Setting up activity-based pay rates

Some companies pay employees different rates depending on certain conditions, such as:

• The type of work they performed
• The location where they worked
• The time of day when they worked (e.g. early shift or night shift)
• Whether or not they were on call
• The day of week worked

For example, a professional mover might be paid $13 an hour when moving, but $16 an hour if they’re driving a moving truck. And the mover’s pay may also vary based on other factors, such as whether or not they’re supervising other movers.

If you’re using TimeAttend Plus, you can base pay rates on the activity the employee worked on. If you’re using Workflow Management, you can base pay rates on the activity the user worked on, on timesheet drop-down custom field values you’ve defined, or on a combination of those.

To assign activity-based rates, you’ll need to:

1. Select activities or custom fields for use with pay rates
2. Assign pay rates in user profiles
3. Confirm other user profile settings
4. Review assigned pay rates

A. Selecting activities or custom fields for use with pay rates

Before you can associate activities (or custom fields) with pay rates, you'll first need to select the fields you want to use from the Pay Rates page.

To select fields to use with pay rates:

1. Ensure you have the edit Pay Rate Settings permission enabled.
2. Ensure you've created any custom timesheet drop-down fields you'll need within timesheet templates.
3. Go to Administration > Pay Codes and Policies > Pay Rates.

4. Select the Pay Rate Settings link.

5. Select Add Field.

6. Choose the conditional fields to associate pay rates with – either Activity or a custom timesheet drop-down field you created.

7. Select Add Field again of you need to use more fields. Click Save Settings when you're done.

All the fields you selected are now available to associate with pay rates in user profiles.

B. Assigning pay rates in user profiles

Once you've selected the fields you want to use with pay rates, you need to associate those fields with rates in individual user profiles.

To assign activity-based pay rates:

4. Go to Administration > Employees and Organization > Users.
5. Click the user whose pay rate you want to set. Or, to edit multiple users at once, enable the check boxes beside each user’s name, and click Edit.
6. Select the Payroll tab.
7. If needed, enter a default rate in the Initial Rate field at the top of the Pay Rates table.

5. Tap Add Rate Type to add a conditional rate.

6. In the row that appears, select an activity (or custom field value) and the rate that will be paid when that activity is selected in the user’s timesheet.

7. Enter the rate to associate with the field. You can click New Rate if you want to set up rates that will take effect in the future.

8. If you need to add more conditional rates, select Add Rate Type and select another activity for each additional rate. Then tap Save.

C. Confirming other user profile settings

Activity-based rates will only be paid to users with the necessary pay rule, activities, and timesheet templates assigned.

To confirm users are set up correctly, within their user profile:

1. On the Payroll tab, check that the user is assigned a custom activity-based rates pay rule.
2. On the Timesheets tab, ensure the user is assigned the activities they will be paid for.
3. Also on the Timesheets tab, ensure the user has a timesheet template with activity and custom fields enabled.

D. Reviewing assigned pay rates

Once you’ve set up pay rates, you can easily review all of them from a single location to ensure they’re accurate.

To review rates for multiple users at once, go to Administration > Pay Codes and Policies > Pay Rates.

A list of all users and their assigned rates displays, along with any effective dates. You can filter this list by user name, department, employee type and, if applicable, groups.

FAQs

If I’m just assigning a single rate to a user, where do I do that?

All pay rates are assigned on the Payroll tab of user profiles.

What happens if I mass edit users, but some of them aren’t assigned an activity I select?

If you associate an activity that doesn’t apply to a user to one of their rates, Invalid Value will display for the user. In this scenario, since the user isn't assigned the activity, they won't be able to enter time against it, so there's no risk of making an erroneous payment. If you later assign them the activity, the pay rate will become usable.

If I update a rate that’s already in use in a timesheet, how do I ensure the new rate is used?

You can check that the timesheet is open, and then trigger recalculation of the pay rule by accessing the timesheet, by clicking the Recalculate button on the timesheet, or by selecting the timesheet and clicking Update Pay Calculations on the Payroll > Timesheets page.

Where can I view rates in reports?

All assigned rates are available on the Administration > Pay Codes and Policies > Pay Rates page. Only default rates will display in reports. If an activity-based rate was in effect for an entry, the pay rates column in reports will be blank for that entry.

Related links

Assigning and reviewing pay rates
How is pay calculated?
Setting up pay rules
Setting up activities for time tracking
Adding users and assigning them user profile settings