Employees of a payroll bureau's client companies ask payslip questions on WhatsApp, verify themselves with an ID number and one-time code, and get a plain-language explanation of what changed. Claims of missing hours or a wrong rate go to a payroll clerk as a ticket.
Typical results
≈24 hrs/mo
Payroll clerk time saved
Under 1 min
Typical time to an answer
24/7
Answers available after every payday
Figures reflect typical results for this kind of automation.
The challenge
A payroll bureau producing 2,500 payslips a month gets a wave of calls and emails in the days after every payday. Most questions are routine: why net pay dropped, what a pension line means or why a tax credit changed. Payroll clerks answer each one by hand, which adds up to about 40 hours a month.
Before and after
Clerk hours per month on payslip questions
−60%Minutes to answer a routine payslip question
−99%The automation
Employees message the bureau's WhatsApp number and verify themselves with their ID number and a one-time code sent to their registered phone. The AI agent reads that employee's current and previous payslip from the payroll software and explains each change in plain language, such as overtime, a pension deduction or a tax credit adjustment. When an employee reports missing hours or a wrong rate, the agent opens a ticket for the payroll clerk with both payslips attached.
How it works
- 01
Employee messages WhatsApp
An employee of a client company writes to the bureau's WhatsApp number with a payslip question.
- 02
Identity check
The agent asks for the ID number and sends a one-time code to the phone registered in the payroll software.
- 03
Payslips compared
The agent reads the current and previous payslip and finds the lines that changed.
- 04
Plain-language answer
It explains each change, such as overtime, a pension deduction or a tax credit adjustment, in short messages.
- 05
Escalation to a clerk
Claims of missing hours or a wrong rate open a ticket for the payroll clerk with both payslips attached.
Starts from
- Employee WhatsApp questions
- ID number + one-time code
- Payslips in payroll software
Delivers
- Plain-language explanation
- Clerk ticket with payslips
The impact
About 60% of payslip questions are answered on WhatsApp without a clerk, at any hour and in seconds. Clerks save roughly 24 hours a month, and the tickets they do receive arrive with both payslips attached and the claim already described.
Questions about this automation
How does the agent make sure it is talking to the right employee?
Before showing anything, the agent asks for the employee's ID number and sends a one-time code to the phone number registered in the payroll software. Only after the code matches does it read that employee's payslips. Several failed attempts lock the conversation and notify the bureau.
What can the agent explain, and what does it pass on?
It explains what appears on the payslips: changes in hours, overtime, pension and fund deductions, tax credits and one-off payments. It never changes payroll data or rules on disputes. Claims that hours are missing or a rate is wrong become a ticket for the payroll clerk, who replies on the same thread.
Which payroll systems can it read from?
It needs read access to payslip data, either through the payroll software's API or a secure export the automation loads after each payroll run. The agent runs on the bureau's WhatsApp number, with OpenAI writing the explanations. This is a multi-step build, usually rolled out in stages.