Running your first payroll on Playground? This article will walk you through the payroll approval process step-by-step!
💡 If you are not on Payroll, click here to learn how to get started!
Run a Regular Payroll
🚨 Playground will never automatically run your payroll. All payrolls must be approved by admins on or before the payroll deadline.
Processing the payroll
From your Admin Dashboard, navigate to the Payroll tab and then click Home.
Under Upcoming Payrolls, you will see the next payroll due for approval. To run your upcoming payroll, click the pencil icon.
Alternatively, you can select the blue Create Payroll button in the top right corner of your screen and then click Run Next Payroll.
Select people: Select the employees that you intend to pay on this payroll.
Review hours: Click on an employee's name to view their time entries for the pay period. If you recorded paid time off for an employee, it will show here.
Edit time entries: If a time entry is incorrect, you can edit it here by selecting the blue edit button to the right of the entry. Adjust the check-in and/or check-out times and click save.
Review employee pay: Click an employee's name to view the earning types they will receive during this period. You can add, edit, and delete earnings on this screen. You can also change an employee's payment method.
Add earning: Click the blue +Add Earning button. Select the earning type, enter the payment amount, and then click Add earning. Click here to see a description of all earning types.
Edit earning: Click the pencil icon next to the earning type to reopen the earning window and edit the amounts.
Delete earning: Click the red trashcan to the right of the earning type to delete it.
Change employee payment method: Click the payment method to switch between direct deposit and manual. If an employee or contractor is paid manually, you, as the employer, will be responsible for paying the employee outside of Playground.
Review contractor pay: edit the payment amount and reimbursement amount for contractors.
Confirm and submit payroll: On the final screen, you can review all payroll information before approving. See below for a brief description of the payroll summary:
Approval deadline: The date the payroll must be approved.
Gross & Reimbursements: Total gross pay and reimbursements paid to employees and contractors.
Taxes & fees: Total employer taxes and fees.
Payroll total: Total amount that will be withdrawn from your account. This is the total amount that the company owes to employees, contractors, tax agencies, and benefit providers. Hover over the payroll total to view the total due for manual payments.
Payday: Date employees will receive their paychecks directly deposited into their accounts.
Employer Amounts / Employee Amounts Tabs: Toggle to switch between viewing employer and employee payroll details.
Tax Summary: Total amount due to each tax agency. This table is split into employee amounts and employer amounts.
Click Approve to submit your payroll.
Once the payroll is approved, you will return to the payroll home screen.
Reopen an Approved Payroll
Payroll can be reopened for 60 minutes after hitting Approve. Once this window closes, payments will begin processing and the payroll can no longer be reopened.
From your Admin Dashboard, navigate to the Payroll tab and then click Home.
Click the three dots next to the payroll you want to reopen, then click Reopen.
The payroll will return to draft status and you can click on it to make the desired changes. Work through the payroll flow as normal and click Approve when you are ready.
Run an Off-cycle Payroll
An off-cycle payroll may be necessary when you need to issue paychecks outside your regular payroll schedules. Typical scenarios include paying bonuses, correcting payroll errors, or compensating employees for additional work or missed payments.
Navigate to your Payroll home screen and click the blue Create Payroll button in the top right corner of your screen.
Click off-cycle payroll.
Pick date: Specify the start and end date of the off-cycle period and select which dates employees will receive pay. If you are paying employees by direct deposit, the pay date can be no sooner than your regular processing time (2-day or 4-day).
Off-cycle payroll options: select the supplemental earnings and deductions settings you would like to apply to this pay run.
Select people: select the employee(s) who will be paid in this payroll.
Review employee pay: click the blue + add earning type button to add earnings for employees. Click here to see a description of all earning types.
Review contractor pay: if applicable, add contractor earnings.
Confirm & submit payroll: click the blue approve button to submit the payroll.
Off-cycle Payroll Options
Off-cycle payrolls have different use cases. They may be used to pay an employee supplemental earnings such as a bonus, commission, or severance. They may also be used if an employee was not included in a regularly scheduled pay run and needs to be paid their regular earnings. Different situations call for different tax settings. These tax settings can be selected from the Off-cycle Payroll Options listed in the first step of the off-cycle payroll flow.
What are supplemental earnings? Supplemental earnings are additional compensation outside of an employee's hourly wages or salary. This can include bonuses, overtime pay, commissions, tips, severance pay, and paid time-off pay. Supplemental earnings are taxed at a different rate than regular wages. In most cases, this rate is 22%.
See below for a description of each off-cycle payroll setting type.
💡 Settings can be stacked; you can select multiple options from the list below.
Tax all earnings for this off-cycle payroll as supplemental earnings | Select this option if all earnings in this pay run are supplemental earnings. If selected, earnings will be taxed at the supplemental earning flat rate. See above for supplemental earning description. |
Apply benefit deductions and contributions to the payroll | Select this option if you want the employee's benefit deductions applied to this payroll. |
Apply post tax deductions to the payroll | Select this option if you want the employee's post-tax deductions applied to this payroll. |
🚨 Benefits and post-tax deductions are most often used if the off-cycle payroll is used to pay an employee for regularly scheduled earnings.
Run a Late Payroll
If you miss your payroll approval deadline, follow these steps to make sure your employees get paid.
From your Admin Dashboard, navigate to the Payroll tab and then click Home.
Click the late payroll to open the payroll approval flow.
Follow these steps to work through the payroll approval flow. When you get to the last page, Confirm & Submit Payroll, you will need to edit the payday.
Click the pencil icon next to the payday and select the date you would like your employees to receive their pay.
Click the blue Save button on the Edit Payday window.
Finally, click approve to submit the payroll.
💡 If you approve your payroll one day late, employees will receive their pay one business day late. If you want to pay your employees on time, follow the steps below to pay employees manually.
Run a Late Payroll with Manual Payments
If you've missed your payroll deadline and would like employees to receive pay on time, you must pay them manually (cash, check, Zelle, etc.) When paying employees manually, Playground will handle the taxes and you will be responsible for paying the employee their net pay (net pay = gross pay - employee taxes).
From your Admin Dashboard, navigate to the Payroll tab and then click Home.
Click the late payroll to open the payroll approval flow.
On the Review Employee Pay page of the payroll flow, change all employee payment methods to Manual.
To change a payment method from direct deposit to manual, click Direct Deposit to open the Change Payment Method window. Change the payment method to Manual and then click Save.
If you have contractors, repeat this process on the Review Contractor Pay page.
If all employees are being paid manually, you will not need to change the payday of the payroll. The payday should reflect the actual date you intend to hand employees their payments.
On the Confirm & Submit Payroll page, toggle to Employee Amounts. Find the column labeled Net Pay. If you do not see this column, click the cog wheel to add it to your table.
You will be responsible for paying employees their Net Pay manually (cash, check, Zelle, etc). Print this screen to remember how much each employee should be paid.
Finally, click approve to submit the payroll. Once the payroll is approved, Playground will pull the total taxes due from your connected account.
Earning Types
Earning | Description |
Hourly (Regular) | Non-overtime hours worked by hourly employees. |
Salary | Hours worked by salaried employees.
*When adding salaried earnings as an extra earning type, enter the annual salary and hours worked. The total amount due will be calculated based on 2080 hours in a working year. |
Overtime/Double Overtime | Any hours worked by the employee that constitute overtime or double overtime. Overtime/double overtime earnings are taxed the same way as regular earnings. |
Paid Holiday | Any hours worked by the employee on a holiday. Paid holiday earnings are taxed the same way as regular earnings. |
Paid time off | Paid time off (PTO) describes time for which an employee is paid, but during which they did not work. PTO earnings are taxed the same way as regular earnings. |
Reimbursement | A reimbursement earning type is used to refund employees for business-related expenses they've paid out of pocket, such as travel or supplies. Reimbursements are not taxed. |
Bonus | Bonus payment to an employee. Bonus earnings are taxed differently than regular earnings. |
Severance | Payment to an employee as a one-time sum at termination. Severance pay is not the same as the payment for final hours worked, and is taxed differently than regular earnings. |
Commission | Payment to an employee based on commission. Commission earnings are taxed differently than regular earnings. |
Other Fixed Amount | Regular earnings to be entered as a flat amount. This earning type is taxed as regular earnings. |
Reopen an Approved Payroll
Payrolls can be reopened until the approval deadline. If you discover an error in your payroll, you can reopen it to make necessary corrections.
🚨 If a payroll is reopened after approval, any added earnings will NOT be saved. You will need to reenter earnings. Hours that have been edited, will be saved.
Navigate to your Payroll home screen and click the three dots next to the payroll you would like to reopen, then click reopen.
A green bar will appear at the top of your screen that says, "The payroll has been re-opened."
Click into the draft payroll to open the payroll flow and make any necessary corrections.
View and print a payroll summary
Navigate to your Payroll home screen and click the payroll you want to view or print.
The payroll summary screen will open. From here, you can view employee and employer totals and tax details.
To print the summary, click the blue Print Page button in the top right corner of your screen.
Print Employee Paychecks
Employee paychecks can be printed on check paper. Playground supports the DLT159 check format. This format is the check-on-top custom check stock format
💡 Check paper can be ordered here from your bank. If you do not have check paper, you can write employees' checks by hand or deliver cash payments.
Navigate to your Payroll home screen and click the payroll for which you would like to print checks.
The payroll summary will open. Click the blue Print All Checks button in the top right corner of your screen.
The checks will open as a PDF in a new tab. Save the PDF to your computer and then print.
