Configure Employees for Payroll in Ubik: Hourly, Daily, Fixed Salary, Exceptions, and Bonuses
Payroll works best when employee setup is clear before the pay period starts.
In Ubik, payroll is an operational gross-payroll review. It helps admins collect employee salary, commissions, bonuses, attendance exceptions, deductions, and final totals into a saved payroll line before creating employee expenses. Taxes, IMSS, INFONAVIT, FONACOT, CFDI payroll stamping, and bank dispersal remain outside Ubik.
This guide explains how to configure an employee for payroll, what each setting means, how the derived amounts are calculated, and what an admin should expect to see during payroll review.
Where to Configure Payroll Settings
Open User Search, edit the employee, and review the compensation fields in User Edit.
The main payroll setup fields are:
| Field | What it means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Pay interval | How Ubik interprets Pay Rate for this employee | Hourly, Daily, or Fixed salary |
| Pay Rate | The amount used by the selected pay interval | 150 per hour, 800 per day, or 10000 for the selected payroll run |
| Salary basis | Reference period for a fixed salary agreement | Monthly, Weekly, Every 14 days, Four weeks, or Custom |
| Payment schedule | Reference cadence for paying that salary | Weekly, Catorcenal, Quincenal, Four weeks, or Custom |
| Salary notes | Admin notes for terms that need context | Training period amount, custom schedule explanation, manual agreement note |
| Earns commission | Whether the employee can receive commission from eligible sales | Enabled for a doctor or technician who receives commission |
Salary basis and Payment schedule document the agreement. They do not convert payroll amounts. For fixed salary, Pay Rate is the exact regular payroll amount for the selected payroll run.
Use Custom when the agreement or payment cadence does not match the preset options. Custom is descriptive only. Add the real explanation in Salary notes.
What Payroll Derives During Review
When an admin opens Accounting > Payroll and selects a period, Ubik derives several payroll values.
| Derived value | Where it comes from | What admins should check |
|---|---|---|
| Salary amount | Hourly, daily, or fixed-salary setup | Does the base pay match the employee's setup and time checks? |
| Commission amount | Eligible commission rows in the selected period | Are the credited user, commission basis, and override rate correct? |
| Bonus amount | Accepted manual bonus adjustments or helper results | Are Sunday premium, night shift, overtime, or custom bonuses correct? |
| Deduction amount | Admin-entered deduction adjustments | Are unjustified absence deductions entered and confirmed? |
| Final total | Salary + commission + bonuses - deductions | Is the employee total ready to expense? |
| Attendance exceptions | PTO and unjustified absence schedules in the period | Is PTO paid, and does any unjustified absence need a deduction? |
| Payroll line snapshot | Saved values when the line is accounted | Does the saved line remain authoritative after later data changes? |
Payroll review separates the pieces so admins can inspect the total before creating expenses.
Hourly Employees
Use Hourly when the employee is paid for completed hours.
Configuration:
- Set Pay interval to Hourly.
- Enter the hourly amount in Pay Rate.
- Turn on Earns commission only if this employee should receive commission from eligible sales.
- Use employee schedules and time checks normally.
Payroll-time scenarios:
| Scenario | What the admin should expect |
|---|---|
| Completed time checks | Salary is completed hours multiplied by hourly Pay Rate. |
| Open time check | Payroll shows an open-time-check status and blocks expensing until the check is completed or corrected. |
| No completed time checks | Payroll does not create salary from missing checks alone. The row may show no completed time checks unless there is commission, bonus, or an existing saved line. |
| Work schedule but no check | The schedule helps with review and compliance context, but it does not automatically create salary. |
| PTO schedule | PTO appears as a paid attendance exception. It does not automatically reduce salary. |
| Unjustified absence schedule | The exception appears, but no deduction applies until an admin enters the deduction amount and reason. |
| Bonus helper accepted | The accepted helper amount is saved as a normal bonus adjustment and adds to the final total. |
Hourly payroll is still time-check led. Missing time checks should be corrected through time-check review, not silently converted into deductions.
Daily Employees
Use Daily when the employee is paid a fixed amount per worked day.
Configuration:
- Set Pay interval to Daily.
- Enter the daily amount in Pay Rate.
- Turn on commission only when the employee should receive commission.
- Keep time checks accurate because completed checks determine worked days.
Payroll-time scenarios:
| Scenario | What the admin should expect |
|---|---|
| Completed checks on one day | Salary is one worked day multiplied by the daily amount. |
| Completed checks on multiple days | Salary is the number of worked days multiplied by the daily amount. |
| Multiple checks on the same day | The day counts once for daily salary. |
| Open time check | Payroll blocks expensing until the open check is completed or corrected. |
| No completed checks | Payroll does not create daily salary from missing checks alone. |
| PTO schedule | PTO is visible as paid context and does not reduce salary by itself. |
| Unjustified absence schedule | The admin must enter a deduction before the absence reduces the final total. |
| Commission or bonus only | Payroll can show commission-only or bonus-only status when there is no salary but there are other positive amounts. |
Daily payroll is useful when clinics pay a standard daily amount but still need attendance review.
Fixed-Salary Employees
Use Fixed salary when the employee should receive a confirmed regular amount for the selected payroll run.
Configuration:
- Set Pay interval to Fixed salary.
- Enter the regular payroll amount in Pay Rate.
- Select Salary basis to document how the salary is agreed.
- Select Payment schedule to document how the salary is paid.
- Add Salary notes when the agreement is custom, temporary, or needs manual context.
- Turn on commission only if the fixed-salary employee can also receive commission.
For fixed salary, Ubik does not convert from monthly to quincenal, weekly to catorcenal, or any other cadence. The amount in Pay Rate should already be the amount the employee should receive for that payroll run.
Payroll-time scenarios:
| Scenario | What the admin should expect |
|---|---|
| No time checks | The employee still appears in payroll with salary equal to Pay Rate. |
| Completed time checks | Time checks can still provide attendance context, but the base salary remains Pay Rate. |
| Monthly salary basis with quincenal payment schedule | Ubik documents both fields but does not split or convert the amount. Pay Rate must be the quincenal amount for that run. |
| Custom salary basis | Use it when the salary agreement is not one of the preset periods, then explain the basis in Salary notes. |
| Custom payment schedule | Use it when the pay cadence is not weekly, catorcenal, quincenal, or four-week, then explain the cadence in Salary notes. |
| PTO schedule | PTO appears as a paid exception and does not reduce fixed salary. |
| Unjustified absence schedule | Payroll asks for an admin-confirmed deduction before expensing the line. |
| Deduction entered | Final total subtracts the deduction from salary, commission, and bonuses. |
Fixed salary is the right choice when the payroll amount is agreed in advance and should appear even without time checks.
Attendance Exceptions
Ubik can show schedule exceptions in payroll review:
| Schedule type | Payroll treatment |
|---|---|
| Paid Time Off | Paid exception. It does not reduce salary. |
| Unjustified Absence | Exception requiring admin deduction confirmation. |
| Work schedule | Review and compliance context. It does not automatically create or reduce salary. |
Unjustified absences are intentionally not silent deductions. The admin decides the deduction amount and reason before it affects the final total.
Bonuses and Helper Calculations
Payroll still supports free-form manual bonuses. The new helper flow adds guided calculations for:
- Sunday premium
- Night-shift bonus
- Overtime
- Custom bonus
Each helper shows the formula before the admin accepts it. After acceptance, the amount becomes a normal bonus adjustment in payroll review. The helper metadata is saved with the payroll line so the calculation can be reviewed later.
In this phase, Sunday premium, night-shift, and overtime rates are manual inputs. Ubik helps with the calculation and snapshot; it does not decide statutory rates for the clinic.
What Happens When Payroll Is Accounted
When the admin creates expenses from payroll review, Ubik saves a payroll line snapshot.
That snapshot keeps:
- Salary amount
- Commission amount
- Bonus amount
- Deduction amount
- Final total
- Compensation setup
- Attendance exceptions
- Schedule ids
- Bonus helper metadata
- Links to created expenses
If live employee settings, time checks, commissions, schedules, or bonuses change later, the saved payroll line remains the authoritative record for that accounted payroll run.
Admin Review Checklist
Before expensing payroll, review:
- Does each employee have the correct pay interval?
- Does Pay Rate mean the correct thing for that interval?
- For fixed salary, does Pay Rate equal the exact payroll-run amount?
- Are open time checks corrected?
- Are PTO exceptions expected and paid?
- Are unjustified absence deductions entered and confirmed?
- Are commission rows credited to the right employee?
- Are bonus formulas reviewed before acceptance?
- Does the final total match salary + commission + bonus - deduction?
- Is the payroll line ready to snapshot and expense?
This keeps payroll review predictable: setup defines the base pay, attendance exceptions flag what needs attention, admins confirm manual adjustments, and the saved payroll line preserves the final decision.