Include an Employee in Payroll

How do I add an employee to BambooHR Payroll?

Purpose: This help guide will show you the steps you need to include an employee in payroll.


Missing Data Report

Before syncing an employee with Payroll, you need to make sure you have all of the required fields filled in for the employee in BambooHR. You can confirm this by visiting the Missing Data report under Standard Reports on the Reports tab. 

If you have not entered all of the required fields for the employee, you will receive an error message when you try to add the employee to the new pay schedule.


Pay Schedule

After confirming the entries of all required fields, go to the employee's Job tab and update their pay schedule in the Compensation table.

To have an employee sync to payroll, you must be sure to add them to a pay schedule that syncs with Payroll. You can confirm this in the Pay Schedule settings.

After you have added the employee to a syncing pay schedule and entered the required fields' information, the employee will automatically sync when you start payroll.

If you have Salary employees, the Hours Per Week field will display the default number of working hours per week next to the Pay Type field. To override the default hours, click the question mark and select Edit This Employee's Salaried Hours. 


People Being Paid Page

Once you have included an employee in the payroll by updating their information and adding them to the correct pay schedule, double-check they are syncing on the People Being Paid page. Navigate to the Payroll tab, locate the pay date of the pay schedule you assigned to your employee(s), and then click the People Being Paid tile. 

If the employee(s) name appears in this list, they are part of the pay schedule. Be sure to fix any errors next to their name before running payroll. 


Rehiring or Making Changes to an Employee Mid-Pay Period

When making changes to an employee mid-pay period or rehiring an employee in the middle of a pay period, dates are very important! Please understand that BambooHR Payroll will capture the changes to the employee's data from the start date of the pay period. If you added them or rehired them after the start date of the pay period, there is a chance that the most updated information for that employee is not reflected in the current payroll run. 

To ensure that your current payroll run captures the employee's mid-pay period changes and their data, including any changes to compensation, job location, hours, etc, make sure the dates on their Job tab align with the start of the pay period. This includes the effective/start dates on the latest entry on the Job Information table, the Compensation Table, and the Employment Status Table. 

Please note, that changes made to pay schedules mid-pay period will result in the employee showing up in both the old and the new pay schedule. Manual adjustments with payroll may be required to avoid double payment.

For example, your pay period starts on September 20th and ends on October 5th, with a pay date of October 8th. Let's say you rehire an employee on September 24th. Even though the Rehire date will reflect September 24th, you will want to make sure of the following: 

1. The latest entry in the Compensation table has a Start Date of September 20th (start of the pay period). If you are making a change to the employee's compensation data, you can add a new line item with the September 20th start date. Make sure there is an End Date on the previous line item that is before September 20th or the intended start date of the new line item. 

2. The latest entry on the Job Information table has an Effective Date of September 20th. Make sure you are selecting the option This is a Correction to avoid creating a new line item within the table.

3. The latest entry on the Employment Status table has an effective date of September 20th. Make sure you are selecting the option This is a Correction to avoid creating a new line item within the table.

If possible, we highly recommend rehiring, making changes to, or adding new employees at the start of the pay period to avoid any hiccups or errors when running the payroll.