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Create and edit pay groups in Sage Business Cloud Payroll (Canada)
Create and edit pay groups in Sage Business Cloud Payroll (Canada)

A pay group is a way of grouping your employees together so they can be paid as part of the same pay run. (Canada only)

Julianna Markova avatar
Written by Julianna Markova
Updated over a year ago

They're useful when you have employees with similar:

  • Pay components

  • Pay frequencies

  • Pay periods

  • Payment dates

To be part of a pay group your employees need to be paid at the same time. Employees that are paid at the same time don't have to be in the same group.

For example, a company with 10 employees might divide them into the following pay groups:

Employees

Pay group

2 semi-monthly paid employees

Semi-monthly (Salary) - management

8 bi-weekly paid employees

Bi-weekly (Hourly) - staff

If your employees have other types of income or deductions, you can add these to the pay group. You can edit the values per employee during the pay run.

Default pay groups

When you first create a company in Sage Business Cloud Payroll, there are 5 pay groups already available. Each of these pay groups has been set up with pay components. Pay components are the types of payment and deduction you'd typically see on a payslip. When you process a pay run, you can choose which of the pay components you use.

You can edit the default pay groups to add or remove pay components. Or you can edit the pay components that are included in the pay group. For example, you could update the description of Deduction (After-Tax) 1 to Gym membership.

Check a pay group to see what pay components are included by default.

Weekly (Hourly)

Bi-weekly (Hourly)

Bi-weekly (Salary)

Semi-monthly (Salary)

Monthly (Salary)

Add a pay group

To create a new pay group:

  1. From Maintenance, select Pay Groups, then Add Pay Group.

  2. Select how often you want the employees to be paid.

    Bi-weekly means your employees will be paid every 2 weeks. Semi-monthly means your employees are paid on 2 fixed dates every month, for example 11th and 25th.

  3. Enter a name for your new pay group then select Next.

  4. Select the employees you want to be part of the new pay group then select Next.

    If an employee is not available for selection, you can manually add them from their employee record. They must have the same pay frequency as the pay group.

  5. Enter any earnings, deductions and benefits and allowances that you want to appear on their pay run by default. You can edit them during the pay run.

  6. Save your new pay group.

The new pay group can now be edited using the steps below, and is available to select when you create or edit employees and when you process a pay run.

Edit a pay group

To edit a pay group:

  1. From Maintenance, select Pay Groups.

  2. Select the pay group you want to change, then Edit Pay Group.

  3. Make your changes, then select Next and Save as required.

Any changes you've made to the pay group will apply to your next pay run. They do not affect completed pay runs.

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