Introduction
Managing employee pay rates and salary setups is essential for accurate payroll processing. The Pay Info card, located within the Employee Profile, is Empeon's central tool for viewing, maintaining, and confirming how Empeon Workforce calculates employee pay.
Per the details of this article, the Pay Info card includes a variety of settings to help ensure that employees are paid exactly as needed every payroll.
Pay Info Card
To locate the Pay Info Card, navigate to the Payroll section of Employee Profile: People tab (Select Employee) > Payroll > Pay Info.
The Pay Info Card is separated into two sections that can be individually adjusted as needed. The top section's settings control how the employee's pay is calculated, while the bottom section identifies the employee's per hour or salary rate and maintains a history of rate setup changes.
Pay Info Card: Top Section
Once you click the "Edit" icon on the Top Section, the pop-up window below will appear. See below for information about what each field controls.
- Paid As - This setting determines whether the employee's pay is calculated by rate or by salary amount depending on which pay related field is used in the 'Bottom Section' of the Pay Info card. Setting Paid As to 'Hourly' instructs the system to apply the employee's Default Rate to the recorded hours of a check. Setting Paid As to 'Salary' is an automatic pay setting; 'Salary' will apply the employee's Salary Per Pay Period amount automatically on the employee's regular batch check every payroll.
- Default Hours & Auto Pay Hours - Often the Default Hours field is used to identify the amount of hours an employee is expected to work during a given pay period. Its technical purpose for the Pay Info card is that the value entered in this field will be multiplied by the employee's Default Rate amount and applied on their check automatically, only if the Auto Pay Hours box is also checked.
- Pay Frequency - This field identifies which federal and state pay frequency tax tables should be applied when calculating tax withholdings on the employee's check. In almost all cases, this should match the organization's pay frequency. This field should also populate automatically when the employee is originally added to the system.
- Pay Group - Use this field to identify additional pay related info for your organization if needed. By default, this field is for informational purposes only and does not affect payroll calculations.
- Mail Group - Use this field to identify additional pay related info for your organization if needed. By default, this field is for informational purposes only and does not affect payroll calculations.
Pay Info Card: Bottom Section
The bottom section of the Pay Info Card will be where you establish the salary or rate amounts to be applied for the employee's pay. This section will also have a Show History section that will display the past rates and/or salaries that were previously used for employees.
Like many other setups on the employee's profile, there is the option to "Change" an employee's rate or "Edit" it. Changing the rate creates a historical record of previous rates for the employee. Editing overwrites the existing setup and will not save a history. For more information about when it's best to use one or the other, review Empeon's Change vs. Edit article.
In most instances it's appropriate to save profile setup history, so when clicking the "Change" button you will be prompted with the following fields:
- Effective Date - This is the date the new rate will take effect. It will also identify the date when the current rate will end. The date will initially populate to the current date that you are making the change, however the start date can be adjusted to a future date if needed.
- Default Rate - For employees whose pay is calculated by hour, identify their default hourly pay rate in this field.
- Rate Per - For informational purposes, there are several options to indicate a Rate Per (hour, day, mile, etc.). This field doesn't affect how pay is calculated on a check. Please note: Empeon's reporting solutions can only provide reports referencing hours, rates, and/or amounts.
- Salary Per Pay Period - Use this field to identify an applicable employee's per pay period salary. Be sure to apply the per pay period salary amount, not the yearly salary amount.
- Estimated Annual Salary - This field will automatically populate with an estimated annual salary if a Salary Per Pay Period amount is applied. It will also automatically calculate an estimated annual salary if both the Default Hours and Default Rate fields are applied a value.
IMPORTANT NOTE: For organizations that use Empeon's Attendance module and have salaried employees whose regular hours are auto populating on timecards; it's usually best to have their Pay Info card setup with an hourly rate and to leave off any auto pays. If your organization has salaried employees hours on timecards and you aren't sure how to best address their Pay Info card change needs, contact Empeon Client Services for further guidance.
Rate Change Requests
Per Empeon's User & Role module, Workforce Administrators can restrict other Workforce Users from accessing various employee profile items, including employee pay rates. However, restricted Users can be set up with the ability to request rate changes within the Pay Info card. These requests can then be approved or denied by higher level Workforce Users. For more information on how to setup this solution, review Empeon's article Pay Rate Change Request & Approval Workflow.