Managers can make pay adjustments to employee’s time and attendance records to account for a variety of situations. Earning commission, quarterly bonuses, or accounting for employee absences are common examples.
Typically, the Assign Pay Adjustment Rule is used to cover unworked, scheduled time with pay adjustments managers made the same day to account for employee absences. It applies only time-based pay adjustments; these are adjustments where the manager has entered a pay adjustment with an amount of hours and not a lump sum dollar payment.
For example, if an employee was absent for their 7.75 hour shift on Monday, their manager can create a 7.75 hour pay adjustment that uses the paid sick time to cover the absence. After the adjustment is made, the employee’s timesheet shows the absent shift and the pay adjustment. When the Assign Pay Adjustment Rule runs, it applies the time in the adjustment to the scheduled, unworked time on the employee’s timesheet, converting the unworked, unpaid time to paid sick time. After all of the eligible time is covered with time from the pay adjustment, the rule converts any extra pay adjustment time into a premium. If the pay adjustment is shorter in duration than the eligible time, any remaining time isn’t changed.
This is the simplest case: the adjustment is the same duration as the unworked, scheduled shift, no premiums are created and all of the unworked, unpaid time is converted to paid time.
Although the above example is a common use of the rule, it can be configured to cover any time, based on pay codes and pay categories, with the time from a time-based pay adjustment. Which pay codes and pay categories mark eligible pay details to be converted, which codes and categories they're converted to, and the pay rate assigned to this converted time are controlled through the rule’s configuration.
Note: This rule should be executed before rules that depend on pay details and pay premiums (such as the overtime rules) to ensure that time-based pay adjustments are considered in calculating pay.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Pay category to assign to pay detail | Select the pay category the rule assigns to eligible pay details covered by pay adjustments. When the rule applies a pay adjustment to an eligible pay detail, it changes the pay detail’s pay category to this setting’s selected value. In the case where you want scheduled, unworked and unpaid time to be paid by pay adjustments, you’d select a paid pay category, such as REG. Leave blank and the rule doesn’t convert the pay category of eligible pay details. |
| Pay category to assign to premium | Select the pay category the rule assigns to any pay premiums it creates. Premiums are created only when a pay adjustment is longer in duration than any eligible pay details on that day. The excess time is converted to a pay premium with the selected pay category. Leave blank and the rule uses the pay category of the pay adjustment when it creates any premiums. |
| Rate Lookup |
Select an appropriate rate field to configure the rule to use employee-specific pay rates when it calculates pay adjustments. The options correspond to the rates specified in the Compensation and Hours section in the Employment Status tab of the Employment > Employment Settings screen in People. For example, select Vacation Rate and Dayforce uses the pay rate specified in the Vacation Rate field of each employees’ records as the pay rate of any pay adjustments it creates. Note: Specifying a value in the existing Rate value field will override the rate selected in the Rate Lookup field. |
| Rate value |
Enter the pay rate of time assigned to pay adjustments by the rule. This field accepts both positive and negative values. Typically, you’d leave this field blank so that the rule uses the higher of the employee’s base rate or the job rate of the pay adjustment when it assigns pay adjustments to eligible time. For example, if an employee makes $12.50 an hour but the pay adjustment is paid at $14.00 an hour, the rule pays the employee $14.00 an hour for time covered by the adjustment. Enter a pay rate for the rule to assign to pay details covered by pay adjustments or any pay premiums created by the rule. The rule only applies this pay rate to eligible pay details that don’t have a rate specified already, and only for the time covered by the pay adjustment. For example, a four-hour pay adjustment exists on a day with six hours of eligible pay details that don’t have a pay rate. The rule would assign the Rate value to the four of the six hours of eligible pay details covered by the assigned pay adjustment. |
| Balance holding rate | Select which balance is used to determine the pay rate for the assigned adjustment. The rate is calculated using the employee’s most recent balance value. |
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Select this checkbox and the starting value for the balance period is divided by the employee’s normal weekly hours before it's used as the pay adjustment rate. |
| Pay Codes eligible | Select which pay codes mark eligible pay details. Only pay details with one of the selected pay codes can be covered by time from pay adjustments on the same day. Leave blank and the rule doesn't consider pay codes when looking for eligible pay details. |
| Pay Codes not eligible | Select which pay codes mark ineligible pay details. Pay details with one of the selected pay codes can't be covered by pay adjustments by the rule. Leave blank and the rule doesn't consider pay codes when marking pay details as ineligible. |
| Pay Categories eligible | Select which pay categories mark eligible pay details. Only pay details with one of the selected pay categories can be covered by time from pay adjustments on the same day. Leave blank and the rule doesn't consider pay categories when looking for eligible pay details. |
| Pay Categories not eligible | Select which pay categories mark ineligible pay details. Pay details with one of the selected pay categories can't be assigned pay adjustments by the rule. Leave blank and the rule doesn't consider pay categories when marking pay details as ineligible. |
| Eligible Adjustment pay code | Select which pay codes mark eligible pay adjustments. The rule assigns only pay adjustments with one of the selected pay codes to cover eligible pay details that occur on the same day. Leave blank and the rule assigns any time-based pay adjustment to eligible pay details. |
| Ineligible Adjustment pay code | Select which pay codes mark ineligible pay adjustments. Pay details with one of the selected adjustment pay codes can't be assigned pay adjustments by the rule. Leave blank and the rule doesn't consider time-based pay adjustments when marking pay details as ineligible. |
| Apply on top of salary | Select the checkbox to apply the pay adjustment on top of the employee’s salary. |
| Apply employee average overtime rate | Select the checkbox if you want to apply the employee’s average overtime rate to the time included in the pay adjustment. |
| Ignore adjustment duration that exceeds worked time | Select the checkbox to prevent the rule from applying any portion of the adjustment that would exceed the amount of time for which the employee was scheduled to work. This can be used to prevent users from banking more overtime than the employee earned. For example, if an employee earned two hours of overtime and their manager recorded a pay adjustment to bank three hours of overtime by mistake, the rule ignores the third hour in the pay adjustment. It converts the two hours of overtime pay details to banked time. |
| Bank minutes multiplier | This field is used if the rule is configured to bank overtime. If employees earn their banked overtime balance at a multiplied rate when banking overtime, specify the multiplier in this field. For example, if employees can bank two hours for every one hour of overtime that they earn, enter 2 in this field and the rule multiplies the overtime by two before incrementing the banked overtime balance. This field accepts both positive and negative values. |
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Note: Instead of using the following settings to apply discounting, it’s recommended that you use the Discount Hours Rule. See Discount Hours Rule. |
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| Calculate adjustment as discount code |
Select this checkbox to configure the rule so that any premiums it pays out lower the weekly overtime thresholds of the Weekly Overtime Rule and cause employees to earn overtime after working a shorter amount of time. For example, employees start earning weekly overtime after working 40 hours in one week. An employee works 39 hours during the week, and the Assign Pay Adjustment Rule assigns a four-hour pay adjustment. With the threshold discounted by any pay adjustments assigned or premiums paid by the Assign Pay Adjustment Rule, the employee in this example earns weekly overtime after working 36 hours (the original threshold of 40 hours minus the four hours of the assigned pay adjustment from the Assign Pay Adjustment Rule). As a result, the Weekly OT Rule pays out three hours of overtime. Note: For this functionality to work, you must also select the Discount other items checkbox in the Weekly Overtime Rule and define which premiums or pay adjustments from the Assign Pay Adjustment Rule are considered eligible using the Other discount eligible pay codes or Other discount ineligible pay codes settings. Typically, the pay code selected in the Other discount eligible pay codes setting of the Weekly Overtime Rule matches the pay code selected in the Eligible Adjustment pay code setting of the Assign Pay Adjustment Rule. See Weekly Overtime Rule. |
| Maximum discount |
Defines the maximum number of minutes by which each pay adjustment the rule assigns can discount weekly overtime threshold. This maximum acts on a per-adjustment basis, so each adjustment is checked against the threshold individually. For example, the Assign Pay Adjustment Rule can be configured so that paid sick time discounts weekly overtime thresholds, but only by a maximum of eight hours for each sick day. An employee uses nine sick hours to cover a nine-hour shift that they were off sick for. Their manager records the sick time as a pay adjustment, which the Assign Pay Adjustment Rule assigns when it runs, but only eight hours of the nine-hour pay adjustment are used to discount the weekly overtime thresholds of the Weekly Overtime Rule. |
| Strictly apply adjustment rate |
By default, if the rate for an imported pay adjustment is lower than an employee’s base rate (and if the Assign Pay Adjustment Rule isn’t configured with a specific rate), Dayforce uses the highest of the employee’s base rate, job rate, or the rate from the original work detail (in cases where the pay adjustment is applied to work details). Select this checkbox and Dayforce always uses the rate associated with imported pay adjustments, even if it’s lower than the employee’s base rate. For example, an imported pay adjustment has a rate of $10 per hour, and the employee’s base rate is $20 per hour. By default, Dayforce uses the employee’s base rate. However, with this new checkbox selected, Dayforce uses the $10 rate associated with the pay adjustment instead. Note: In cases where this checkbox is selected but the imported pay adjustment doesn’t have a rate, Dayforce maintains default functionality. |
| Copy project & docket to work details |
By default, when a pay adjustment is used to modify work details, Dayforce retains the original information from the work detail. With this checkbox selected, Dayforce applies the project and docket information from the pay adjustment to the work details it modifies. Note: Dayforce only updates work details that use the pay codes specified in the Pay codes eligible setting. That means that if no values are selected for this setting, Dayforce won't alter any work details. |
| Keep work details work assignment |
When selected, the pay details of the shift are populated from pay adjustments, but the location and job assignments are retained from the shift. If any pay adjustment is awarded as a premium, the value from the pay adjustment is used. Additionally, the setting checks pay adjustment duration against the shift length and uses the one with the longer duration to allocate pay. For example, if the pay adjustment is 10 hours and the shift is 8 hours, as the pay adjustment is longer than the shift, the two hours difference is paid with the pay details from the pay adjustments. When cleared, the work details of the shift are populated from the pay adjustment including location and job assignment. |
Assign Pay Adjustment Rule Example
Employees receive unpaid meal breaks during any shift longer than 5 hours in duration. However, employees are sometimes called to staff meetings during this time, instead of taking a break. Employees need to be paid for their meal break if they spent it in a meeting.
To configure the rule for this example:
- In the Pay category to assign to pay detail drop-down list, click Regular.
- In the Pay category to assign to premium drop-down list, click Regular.
- In the Pay Codes eligible setting, click Meal
- In the Pay Categories eligible setting, click Unpaid.
- In the Eligible Adjustment pay code setting, click Meeting.
An employee skips their meal break to attend a training session and stays after work for an additional hour of training. The employee has the following pay details before the manager adds the pay adjustment:
These pay details describe seven hours of work, with a scheduled meal break. In this example, however, the employee spent their break and an additional hour in meetings. To account for this, the manager creates a two-hour pay adjustment with Meeting selected as the type.
When the rule runs, it assigns the pay adjustment to the one hour of eligible time, the meal break. It changes the Unpaid pay category to Reg, as per the rule’s configuration. It also converts the Meal pay code to Meeting, which is the pay code used by the Meeting pay adjustment the manager created. Because the Rate value field is blank, the rule pays the employee at the employee’s rate.
It also creates a one-hour pay premium for the remaining time in the pay adjustment, again using the pay adjustment’s pay code and the Regular pay category. After the rule has run, the employee’s pay details correctly reflect the workday. The employee is paid at their regular pay rate for nine hours.