The Ready for Payroll date marks the point up to which time has been approved and handed to payroll. Anything dated on or before it is locked: employees can't submit it, and approvers can't edit, approve, or delete it. The lock keeps Scheduling & Time Tracking and Payroll from drifting apart once hours have been paid.
You set the date on the Time Approval page. At the end of each pay period, an admin or manager approves the outstanding time and clicks Ready for Payroll.
Entries dated after the Ready for Payroll date can be submitted for any work date. Rise doesn't check the work date against the current pay period.
Say your cut-off is August 30, and someone realizes they never logged a few days of work from earlier in the month. They can enter and submit those hours before the cut-off, as long as the dates fall after the current Ready for Payroll date. The cut-off is a date lock, not a pay period restriction.
Every approved entry creates a work day right away, whatever its date. When you advance the Ready for Payroll date, every work day on or before that date is marked Completed. Only Completed work days can be imported into an input sheet.
The import is scoped to the pay run's pay period, so hours land in the pay run whose period contains the work date, not in whichever run happens to be open:
An admin or manager can reopen a closed window by moving the Ready for Payroll date back, then putting it where it was.
The Ready for Payroll date can't move back more than 32 days. Older hours can't come in through Scheduling & Time Tracking at all. Pay them directly in Payroll with a manual input sheet line or an ad hoc pay run, and contact Rise Support if you need a hand.