Use these examples to choose the pay type and check the base yearly cost. Use separate practice records when trying examples so you keep your original staffing and pay unchanged.

Compare the three pay types

Choose the type that describes the agreement, not the size of the number. These are annual costs before adjustments; they are not payroll payments.

Agreement for a half-time assignment Enter Yearly cost at 0.5 FTE
$30 for each hour, with 2,080 annual hours per FTE Hourly rate: $30 $31,200
A $60,000 salary for full-time work Annual salary (scaled by FTE): $60,000 $30,000
An agreed $30,000 yearly total for this assignment Contracted annual pay (not scaled by FTE): $30,000 $30,000

Employee pay offers hourly rates and annual salaries scaled by FTE. Contracted annual pay belongs to a specific assignment and is available only on Add assignment pay exception. Annual amounts allow two decimal places; hourly rates allow four.

Example: hourly rate

At $30 per hour, 2,080 annual hours, and a half-time assignment, yearly cost is:

$30 × 2,080 × 0.5 = $31,200

If annual hours are missing for the date, the cost is unavailable. Open the missing-information explanation and enter the agreed hours.

Example: annual salary

A full-time annual salary of $60,000 on a half-time assignment costs:

$60,000 × 0.5 = $30,000

Example: contracted annual pay

A half-time assignment has an agreed total of $30,000 for the year. Enter 30000 and choose Contracted annual pay (not scaled by FTE). The starting yearly cost is $30,000.

Choosing a salary scaled by FTE instead would halve the already agreed total: $30,000 × 0.5 = $15,000. That would misrepresent this agreement.

Compare employee pay with an assignment exception

Example: one employee-level record

Use a separate practice employee with a $60,000 full-time annual salary and two half-time assignments. Use Add employee pay so it supplies both assignments.

Assignment Calculation Yearly salary cost
A, half time $60,000 × 0.5 $30,000
B, half time $60,000 × 0.5 $30,000
Total $30,000 + $30,000 $60,000

Example: assignment-specific exception

Use Add assignment pay exception to give assignment B its own $64,000 full-time annual salary entry. Assignment A still uses the employee default.

Assignment Selected pay Yearly salary cost
A Employee default: $60,000 × 0.5 $30,000
B Assignment agreement: $64,000 × 0.5 $32,000
Total Both assignment costs $62,000

Create an assignment-specific entry only when the agreement belongs to that assignment. It replaces the default for that assignment; it does not add another salary.

Work through multi-assignment examples

Example: the same hourly rate on two assignments

Use one employee-level hourly rate of $30 for two half-time assignments, with 2,080 annual hours. Each assignment costs $30 × 2,080 × 0.5 = $31,200 before adjustments. Together they cost $62,400.

The employee-level rate is selected separately for each assignment. Do not charge the full combined amount to each assignment.

Example: salary plus contracted assignment

On a separate employee, enter a $60,000 full-time salary as the employee default. Create two half-time assignments. Give the second assignment an agreed contracted total of $32,000.

Assignment A costs $60,000 × 0.5 = $30,000. Assignment B uses its contracted total of $32,000, without another FTE multiplication. Together they cost $62,000 before benefits.

Example: an explicitly missing salary

An employee has an annual salary, but their approved pay information becomes unknown on October 1. Choose Unset employee pay effective October 1, then record the next approved salary effective October 15. The assignment is active throughout the month.

With no assignment-specific pay override, a snapshot dated October 8 has missing compensation. Without that October 1 entry, the earlier salary would continue until October 15. A pay entry has no automatic end date; never use zero to represent unknown pay.

Understand allowed and unsupported amounts

Enter a pay amount of zero or more. Use an adjustment rule for a policy that reduces a calculated cost; do not enter a negative pay amount to imitate that policy.

Zero is accepted only when zero is the approved source value. Never use zero as a placeholder for unknown compensation. Missing information should remain missing so Issues and the report status continue to identify it accurately.

The amount is used to calculate a year’s compensation from the pay and assignment settings for a date. It does not record an actual payroll payment, hours worked in a pay period, overtime earnings, deductions, taxes, take-home pay, or year-to-date payments.

Add benefits or check a period cost

These examples stop at the base annual cost. Matching adjustments can change calculation FTE, the rate, or the final cost. Continue to Adjustment calculations for benefits, allowances, reductions, and calculation order.

For a cost covering several months, use the appropriate financial report and its cost allocation choice. Do not add monthly snapshots of yearly cost together.