Tax season, audits, employee pay disputes and budget reviews all have one thing in common: they require accurate payroll records on demand. Exporting your payroll reports from Thryv Workforce Center™ gives you a downloadable file you can hand directly to your accountant, share with an auditor or use to answer an employee's pay question, without digging through multiple screens or compiling data manually. Reports download instantly as a CSV file and can be customized to include exactly the columns and date ranges you need.

This article covers the following:

• Payroll Journal vs. Custom Report: Which to Choose
• How to Navigate to the Payroll Report Export Feature
• How to Select a Report Type
• How to Select Columns for Your Report
• How to Apply Filters to Your Report
• How to Generate and Download the Report
• Frequently Asked Questions

This article covers exporting payroll reports from Thryv Workforce Center. This article does not cover running payroll. To learn how to run payroll, see How to Run Payroll. This article does not cover editing payroll settings such as pay schedule or bank account information. To learn how to update payroll settings, see How To Edit Your Payroll Schedule.

Payroll Journal vs. Custom Report: Which to Choose

Thryv Workforce Center offers two payroll report types: Payroll Journal and Custom Report. A Payroll Journal is a pre-configured report that shows past earnings and taxes for employees organized by pay period. The Payroll Journal report starts with a standard set of payroll columns already selected, though you can add or remove columns before generating the report. A Custom Report starts with no columns selected, you choose every column to include from scratch. Both report types use the same configuration process and produce the same CSV download format. Use a Payroll Journal when you need a standard earnings and tax summary. Use a Custom Report when you need a specific combination of columns not covered by the default Payroll Journal layout.

How to Navigate to the Payroll Report Export Feature

The payroll report export feature is located in the Payroll section of Thryv Workforce Center. Click Payroll in the left-hand navigation panel of Thryv Workforce Center. The Payroll section will open.

In the Payroll section, click Run a Report. The report configuration panel will open.

How to Select a Report Type

In the report configuration panel, select the report type you want to generate. Click Payroll Journal to generate a report of past earnings and taxes by pay period, with a standard set of columns pre-selected. Click Custom Report to start with a blank report and manually select every column to include. After selecting your report type, proceed to configure the columns and filters for the report.

How to Select Columns for Your Report

After selecting your report type, configure which columns to include in the exported report. The column selection area organizes available columns into four groups, each accessible via a dropdown. Click the dropdown for each group to expand the available columns within that group. Check the checkbox next to each column you want to include in the report. The four column groups are:

• Payroll Columns: Information about the pay cycle in which each payroll was run, such as pay period dates and payroll totals.
• Employee Columns: Information about the employees receiving pay, including employment information, contact information and tax withholding information.
• Work Address Columns: Information about the work site or sites where work was performed during the pay period.
• Employer Columns: Information about your business and the payroll costs your business incurred during the pay period.

For a Payroll Journal, a default set of columns is pre-checked when you open the configuration panel. Review the pre-checked columns and add or remove columns as needed by checking or unchecking the checkboxes in each column group dropdown. For a Custom Report, all column checkboxes start unchecked, select every column you want to include before proceeding.

How to Apply Filters to Your Report

Use filters to narrow the report to a specific date range, employee group or other criteria. The filter options appear in the report configuration panel below the column selection area. To apply a filter, check the checkbox next to the filter you want to use. Checking the checkbox for a filter expands that filter's settings below the checkbox, where you can enter or select your specific filter criteria. Apply as many filters as needed to get the exact data range your report requires. Leave filter checkboxes unchecked to include all available data for that field in the report.

After checking the checkbox for a filter, the filter's configuration settings expand below the checkbox. Enter or select the criteria for the filter, for example, a specific date range or a specific employee, in the fields that appear.

How to Generate and Download the Report

After selecting your columns and applying any filters, click Generate Report at the bottom of the report configuration panel. The report will immediately download to your device as a CSV file. No additional steps are required to initiate the download, clicking Generate Report triggers the download automatically.

After clicking Generate Report, the downloaded CSV file will appear in your device's default downloads location. Open the CSV file in a spreadsheet application such as Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets to view, filter and share your payroll data. The CSV file contains all columns and rows matching your selected configuration and applied filters.

Frequently Asked Questions

What file format does the payroll report download in?

Payroll reports generated in Thryv Workforce Center download as CSV files. A CSV file can be opened in any spreadsheet application, including Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, and Apple Numbers. CSV format is widely accepted by accounting software and tax preparation tools, making it easy to share with your accountant or import into other financial systems.

Can I export a report for a single employee rather than all employees?

Yes. Use the filter options in the report configuration panel to narrow the report to a specific employee. Check the checkbox for the employee filter, then select the specific employee from the filter settings that expand below the checkbox. Click Generate Report to download a CSV file containing data only for the selected employee.

Can I export a report that includes W-2 or tax form data?

Yes. You can export payroll reports that include tax information, but W-2s themselves are downloaded as documents (not as a report export). 

To export tax data, go to Payroll > Run a Report, then choose Payroll Journal or Custom Report and include the Employee Columns that contain tax information, then click Generate Report to download a CSV.
To get W-2s, go to your Documents area and use Actions > Download (or turn on Paperless W-2 to receive them electronically).