We are pleased to announce that the new Payroll module in RemOnline is out of Beta status. We have put in significant effort to address issues and added new previously lacking settings. However, in this article, we want to focus not only on what was and what is now (although that will be covered, too) but on how to make use of these new features.
The new payroll is highly flexible and has numerous settings, allowing various usage scenarios. We will discuss some of the most common ones to give you a basic understanding of what you can do with the new functionality.
But first, let's briefly compare the old and the new.
Payroll Report vs. New Payroll Module
The predecessor to the new module is the Payroll Report, a simple calculator that calculates the salary when you press the 'Apply' button. However, its capabilities end there. It does not provide insight into whether you paid something to an employee this month, how much is yet to be paid, or if any changes in the work orders could lead to incorrect or outdated calculations. It is indeed a straightforward calculator.
In contrast, you now have the new payroll module. And 'module' is a keyword because it functions as a standalone system within RemOnline. This module allows you to:
Automatically calculate payroll not when you generate the report but when an event triggers the calculation (date, adding a service or product to a work order, changing status, etc.).
Implement different forms of compensation for different employees: fixed (base salary), variable (commissions), or a combination of both (base salary + commissions).
Accrue payroll to employee balances, thus implementing a method that serves as the basis for the P&L report.
Configure an incentive system that is even more flexible than before.
Track changes in payroll calculations, which was impossible with the old report.
Know precisely how much an employee has earned since the last payday and how much you can pay at any moment.
Now, let's move from general concepts to more specific usage scenarios. But first, let's revisit the payroll terminology.
Glossary
Base salary is a fixed part of the employee's payroll. RemOnline calculates it automatically on the specified date.
Commission is a variable part of the employee's payroll. RemOnline calculates it automatically by configured events.
Exceptional commission is a variable part of the employee's payroll configured for particular services, products, and their categories. RemOnline calculates it automatically by configured events.
Bonus is a variable part of the employee's payroll. You can create it manually to reward your employees.
Penalty is a variable part of the employee's payroll. You can create it manually to decrease an employee's salary for any reason.
Accrual / Payroll accrual is a company's obligation to pay employees their salaries, reflected on their account balances.
Now, let's move on to new features in the RemOnline Payroll.
How to Set Up Base Salary Calculation for Employees
In RemOnline, you can configure the base salary in the employee profile under the 'Payroll Calculation Rules' tab.
For example, for employees working a standard 5-day workweek, you can set a monthly base salary. For employees working in shifts, you can configure a daily or hourly rate.
How to Use Monthly Base Salary
The payroll module is closely tied to the Work Schedule. However, the monthly base salary is an exception, as it can function without it. You specify a date when the system should calculate the base salary, and on the selected day, the specified amount appears in the table on the 'Finance > Payroll Calculation' page.
One of the typical payment schemes for a monthly base salary is an advance payment plus the basic pay. You can quickly implement this scheme in RemOnline by specifying two calculation dates in the salary settings. For example, a manager receives €1,200 per month: an advance of €500 on the 15th and €700 on the last day of the month. This is how you can configure the salary calculation in the system.
However, the Work Schedule becomes necessary even for a monthly base salary if your employees can take unpaid vacation, sick leave, or other days off.
You can automatically deduct unpaid non-working days if they are marked in the schedule. To do this, configure the amount to be deducted for sick leave, vacation, and days off from the monthly base salary: the cost of one working day or a fixed amount. Then, RemOnline will automatically do this for you if you mark non-working days as unpaid on the 'Settings > Work Schedule' page.
How to Use Daily and Hourly Base Salary
We recommend setting up a daily base salary for employees with a fixed number of working hours per day but a variable schedule. An hourly rate is the best choice if an employee does not have a set number of working hours. Both types can be calculated daily or on the last day of the month.
However, the Work Schedule becomes mandatory here, as RemOnline calculates the number of working hours and days based on it.
If an employee receives a configured daily or hourly base salary, we add the daily base salary or a fixed amount in the calculation for non-working days if such a day is not marked as unpaid in the Work Schedule.
Please note that if necessary, you can mix types of base salaries. For example, set a minimum monthly base salary and add a daily "outing" base salary. The main limitation is that only one monthly, daily, and hourly base salary can be active simultaneously. Two salaries of the same type will not work simultaneously because one will replace the other.
How to Schedule Employee Salary Increases
A typical scenario is when a new employee agrees to a specific salary during the probationary period, and after successful completion, the salary is increased. Or an employee requests a review of their pay, and an increase is agreed upon but implemented after two months. Such cases can also be pre-automated with RemOnline.
As mentioned, two base salaries of the same type cannot be active simultaneously. However, creating a base salary with a future start date is possible! For example, when hiring in December, you set a monthly base salary for the employee at €900. After a 3-month probationary period, the employee's salary should increase to €1,200. You can create a second salary in advance with this amount, but set the start date for March. This way, the first salary will have an end date, and in March, RemOnline will automatically start calculating the increased compensation when the previous one becomes inactive.
The same approach can be used to plan increases for daily and hourly rates.
By utilizing these scenarios, you can efficiently manage your payroll processes with RemOnline's new and improved payroll module.
When to Fill Out the Work Schedule
As mentioned earlier, to use daily and hourly rates and for the accurate calculation of non-working days, it is necessary to use the Work Schedule. Before the new payroll module exited the beta status, we improved the connection between payroll calculation and the schedule. Now, you can fill it out at any time. Let's explore a few scenarios.
You fill out the schedule for the next month and calculate the daily rate daily. In this case, at the end of each day, the rate amount will be included in the payroll calculation on the 'Finance > Payroll Calculation' page and the 'Payroll' tab in the employee profile. At the end of the month, you can see that everything is okay, all data is up to date, and you accrue the salary to the employee's balance.
The payroll for the month is not yet accrued to the employee's balance. Before the accrual, you notice that the employee worked more or less days than specified in the schedule. In this case, you can edit the schedule, and RemOnline will recalculate the rate according to the changes. You can then proceed with the accrual.
The payroll for November has already been accrued, but afterward, you find out that the employee worked two days less than indicated in the schedule. In this case, you edit the schedule again. However, since the payroll for this month has already been accrued, and this period is considered closed, RemOnline will create an adjustment in the calculation for the current period and subtract these two days.
As you can see, the Work Schedule can be filled out at any time, considering we are talking about it in the context of payroll. However, we recommend filling out the schedule in advance and keeping it always up to date since it also allows you to see non-working days for performers in the Work Order Scheduler.
For a step-by-step guide on setting up rates, refer to this link.
Setting Up Variable Pay Calculation for Employees
If, in addition to the base salary or instead of it, an employee is paid based on their performance, you need Commissions. You can use them as a motivational part of the compensation or build a calculation based solely on them, thus configuring piece-rate pay for employees.
To calculate commissions automatically, you need to create rules on the 'Settings > Employees > Payroll Calculation Rules page and then apply them to employees. Calculation rules are built on the following parameters:
Event: What you are paying for, e.g., creating a request, completing a task, selling a product, adding a service to an order, etc. Note that new events for returns have been added.
Type (only for work orders and leads): For paid work orders, you can pay one amount, and for warranty orders, another.
Execution term: On time, overdue, and urgent. For example, for work orders completed on time, an employee receives standard compensation for an urgent order – increased, and for an overdue one – a penalty. Yes, commissions can also be used as automatic penalties by specifying a negative value.
Calculation moment: If for the base salary, this is a date, for commissions, it can be "Immediately," meaning directly at the moment of creating a task, or status(es), meaning the moment the order transitions to the specified statuses. For example, if you pay performers for work daily regardless of whether the order is paid and closed, you can choose the "Immediately" option. If commissions for an order should be calculated only after payment and closure, you can select the status of the closed group.
Value of commission: A fixed amount or a percentage. Moreover, you can build a motivational scheme within the rule using conditions. For example, if the work order amount is ⩾ €50, the commission will be 5%; if the work order amount is ⩾ €100, the commission will be 10%; and if the order amount is ⩾ €200, the commission will be 20%.
In addition to these main parameters, there are additional settings in the form of checkboxes depending on the event selected for the rule. For example, for the 'To manager for the product in the order' rule, you can additionally configure:
Cancel the commission if the item or document is deleted. This means that if the item for which the commission is calculated, or the work order to which this item was added is deleted before accrual to the employee's balance, the commission will also be simply deleted. If this commission has already been accrued, RemOnline will create a corresponding adjustment in the current period.
Do not duplicate the rule calculation – relevant for rules where you specified multiple statuses as the calculation moment. For example, you selected three statuses. If you do not enable this setting, and the work order goes through each status, you will receive three commissions in the payroll calculation for the employee. If enabled, the commission will be calculated only once when the work order is moved to one of these statuses.
When the rules are set up, you need to apply them to employees. It can be done in two ways:
Through bulk actions on the 'Settings > Employees > Payroll Calculation Rules' page.
In the employee profile on the "Payroll Calculation Rules" tab.
Important things to know about commissions:
You can use one rule for multiple employees. If you have employees with the same payroll conditions, you do not need to set up separate rules for each.
If you edit or delete a rule that applies to multiple employees, changes will also be applied to all employees.
In case of a mistake in the rule, you can delete it, along with all commissions not yet accrued to employee balances. If they are already accrued, when deleting the rule, you can deduct commissions in the current period, i.e., create an adjustment.
If you want a rule to no longer apply to a specific employee, remove it from the employee profile on the 'Payroll Calculation Rules' tab. Hover over the line with the rule and click the delete icon.
If you delete a rule through the rule setup dialog or from the 'Settings > Employees > Payroll Calculation Rules' page, it will be completely deleted for all employees to whom it applied.For rules based on adding labors, services, and goods to orders or sales, you can enable the application of exceptional commissions.
For a detailed guide on setting up commission calculation rules, click here. Now, let's delve more into exceptional commissions.
How to Use Exceptional Commissions
An exceptional commission is a reward configured for a specific labor, service, product, or category.
For example, according to the general rule, a technician receives 5% of the amount for a product in a work order, and the application of exceptional commissions is enabled. Additionally, you have a product for which the supplier's warranty expires soon, and you need to motivate employees to reduce its stock to zero quickly. In this case, you can set a higher commission, let's say 10%, for this specific product in its dialogue. When the technician adds this particular item to the work order, they will receive an exceptional commission for it, while for other products, they will still get the standard 5%.
Since exceptional commissions are configured in the dialogues of individual labors, services, products, and their categories, there should be a place where you can track them. Therefore, all exceptional commissions are listed on the 'Settings > Employees > Payroll Calculation Rules' page.
But wait, there's more. If you want to customize exceptional commissions even more, for example, based on an employee's experience or qualification, you can do it using coefficients. In each employee's profile, you can set coefficients that will multiply or decrease exceptional commissions on the' Payroll Calculation Rules' tab.
For example, you can set a coefficient of 0.5 for a trainee, 1 for a specialist, and 1.5 for a master. So, suppose the amount for a product in a work order is 50 euros, and an exceptional commission of 20% is configured for it. In that case, the trainee will receive 50 × 0.2 × 0.5 = 5 euros, the specialist will get 50 × 0.2 = 10 euros, and the master will receive 50 × 0.2 × 1.5 = 15 euros.
You can find a step-by-step guide on setting up exceptional commissions bonuses in this article.
With these, settings of the payroll calculation is complete. Now, all that's left is for you to monitor the calculation, accrue salaries to employee balances at the end of the month, and make the payments.
How to Track the Payroll Calculation After Setup
Every time a base salary or commission is calculated according to its settings, the calculated amount appears on the 'Finance > Payroll Calculation' page or 'Salary' tab in the employee's profile.
Here, you can see when the base salary or commission was calculated, the specific rate, and the details of what the bonus was calculated for – all the details.
Also, note that previously, on the 'Finance > Payroll Calculation' page, you could only view data for a specific month; now, you can do this for any period. And let's emphasize once again that this page displays only the payroll that has yet to be accrued to employee balances.
Another new feature related to payroll calculation is the ability to change the base salary amount in the calculation document directly. For example, you hired an employee on November 10th and set up two dates for calculating the monthly base salary: 600 euros on the 15th and 700 euros on the last day of the month. According to the settings, on November 15th, a calculation of the base salary for this employee for half a month will appear, although they only worked for five days. So, to handle such cases without repeatedly changing salary settings, you now have the option to adjust the rate amount for salary calculation this month.
When the month is over, and you've confirmed everything is correctly calculated, you can proceed to the payroll accrual.
How and Why to Accrue Salary to Employee Balances
When you create a payroll accrual, you record your company expenses, not depending on the payment date. It's a commitment that an employee has earned money, and your company has to pay them out. That's why you record it not by the actual accrual day but by the last date of the month when this obligation occurs.
Why do this? While the cash method allows you to understand how much money you have right now, the accrual method also enables you to account for the company's receivables and payables. Therefore, when RemOnline introduces a P&L report that explicitly considers payroll accruals, not just payments, you will have a more comprehensive understanding of your financial indicators.
You can create payroll accruals on the 'Finance > Payroll Accruals' page or the 'Finance > Payroll Calculation' page using bulk actions. To find a step-by-step guide on accruing payroll, navigate to this article.
Once again, we would like to emphasize that pauroll accrual is not equal to payment. Now, let's talk separately about payments.
How to Pay Salaries to Employees
Although it is only possible to accrue the payroll when the month is over, you can still pay your employees several times a month if necessary. Therefore, on the Compensation tab in the employee's profile, you have a widget with the following:
The current balance of an employee
The estimated amount to accrue to the employee's balance
The estimated amount to pay
RemOnline calculates the estimated amount payable as the difference between the estimated amount to accrue and the employee's current balance.
You can pay your employees once a month after accruing the payroll, so the estimated amount to pay will be your actual payable.
Or you can pay your employees, for example, once a week, decreasing the employee's balance every time. But after the month is closed, you can accrue payroll, make the final payment, and settle with your employee.
So, as you see, the pay frequency doesn't matter.
On the Salary tab, you can also create a bonus or penalty for an employee.
Where an Employee Can Find Their Current and Accrued Payrolls
If you want your employees to see their compensation, they can do that in the User Profile. Now, RemOnline has the 'My Payroll' page where they can view the table similar to the one on the 'Finance > Payroll Calculation' page. Also, they can view all payroll calculation rules configured for them.
How Taxes are Taken into account in Palary Calculation
Taxes configured in RemOnline for labor, services, and goods are taken into account in the salary calculation as follows:
If the tax is included in the item's cost, we calculate commissions from the amount including tax.
If it's an imposed tax, meaning it's added to the price, we calculate commissions from the amount before tax.
Also, please note that we do not plan to add a mechanism for calculating labor tax in Also, note that we will not add the calculation of payroll taxes in RemOnline. But you can already record them using cash basis accounting (create expenses with corresponding cash flow items). In the future, you will be able to register their accruals as expense items.
How to Adjust Payroll in Case of Mistakes
We've touched upon this topic in this article, but let's go over it again. In this matter, we should consider whether the salary has already been accrued to the employees' balances.
If the salary has not been credited yet:
If there are changes in the work schedule, RemOnline will recalculate the daily and hourly base salaries along with non-working days in the payroll calculation tables.
If you need to manually change the amount of any rate, you can do so by clicking on the amount.
If you delete the incorrect commission calculation rule, you can also delete all non-accrued commissions.
If a bonus is calculated for a work order, product, service, etc., but then the financial data of the document/item changes, RemOnline will recalculate the commission.
The closed period should remain in the same state if the payroll has already been accrued to the employees' balances. Therefore, all adjustments will occur in the current period.
Also, note that due to the restriction on editing closed work orders, if you reopen an order for which the commissions have already been accrued, make changes to its financial data, and close it again, all recalculations will be recorded in the current period! Therefore, to avoid such situations, we recommend checking orders for any errors in statuses from the 'Ready' group and using closed statuses specifically as final, archival ones.
Development Plans For the Payroll Module
Indeed, we plan to continue improving the payroll capabilities in RemOnline. So, in the development plans, we already have:
The ability to track the application and modification of payroll calculation rules in the Activity Log.
The ability to set up automatic payroll accrual to employees' balances on a chosen day.
Payroll calculation export.
The ability to accrue salary for a selected period.
As of February 1, 2024, we will stop supporting the old Payroll Report.
That's it. We understand that configuring payroll takes time and effort. So, if you have any questions or suggestions regarding this module, please contact RemOnline Support via chat and refer to the Knowledge Base instructions. We strive to keep them up-to-date and helpful.