Understanding and Setting Up Pay Groups

Purpose

A pay group defines a payroll schedule for a set of employees: the pay frequency, the pay dates, and the pay periods. Pay groups let you run different schedules for different groups of people, even under the same frequency. For example, you can pay one group every Friday and another group every Thursday, both on a weekly cycle.

Every employee you pay through UZIO must belong to a pay group. Pay groups also matter beyond payroll. Time Tracking uses pay periods to organize timesheets for review and approval. Benefits uses them to calculate per-pay-period amounts for tax-saving products such as HSA.

Who can do this: Any user whose role includes the Payroll permission. This is usually the Employer Admin, but other admin roles can be granted the same access.

Prerequisites

• The Payroll module is enabled for your company.
• You know the pay frequency and pay dates you want for each group of employees (for example, from your current payroll provider or your payroll policy).

Pay groups included with a new account

New accounts start with five system-seeded pay groups, one for each pay frequency: Weekly, Bi-Weekly, Semi-Monthly, Monthly, and Quarterly. These seeded pay groups have no pay periods defined yet. On the Pay Groups list, a warning icon marks any pay group that has no pay periods. That is your cue that its calendar still needs setup.

As a one-time setup, define pay periods for each pay group you plan to use. If a frequency does not apply to your company, leave its pay group as is. You are not required to set it up.

Steps: Add a pay group

1. Log in to the UZIO Employer Portal.
2. In the left menu, go to Payroll > Payroll Setup > Pay Groups.

[Screenshot: Pay Groups home screen showing the seeded pay groups list and the Add Pay Group button]

1. Click Add Pay Group.
2. Enter a Pay Group Name. Use a unique, easily identifiable name of up to 30 characters (for example, "Hourly - Friday Weekly"). If the name is invalid you will see "Enter a valid pay group name up to 30 characters."
3. Select the Pay Frequency: Weekly, Bi-Weekly, Semi-Monthly, Monthly, or Quarterly.
4. Enter Cutoff Days: the number of business days before each pay date by which payroll must be approved. See the note below before choosing.
5. Click Generate Pay Periods. The on-screen alert reads: "Pay periods for the upcoming year will be auto generated based on the pay group settings, considering holidays for accuracy. Custom changes to the current year's periods won't carry over, so please review pay periods before processing payroll."
6. Complete the schedule fields for your frequency (day of week, first pay date, pay period end date, and for Semi-Monthly the end-date calculation method). The fields differ by frequency. See Pay Group Setup by Frequency for a field-by-field guide with examples.

[Screenshot: Add Pay Group form with a Weekly frequency selected, showing Day of the Week, First Pay Date, and First Pay Period End Date fields]

1. Review the generated pay periods and save.

Expected outcome

• The pay group appears on the Pay Groups screen with its pay periods generated for the calendar year of your selected first pay date.
• UZIO extends the schedule into the following calendar years automatically. A system job runs daily to keep the calendar ahead, so you never rebuild it at the start of a new year.
• The pay group becomes available for employee assignment. It appears as a tab on the Payroll Dashboard once employees are assigned and periods are defined.

Assigning employees to a pay group

Individually: Open the employee's profile and go to the Job section. Select the pay group from the Pay Group drop-down list. The pay group's frequency becomes the employee's pay frequency, and their per-pay-period wage is calculated and displayed accordingly.

In bulk: Use the Census Template to change employee information in bulk, including pay group assignments.

How pay groups appear when you run payroll

• Payroll is processed at the pay group level from the Payroll Dashboard, where each pay group is a tab.
• Pay groups are ordered by nearest cut-off date first. If there are many, scroll with the left and right arrows.
• Regular payroll runs against the pre-defined pay periods (fixed start, end, and pay dates).
• Special payroll can be run for any pay group and any pay period. You pick both.

Editing a pay group

You can change the pay group's name, and update cut-off dates and pay dates for future pay periods, as long as no payroll has been initiated for the pay group. If a payroll is in progress, first cancel or approve it, then make your changes. Periods that already have an approved payroll cannot be changed.

Deleting a pay group

Use Actions > Delete on the pay group. Deletion is allowed only if all of these are true:

• No payroll has been initiated or approved for the pay group
• No time entries are recorded for any of its pay periods
• No employees or prospects are assigned to it
• At least one other pay group exists for the same pay frequency

If you don't define pay periods

If you use Benefits without defining pay periods, UZIO falls back to the default number of pay periods per frequency to calculate per-pay-period amounts:

See Completing Your Payroll Calendar (Why Deductions Depend on It).

Still stuck?

If a pay group cannot be deleted or edited and none of the conditions above apply, please reach out to us at support@uzio.com or call +1-571-601-1752. Include the pay group name, the pay frequency, and a screenshot of the message you see.

Related articles

• Pay Group Setup by Frequency: field-by-field setup for each frequency
• Setting Up Employee Payroll
• Processing a Regular Payroll
• Completing Your Payroll Calendar (Why Deductions Depend on It)
• Time Tracking Setup and Configuration: employees must be in a pay group with an active payroll calendar