Data Files samples / HR, payroll and timesheets

Wrenmoor Garden Centre

Staff, contracts, holidays, absence, timesheets, pay runs and payslips for a business with employees.

Download 247 KB17 tables, 19 queries, 10 reports, 5 print templates and 11,295 invented records, dated back from 2026-10-22.

Rutba Data Files with Wrenmoor Garden Centre, the hr, payroll and timesheets sample, open at its print template Payslip: a page laid out with the business's own name and address at the head and one of its records filled in, beside the list of the database's tables and how many records each holds — Wrenmoor Garden Centre in Rutba Data Files, made with its invented records and open at its print template Payslip.

Overview

A staff database for any small business with employees: who works for you and on what terms, the contracts and checks you hold for each person, holiday and sickness, weekly timesheets, and the pay runs and payslips that follow from them. It is laid out so that a shop, a cafe, a salon or a workshop can use it as it is, or add its tables to its own sample.

The records are those of Wrenmoor Garden Centre, an invented garden centre with a cafe and about thirty staff in three departments: the office, the shop and plant nursery, and the cafe. Managers and office staff are salaried. Everyone else is paid by the hour from a weekly timesheet, and many work part-time. Two seasonal assistants join each March and leave at the end of September. Pay is monthly: salaries for the month, and hours a month behind, for the weeks that ended in the month before.

The records start on 1 January last year and run a day at a time to today. People join and leave, book holiday and fall ill, work extra hours in the spring rush and before Christmas, and are paid; the rest of this year's holidays are booked ahead. Each payslip has a line for every payment and deduction, with the year-to-date figures, and each person paid last year has an annual pay summary for it.

The tax, social insurance and pension rates in this sample are invented examples, named "(example rate)". They are not the rules of any country. Before paying anyone, replace them in Deduction Rates with your own country's current rules or your payroll provider's figures.

In Rutba Data Files, choose HR, payroll and timesheets on the start screen, then With sample records to look around, or Empty for the same design with nothing in it.

It suits, with small changes

A shop or a chain of two or three shops
A cafe, restaurant or takeaway
A salon, barber or spa
A workshop, garage or small factory
A cleaning or care company with hourly staff
A charity or club with paid staff

Read on

Tutorial: the everyday tasks: 8 everyday tasks, step by step, each naming what to open.
Tables, fields and relationships: every field of 17 tables, and how they are related.
Queries, forms, reports and print templates: what each one shows, its criteria and calculated columns, and when to print it.

Things you should know

Everything in a sample's records is invented: the business, the people, their addresses, e-mail addresses on example domains that reach nobody, and phone numbers from the ranges kept for drama and fiction. Tax, company and bank numbers are placeholders of zeros.
The dates count back from the day the file was made, and some run on into the weeks after it, as real bookings and due dates do. Made from the Data Files start screen, a sample is dated from that day. Queries that compare with today (overdue, due this week) show more as a downloaded file gets older.
To start empty, choose the same business on the start screen and then Empty: the same tables, queries, forms, reports and print templates, with nothing in them but the Start Here guide.
Your records live in one file on your computer. Keep copies: File, Save As makes one, and a copy on another drive or in your own cloud storage keeps it safe if this computer is lost. Close the database before copying the file by hand.
Every change to the design (a new field, a renamed table) is a numbered step that Data Files keeps, so you can see what was changed and when.
The tax, social insurance and pension rates in this sample are invented examples, named "(example rate)". They are not the rules of any country. Before paying anyone, replace them in Deduction Rates with your own country's current rules or your payroll provider's figures.
Data Files keeps and prints the payroll but does not work it out: the payslip lines, the deductions and the totals are typed in, as the tutorial shows. The sample's were worked out the same way, from the hours, the rates and the Deduction Rates table. If you use a payroll provider, type in the figures from their payslips instead.
The holiday year and the pay year both run from 1 January to 31 December in the sample. Change the dates in Holiday Allowances and Pay Years if yours differ, for example where the tax year starts in April or July.
Holiday in the sample is 5.6 weeks a year, which is 28 days for someone working five days a week, shared out for part-timers and for people who join or leave in the year, and rounded up to a half day. That is the business's own choice; check the least your country allows.
Days Booked on each Holiday Allowances record is kept up by hand: add a request's days when you approve it. The query Holiday taken and to come adds up the approved absences themselves, so the two can be checked against each other.
Only people paid by the hour keep timesheets in the sample. Overtime is worked out for the whole week: the hours above the contract hours, at one and a half times the hourly rate. A day of holiday or sickness is not a timesheet line; it is paid from the absence.
Everyone is paid monthly, on the last working day of the month. Salaries are paid for that month. Hours are paid a month behind, for the whole weeks (Monday to Sunday) that ended in the month before, so every timesheet is approved well before it is paid. A payslip belongs to the pay year its pay date falls in, so January's pay for December's hours counts in the new year.
Bank details are noughts and the tax code is empty in every record. Employee numbers and document references are your own, never a government or identity number. Keep reasons for absence general: medical details do not belong in this file.
The payroll cost queries add up by the department each person is in now, so someone who moved department counts in the new one for the months before the move.
A print template prints every record of its table: the Payslip prints every payslip, and the Leave request every absence. To print one, open it on its form and print from there, or choose the records when you print.

Starting with your own records

Start with Business, your own name and address, which every document prints, then Departments and Pay Years. Fill in Deduction Rates with your own country's current rates or your payroll provider's. Then add each person in Employees with a Pay Changes record for the terms they are on, their Documents Held and this year's Holiday Allowances. Absences and timesheets come in as people book holiday and work their weeks, and Pay Runs, Payslips and Annual Summaries as you pay them.

Making it yours

Every change to the design is a numbered step in Data Files, so a change can be seen and undone.

Pay hourly staff weekly: set their Pay Frequency to Weekly and add a weekly pay run, with one timesheet on each payslip.
Add more kinds of pay, such as a bonus, tips or a night allowance: they are Payment lines on the payslip with an Item of their own, and the Pay to date by item query adds them up.
Keep timesheets for salaried staff too: add a timesheet for them each week without paying overtime, to see the hours they really work.
Pay overtime at more than one rate, such as double time on public holidays: add a Rate Multiplier field to Timesheet Lines and an Overtime line for each rate.
Track training and certificates, such as first aid or food hygiene: add them to Documents Held with an Expires On, and the Documents to chase query will show those running out.
Keep a rota: add a Shifts table (person, date, start, end) for the weeks ahead and a query of who is working each day.
Run more than one site: add a Sites table and point Employees at it, then group the payroll cost and overtime queries by site.

Questions people ask

Are the tax and pension rates real?: No. The tax, social insurance and pension rates in this sample are invented examples, named "(example rate)". They are not the rules of any country. Before paying anyone, replace them in Deduction Rates with your own country's current rules or your payroll provider's figures.
How do I print one person's payslip, or a whole month's?: For one, open the Payslips form, find the payslip by its Number or the person, and print it with the print template Payslip. For a month, find the run's Number in the query Pay run totals, then open the print template Payslip from Print templates and choose the payslips of that run.
Can I pay some staff weekly?: Yes. Set their Pay Frequency to Weekly and add a weekly pay run each week (Frequency Weekly, the Monday to Sunday in Period Starts and Period Ends), with a payslip for each of them from that week's timesheet. Share the yearly thresholds and fixed amounts by 52 instead of 12.
Why is someone missing from Holidays left?: Holidays left lists the people who have a Holiday Allowances record for the year that takes in today and have no Leave Date. Add this year's record for anyone new. Leavers are left out on purpose.
How is a part-timer's holiday worked out?: Their days a week times the full-time days, divided by five: three days a week with 28 full-time days is 16.8, rounded up to 17. Someone who joins during the year has a share for the months left.
How is overtime worked out?: For the whole week: the hours on the timesheet above the person's contract hours. On the lines, it is the part of the day when the week went over. It is paid at one and a half times their hourly rate.
Where do the year-to-date figures come from?: From the payslips: each payslip keeps Gross to Date, Deductions to Date and Net to Date, and each line its Year to Date. The queries Pay to date and Pay to date by item add up the payslips themselves for each pay year.
Can I use the contract summary as it is?: It is a plain example written for this sample, not legal advice. Have it checked for your own country, change the words in the print template Employment contract summary, and keep your full contract and staff handbook alongside it.

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