Set up Pay Rate Templates in QuickBooks Payroll

Learn how to set up pay rate templates in QuickBooks Payroll to manage employee pay rates in bulk. Some scenarios where using a pay rate template would be useful are:

• Juniors’ rates increasing on their birthday
• Apprentices moving to the next year of their apprenticeship
• Employees switching roles
• Employees being moved to a higher grade of their award
• Award rates reviewed annually

Note: If you've installed an Award for your employees, pay rate templates for that award will automatically be created for you—skip to Step 2 to apply them to employees.

Step 1: Create a Pay Rate Template

1. Go to Payroll and select Employees (Take me there).
2. Select Payroll Settings, then select Pay Rate Templates under the Pay Conditions section.
3. Selct Add to create a new pay rate template.
4. Name your template, and select the Primary Pay Category that this template applies to.
5. In the Pay Rates table, enter the rate you want to apply for each category. Note: You don't have to fill out all pay categories.
6. Select Save when finished.

Step 2: Apply Pay Rate Templates to Employees

1. Go to Payroll and select Employees (Take me there).
2. Select an Employee from the list on Employees tab.
3. Select Pay Run Defaults from the left menu.
4. From the Pay Rate Template dropdown, select the pay rate template you created.
5. Once a pay rate template is selected, the Pay Rate and Primary Pay Category for that employee are assigned automatically.
6. Repeat the above steps for other employees, for whom this pay rate template is applicable.

When you change the pay rate from the Pay Rate Template section detailed in Step 1, all employees linked to this pay rate template will have their rates updated as well.

Note: Pay Rate Template changes are effective from the day after the period end date of the most recent pay run the employee has been included in (or the employee's start date if there's no finalised pay run). This date is displayed at the bottom of the Pay Run Defaults page for that employee.

Reporting

To help with identifying employees whose pays need to be updated or reviewed on their birthday, run the Employee birthdays report:

1. Go to Payroll and select Employees (Take me there).
2. Select Reports (next to Payroll Settings).
3. Select the Employee birthdays report.

This report will tell you which employees have birthdays within the specified date range so that preparations can be made to adjust their pay rates (and buy birthday cakes!).