When you first open up a new payroll period, it will be empty; nothing will show on the report because all the data comes from the timesheets and you haven't yet generated any.
On the Payroll Period report there is a link on the menu called "Manage Timesheets". That will take you to the listing of timesheet associated with the payroll period you have open.
The report reminds you (again!) that you haven't generated timesheets yet.
Click on the "Generate Time Sheets" menu link in the upper left.
The dialogue shows which schedules it is going to pull shifts from to generate the timesheets. Note that you CAN NOT change the list of schedules here; the system has found the schedules that are associated with your payroll group and the dates of the period you've created. This is meant as a quick check - if you see the wrong schedules here, or don't see a schedule that should be here, then you need to adjust your payroll configuration.
Select "Yes, generate them". The system will process for a few moments and then you will see the list of timesheets.
In this case, all timesheets are displayed with a status of "Created" unless there was a problem trying to generate a timesheet (such as missing rates) in which case the timesheet will show a status of "Problems".
The timesheet listing is like any other listing page in RecStaff. If you want to do something with a specific timesheet you can click on the icons on the right side of that timesheet's row - view/edit (pencil), view notes (sticky note) of view PDF. If you want to do something with several of the timesheets you can select them (or All) and the menu options on the left will become active.
When you click the 'X' to leave the Timesheet Listing, you return to the Payroll Period Report which will now be populated with all the date from the timesheets:
You have now generated your timesheets! The next steps depend on the workflow you are following.