What are Salary codes?

Salary codes in Planday are used to identify and report different shifts, mainly when you use accounting software to process your payroll. They help categorise the shifts and make managing and tracking payroll-related information easier. For example, you can use salary codes to differentiate regular working hours, overtime, sick leave, or any other specific types of shifts for accurate reporting and payroll calculations.

When and where to use Salary codes

Salary codes in Planday have a hierarchy depending on where they are applied:

General Salary code: This can be set for all normal Shifts that cover all the hours. In most cases, this is sufficient.
Employee group Salary code: A Salary code can also be assigned to a specific Employee group, overriding the general salary code. This is useful for differentiating shifts by employee group or job role.
Individual employee Salary code: For rare cases, a Salary code can be assigned to an individual employee's wage. This overrides both the general code and the employee group code.
Shift type Salary code: Salary codes can also be set for specific Shift types. This will override all other salary codes mentioned above.

Show hierarchy

When assigning salary codes in Planday, note the following hierarchy:

Best practices for Salary codes:

Keep salary codes simple.
Avoid using special characters or punctuation marks, as these can interfere with payroll integration.
Use clear alphanumeric names, such as Under18 or FullTime.
Avoid complex names like !partTime&(u18*) or €FullTimer%100Pay.

Click on the sections below to expand.

How to set a general Salary code

You can set up a general Salary code for all normal shifts simply by going to Settings > Payroll > General. Scroll down to the Salary codes section and set values for regular hourly worked shifts, monthly salaried shifts, or employee purchases.

If no value has been inserted in the fields above, the default salary code for Hours worked (as per shifts) is 1201 and for Salary, it’s 1202. These would show in the payroll report.

How to set a Salary code on Shift types

Another place you can assign Salary codes is on specific Shift types. This is helpful when you want to distinguish hours as overtime, unpaid leave, sick, or absence.

Go to Settings > Schedule > Shift types, click on an existing Shift type to edit and add a Salary code to override the one set in general settings.

In the following example, you can see that all Shifts marked with overtime of 1.5x will be reported under Salary code 1500 so that the payroll software can distinguish those hours from the regular hours.

Note that Planday only reports the hours for that Shift type, not the rate.

How to set Salary codes on Payroll supplements

You can apply Salary codes to supplements if you want them to be easily identifiable on the Payroll export so you know how many overtime hours an employee worked within a week or how many night hours an employee worked within a period of time for example.

Go to Settings > Payroll > Payroll supplements. Then, edit the Supplement(s) you want to apply Salary codes to and insert the Salary code(s).

add salary code to Payroll supplement.001.jpeg

Note: If you’re using the Xero integration, only Normal, Day-based and manual supplements are supported. See an Overview of Payroll supplements in Planday.

Apply Salary codes to Employee groups

Setting up Salary codes for Employee groups can be helpful if you want to differentiate the hours for a group of employees or job roles. For example, employees in a clinic need to be paid a different wage than when they work in the reception vs other administrative roles. You could set a Salary code for the Employee group to differentiate Shifts belonging to these employees.

Go to People > Employee groups. You can add a Salary code to a new group or edit an existing one. The Salary codes set here will override the one set in the general settings.

Assign a Salary code to an employee

There might be situations where you need to differentiate a single employee's hours separate from the rest of the group. For example, an employee may be paid a different rate due to their seniority in the company, so their hours need to be reported separately in payroll. Setting an individual salary code for this employee would be the way to go, so it overrides the general Salary code and any of the group rates.

Go to People > Employees > click the edit employee button on an employee you wish to change > switch to the Employment tab > scroll down to Employee groups > Edit. You can assign a personal Salary code to this employee by editing their Employee group relation.

This will override the general salary code and the salary code for employee groups.

For scalability, we generally don't recommend applying a Salary code on the employee level but use it through Employee groups instead.

See related articles:

ℹ️ Need more help?

🔍 Search the Help Center | See videos at Tutorials.Planday.com | Watch a webinar

💬 For personalised support

Login and contact our support team via the blue icon at the bottom if you have more questions or book a one-to-one professional training session with an expert.