month average	Not on a job	October
Priya Nandakumar	Plan studio	$43,834	01-10	$4,375	—	on payroll
Caleb Nguyen	Field install	$40,796	01-10	$4,069	$4,532	on payroll
Nora Feldman	Repair calls	$38,890	01-10	$3,882	$4,321	on payroll
Rosa Ibarra	Field install	$37,807	01-10	$3,770	$4,200	on payroll
Ellis Ward	Repair calls	$33,847	01-10	$3,390	$3,760	on payroll
Beth Alvarez	Route care	$32,775	01-10	$3,281	$3,641	on payroll
Marco Pell	Front office	$32,766	01-10	$3,272	—	on payroll
Pete Gorman	Field install	$28,687	03-10	$3,580	$3,187	on payroll
Andre Wilson	Field install	$27,948	03-10	$3,485	$3,105	on payroll
Sofia Marchetti	Field install	$27,218	01-08	—	$3,024	left
Luis Ortega	Plan studio	$26,422	01-07	—	$2,935	left
Ivy Quintero	Field install	$25,915	02-10	$2,873	$2,879	on payroll
Samir Qureshi	Route care	$23,849	03-10	$2,974	$2,649	on payroll
Tom Reilly	Field install	$22,304	04-10	$3,182	$2,478	on payroll
Hannah Briggs	Plan studio	$22,177	04-10	$3,143	—	on payroll
Jonah Park	Repair calls	$21,604	04-10	$3,091	$2,400	on payroll
Gina Cho	Field install	$18,481	01-06	—	$2,053	left
Malik Brewer	Field install	$17,906	05-10	$2,970	$1,989	on payroll
Dean Okonkwo	Front office	$16,626	04-10	$2,366	—	on payroll
Lila Brooks	Route care	$13,888	06-10	$2,778	$1,543	on payroll
Ruthie Calder	Front office	$12,912	01-05	—	—	left
Elena Varga	Principal	$11,976	07-10	$2,987	—	on payroll
Omar Farouk	Plan studio	$11,477	07-10	$2,873	—	on payroll
Owen Grant	Off-season hold	$8,352	01-03	—	—	left
Chris Dalto	Field install	$8,091	08-10	$2,697	—	on payroll
Rico Salas	Off-season hold	$3,614	02-03	—	—	left
Paige Dutra	Off-season hold	$2,011	01-01	—	—	left
Total		$612,173		$65,038	$48,696

The "not on a job" column is the figure stored on the roster. It is not a second payroll pull. Hours and pay rates are not in the extract. Principal pay is on the roster. This example does not recommend a pay cut.

Swipe to see the rest of the table.

Open this page in the CFO example

Bills and payroll: what to check before the call