Turn payroll spreadsheets into a reviewable PBJ filing.

Gather payroll and agency exports for the entire reporting period. Keep an unchanged original of each file and a source inventory. Remove unrelated patient information, Social Security numbers, banking details, and other fields you do not need for staffing reporting.

EasyPBJ reads CSV, TSV, XLSX, and XLS. The import workflow supports daily rows, dates across columns, and clock-in/out layouts. Each layout still needs a confirmed interpretation; an unfamiliar column name should trigger a question.

Importing a file does not connect your payroll account. Your team exports the file from its payroll system, uploads it, confirms the column mapping, and compares the imported totals with the source. Direct payroll connections have separate provider and access checks. See supported payroll imports before preparing your files.

• Employee IDs: treat 00042 as text. Confirm whether 42 in another system belongs to the same person before combining records.
• Dates: 08/09/2026 can mean August 9 or September 8. Select the source convention; do not decide from the column label alone.
• Hours: distinguish decimal hours from a duration. Seven hours and 30 minutes is 7.5 decimal hours, not 7.30.
• Earnings and employment: a payroll code such as “Regular” describes pay. It does not establish whether someone is exempt, nonexempt, or a contract worker.
• Formulas and sheets: confirm the source sheet and saved values. EasyPBJ does not execute workbook macros or formulas. Missing formula results require a corrected source export.

For a shift that crosses midnight, staffing hours belong to their respective calendar days. Confirm how the source allocated meals before splitting the shift. CMS FAQ, question 21.

Optional AI interpretation proposes mappings and questions. Your team confirms them before records are committed. Manual mapping remains available, and the full-file AI processing choice is explained before use.

For each source, account for the original hours, excluded hours, adjustments, and final submitted hours. Investigate differences at the employee-and-day level. Keep the reason and supporting record for each decision.

Illustrative control total: a source containing 120 hours, with 8 hours of confirmed leave excluded and 2 hours of supported additional meal deductions, produces 110 reportable hours. This example assumes those deductions were not already included in the source.

Watch for overlapping deliveries. A payroll export may already contain agency records also supplied in an agency file. A correction file may replace a prior period rather than add to it. Compare record coverage before appending anything.

Review new payroll codes and changed columns whenever you reuse an import template. A saved mapping is a useful starting point; it is not proof that a changed source means the same thing.

CMS provides an Excel-to-XML template in its PBJ technical downloads. EasyPBJ adds a shared workflow for source interpretation, review, reconciliation, and export. Use either approach with a complete source trail and a final comparison of the output.

In EasyPBJ, generate the XML, reconciliation workbook, and audit package from the same approved revision. A valid XML structure does not prove that the source data is complete or that every hour is reportable.

Continue with the review checklist and iQIES upload and validation steps. Exporting and CMS acceptance are separate stages.