Base Auto Pay is a feature within Empeon Workforce that applies an employee's Regular pay automatically upon initiating a new payroll batch.
By default, all salaried employees will automatically have their Salary Per Pay Period amount entered on their check each time a new payroll batch is initiated. However, for hourly employees this will need to be manually configured, if desired. Hourly employees who are set up with Base Auto Pay are usually employees who work the same amount of hours each pay period.
Setting Up Base Auto Pay
To set up this feature for an employee, navigate to Pay Info, located within the Payroll section of their Employee Profile.
The Pay Info Card is divided into two sections. The top section is where Base Auto Pay is configured so be sure to select the Edit button located in the top section and not the bottom section.
- Paid As - This setting determines whether the employee's pay is calculated by rate or by salary.
When this is set to "Salary", the system will automatically apply the employee's "Salary Per Pay Period" amount each time a payroll batch is initiated. For salaried employees, the only requirements to enable Base Auto Pay are entering an amount for their "Salary Per Pay Period" and setting this toggle to "Salary."
For hourly employees, this toggle should be set to "Hourly" where additional fields are required:- Default Hours - This is the amount of hours that the employee typically works during a pay period. This field works in conjunction with auto pay feature, taking the amount entered in the employee's "Default Hours" field and multiplying it by the employee's Default Rate each time a payroll batch is started.
- Auto pay hours - Checking this box will turn on the base auto pay feature for the hourly employee.
Initiating a Payroll Batch
After Base Auto Pay has been set up for an employee, their Default Rate will be applied automatically toward the Default Hours entered, each time a new payroll batch is initiated.
There will still be the ability to manually add any applicable earning and deduction codes to the check if necessary. In cases where the employee did not work the amount of hours reflected in their Default Hours, the Base Auto Pay can be disabled within Check Settings, allowing for the manual entry of the employee's hours.
Earning Codes: Adjust Base Auto Pay
In cases where non-worked hours need to be recorded such as PTO or Sick Time, make sure that the respective Earning Code has the setting Adjust Base Auto Pay turned on. This will ensure that any time non-worked hours are recorded on the check; it will automatically deduct from the employee's Default Hours. This setting is found within the Calculation Settings of the Earning Code.
For example, with this setting toggled on within the Earning Code for "PTO", an employee being auto paid with 40 regular hours will not have 8 hours added to their check when manually keying in 8 hours for PTO. Instead, the employee will remain at 40 total hours, and their default regular hours will automatically adjust to 32 hours with an additional 8 hours recorded for PTO.
