Payroll pay runs: hours, overtime, salaries and lines

Pay runs shows each pay schedule's next pay period with Start pay run, then the team's pay runs, newest pay date first.

Starting a pay run

Start pay run makes a draft pay run for that period with every employee paid on the schedule who works in it: someone who starts during the period is in it, and someone whose last day has passed is not. Each employee's lines are worked out at once:

• Hours come from where their page says: their Time Tracking entries, their worked shifts in Staff Scheduling (paid minutes, after unpaid breaks), or hours you enter on the pay run. An entry or shift counts on the date it starts, in Payroll's time zone, even when it ends after midnight.
• Overtime, when it is set in Payroll's settings, is worked out day by day first, then week by week on what is left, and paid with the Overtime pay item. A week that started before the pay period counts its earlier hours toward the weekly limit.
• Salary is the yearly salary divided by the pay periods in a year. When an employee starts, leaves or has a new salary partway through a period, each part is paid for its days.
• Standing lines in force on the pay date are added. A percentage is a percentage of gross pay.

Start off-cycle pay run, in More, pays a bonus or a correction outside the pay schedule. It asks for the pay date and the employees, and starts with no lines.

The pay run's page

Under the pay run's name, a band lists anything to check: a timer still running, hours on dates with no pay, an employee with no hours or no pay, net pay below zero, and time changed in a pay period already paid. Each names the employee, which opens their lines. The table shows each employee's hours, gross pay, deductions, net pay and employer contributions, with the totals.

Choose an employee's name to open their lines. There you can:

• enter their hours, when their hours are entered on each pay run;
• see the entries or shifts behind an hours line;
• add a line: an amount, which can be negative for a correction; hours at a rate; or, for a deduction or a contribution, a percentage of gross pay. Name it as the payslip should show it, such as "Correction for 1 to 14 September";
• remove a line;
• leave them out of this pay run, or put them back.

Work out again reads hours, pay and standing lines afresh, after you have changed them, and keeps the lines you added on the pay run. Pay date changes where it is shown. Delete pay run, in More, deletes a draft; its period can then be started again.

Approving

Approve shows the pay run's totals and pay date before it approves. It is refused while anyone's net pay is below zero, and when the pay run changed after you opened it, so what you approve is what you saw. The first approval gives the pay run its number. Each payslip is then kept as it was approved, with its year-to-date totals: the employee's opening totals for the tax year, their earlier payslips paid in the same tax year, and this one. Changing an employee's name or pay afterwards does not change it.

On the Free plan, an approved pay run pays up to 2 employees; paid plans pay everyone.

Return to draft, in More, makes an approved pay run that is not paid yet a draft again. It keeps its number.

Paying

Pay the employees from your bank, then choose Mark as paid. It asks for the date the money left, the pay date to start with, and, when your books are kept in Accounting, the bank or card account it left from. Marking as paid releases each payslip to the employee: everyone whose Magpie account is linked is emailed a link to theirs (Read your payslips). The email shows no amount. A paid pay run cannot change again; correct a mistake with a line on a later pay run, which can be negative.

Each employee's drawer opens their payslip, as they will read it, with Download PDF, and Resend payslip email sends the link again. For an employee without an account, download the PDF and give it to them, or invite them to read their payslips from their page.

In Accounting

When the team's books are kept in Accounting, an approved pay run is added to them on its pay date: gross pay to Wages and salaries, the team's contributions to Employer payroll costs, what was withheld and the contributions owed to Payroll deductions owed, and net pay to Wages payable. Marking it as paid moves net pay from Wages payable to the account it was paid from. The entries name no employee, so the books do not show anyone's pay. A pay run returned to draft is taken out again. In Settings, Pay items, each item can post to an account of your own instead.

If a pay run does not work out as described, Contact support.