Multiple Pay Rates

This guide outlines the process for setting up and managing employees with multiple pay rates in BambooHR Payroll. It emphasizes the importance of syncing project tracking with payroll to ensure accurate tracking of hours and pay rates. Key steps include adding a Project Pay Rates table to employee profiles, tracking time via various methods, and running payroll with the correct data. The guide also covers how to report and view pay rates and hours on employee paystubs. Users can generate reports to analyze wages and hours by project and task, facilitating effective payroll management. Each section provides detailed instructions for implementation, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of the process.

  • Jul 9, 2026
  • Knowledge

Title
Multiple Pay Rates
Article Text
Multiple pay rates is part of Payroll that is an add-on feature.

How do I set up and manage employees with multiple pay rates in BambooHR® Payroll? 

Purpose: This help guide will provide an overview of how you can set up and manage your employees who require multiple pay rates with project tracking and throughout the BambooHR Payroll experience.

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Table of Contents:

Overview

Tracking multiple pay rates with BambooHR Payroll requires a seamless setup across the BambooHR platform. We will deep dive into each step within this help guide, but the following provides a high-level workflow for accurately setting up and tracking employees who have multiple pay rates:

  1. Set up project tracking to sync with BambooHR Payroll.
  2. Add the Project Pay Rates table to the Job tab.
  3. Track your employees' individual project hours and additional pay rates. 
  4. Run your payroll.
  5. View multiple pay rates and project hours data via Payroll reports and employee paystubs. 

1. Syncing project tracking to Payroll

Tracking multiple pay rates for your employees uses our project tracking feature to accurately allot hours to specific project rates when running payroll. Users with permission must set this up in Settings > Employee Fields > Project Tracking.

If you are using BambooHR® Time & Attendance, you will also be able to access this page through the Time & Attendance section of Settings.

Upon clicking Add Project, a new setting will appear. Check the box Breakout projects in payroll to include project tracking in Payroll. Be sure to add a name to the project and any tasks created, as these cannot be left blank or labeled as "None." Click Save when you have finished your setup.

Projects syncing to Payroll will have a payroll icon next to the name so you can quickly tell which ones are syncing from the Project Tracking page in Settings. If you already created a project that needs to sync to Payroll, simply click on the name and update its settings accordingly. 

2. Adding the Project Pay Rates table

After setting up and syncing your projects to Payroll, you will need to add the Project Pay Rates table to the Job tab on the employee profile (if you have not already done so). Navigate to an employee profile (any employee will do the trick), click on their Job tab, and then click Edit Fields. From here, click Add Fields, and locate the Project Pay Rates field. Click to add it to the Job tab. You can also drag and drop the location of the table in relation to the other fields on the Job tab. 

Once you have added the table, you can set up your rates for each project/task either manually or through the table data importer. You can set up project pay rates for any employee, even if their employment status is Salary or Commission within their Employment Status table. However, project pay rates will only sync to Payroll for hourly employees.

Want a quick way to view all the Projects/Tasks and their rates created for your employees across the platform? Check out the Project Pay Rates Report.

3. Tracking time on projects

Now that your projects are syncing to Payroll, and you have added the Project Pay Rates table, you and/or your employees can start recording time spent on each project/task. There are four ways to track time spent: 

  1. BambooHR Time & Attendance (add-on feature)
  2. Import hours worked
  3. Hours API
  4. Edit page in Payroll
BambooHR® Time & Attendance

If BambooHR Time & Attendance is enabled in your account, employees can log their time to designated projects. Employees can select which project and associated task they want to track hours for upon clocking in. When you approve timesheets, the system will save projects and tasks associated with hours together.

Import hours worked

The hours importer will have the Project Name and Task Name fields. The names added to these fields must exactly match the names of existing projects and tasks set up in BambooHR. 

Hours API

If you are using an API connection to sync your employees' hours to BambooHR, this will also work with tracking project pay rates and hours as long as the project and task names match exactly how they are set up in Project Tracking. 

Edit Page in Payroll

During the Run Payroll process, users with access can manually add hours to specific projects/tasks on the Edit page. Locate the employee's name and then click Add Hours to select a project, task, and pay type. 

4. Run Payroll

Upon clicking Start/Continue Payroll on the Payroll tab, any approved or imported hours that belong to a project marked as Breakout projects in payroll within the Project Tracking section of Settings will now automatically flow into the payroll run.

On the Edit page, the system will break down hours assigned to specific projects/tasks separately within the Hours column. Hours belonging to only a project will show with the label of [Pay Type] - [Project Name]. If the hours belong to a project and task, the hours will show with the label of [Pay Type] - [Project Name] » [Task Name]. You can either edit existing project/task hours or add hours to active projects/tasks by clicking Add Hours.  

Breakdown of project/task hours and calculations

There are a few things to keep in mind to help you understand how BambooHR Payroll shows and calculates project/task hours: 

  1. Pay types: Project/task hours will appear with their related pay types: Regular, Overtime, or Double Time.
  2. Overtime and double time: Overtime and double time rates for projects and tasks are based on the employee’s project/task rate (e.g., Project Overtime = Project Rate * 1.5). The payroll admin can adjust the overtime or double time rate on the Edit page if needed. 
  3. Active project pay rate: If an employee has an active* pay rate for the project/task in the Project Pay Rates table on the Job tab, Payroll will use the special rate for regular project/tasks hours within the payroll run. 
    1. *Active project pay rate is a project pay record that has a start date prior to or equal to the start date of the pay period. 
      1. If there is a project pay rate change in the middle of the pay period, Payroll will use the record that is active as of the start date of the pay period. 
      2. If the project pay rate ends before the end of the pay period, Payroll will still include it in the payroll run.
      3. If the project pay rate is not active on the start date of the pay period but becomes active prior to the end date, Payroll will not use the rate for the payroll run.
  4. Hours not included in payroll: Payroll will group any hours tracked outside of projects/tasks or tracked in projects/tasks that are not marked as Breakout projects in payroll (as determined in the Project Tracking section of Settings) into Regular, Overtime, or Double Time.

If new hours are approved during the pay period, a banner will appear on the Payroll tab. Clicking View Newly Approved Hours will display a modal that includes a breakdown of hours by their associated projects/tasks (if applicable). Clicking Update Payroll Hours will pull those newly approved hours into the payroll run. 

The Hours tab in the Payroll Details section of the Review and Approved Payroll page will display project/task hours and wages. Like the Edit page, if hours belong to a project or task, the system will group them under a header row named [Pay Type] - [Project Name] or [Pay Type] - [Project Name] » [Task Name]. The Excel and CSV export will also include project/task data in the Type column.

5. Reporting and paystubs

You can view the data for multiple pay rates and hours within Payroll reports and on employee paystubs. 

Wages & Hours by Project and Task report

Navigate to Reports > Payroll Reports and download the Wages & Hours by Project and Task report on either the Pay Date or Date Range tab. Upon generating the Pay Date version of the report, the user will view a modal to download the report by columns or rows. Upon generating the Date Range report, the user will view a modal to download the report by pay date (or no pay date) and columns or rows. 

Paystubs

The Taxable and Non-Taxable subsections under "What You Were Paid, and What For" on the employee's paystub will display project/task data rows within the associated pay type (Regular, Overtime, or Double Time). The rows will display the wages as [Pay Type] - [Project Name] or [Pay Type] - [Project Name] » [Task Name]. Each project/task will display the employee’s hours, corresponding pay rate, the paycheck total, and YTD totals for the project/task. 

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