Pay Items on a Run
Step 3 of the pay run editor — what this run pays, the four bulk tools, and how to change one person without changing their standing rate.
Step 3 of the pay run editor is where a run stops being a list of people and becomes a payroll. Everything here changes this run only — an employee's standing rates on their record are untouched.
The table
One row per pay item on the run, aggregated across everyone who carries it.
| Column | Notes |
|---|---|
| Type | Compensation, Allowance, Deduction or Tax, as a coloured badge. |
| Name | The payslip line. Items you added in this session are badged New; calculated items name how they are worked out beside the name. |
| Period | What the rate is per. |
| People | How many people on this run carry this item. |
| Total | What the item costs across the whole run. |
Reading down the Total column is the fastest sanity check there is: a figure that looks wrong at run level is nearly always a rate typed wrong for one person.
Working on one item
Tapping an item — or Edit on its row — opens a sheet listing every employee on the run, not just the ones who already carry the item.
| Column in the sheet | What you can do |
|---|---|
| Employee | Name and number. Read-only. |
| Rate | Set this person’s own amount for this item. Someone who does not carry the item shows a placeholder — typing a rate there adds it for them alone. |
| Count | Editable for daily items, where the number is days worked. |
| Amount | Rate × count, shown as it will be paid. |
| Remove for this person | Drops the item for one person, leaving everyone else alone. It can be undone before you save. |
Remove from everyone in the sheet header takes the item off the whole run.
Changing someone here fixes this payroll. Changing them on their record changes what they are paid from now on. Use the sheet for a one-off — a bonus, a month with fewer days, a deduction that applies once.
The four bulk tools
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| Add pay item | Puts a new item on the people currently selected on the People step. Fixed, or worked out per person — see Calculated pay items. |
| Update from CSV | Sets amounts and counts for many people at once from a spreadsheet. |
| Remove items | Lists every item across the people you have selected; tick the ones to drop. |
| Changes | Everything you have altered in this session, newest first, with the time. Read-only. |
Update from CSV
For when a rate changes for a lot of people at once and typing it is not realistic.
And optionally rename it.
Merge updates matched people only — everyone else keeps their current values. Override treats the file as the complete picture: anyone who has the item but is not in the file loses it.
A template is offered. Rows are matched on employee number, and the parsed result is previewed before anything is applied.
Choose Merge when your file is a list of exceptions — the safe default, and what the dialog opens on. Choose Override only when the file genuinely lists everyone who should carry the item, because everybody else with it loses it.
Change the name and upload nothing, and it renames that item for everyone on the run who carries it — no amounts change. That is the tidy way to relabel "Bonus" as "Q3 bonus" for one period.
Changes
Every edit made in the session — people added or removed, days changed, items added, amounts overridden — in one read-only list, newest first. Open it before saving a run you have worked on for a while. It is the cheapest way to answer "what did I actually touch?".
Days, for daily payroll
Where the run carries daily items, the People step gains an editable Days column and an Import days action that brings day counts in from a spreadsheet (employee number and days). The count is what a daily rate is multiplied by.
A daily item resolves to zero unless its rate is above zero and its count is two or more. A single day on a daily item pays nothing — if that is not what you meant, the run's Review step will show the person as No pay.
When you are done with the step
Move on to Review, which totals the run and flags anyone netting zero or less, then Save as draft. Nothing here is posted — see Building a pay run.