Pay Scale
A pay scale is a label you put on a man's salary record, usually his grade or band. Its one job is to let you run payroll for part of the workforce instead of all of it.
What it is for
The pay scale is picked on a man's Recurring Payments and Deductions record, and the payroll run can be told to process one pay scale only. Leave the pay scale blank on the run and every scale is processed together.
That is the whole of it. No amount, no rate and no rule hangs off a pay scale: it does not set anybody's salary. If the client wants the grade to decide what a man is paid, that belongs on his Salary Structure, and the pay scale is only the name of the band.
Most clients end up with one scale per grade, or one for the office and one for the factory. Pay Area is a second label that works in exactly the same way, so the usual convention is grade here and location there. The system does not enforce that distinction, so agree it with the client and write it down.
Every field, in plain words
Basic Data
| Field | What it means | What to put in it | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pay Scale | The code picked on a salary record | G1, G2, WORKER, STAFF | Required |
| Name | How the scale reads in a list | Grade 1 Management | Required |
| Block | Stops the scale being picked on a new record | Leave it clear | Tick it to retire a scale |
How to configure it
- Create one pay scale per band the client pays by. At a five hundred person manufacturer that is often just two, staff and workers, or the six management grades.
- Save, then pick the scale on each man's Recurring Payments and Deductions record.
Scenarios
"We pay the workers on the 7th and the staff on the 1st"
Two pay scales, WORKER and STAFF, set on each man's salary record. Run payroll twice, once for each scale. Note that the two runs still share one Payroll Period: the pay scale narrows who is processed, it does not change the dates.
What it is connected to
- Picked on Recurring Payments and Deductions, and from there it travels onto the payroll run, Payroll Attendance, Employee Overtime and Process Overtime.
- Used as a criterion when a payroll run is launched. A run left blank on pay scale processes every scale.
- Renaming a scale is safe. Changing a man's scale changes which run picks him up next month.
If something looks wrong
- "The payroll run produced nothing" - the run was launched for a pay scale that nobody carries on their salary record. Clear the criterion or correct the salary records.