How do I customize and confirm pay types to finish my Zenefits Payroll setup?

As part of the final steps to set up Zenefits Payroll, customize and confirm your Pay Types. Pay Types are the different ways you plan to pay your employees, their deductions for benefits, and the contributions you plan to make towards those benefits. If you're making the switch to Zenefits Payroll, or if you're a new company setting up payroll for the first time, use the following instructions. 

Switching to Zenefits Payroll

If you're switching to Zenefits Payroll from another provider, we need to know how you've paid your employees with your previous account, and which types of deductions and contributions they had, so that we can set up your new account to mirror the old one.

1. If Zenefits Payroll's default list of earnings doesn't include all of the earnings types from your previous payroll account, follow these instructions to add the missing ones to Zenefits Payroll.

2. Add all the deductions and contributions from your previous account to the lists in Zenefits Payroll. Follow these instructions to add the deductions, and these instructions to add the contributions. For deductions and contributions that can be pre- or post-tax, make sure to choose the correct variety from Zenefits Payroll's default list. You can also bulk upload pay types by following the instructions here.

Where do I find these pay items in my previous payroll system?

You should be able to find all the information you need by running reports in your previous payroll system. Though the name of the appropriate report will vary from provider to provider, look for the following:

Employee Earnings Report Payroll Journal Payroll Summary Deductions & Contributions report

New to Payroll

Zenefits Payroll includes a list of default Earnings types with the most common ways to pay employees (regular wages, bonuses, commissions, etc.). If these aren't enough, follow these instructions to add custom earnings types (e.g., a cell phone allowance) during setup so that everything is ready before you run payroll for the first time.

You'll also be able to add deductions and contributions for the benefits you plan to offer. When your employees sign up for benefits in Zenefits, we will add the appropriate deductions and contributions in payroll so you don't have to. However, if you plan to add to payroll deductions and contributions for benefits outside of Zenefits, you'll need to follow these instructions to create deductions, and these instructions to set up employer contributions for those benefits.

The most important detail here is whether a particular deduction or contribution is taken before or after taxes are calculated. Many of the deduction and contribution types in Zenefits Payroll's default list come in pre- and post-tax versions, so make sure to choose the appropriate one.