Pay rate sheets allow you to define how employees are paid for the work they complete. You can create a set of pay rates once and assign them to multiple employees, making it easier to manage pay changes and maintain consistency across your organisation.
What is a pay rate sheet?
A pay rate sheet is used to define how employees are paid for the work they complete.
Using pay rate sheets allows you to:
Create a set of pay rates once and assign them to multiple employees.
Easily manage pay changes without updating each employee individually.
Maintain consistency across your organisation.
Pay rate sheets can include:
Standard pay rates.
Different rates for specific days of the week.
Public holiday rates.
Service-specific pay rates.
Early and late attendance payment rules (thresholds).
Duration-based payment rules (duration overrides).
Create a pay rate sheet
To create a new pay rate sheet, follow these steps.
Click Settings, then click Finance,
Select Rate Sheet Pay.
On the Rate Sheets tab, click Add.
Enter a description for the rate sheet.
Click Save.
📌Note: Once the rate sheet has been created, you will need to add a revision and configure the pay rates before it can be used.
Add a revision
Revisions allow you to update rates while keeping previous versions for historical purposes. The system uses the revision that is active for the duty date being processed.
Open the required rate sheet.
Select the Revisions tab, then click Add.
Enter a From Date and a Reason.
Complete the required settings (see the table below).
Click Save.
⚠️Important: Create a new revision rather than editing an existing one. This preserves the history of pay changes and ensures accurate historical reporting.
Revision settings explained
The table below describes each setting available when configuring a revision.
Setting | Description |
From Date | The date the revision becomes active. The system will use the revision whose From Date is on or before the duty date being processed. |
Reason | A description of why the revision was created (for example, Annual Pay Review 2025). |
Start Time | Determines which start time is used when calculating pay — for example, the scheduled start time or the actual clock-in time. |
Duration | Determines how the paid duration is calculated — for example, based on scheduled hours or actual hours worked. |
Public Holiday Type | Controls how pay is calculated on public holidays. |
Break Type | Determines how breaks affect paid time — for example, whether unpaid breaks are deducted from the total. |
Apply Rules on Override | When enabled, pay rules (such as thresholds) continue to apply even where rates have been manually adjusted. |
Disable Pay Consolidation | When enabled, prevents adjacent duties from being combined for pay calculations. |
Manual Reconciliation | When enabled, early and late attendance adjustments are managed manually rather than being calculated automatically. |
Default Rate Sheet | Controls where the system looks for pay rates. Employee uses the Pay Rate Sheet assigned to the employee. Service Location uses the Pay Rate Sheet configured against the Service Location or Funder and will fall back to the employee's Pay Rate Sheet if no Service Location rate sheet exists. |
📌Note: If an employee's pay is calculated at an unexpected rate, check whether the Default Rate Sheet setting is configured as Employee or Service Location.
Add pay rates
To add pay rates to a revision, follow these steps.
Open the required rate sheet, then select the Revisions tab.
Open the relevant revision.
Select the Details tab.
Enter the pay rates for each applicable day of the week.
Add public holiday rates where required.
Click Save.
📌Note: You can use the pay rate wizard to populate rates more quickly. The wizard guides you through entering rates for each day and can apply a percentage uplift across all rates.
Base rate and holiday pay
Alongside each pay rate, you can enter a Base Rate.
Pay Rate
The amount the employee is actually paid for the work completed, including any enhancements or premiums.
Base Rate
The employee's underlying basic hourly rate.
In some organisations these values will be the same. In others, enhanced rates may be paid whilst retaining a separate Base Rate.
Why use a base rate?
The Base Rate is primarily used for holiday pay calculations and, where enabled, National Minimum Wage calculations.
Depending on how your Vacation Scheme has been configured, holiday pay may be calculated using:
Actual earnings.
Base Rates recorded against worked duties.
A fixed Base Rate configured on the Pay Rate Sheet.
📌Note: If your Vacation Scheme is configured to calculate holiday pay using actual earnings, the Base Rate will not affect holiday pay calculations.
For more information on holiday scheme configuration, see Configure a Holiday Scheme and Holiday Scheme Value Calculations.
National Minimum Wage (NMW)
National Minimum Wage top-ups are configured separately from Pay Rate Sheets. If Minimum Wage functionality is enabled, payroll may apply an additional payment where an employee's average hourly earnings fall below the applicable minimum wage rate.
📌Note: If an employee's final pay is higher than the Pay Rate Sheet would suggest, they may have received a National Minimum Wage top-up. See National Minimum Wage Calculation for further detail.
Public holiday rates
You can configure separate pay rates to apply on public holidays. These rates are applied automatically when a duty falls on a date that has been set up as a public holiday in the system.
Configure public holiday rates
Within the Details tab of a revision, you can enter rates for the following public holiday types:
PH: The primary public holiday rate.
PH Secondary: A secondary rate, used where different rates apply to different types of public holiday.
PH Tertiary: A third rate for additional public holiday categories.
The Public Holiday Type setting on the revision controls how the system determines which rate to apply — for example, whether to use the Lead Out or Split method when a duty spans midnight on a public holiday.
Public holiday setup
Public holidays must be configured in the system before public holiday rates can be applied. The Public Holiday configuration determines whether a given holiday is treated as PH, PH Secondary, or PH Tertiary, which controls which rate column is used when calculating pay. Refer to your system administrator if public holidays have not yet been set up, or see Add, Edit or Delete Public Holiday Dates.
📌Note: If a public holiday rate is left blank, the system will fall back to the standard day rate for that day of the week.
Configure Service Type and Position Type rates
You can configure a rate sheet to pay different rates depending on both the type of service being delivered and the role being worked. This allows you to use a single rate sheet whilst paying different rates for different categories of work.
Understanding Service Type and Position Type
Pay rates can be configured using both Service Type and Position Type. For information on how Service Types and Position Types are created and managed, see Create Employee Types and Positions.
Field | Description |
Service Type | The type of work being delivered, such as Personal Care, Waking Night, or Domestic Support. |
Position Type | The role being worked, such as Carer, Senior Carer, or Team Leader. |
A rate can be configured against:
Service Type only.
Position Type only.
A combination of Service Type and Position Type.
For example:
Service Type | Position Type | Rate |
Personal Care | Carer | £12.00 |
Personal Care | Senior Carer | £13.50 |
Waking Night | Carer | £12.50 |
To create a service-specific rate:
Open the required rate sheet.
Open the required revision.
Select the Details tab.
Click Add.
Select the required Service Type.
Select the required Position Type if required.
Enter the pay rates.
Click Save.
📌Note: The Service Type and Position Type used on the work must match the values configured on the Pay Rate Sheet for the correct rate to be selected.
Configure duration overrides
Duration overrides allow you to define alternative payment durations for specific scenarios. This is useful where visits or shifts are paid in fixed bands rather than according to the exact duration worked.
To create a duration override:
Open the required Pay Rate Sheet.
Open the relevant revision.
Select the Details tab.
Click the arrow beside the relevant rate entry.
Select the Duration Overrides tab.
Click Add.
Enter the required override details.
Click Save.
📌Note: When a Duration Override is applied, a visit may be paid using a fixed rate or duration band instead of the standard hourly rate defined on the Pay Rate Sheet. For related information on duration overrides for invoices, see Set Duration Override for Invoices and Payroll.
Configure thresholds
Thresholds control how pay is calculated when employees book on or off early or late. You can use thresholds to pay employees for additional time worked, limit payment for small variances, or apply different rules to different service types.
Threshold types
Thresholds can be created for:
Book On Early.
Book On Late.
Book Off Early.
Book Off Late.
Each threshold includes the following fields:
Field | Description |
Up To Minutes | Defines the maximum variance covered by the threshold. |
Pay Minutes | Defines how many minutes should be paid when the threshold applies. |
Service Type | Optional. Restricts the threshold to a specific Service Type. |
For example:
Threshold Type | Up To Minutes | Pay Minutes |
Book On Early | 15 | 0 |
Book On Early | 30 | 15 |
This allows organisations to define how much additional time should be paid when employees book on or off early or late.
Manual Reconciliation
When Manual Reconciliation is enabled on the revision, threshold adjustments may require manual review rather than being applied automatically.
To configure thresholds:
Open the required rate sheet, then select the Revisions tab.
Open the relevant revision.
Select the Thresholds tab, then click Add.
Configure the threshold rules as required.
Click Save.
Restrict a pay rate sheet to a branch
Pay Rate Sheets can be restricted so they are only available to employees within specific branches.
To restrict a Pay Rate Sheet:
Click Settings, then click Other.
Select Company.
Click Branches from the Quick Links menu.
Select the required branch.
Open Pay Rate Sheet Filter.
Tick the Pay Rate Sheet(s) that should be available to the branch.
Click Save.
⚠️Important: If no Pay Rate Sheets are ticked, all Pay Rate Sheets are available to that branch. If one or more Pay Rate Sheets are ticked, only the selected Pay Rate Sheets are available to employees within that branch.
📌Note: If a rate sheet is not available to an employee's branch, it may not be available for selection.
Copy a pay rate sheet
You can copy an existing pay rate sheet to create a separate pay structure, such as for a new branch, contract, or business area.
📌Note: For annual pay increases, creating a new revision is generally recommended rather than creating a new Pay Rate Sheet.
Locate the rate sheet you want to copy.
Click Copy.
Enter a description for the new rate sheet.
If required, enter a pay uplift percentage to increase all rates by that amount.
Click Save.
🤓Tip: The copy function copies the rate sheet structure and rates, but does not copy existing revisions. You will need to add a new revision to the copied rate sheet before it can be used.
Export a pay rate sheet
You can export a pay rate sheet for use in payroll and finance processes.
Open the required rate sheet.
Select the Revisions tab, then open the relevant revision.
Click Export.
Save the exported file to your device.
Assign a pay rate sheet to an employee
To assign a pay rate sheet to an employee, follow these steps.
Click HR, then click Employee.
Search for and open the relevant employee record.
Under QuickLinks, click Rate Sheet.
Click Add.
Complete the required fields (see the table below).
Click Save.
Employee rate sheet fields explained
⚠️Important: If an employee has bespoke rates configured directly against their employee record and is moved onto a different Pay Rate Sheet, any employee-specific rate entries may be removed. Review existing pay rates before making changes to the assigned Pay Rate Sheet.
Main fields
⚠️Important: The system does not allow a Pay Rate Sheet assignment to be backdated before the employee's start date.
Field | Description |
From Date | The date the Pay Rate Sheet starts to apply to the employee. This date cannot be set earlier than the employee's start date. |
Reason | The reason for assigning the rate sheet. |
Salaried | Select if the employee is paid an annual salary rather than hourly rates. |
Salary | The employee's annual salary value. |
Estimated Hourly Pay Rate | A calculated figure based on Salary ÷ 52.143 ÷ Hours Per Week. |
Days Per Week | The employee's contracted working days. This value is used when calculating holiday entitlement, holiday accrual, and contracted working patterns. |
Hours Per Week | The employee's contracted working hours. |
Enforced Hours | Prevents the employee from being rostered above their configured Hours Per Week. |
Default Hourly Pay Rate | A fallback hourly rate used when no matching Service Type or Position Type rate can be found. |
Travel and subsistence settings
Field | Description |
Exclude from Travel Calculation | Excludes the employee from travel calculations. |
Exclude from Subsistence Calculation | Excludes the employee from subsistence calculations. |
Employee override fields
These fields override the settings configured on the rate sheet revision for this employee only.
.
Field | Description |
Split | Employee-specific Split setting. |
Use Start Time | Employee-specific Start Time setting. |
Use Duration | Employee-specific Duration setting. |
Default Rate Sheet | Employee or Service Location. Controls where the system looks for pay rates for this employee specifically. |
PH Type | Employee-specific Public Holiday behaviour. |
Break Type | Employee-specific Break behaviour. |
Disable Pay Consolidation | Prevents adjacent duties being consolidated for this employee. |
📌Note: These fields normally inherit their values from the configured revision. Only change them where a specific employee requires different behaviour.
📌Note: Default Rate Sheet can be configured at both revision level and employee level. If an employee-specific value has been entered, it overrides the setting configured on the Pay Rate Sheet revision.
Understanding employee and rate sheet revision dates
There are two types of date that control how pay is calculated for an employee:
Employee rate sheet From Date: The date the rate sheet was assigned to the employee. This controls when the employee starts using a particular rate sheet.
Rate sheet revision From Date: The date a specific revision within the rate sheet becomes active. This controls which set of rates is used for a given duty date.
The system uses both dates together to determine the correct rates to apply. The employee must have an active rate sheet assignment on the duty date, and the system will then use the revision whose From Date is on or before that duty date.
Example
Consider the following scenario:
Employee rate sheet From Date: 1 January 2025.
Revision A From Date: 1 January 2025 (original rates).
Revision B From Date: 1 April 2025 (updated rates following a pay review).
For duties on or after 1 April 2025, the system will use Revision B. For duties between 1 January 2025 and 31 March 2025, the system will use Revision A.
🤓Tip: Always create a new revision when rates change rather than editing an existing one.
📌Note: If a revision has a future From Date, the previous revision will continue to be used until that date is reached.
This ensures that historical duties are not affected by the change.
Salaried employees
When Salaried is selected, payroll uses the employee's annual salary rather than calculating pay purely from hourly rates held on the Pay Rate Sheet.
Estimated Hourly Pay Rate
The system calculates an estimated hourly rate using:
Annual Salary ÷ 52.143 ÷ Hours Per Week
Example:
Annual Salary: £36,000
Hours Per Week: 40
£36,000 ÷ 52.143 ÷ 40 = £17.26 per hour
This value is displayed in the Estimated Hourly Pay Rate field and can be used to validate salary calculations.
⚠️Important: If Hours Per Week is blank or zero, the estimated hourly rate will calculate as £0.00.
Holiday pay
Holiday pay for salaried employees is based on salary and contracted hours rather than actual shifts worked.
Common issues
Salary entered incorrectly.
Hours Per Week not entered.
Salaried ticked when the employee should be hourly paid.
Salaried not ticked when the employee should be salary paid.
Amend an employee's maximum hours
To update the maximum days or hours for an employee's rate sheet assignment, follow these steps.
Click HR, then click Employee.
Search for and open the relevant employee record.
Under QuickLinks, click Rate Sheet.
Select the relevant rate sheet assignment record.
Update the Days per Week or Hours per Week values as required, then click Save.
Troubleshooting pay rate sheets
Use this section to diagnose and resolve common pay rate sheet issues.
Employee pay is calculating as £0.00
If an employee's visit or shift is calculating at £0.00, work through the following checks.
Check the employee rate sheet From Date
The employee's rate sheet must be active on the date of the visit.
Open the employee's Rate Sheet record.
Check the From Date.
Confirm the date is on or before the affected visit date.
📌Note: If the rate sheet starts after the visit date, the rate will not be applied.
Check the correct rate sheet is assigned
Confirm the employee is linked to the correct pay rate sheet. If multiple employee rate sheet records exist, ensure the correct record is active for the period being calculated.
Check the rate sheet revision date
Open the assigned pay rate sheet and review the Revisions tab. Confirm there is a revision with a From Date that covers the affected visit date.
📌Note: If the revision starts after the visit date, an older revision may be used instead.
Check service-specific rates
If Position Type rates are being used:
Open the pay rate sheet.
Open the relevant revision.
Select the Details tab.
Confirm a rate exists for the Position Type used on the visit.
📌Note: If no matching Position Type rate exists, the system may not find the expected rate.
Check branch restrictions
If pay rate sheet filtering is enabled:
Open the employee's branch.
Review the Pay Rate Sheet Filter settings.
Confirm the assigned pay rate sheet is available to that branch.
📌Note: Pay rate sheets restricted to other branches may not be available for selection.
Check the Default Rate Sheet setting
If pay is being sourced from the wrong location:
Open the employee's Rate Sheet record.
Review the Default Rate Sheet setting.
Confirm whether it is configured as Employee or Service Location.
If Service Location is selected, confirm the Service Location or Funder has a valid Pay Rate Sheet configured.
📌Note: If a Service Location rate sheet is missing or incomplete, pay may calculate incorrectly or as £0.00.
Check Service Type and Position Type rates
Confirm the Pay Rate Sheet contains:
A rate for the Service Type being delivered.
A rate for the Position Type being worked.
If the required combination does not exist, the system may not be able to determine the correct rate.
Check salaried calculations
If Salaried is selected:
Confirm Salary has been entered.
Confirm Hours Per Week is greater than zero.
The estimated hourly rate is calculated using:
Salary ÷ 52.143 ÷ Hours Per Week
If Hours Per Week is zero, the calculated rate becomes £0.00.
Check salaried employees
If the employee is marked as Salaried, confirm the following:
A salary value has been entered.
Hours per Week has been entered.
The values are correct.
📌Note: Missing or incorrect salary information can affect pay calculations.
Regenerate payroll
If rate sheet changes have recently been made:
Check whether the payroll period requires regeneration.
Regenerate the payroll period if required.
📌Note: Changes to rates may not be reflected until payroll has been regenerated. Regenerating payroll does not automatically update payroll periods that have already been accepted. Accepted payroll periods may need to be reviewed separately.
Employee pay is calculating at the wrong rate
If pay is being calculated but the value is incorrect, review the following areas.
Check the Position Type
If Position Type rates are configured, ensure:
The Position Type on the work matches the Position Type configured on the pay rate sheet.
The correct rate exists for that Position Type.
📌Note: A mismatch may cause a different rate to be used.
Check the Service Type
If Service Type rates are configured:
Confirm the Service Type recorded against the visit is correct.
Confirm a corresponding Service Type rate exists on the Pay Rate Sheet.
Confirm the active revision contains the expected Service Type rates.
📌Note: A visit recorded against the wrong Service Type may use a different rate than expected or fall back to a default rate.
Check the employee worked under a different Position Type
An employee may work under multiple Position Types. For example:
Position Type | Rate |
Carer | £12.00 |
Senior Carer | £13.50 |
If the work was completed under the Senior Carer Position Type, the Senior Carer rate will be used. If no matching Position Type exists, the system may fall back to a more general rate.
Check the Default Hourly Pay Rate
The employee record contains a Default Hourly Pay Rate field. This is used when no matching Service Type or Position Type rate can be found.
📌Note: A common symptom is that unmatched visits all pay the same incorrect amount rather than £0.00.
How fallback rates work
When a matching Service Type and Position Type rate cannot be found, the system may use the employee's Default Hourly Pay Rate if one has been configured.
If no matching rate and no default rate exist, pay may calculate as £0.00.
Check the Service Location rate sheet
If Default Rate Sheet is configured as Service Location:
Review the Service Location rate sheet.
Confirm the correct revision exists.
Confirm the correct Service Type and Position Type rates exist.
The employee's assigned Pay Rate Sheet may not be the one being used.
Check for a National Minimum Wage top-up
If Minimum Wage functionality is enabled, payroll may automatically apply a National Minimum Wage top-up. Final pay may therefore be higher than the Pay Rate Sheet alone would suggest.
Check the active revision
Open the pay rate sheet and review the Revisions tab. Confirm the revision containing the expected rates has a From Date that covers the affected period.
📌Note: A common cause of incorrect pay is a new revision being created with a future From Date.
Check public holiday rates
If the affected visit falls on a public holiday:
Confirm a PH, PH Secondary, or PH Tertiary rate exists on the rate sheet.
Confirm the correct public holiday configuration is being used.
📌Note: If no public holiday rate has been entered, the employee will receive the standard day rate.
Check duration overrides
If duration overrides are configured:
Open the pay rate sheet.
Open the relevant revision.
Select the Details tab.
Click the arrow beside the rate entry.
Open Duration Overrides.
📌Note: Duration overrides can cause visits to be paid using a fixed rate or duration band instead of the standard hourly rate.
Check the base rate
Where holiday pay calculations use base rate values, ensure the base rate has been configured correctly. An incorrect base rate can affect holiday pay calculations even when normal pay rates appear correct.
📌Note: If a specific Base Rate is not entered on a detailed rate line, the system may use the Base Rate configured at the revision level instead.
Regenerate payroll
If the rate sheet has been updated after payroll was generated, regenerate the payroll period to recalculate pay using the latest settings.
📌Note: If the payroll period has already been accepted, regenerating may not update the period. Review your payroll process before making changes to previously accepted payroll periods.
Troubleshooting salaried employees
Salaried employees are processed differently from hourly paid employees. Use the checks below if you encounter issues with salaried pay.
Salary appears incorrect
Check the following:
Salaried is ticked on the employee's rate sheet record.
The Salary field contains the correct annual salary.
Hours per Week contains the correct contracted hours.
The employee rate sheet From Date covers the payroll period being reviewed.
Holiday pay appears incorrect
Holiday pay for salaried employees is typically based on the annual salary, contracted hours, and contracted working pattern. If salary or contracted hours are incorrect, holiday pay calculations may also be incorrect.
Employee should not be salaried
If an employee is paid hourly but is incorrectly marked as salaried:
Open the employee's Rate Sheet record.
Untick Salaried.
Click Save.
Regenerate payroll if required.
Common best practice checks
Before investigating complex pay issues, always confirm the following.
✅ The correct pay rate sheet is assigned to the employee.
✅ The employee rate sheet From Date covers the affected period.
✅ The correct revision is active for the period.
✅ The required Service Type and Position Type rates exist.
✅ Public holiday rates have been configured where required.
✅ Duration overrides are configured correctly.
✅ Salary, Hours per Week, and Days per Week are correct for salaried employees.
✅ Payroll has been regenerated after making pay rate changes.
🤓Tip: Most pay issues are caused by either a missing From Date, a revision that is not yet active, a missing Position Type rate, or payroll requiring regeneration after a change has been made.