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Today we're announcing an update to the payroll item API that provides a more flexible way to configure employee earnings. We've replaced hour and gross_pay fields in favor of an earnings list, which enables native support for more granular earning details like multiple pay rates.
Today, we are announcing the ability to reopen pending payrolls. Pending payrolls are payrolls that have been approved but have not yet been processed. When a payroll is processed, we send ACH transactions to the bank to fund the payroll. Pending payrolls can be reopened by making a POST request to /payrolls/:id/reopen. This transfers the payroll back to the draft status, which allows for edits.
Today, we are adding the ability for employers to manually pay employees. By default, payment_method is direct_deposit, which tells Check to withdraw that employee's net pay from employer accounts, and directly deposit those funds into the employee's accounts. By defining the payment_method as manual on a payroll item, the employee's net pay will be left in the employer’s bank account. This amount will be for the employer to pay directly to the employee on pay day, whether by check, cash, wire, or another method, while still enabling Check to deduct tax liabilities on those wages from the employer’s bank account.
We are excited today to announce the introduction of overtime, PTO, and sick pay to our API. Each of these pay types can be optionally entered into the API when creating a payroll item so that employers can track how many hours of overtime, vacation, and sick time their employees are logging, and how much they earn for those hours.
Today we’re announcing support for paystubs in our API. A paystub is a document that outlines the details of each pay period for an employee. Several examples of important pieces of information that appear on paystubs are employee and employer names and addresses, current period and year to date gross wages, net pay, benefit deductions, tax withholdings, hours worked, overtime hours, and paid time off or vacation hours used.
We’ve added the ability to include reimbursements through payroll! Reimbursements provide a convenient way for employers to repay employees for out of pocket business expenses by increasing the employee’s net pay by a specified amount. This reimbursement amount is simply passed through from the employer to the employee, and is not subject to taxes.
You can now report imputed income on payrolls! When a company provides a benefit or service to an employee in addition to their wage, that compensation is taxable. Although imputed income is not reflected in the net pay for an employee, it must be included in their gross pay to accurately withhold taxes.
Guide available
This post has been reworked into a guide: Life of a payroll.
Check now supports calculating withholdings for cash tips. Unlike paycheck tips, cash tips are a form of imputed income and are not included in an employee's net pay. Here's an example of an employee that earned $300 in weekly gross pay, $100 in paycheck card tips, and $70 in cash tips.
Check now supports calculating withholdings for additional types of pay. In additional to configuring regular pay, you can now configure gross bonuses, commissions, and paycheck tips when configuring payments to an employee. For example, here's the creation of a payroll item for an employee in the service industry that earned their normal $500 weekly gross pay, a $100 discretionary bonus for great work, and $250 in credit card tips from grateful customers: