Submit your Suggestions for Spectrum

Yes PLEASE add the ability to add our own pay types.

With 248 votes for this I would hope that this would be on the list. PLEASE make this enhancement in Spectrum!

Have the ability to create a Pay Type - using your own code.

There is definitely a need for more pay types, especially if you want the amount to reflect in the gross wages.

We currently use SR for several pay types. TT Travel Time, BP Bereavement, JD Jury Duty, MP Meal Premium (when they take a late lunch). We also had to use it for the Mandatory CP Covid Pay.

This makes running reports for these pay types difficult.

We frequently have need to record pay codes like DOUBLE-TIME-AND-A-HALF, bereavement leave, jury duty, etc. The one that causes us the most issue is the double-time-and-a-half as it is required by one of the unions we deal with.

If you could add Special Rate OT and Special Rate DT

We have to use SR for all 3 and go in and update the rates if OT or DT

This would save us a tremendous amount of work

WE definitely need another pay type to track hours (so it needs to be a pay type with hours and not RATE) for those items that are NOT worked but paid, that would report under other. We have S (sick), V(vacation) and H (Holiday) but we need a few more.

This is crucial for Union reporting as well as EI, worksafe/workers' compensation programs, FMLA, etc. NON WORKING HOURS that are paid but not worked is required for both CBA and all Regulatory requirements and state and Fed laws.

Currently pay types in amounts/rates (vs hours) is not managable for large payroll volumes to have to go and calculate and enter their rates for each employee.

Further, when created, I would suggest creating not one but at least two of these paid types - (4 -5) so that they can be used freely by others as needed.

Personally, if custom pay types were distinguished just on the TC history report, that would suffice for me. I could see needing severance separated on earnings history, but I could make do without.

We would use these in a fashion to track employee utilization between indirect and direct costs. We would like to see this allow for customized GL routing based on pay type, much like add-ons work. Currently we are entering multiple add-ons per timesheet to show utilization and be able to produce reports and then making GL entries to balance accounts.

Thanks,
Aimee Johnson, CPCP
Sr. Manager of Business Systems

601 West State Street / Sedro Woolley, WA. 98284
T 360-856-6511 / D 360-854-4230 / F 360-854-4297 / C 360-395-8626
ajohnson@snelsonco.com
[SNELSON Gray]

We had to add a couple add-ons recently that need to be part of gross for Union fringe and deduction calculations and are calculated on an hourly rate. However, the hours are the same hours used to calculate regular and overtime wages so the hours for these add-on cant be included in total hours or union fringes that calculate on total hours would be overstated. Not sure additional pay types would be the answer but since add-ons don't ever get included in gross pay, it takes multiple reports and manual calculations every week to do our union reporting. Therefore, it would be very helpful if we could use a new pay type or have the dollar value of these add-ons appear in gross pay on a variety of reports - Union Reports, Earning History (as other earnings), WC reports. Gross is also used for completing unemployment verifications, or tying out to pay for WC & Union audits. To me, gross is gross. So it should be the same gross on every report that has the heading of gross pay.

Allow me to reword my statement Lynn.

The earnings reports display regular, overtime, double time etc. In my mind, a custom pay type would be assigned R, O, D for tracking purposes on these reports. So when you enter 'JURY', in the background the system records regular time.

Unless someone can explain otherwise, I was trying to see what folks thought about using standard pay types on all reports except for Time Card Edit Lists, Time Card Entry and of course the paycheck.

(For example, I do not see any valid reason to rewrite the Earnings History Report to include custom pay types... )

I disagree with Geoffrey Falk about earnings reports "don't really care" about hours. We look at hours all the time. We calculate work hours vs total hours paid. The ability to create custom pay types that track hours is long overdue.

Question for the group here:

What is the business reason for different pay types? Or better said, how would you use these? What reports would they appear on?

In my mind, there are certain payroll reports that custom pay types don't make sense on. Union and Certified Reports don't support custom pay types. Earnings reports don't really care either.

Would having the ability to track hours in Time Card History solve the issues here?

Let me know either way. Thanks!

Geoff

These do exist ... sorta ... in ours, they are set up with a pay type R and a Dept of JD = Jury Duty, Funeral Leave = BEV

Agreed, software should give the client the ability to add and edit pay types as needed.  Limitations on this, cause confusion when having to reuse pay types.  The user should be able to add these as needed.

The multiple Spectrum systems I have worked on have always had a Paytype of "R" and Dept of "BEV" for Funeral or "JD" for Jury Duty. 

How about custom Pay Types for Units x Rate (Per Diem, mileage allowance, etc)??

Please also include a Severance pay type

Where did the ability to edit pay types go?  Ours could use serious house cleaning!  I thought we had the ability to edit/add pay types in the past.