Patent ID: 8326714

Claim:
A method for providing payroll information for a worker of an employer, comprising: obtaining, from the worker and by a payroll preview application executing on a processor of a computer system, a number of hours worked by the worker during a portion of a current payroll period that has progressed; adding, after the portion of the current payroll period that has progressed and before an end of the current payroll period, the number of hours worked to a payroll account of the worker; updating, after the portion of the current payroll period that has progressed and before the end of the current payroll period, a balance of the payroll account using the number of hours worked by the worker to obtain an updated balance for the current payroll period that has not fully progressed; calculating, using the processor and before the end of the current payroll period, a compensation amount for the worker based on the updated balance and an hourly wage for the worker; calculating, using the processor and before the end of the current payroll period, a predictive compensation amount for the worker by dividing the compensation amount by a fraction of the current payroll period that has progressed; displaying, to the worker, the compensation amount accrued based on the number of hours worked and the predictive compensation amount predicted based on the number of hours worked and the fraction of the current payroll period that has progressed; obtaining a compensation goal of the worker, wherein the compensation goal is a monetary amount larger than the predictive compensation; calculating, using the processor, a difference between the compensation goal and the predictive compensation amount; identifying, using the processor after the portion of the current payroll period that has progressed and before the end of the current payroll period, a distribution scheme for distributing the difference across a remaining portion of the current payroll period based on a varying number of workable hours in each of a plurality of days in the remaining portion and determining an additional number of required working hours in each of the plurality of days for the worker to reduce the difference between the compensation goal and the predictive compensation amount, wherein the varying number of workable hours is pre-determined by the worker prior to obtaining the compensation goal of the worker; displaying, to the worker by the payroll preview application, the additional number of required working hours in each of the plurality of days that the worker must work prior to the end of the current payroll period in order to reduce the difference between the compensation goal and the predictive compensation amount; and issuing a payroll period compensation after the current payroll period based on the number of hours worked in the current payroll period.