Best Practices On Using Time To Pet With Hourly Employees
If your company currently uses independent contractors and you are transitioning to hourly employees, or you already have hourly employees alongside contractors, this guide is here to help you configure your Time To Pet account to save you time and manual labor. We'll provide you with valuable tips, tricks, and best practices for transitioning to and effectively managing hourly employees in your Time To Pet account.
IN THIS ARTICLE
Switching From Independent Contractors To Employees
If you currently use independent contractors but are switching to all hourly employees, we recommend taking the following steps in Time To Pet.
Step 1: Create A Timeline
To keep things organized and set expectations for your staff members, determine the following dates and share this timeline with your staff members:
- The last date of services that users will be paid "per piece". Ideally, this will be at the end of your normal pay period.
- The date final pay stubs/invoices will be generated for piece-rate pay. This final pay stub/invoice should only be run for dates that piece-rate pay will be calculated and should not include dates when employees will receive hourly pay.
- The first date of services that users should begin clocking in and out, and hourly pay will begin.
- The first date hourly pay stubs will be issued.
Step 2: Generate Final Invoices
On the date determined in number two above, generate final pay stubs/invoices for piece-rate pay. As a reminder, this pay stub/invoice should only include dates for which staff will be paid per piece (and should not include any dates for which employees will receive hourly pay).
Step 3: Set Pay Rates To Zero
Follow the steps listed below to remove all pay rates and set them to $0 or 0%: Configuring Service Pay Rates - When All Staff Are Paid Hourly
Step 4: Switch Verbiage From User To Staff
The terminology used in Time To Pet changes based on whether you have your settings configured to use employees or independent contractors. The terms "user" and "invoice" will be used if you use contractors. The terms "staff" and "pay stubs" will be used if you use employees. If you haven't already, you can set your account to use the employee terminology in Settings > User Settings.
Step 5: Enable Time Tracking
On or before the date determined in number 3 above, enable Time Tracking (and mileage tracking if needed), so your employees can clock in and out. Check out our help doc on Time Tracking & Mileage Tracking for more information!
Step 6: Generate Your First Pay Stub For Hourly Employees
On the date determined in number four above, generate your first hourly pay stubs for your employees. Note that the only pay calculated on these pay stubs should be that of tips that have been disbursed to your staff members, and there should not be any pay calculated for the events your staff is assigned to or the hours they worked. For more information on generating pay stubs, check out our help doc on Generating Pay Stubs For Staff.
Staff Or User: Choosing The Right Terminology
The terminology in Time To Pet changes based on whether you have your settings configured to use employees or independent contractors. The terms "user" and "invoice" will be used if you use contractors. The terms "staff" and "pay stubs" will be used if you use employees. You can change whether you use independent contractors or employees in Settings > Staff/User Settings.
That said, if you use both independent contractors and employees, use the setting that makes the most sense for your company. If you live in a region with strict regulations on the use of independent contractors, it may be best to use the "independent contractor" setting.
Note: The functionality across Time Time To Pet stays the same whether your settings are configured to use independent contractors or employees. The only effect this setting has is the terminology used within Time To Pet.
This article will use "staff" and "pay stubs" throughout for easier reading.
Configuring Service Pay Rates
In Time To Pet, each Service can have a specific pay rate configured that is used to calculate pay for "piece rate" staff on pay stubs. If you have some or all hourly employees, you'll want to follow these tips when setting your service pay rates.
When All Staff Are Paid Hourly
If all of your staff members are paid hourly (and no one is paid "per piece"), set your service pay rates to $0 or 0%:
This will prevent your hourly staff from seeing erroneous pay estimates in their account for the events they are assigned and will eliminate the need to make manual adjustments when you generate pay stubs.
Note: Be sure to remove any custom pay rates you have set for individual staff members as well, as custom pay rates would override these service pay rates. To see if you have any custom pay rates set for your staff members, navigate to Staff > Pay Center > Pay Rates
When Some Staff Are Paid Hourly
If you have one or more hourly employees and you also have one or more "piece-rate" staff members, set your service pay rates to what you pay your piece-rate staff:
Then, in the "Rates" tab of each hourly staff member's profile, set all of the pay rates for each service to $0 or 0% so they won't see erroneous pay estimates in their account and to eliminate the need to make manual adjustments when you generate pay stubs.
Note: If you have piece-rate staff that is paid something other than what you've set as the default pay rate in the service settings, you can also give them a custom pay rate in the rates tab of their profile. See Setting Custom Pay Rates for more info.
Configuring Hourly Pay Rates And Tracking Hours Worked
There is no way to set an hourly pay rate in Time To Pet, and Time To Pet doesn't calculate hourly pay in any capacity. You can, however, use Time To Pet's built-in time tracking tools to track your employee's hours, then export those hours from Time To Pet for import with your payroll processor. For more information on tracking employee hours with Time To Pet, check out our help doc on Time Tracking & Mileage Tracking.
Generating Pay Stubs For Hourly Employees
As mentioned above, there is no way to calculate hourly pay for staff in Time To Pet, and only "piece-rate" pay can be calculated based on the rates you've set throughout Time To Pet. That said, if you accept tips from clients or you use Time To Pet to track your employees' hours, you should still generate pay stubs for your hourly employees. This is because even though you may not need to calculate "piece-rate" pay, generating pay stubs is the only way to clear your staff members' tip balances, which is necessary to accurately track the tips your staff has earned and should be paid out each pay period.
If you want to log the total you pay an hourly employee in Time To Pet, here are a couple of tips:
When generating pay stubs, check the option to include time shifts:
Before finalizing the pay stubs, edit those that you want to add hourly pay to and add a custom line item with the pay amount:
