Bonus Payments

How to provide a bonus payment to your staff
One time or occasional bonus payments are easy to add as part of your payroll runs. 

Bonus as part of a regular pay run

To pay a bonus to a staff member as part of your regular pay runs, follow these steps:

1. Login to your account (you'll need to login using payroll manager permissions or higher). Start your pay run as usual.

2. On the SALARIED or TIMESHEETS step (depending on the type of employee you'll be adding the bonus for), add regular hours and then click Approve
3. click the '+Add' icon near their name. 
   
4. On the additional earnings popup, select BONUS as the earnings code
5. Fill in the amount you wish to provide. The amount you enter will be the gross bonus (before deductions/taxes)
   
6. Click the Add and Submit button to complete the entry
7. Finalize your pay run as usual.

The bonus amount will show as part of the employee's regular pay run and will be listed as a separate line item


Bonus as a separate (special) pay run

Submitting a "bonus-only" run is NOT recommended. Consider paying this as part of a regular pay run to ensure your tax calculations are in accordance with CRA tax law.
If you must pay out a bonus as a separate pay run the employee vacation calculations must be set to ACCRUE or OFF.  If they are set to Release each pay, your tax calculations will be incorrect.
To change employee setting follow these steps;

1. Go to EMPLOYEES>EDIT PROFILE>PAYROLL DETAILS AND RULES
2. Change Automatic Vacation to either accrue or off
   1. If you set to accrue this amount will release on the NEXT payroll after you set them back to Release each pay
3. Run payroll as a SPECIAL run (paid plans only) using the SAME work dates as your regular run
4. Click the +ADD button on the employee line you want to pay the bonus to
5. Enter Bonus as the earnings code and the Total to pay (gross)
6. Click Add and Submit
   
7. Complete your payroll as normal
8. Once completed set employee vacation settings back to Release each pay if applicable

Creating a custom pay rule for bonuses

If you'd like to use your own custom pay rule for bonus payments, you'll need to make sure your rule uses the occasional earnings tax methodology. You'll want to use your own custom code if you want to customize the term "bonus" on employee pay slips. Here's how:

1. Go to SETTINGS>PAY RULES>EARNINGS
2. Click +Add New Rule
3. Set up the rule as follows:
   1. 1. Name: this is what employees will see on payslips
      2. Description: optional
      3. GL code: leave blank
      4. Enabled is checked
      5. T4 Box: enter any special T4 box numbers (do not include box 14)
      6. Provincial Box: enter any special RL-1 box letters (do not include box A)
      7. CPP is checked
      8. EI is checked
      1. Federal Tax is checked
      10. Provincial Tax is checked
      11. Vacationable is checked (depending on your province, most will set this as ON)
      50. Occasional Earnings is checked

4. Perform your pay runs as indicated in the sections for Bonus as a part of regular run or special run, but use your new earnings code when adding the bonus.

Note: The CRA and your local provincial employment standards will dictate how certain bonuses will be taxed. You should check and verify your pay rule against these guidelines before performing your pay run