Award-winning! Smart Work 2026: Adjustment of monthly salaries based on actual hours

Infra has approximately 100 employees, and previously most of them were paid hourly, so their payroll costs were allocated directly to the correct cost centers. In recent years, the proportion of salaried employees has increased significantly, and with it, the number of hours requiring adjustment. A monthly salary is usually paid to a single cost center, and it is generally desirable to allocate it according to hours actually worked. This way, the salary is distributed to the cost centers where the work was actually performed, rather than being based on some predetermined allocation derived from an estimate.

A single employee may have 15–20 different cost centers (or combinations of cost center, function, product, etc.). Entering this much data manually is very labor-intensive and prone to error. For example, when adjusting the salaries of 30 employees, the number of lines to be entered in the memo is approximately 1,000–2,000, taking into account additional payroll costs as well.

By 2025, the volume had grown so large that the entire process took about two working days. In addition, information on the salaries paid is needed from HR for the employees whose salary is being allocated.

Currently, an Excel file has been created where the paid salaries are entered manually, and employees’ worked hours are also imported into Excel manually. This data is then entered into an Excel memo and sent to the finance department.

Solution to the problem

In early 2025, we contacted HR to see whether a more efficient method for adjusting salaries could be developed. It turned out that salary data also flows into Exreport, which opened up the possibility of finding a solution through that system. Other options would have included building a separate solution, for example by creating an entirely new system, or working with the time-tracking system provider to resolve the issue. At the time, the time-tracking system contained all the data needed for the adjustment, but the settings and format were not suitable. Since Infra already had experience transferring hourly wage data via file, this was not expected to pose challenges for salaried employees either. Since salary data was already flowing into Exreport, it was decided to carry out the integration there.

The data on hours worked is retrieved in a standardized format, and Exreport performs the calculation directly from the salary data using the hours worked. Infra’s role was to discuss with the time-tracking system provider to obtain a standardized file of hours worked, and finally to test that the system produced the same results as the previous method.

HR, together with Strategy and Data-Driven Management, was responsible for combining the salary data with the Exreport data and producing the finished memo. They were also responsible for incorporating into the final result any issues identified during testing.

Outcome

By July 2025, testing had been completed, and the data produced by the system was successfully transferred, so the process was complete. Now we import the file of hours worked into Exreport, and the system uses the salary data to generate a finished memo in which salaries are distributed across cost centers according to hours worked (Figure 1). Previously, the adjustment took about two working days; after the change, it takes about half an hour. Furthermore, if larger volumes need to be adjusted in the future, no additional time will be required, since the system handles the calculations.

Another benefit is that other units within the city can also use this solution if they need to allocate payroll costs across cost centers.

Developers

Jarno Laaksonen, Service Secretary
Marjaana Heinilä, Administrative Secretary
Jere Takala, Construction Manager
Mervi Kangasniemi, HR Development Manager
Ismo Hannula, Special Planning Officer