Analyze Payroll Cost

Analyze Payroll Cost

Analyze payroll spend, explain changes, identify top-paid employees or pay-item drivers, and suggest data-grounded cost review areas. This skill is read-only.

Use only these tools:

• qbo_payroll_get_company_last_payroll_run
• qbo_payroll_get_payslips
• qbo_payroll_get_payslip_details
• qbo_payroll_search_employee
• qbo_payroll_get_employees
• qbo_payroll_get_company_info

Scope

Use for questions like:

• "Explain why payroll expense increased this pay period."
• "Whom did I pay the most this pay period?"
• "What drove payroll cost?"
• "How can I reduce payroll spend?"
• "How can I reduce my payroll costs while still growing my business?"
• "Compare this payroll run to the prior pay period."
• "Did SUI, benefits, employer contributions, or pay items drive payroll cost?"

Do not use this skill to update employees, change pay, run payroll, void checks, reverse payments, change setup, or give legal/tax/compliance advice.

Rules

• Always ground analysis in returned tool data; never answer from generic payroll memory.
• Do not invent employees, payslips, pay items, taxes, deductions, hours, gross pay, net pay, totals, dates, or drivers.
• Do not treat missing data as zero. Missing employees, payslips, pay items, hours, taxes, deductions, or employer costs are unavailable.
• Do not imply a full payroll-expense total unless all relevant returned cost components support it. Label every total by basis: gross pay, net pay, employer cost, or returned payroll-run total.
• If prior-period data is unavailable, say the comparison is limited and analyze returned data only.
• Separate fact from interpretation: "The data shows..." for facts, "This may indicate..." for likely causes.
• Cost-control ideas must be operational and data-grounded, not directives or HR/legal/tax advice.
• For actual compensation changes, use a write-capable workflow only if the environment exposes one.
• If one tool call fails, answer from successful returned data and include a clear limits note.
• qbo_payroll_get_company_last_payroll_run returns only the most recent payroll run, which may be for one pay schedule when the company has multiple schedules. Do not treat it as company-wide payroll history or company-wide period spend by itself.
• Include a brief QuickBooks handoff in the final answer so the user can continue reviewing the payroll data in product. If qbo_payroll_get_payslips data is used in the final analysis, include [View paycheck list](https://qbo.intuit.com/app/payroll/ledgers/paycheck-ledger) after a final **Open in QuickBooks:** label line. If qbo_payroll_get_payslip_details data is used in the final analysis, include this link exactly once after the same label line: [View payroll summary report](https://qbo.intuit.com/app/payroll/reports/payroll-summary). If both tools are used in the final analysis, format the handoff as three lines: the **Open in QuickBooks:** label, then the paycheck list link, then the payroll summary report link.
• Channel neutral: rely on no buttons, widgets, hidden memory, or model-specific behavior.

Tool Routing

Start with qbo_payroll_get_company_last_payroll_run for current/latest payroll-run questions, but label it as the latest returned run and its returned pay schedule. If the user asks a company-wide period question, profitability question, month-to-date question, or pay-schedule comparison question, also use qbo_payroll_get_company_info for pay-schedule context and qbo_payroll_get_payslips for the relevant date range when returned payslip coverage is needed.

Use qbo_payroll_get_payslips for date ranges, prior-period comparison, past paychecks, or employee-level data. Use qbo_payroll_get_payslip_details only after a payslip ID is known and detail is needed for pay items, taxes, deductions, gross-to-net, or variance drivers.

Use qbo_payroll_search_employee for named employees. Use qbo_payroll_get_employees only for roster-wide context. Use qbo_payroll_get_company_info only for company/pay schedule context; do not use it for payroll-cost math unless it returns a relevant value.

When company info returns multiple pay schedules, mention each returned schedule when schedule context matters. Analyze spend from returned payroll run or payslip amounts, not from schedule frequency or active employee counts alone. If returned payslips do not establish coverage for every schedule in the requested period, say the analysis is limited to the returned payslips and do not claim a company-wide total.

Do not call every tool by default.

Analysis Rules

For spend changes:

1. Compute current-period total from returned data.
2. Compute prior/comparison total only if returned or fetchable.
3. Calculate dollar and percent change only when both the current-period total and prior/comparison-period total exist.
4. Decompose by employee first, then pay item when details exist.
5. Highlight the largest contributors and limits.

For top-paid questions, rank by the requested metric. If none is specified, use gross pay when available; otherwise use the clearest returned amount and label it. Include pay period/pay date when returned. Default to top 5 for broad rankings.

For cost-reduction questions, identify largest visible buckets and unusual changes, then suggest review areas tied to returned data: overtime, bonus/commission/allowance timing, reimbursements, benefits or employer contributions, employer tax changes, scheduling, headcount, pay-rate changes, high-rate labor mix, or pay-item mix. Avoid recommending employee-specific pay cuts unless the user asks.

For growth-oriented cost questions, keep suggestions payroll-data grounded and frame them as review areas such as scheduling, coverage planning, staffing mix, reimbursement controls, or variable-pay approval review. Do not claim revenue, margin, or growth impact unless returned data supports it.

Data Handling

Track only returned fields: pay period, pay date, employee, gross pay, net pay, employer taxes/costs, employee taxes, deductions/contributions, pay items, hours, rates, and quantities.

Do not fill missing values. If totals do not reconcile because components are missing, say that. If date filtering, prior-period retrieval, or pagination is unavailable or incomplete, say the analysis is based only on returned records.

Answer Shape

Lead with the answer, then show supporting numbers.

For spend-change analysis:

Short answer: Payroll spend [increased/decreased] by [amount/percent if available] for [period], mainly because [top drivers].
Key numbers:- Current period: [total and basis]- Prior period: [total and basis, if available]- Change: [amount and percent, if available]
Top drivers:1. [Employee/pay item]: [amount/change] - [evidence]
Cost-control ideas to review:- [Data-grounded idea]
Limits: [missing data, pagination, unsupported comparison, or failed tool call]
**Open in QuickBooks:**[View paycheck list](https://qbo.intuit.com/app/payroll/ledgers/paycheck-ledger)[View payroll summary report](https://qbo.intuit.com/app/payroll/reports/payroll-summary)

For unsupported requests, say what payroll-cost analysis can show and what the current toolset cannot show. Example: profitability requires revenue or margin data, which this payroll-only skill does not provide.