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Background: California law requires private employers with 100 or more payroll employees, including at least one California employee, to file an annual pay data report with the California Civil Rights Department (CRD). The report captures workforce demographics, pay bands, job categories, and hours data, and must be submitted through the CRD’s online portal by the second Wednesday of May each year. For Reporting Year 2025, the filing deadline is May 13, 2026.

Until now, Greenshades did not generate a file that met CRD’s current-year specifications. Clients were required to export raw payroll data and manually restructure it to match the required format, a time-intensive process that introduced risk of field errors, outdated templates, and portal rejection.

What’s new

Greenshades now includes a California Payroll Employee Report, available as a downloadable .xlsx file generated directly from your system data. Select a snapshot period (any single pay period between October 1 and December 31), and the report will:

  • Assign employees to establishments based on their work location effective on the snapshot date, with automatic headquarters flagging
  • Group employees by Job Category (EEO), Race/Ethnicity/Sex, and Pay Band in alignment with CRD’s current reporting-year codes
  • Calculate mean and median hourly rates and total annual hours per employee group, using full-year pay and hours data
  • Include an Employee Detail worksheet with one row per employee, showing the inputs behind every grouped row to support your review before filing

After downloading, clients will need to complete a small number of fields that are not stored in Greenshades, including NAICS codes, Major Activity descriptions, any missing Job Categories, and a review of observer-perception demographic groupings before uploading to the CRD portal.

Benefits

  • Reduces manual effort: The complex grouping, calculations, and CRD-required field formatting are handled automatically, eliminating the need to rebuild the report from raw data exports.
  • Lowers compliance risk: Output follows CRD’s current reporting-year specifications, reducing the likelihood of portal rejection due to outdated templates or incorrect field structure.
  • Supports client review: The included Employee Detail tab gives administrators a clear view of the underlying data, making it easier to identify and correct any gaps before submission.