Time tracking and running payroll

This article is for the person who approves hours and runs payroll. For how staff clock in, see My time card, clocking in and time off.

Approving time entries

Sidebar: Team & Payroll, then Time Management, then the Time Entries tab. You need the Manage schedules permission to open this page.

When someone clocks out, their shift goes to Submitted and waits for you. Only Approved shifts are paid.

Filter by date range, employee or status if you need to. Status choices are Draft, Submitted, Approved and Rejected.
To approve many at once, tick the entries (or the box at the top) and press Approve [number] Selected.
To handle one entry, open the menu on its row and choose Approve or Reject.

Each row can also show flags, such as a shift over 6 hours with no break.

Fixing punches

Owners and managers can fix entries from the same tab:

Clock Out Employee — someone forgot to clock out. This closes the open shift now.
Edit Entry — change the date, clock in, clock out, break minutes, job code or notes. If you edit an approved entry, it goes back to Submitted and needs approving again.
Manual Entry — the button at the top. Add a shift that was never clocked: pick the employee, date, clock in, clock out and break minutes.
Delete — only for Draft or Rejected entries.

Entries that are locked or already paid in a finished payroll run cannot be changed.

Pay profiles

Sidebar: Team & Payroll, then Payroll, then the Pay Profiles tab. Each person needs one:

Employment Type — W-2 Employee or 1099 Contractor
Pay Type — Hourly or Salary
Hourly Rate ($), or Salary Amount ($) plus a Pay Cadence (weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly or monthly)
Overtime Enabled and an Overtime Multiplier (1.5 unless you change it)
Effective Start Date
PTO Days / Year and Sick Days / Year — these set the time-off balances staff see

Important:

Someone with no pay profile is left out of payroll runs completely, including their tips.
1099 contractors are left out of payroll runs on purpose.
Changing pay rates needs the Manage pay rates permission. Nobody except an owner can change their own pay profile.

Tips

Tips taken at checkout are recorded for the staff member automatically. A tip can be split between two people at checkout. For a tip handed over some other way, press Record Tip on the Payroll page, pick who it goes to, enter the amount and how it was given (cash, card or other). See Tips: capture and payout.

Running payroll

Sidebar: Team & Payroll, then Payroll, then the Payroll Runs tab.

Press New Period. Choose the cadence, period start, period end and pay date.
On the period's row, press Start Run.
Press Calculate. If any shifts in the period are not approved, a warning tells you how many were left out. Approve them and calculate again.
Check the totals. Open the run to see each person's base pay, overtime, commission, tips, adjustments, gross and net. Add bonuses, deductions or reimbursements here.
Press Approve.
Press Finalize. A finalized run is locked.

Export CSV is on every run once it has been calculated.

Running payroll needs the Manage payroll permission. Managers have it by default.

What Calculate does

Hours are clock out minus clock in minus breaks, for approved shifts only.
Overtime starts after 40 hours in a week. Businesses in California, Alaska, Nevada and Colorado can also have daily overtime (over 8 hours) and double time (over 12 hours). This only applies once your business's state is set on the account, and there is no screen for that yet. If you are in one of these states, contact support before your first run.
Hourly pay uses the rate saved when the shift was clocked in, not today's rate.
Salary is the yearly amount divided by the number of pay periods in the cadence.
Commission comes from completed appointments assigned to the person, and from product sales they made, under their commission plan. Plans are set up on the Commissions tab.
Tips are added, then bonuses and reimbursements.

Gross pay is the total of all of that. Net pay is gross minus deductions. Alaga does not calculate tax withholding. Give the CSV to your payroll provider or accountant for taxes.

Time Management also has Team Schedules, Booking Times and Time Off Requests tabs.
Activity Logs shows who changed what.
The Payroll Summary, Time Tracking Report, Commission Earnings and Employee Hours Report are in Reports, under Payroll.