Pay groups and pay schedules

A pay group is a set of employees paid on the same schedule. This guide shows how to set a pay group's cut-offs and pay dates, its work days, and the days a year used for daily rates.

Before you start

• Owner / Management users and payroll officers can add and change pay groups.
• Each employee belongs to one pay group. Use separate groups for staff paid on different schedules, for example semi-monthly office staff and weekly production workers.
• To fill a pay group from a common setup instead, see "Start from a template" below.

Add a pay group

1. Open Company setup and choose Pay groups.
2. In the empty form at the bottom, type the Pay group name.
3. Choose the Pay frequency: Semi-monthly, Monthly, Weekly or Daily.
4. Set the cut-offs:
   • Weekly: choose the day the Pay week starts on.
   • Semi-monthly: type the day the First period ends on day and the Second period ends on day. Leave the second blank for the month end. For cross-month cut-offs, type for example 10 and 25 to get the 26th to the 10th and the 11th to the 25th.
   • Monthly: type the day the Period ends on day, or leave it blank for the month end.
5. Set the Pay date:
   • Days after the period ends: type the number in Pay date: days after period end. 0 means paid on the last day of the period.
   • A fixed day of the month (semi-monthly and monthly only): type the Pay day, first period and Pay day, second period. 31 means the month's last day.
6. Tick the Work days. Unticked days are rest days.
7. Click Add. You see "Added" with the group's name.

To change a pay group, edit its fields and click Save. To stop using one, click Deactivate.

What the work days are used for

Sahora uses the ticked work days for new hires, separations, mid-period salary changes of monthly-paid staff, and holidays that fall on a rest day. Employees without a shift also follow these work days for attendance, with no fixed times (see Shifts, breaks and timekeeping).

Days a year for daily rates

The company's Days a year (daily rate factor) is set in Payroll settings. Sahora offers two choices: 313 days for a six-day week and 261 days for a five-day week. It is used for daily rates, absences and the PhilHealth basis of daily-paid staff.

If one pay group works a different week, choose its own factor in Days a year (blank: company setting). Leave it on Company setting otherwise.

AutoPilot

Paid plans Turn on AutoPilot to have Sahora prepare this pay group's payroll the day after each cut-off. It never submits or approves. See AutoPilot.

Start from a template

An Owner / Management user can fill a pay group's schedule, work rules and shifts from a common Philippine setup.

1. In Company setup, choose Templates.
2. Choose the Template (for example Standard office) and the Pay group to set up. The card lists what the template sets.
3. Tick Also set vacation and sick leave as listed if you want that too.
4. Tick the box confirming the settings replace the current ones, then click Apply template.

A template sets company choices only. Rates, contributions, tax, holiday pay and minimum wages still come from the government tables. Every setting stays editable afterwards.

What can go wrong

• "A pay group with that name exists." Use another name.
• "That pay group already has pay periods, so its schedule can't be replaced." A template only works on a pay group without pay periods. Change the settings by hand.
• On the Free Plan, the form for a new pay group is replaced by an upgrade notice once you reach the plan's limit. See Pricing.

Good to know

• Contributions and withholding tax follow the month of the pay date. A pay date in the next month moves them to that month's remittance.
• After setting up the pay group, create its pay periods. See Creating pay periods.