Dispatches
FIG. 19 AI enterprise search → FIG. 18 Athena Python SDK → FIG. 17 Athena Skills → FIG. 16 Web Monitor → FIG. 15 Athena for Operations → FIG. 14 Athena for Analytics → FIG. 13 AI search for your DMS → FIG. 12 Multiplayer AI agents → FIG. 11 Athena Anywhere → FIG. 10 Hey Athena → FIG. 09 Athena for Finance → FIG. 08 What code review becomes → FIG. 07 GTM without a CRM → FIG. 06 The company brain → FIG. 05 Two identical stacks → FIG. 04 Finance builds its own APIs → FIG. 03 Model routing in production → FIG. 02 Knowledge workers don't have GitHub → FIG. 01 Pricing, read from transcripts →
Solutions · HR & People

Normalize payroll intake and flag exceptions before run

Athena reads Workday and ADP extracts, normalizes department spreadsheets, flags rule violations, and builds the exception workbench your system lacks.

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A two-week task. Finished in 15 to 20 minutes.

Payroll_Exceptions_06_00.xlsxEmployee IDHoursOvertime CodeNet PayEntityEmployee IDover 80 hrsmissingnet payRetail-WestEmployee IDhours workedOT codenegativeCorpEmployee IDhours workedOT codenet payRetail-EastEmployee IDhours workedOT codenet payRetail-WestEmployee IDover 80 hrsmissingnet payWarehouseEmployee IDhours workedOT codenet payCorpWHO CHANGED WHATAthenaApplied rules to 2,214rowsAthenaFlagged 37 exceptions withcitationsPayroll OpsReview flagged rows beforerun
Fig. 01Workday extract flagged with the rule and source citation for each exception
  • Runs in your VPC
  • Permissions inherited from the source
  • Workday and ADP extracts
  • SharePoint
  • Outlook
  • Excel
  • Attribution on every change
The problem

Your system cannot flag exceptions before run

Payroll runs on extracts nobody can query. Dozens of department spreadsheets in dozens of shapes arrive every cycle. The exception review is a macro someone wrote in 2019. And the new hire spends three weeks asking what happened before they arrived.

Find what is wrong before payroll runs. Teach the new hire in an afternoon.

Every cycleOvernight14 dept spreadsheetsDifferent shapesManual reconcileSticky: FridayTwo-week task, macro from 2019One normalized table40 rows need reviewFriday is freeFinished in 15 to 20 minutes
Fig. 02Department spreadsheets normalized into one table with exceptions flagged
How it works

Extract. Normalize. Flag. Explain.

  1. Extract. Workday or ADP exports land in SharePoint or an inbox. A workflow picks them up on a schedule.

  2. Normalize. Dozens of department spreadsheets in different shapes become one clean table. The agent normalizes columns and rows into one table; every changed cell is attributed.

  3. Flag. Rules you define, in plain language, applied to every row. Each exception cites the rule and the source line.

  4. Explain. The workbench for payroll ops. A summary for the VP. A notification to the department owner for the two that cannot wait.

01Workday ·ADP extractsDepartmentsheets land02NormalizeOne table03Rules inplain …Applied toevery row04ExceptionworkbenchRule + sourcecited for each05OwnernotifiedReviewedExceptions flagged with rule and source; workbench ready for payroll ops
Fig. 03Extracts land, normalize overnight, rules flag exceptions with citations
Example workflow

Example workflow: Payroll exception workbench

SURFACES INWHAT COMES INTHE PLATFORMWHAT GOES OUTDELIVERED BACKWebMobile · voiceText (SMS)Slack · TeamsChromeOffice add-inMeeting botMeetingsWordPowerPointSheetsFiles · PDFsDataAgentsAppsSessionsSpacesStudiosMeetingsLakehouseSemantic modelsDatabaseDashboardsWordPowerPointDashboardsData · APIsApps · portalsWebMobile · voiceText (SMS)EmailSlack · TeamsChromeOffice add-inMeeting botEmail1Workflows (AOPs)2Library3Sheets41 INWorkday payroll extractlands in SharePoint inboxat 06:00 on schedule2 RUNAgent normalizes extract intoone table, attributes everychanged cell, applies rulesin plain language to everyrow3 CHECKEach exception cites the rulethat fired and the source line:hours > 80 with no overtimecode, negative net pay4 OUTException workbench in AthenaSheets shows 2,214 rows, 37exceptions flagged with ruleand citation; payroll opsreviews before payroll runs
Fig. 04The route on the system map: Email → Workflows (AOPs) → Library → Sheets. Connectors: Workday extract · SharePoint · Athena Sheets · notification

Use cases

The payroll exception workbench.

Workday extracts in; exceptions flagged with the rule that caught them, out. The payroll exception workbench was built for a Fortune 500 retailer because the system of record does not flag these exceptions.

payroll_exceptions_06_00.xlsxEmployee IDHoursNet PayEntityStatusEmployee IDover 80 hrsnormalRetail-WestflaggedEmployee IDnormalnormalRetail-EastflaggedEmployee IDnormalnegativeCorporateflaggedEmployee IDnormalnormalRetail-WestcleanEmployee IDnormalnormalCorporatecleanEmployee IDover 80 hrsnormalDistributionflaggedWHO CHANGED WHATAthenahours > 80 with noovertime codeAthenanegative net payAthenaduplicate employee IDacross entities
Fig. 05Workday extract flagged with the rule that caught each exception: overtime, negative pay, duplicates

Excel intake normalization, overnight.

Dozens of department spreadsheets in different shapes into one clean table. A customer's two-week Finance and HR task finished in 15 to 20 minutes; the prototype was built the night before the first working session.

Normalized_Intake.xlsxDepartmentEmployeeHoursRateTotalSalesAnalysthoursratetotalMarketingManagerhoursratetotalITEngineerhoursratetotalFinanceControllerhoursratetotalOperationsSpecialisthoursratetotalWHO CHANGED WHATAthenaNormalized 14 departmentspreadsheetsAthena40 rows need reviewFinance OpsReview flagged rows
Fig. 06Fourteen department spreadsheets normalized into one table overnight

The new hire who has heard every call.

A new hire asks what happened on every customer call, every planning meeting, every review before they joined. Answers with timestamps. Ramp in an afternoon, not three weeks.

SESSIONSummarize everything about the Q3planning cycle before I startedQ3 planning: calls, revisions,decisions. Key moments withtimestamps:Call · timestampPlanning discussionCall · timestampDecision madeFinal plan · timestampApproved by committeeAthena via Spaces
Fig. 07New hire ramps in an afternoon: every call and decision before they joined

Employee-management automations.

Recurring reports, policy Q&A from your handbook with citations, offboarding checklists, and talent-group research. Each with the permissions of the person asking.

Employee handbook policy answerRemote work is permitted with manager approval forroles that do not require on-site presence.Employees must submit a remote work agreement format least two weeks before the proposed start date.Equipment requests for home office setup arereviewed by IT and approved based on role …Remote employees are expected to be available duringcore business hours in their local time zone.Employee handbookpage 12Athena · with your permissions
Fig. 08Policy Q&A from handbook with citations, answered with the permissions of the person asking

Comp modeling with attribution.

Scenario weighting over years of history, roughly 95% of the analysis handled by the system, the committee's judgment applied at the end, every assumption change attributed. Built for a firm's financial operations.

=WEIGHTEDAVG(history_years, scenario_weights)PartnerBase scenarioAdjustedWeightAttributionPartner Abase compadjusted upincreasedCommitteePartner Bbase compbase compunchanged—Partner Cbase compadjusted upincreasedCommitteePartner Dbase compadjusted downdecreasedCommitteePartner Ebase compbase compunchanged—WHO CHANGED WHATAthenaScenario weighting overyears of historyCommitteeAdjusted weight forPartner A upCommitteeAdjusted weight forPartner C upCommitteeAdjusted weight forPartner D down
Fig. 09Comp scenario over years of history with committee judgment applied, every assumption attributed
What customers say
“As if, you know, an analyst is sitting next to you and building it for you.”
VP Finance & HR · A Fortune 500 retailer
“That's why I gave you my best use case.”
HR/Payroll lead · A large health system
“It's good to understand the capability of the platform. That how far, and how quickly you guys can get these things going [...] that has been impressive overall.”
VP-level AI leader · A Fortune 500 retailer
“Lets us get a lot more out of our data than [...] We can sit on top of all of the data in [our data warehouse] as opposed to just, like, our little ingested, you know, three gigabytes semantic models. I think we have a lot of power here.”
Analytics lead · A Fortune 500 retailer
“Gave Athena the spreadsheet, explained which column I was trying to figure out, and then ten secs it told me... exactly how the calculation was based on the other data.”
Analyst · A global manufacturer
“He wrote the entire stuff. By itself. And I was there, and I was thinking, alright. If I had to write all this stuff, I mean, I would've spent days, days, days.”
Manufacturing analyst · A global manufacturer
“I send that to the programmer and he said, alright. I read your file. I copied the section of the code because he has the right interface, and it works. Wow. Just like magic.”
Manufacturing analyst · A global manufacturer
“One workspace. All different, let's say, avatars of their output data. Right? Suddenly, it's dashboard. Excel is here. PowerPoint is when it's all together. It's very impressive.”
Global Sustainability lead · A global manufacturer
“Use the Athena platform probably closer to the concept and how it was designed, like, with the spaces architecture where you've got a set of primitives and capabilities, and you bring together the right set of capabilities to solve a task.”
Audit lead · A global professional services firm
“Digital worker, it gets spun up, it gets given access to the toolkits that it needs. It gets given access to the data that it needs. Just exists for the period it needs to exist to perform the task. And then it gets torn back down again afterwards.”
Audit lead · A global professional services firm

Verbatim from customer calls. Customers anonymized.

Platform

Three ways to build

Agents for the question: "which employees moved cost centers this quarter." Workflows (Agent Operating Procedures) for the recurring: the extract, the normalization, the exception run. Applications for the many: the workbench payroll ops opens every cycle, with access included in Athena services.

Stack

Integrations and deployment

Workday and ADP extracts, SharePoint, Outlook, Excel, your HRIS through connector or governed browser. Runs in your VPC if the data requires it. Permissions inherited from the source; the agent sees what its user sees.

What to plan for

Athena does not touch payroll execution. It finds what is wrong before payroll runs, and it does not change a record without a typed, approved action.

FAQ

What can AI agents do for HR?

Check payroll inputs for errors, keep HR data in sync, answer policy questions, and support onboarding and workforce reporting.

How is employee data protected?

Agents inherit access from your HR systems, every read is logged, and Athena can run in your own environment.

Can employees ask HR questions directly?

Yes. An assistant answers from your policies with sources and routes anything it cannot answer.

Where should we start?

With a payroll or data-quality check that runs every cycle.

One platform underneath

AGS · Athena Governance System

Records every change by a person or an agent, rolls back one contributor's edits without losing anyone else's, and keeps the model, instructions, and sources behind each agent action.

Palladium · deployment

How the platform is deployed: Athena's managed cloud, your cloud on AWS, GCP, or Azure, on-prem, air-gapped, or GovCloud. Same platform in every option.

How it fits together

Build, Work, and Data on top; 150+ connectors and every surface in and out; one map of the whole platform.

Related

Related products and stories

Athena Sheets →Over a million rows. AI in the cell. Every cell has an author.Workflows →Your SOP, running on a schedule. With a budget and an approval gate.Meetings →The transcript is where the work starts.Spreadsheet consolidation →Department spreadsheets, each in a different shape, collapsed into a single intake table every two weeks—now in fifteen minutes.
Athena Library

Run this on a schedule

Ready-made HR briefs you can run on a schedule.

Bring the extract with the exceptions in it.

We will flag them, cite the rules, and hand you the workbench.

Bring the extract with the exceptions in it