Paylocity is a cloud-based payroll and HR platform that your employer sets up, and you access as an employee to view pay stubs, clock in and out, request time off, update your direct deposit, and more. Everything starts with registering your account, which requires a Company ID your employer provides. Here’s how to navigate the platform from first login through daily use.
Register Your Account
Before you can do anything in Paylocity, you need to create your login at access.paylocity.com/Register. Have five pieces of information ready: your Company ID, last name, Social Security number, and date of birth. The Company ID is assigned by Paylocity to your employer, so if you don’t have it, ask your HR department or company administrator. Paylocity will not speak directly with employees about account issues, so your internal HR team is always your first point of contact.
Once you enter your personal details and click Continue, you’ll create a username and password. Usernames must be 3 to 20 characters, aren’t case sensitive, and can only include periods and underscores as special characters. Passwords are case sensitive and must meet the platform’s minimum security requirements.
The final step is selecting three security challenge questions and providing answers (up to 80 characters each). These are used to verify your identity if you ever need to reset your login. After reviewing everything on the confirmation screen, click Finish to complete registration.
View Your Pay Stubs
On a desktop, log in and go to Employee Self-Service. Select the Pay tab, then click Checks. Choose the paycheck date you want and click Download Paystub to save or print it. If you need several at once, select the pay periods you want, choose View Summary, then right-click the summary to print.
On the mobile app, tap Pay from the menu and select the envelope icon in the top-right corner. You’ll be asked to create a password the first time, and then you can email yourself a PDF of your most recent pay stub. To get older ones, tap History at the bottom of the screen, select the check date, and use the envelope icon again to email it.
Update Your Direct Deposit
To change your bank account or add a new one on desktop, go to Employee Self-Service, select Pay, then select More. Open the Direct Deposit Accounts tab, where you can either edit an existing account or choose Add New Direct Deposit Account from the dropdown menu. You’ll pick your account type (checking or savings) and enter your routing and account numbers.
On the mobile app, select your name from the main menu, swipe to the bottom of your profile, and tap Edit. Make your changes and save before navigating away. Updates typically take effect for the next pay cycle, though timing depends on when your employer processes payroll.
Clock In and Track Your Hours
Paylocity offers several ways to record work hours, and which ones are available to you depends on how your employer has configured the system.
- Self-Service clock: After logging in on your work computer, a time clock appears in the upper-right corner of the self-service portal. Click it to punch in or out.
- Time and Labor module: Select Time & Labor from the dropdown menu, or click Launch Time & Attendance from the clock icon. This opens a full timecard view where you can clock in, clock out, or manually enter hours after a shift.
- Kiosk clock: Some workplaces use shared tablet clocks. Enter your Employee ID, select Login, and choose your action (clock in, clock out, start break, etc.) from the employee dashboard.
- Mobile punch: Open the Paylocity mobile app and use the Punch function to clock in or out from your phone.
If your role requires you to enter hours after the fact rather than punching in real time, navigate to Time & Labor and click on Timecard. You’ll fill in your start and end times for each shift directly on the timecard grid.
Request Time Off
Paylocity’s Time Off feature lets you submit leave requests, check your available balances, and track the status of any pending requests. Your time-off balances reflect what was calculated as of the last payroll processing date, so they stay current with each pay cycle.
To submit a request, navigate to the Time Off section and select Make a Request. Choose the type of leave (vacation, sick, personal, or whatever categories your employer has set up), enter the dates, and submit. The system automatically sends your request to your direct manager for approval. You’ll get a notification once your manager approves or denies it, and your balance updates accordingly. You can check the status of any request at any time, with each one labeled as pending, approved, denied, or canceled.
Access Early Pay
If your employer has enabled Paylocity’s On Demand Payment feature, you can request a portion of your earned wages before your regular payday. This isn’t an advance or a loan. The system calculates your real-time net pay during the active pay cycle, factoring in taxes and deductions, so you can only request money you’ve actually earned.
You can submit a request from either the desktop portal or the mobile app. If you make your request by 2 PM Central Time, the funds are available the same day. The amount you receive on your next regular paycheck will be reduced by whatever you withdrew early.
How Managers Approve Requests
If you supervise other employees, Paylocity routes their time-off requests and timecard submissions to you automatically. When an employee submits a time-off request through self-service, you’ll receive an alert prompting you to approve or deny it. Once you respond, the system notifies the employee, adjusts their time-off balance, and flags them as out of office during the approved dates.
Timecard approvals work similarly. At the end of each pay period, you’ll review your team’s submitted timecards in the Time & Labor module, verify the hours are accurate, and approve them so payroll can process on schedule. Staying on top of these approvals matters because unapproved timecards can delay an employee’s pay.
Tips for Navigating the Platform
The mobile app mirrors most of what you can do on desktop, but the navigation is slightly different. Desktop uses a top menu bar and dropdown selections, while the mobile app relies on a hamburger menu and swipe gestures. If you can’t find a feature on one platform, try the other.
Bookmark the login page (access.paylocity.com) so you don’t accidentally end up on a lookalike site. And remember that for any account issues, password resets you can’t resolve on your own, or questions about your Company ID, your company’s HR administrator is the person to contact. Paylocity’s policy prevents them from working directly with individual employees on account-level questions.