Purpose

An Override Pay Code is useful any time you have an employee that needs to be paid something outside of their base rate. Base Rates are set on the Employee Contact Record.

Override Pay Codes allow you to set up multiple employee pay structures for estimating based on Services you offer!

Aspire has many ways to use Override Pay Codes to account for the pay rate changes that occur. Using Override Pay Codes allows multiple pay structures based on job-specific rates, makes sure there is accurate costing and payroll, time entry is submitted correctly, and supports manual adjustments when necessary!

✅ You’ve set up your Pay Codes in Administration under Lists.

✅ You’ve set up Pay Schedules for your Employees in their Contact Record.

Before you are able to use Pay Code Overrides, you’ll need to make sure your Pay Codes are set up in Administration.

Setting up Pay Codes is part of your initial accounting configuration, so depending on the system you use for Payroll, make sure this is completed first!

📑Read this article if you use QuickBooks.

📑Read this article if you use other payroll systems.

Setting Pay Codes makes sure your Pay Rates are consistent across all employees within the pay schedule.

You can set Pay Codes for:

💡You can also assign a Default Pay Code at the Service or Opportunity level.

The Pay Rate for your employees can be different within a Pay Schedule, because you can set up multiple Override Pay Codes for every employee!

This is helpful when you have an employee that will need a different Pay Rate for different types of work.

Aspire checks if there's a Pay Code Override and Pay Rate set on the employee's Contact Record first. If one is found, that rate is used for job costing and for your payroll export.

If there isn't a Pay Code Override for the employee, Aspire will look for any Pay Code Overrides set on either the Service level or in the Service Details screen on an estimate. Finally, Pay Code Overrides can be manually added in Time Entry if need be.

If five employees all work on a service for snow removal but have five different pay rates for that activity, you can use an individual Snow Override Pay Code with unique rates set on each employee’s Contact Records.

🧠You’d want to make sure that the Snow Pay Code is also set as the default on the Service so employees are recorded with their individual override when they clock into a ticket for the service. More on Service level Pay Codes in the next section!

This makes sure that each employee is paid their correct individual rate when they clock into a Service that uses the Pay Code for Snow.

📑To learn more about setting up Employee Contact Records, read this article.

You can set a Default Pay Code to be used automatically by adding it to a Service’s Details Screen.

Because all Pay Codes in Administration have been added into Administration, you can also go into the Service Catalog and in the Service Details Screen of a specific service, and set a Default Pay Code.

This tells Aspire that whenever this service is used in an estimate, you are using an Override Pay Code than what is set as the Employee's regular Pay Rate!

When you set Pay Codes on the Service level, this tells Aspire and Aspire Mobile which Pay Code to use for the service when it is added to an estimate.

For each service that requires an Override Pay Code, you can set a Default Pay Code.. This tells the system how to automatically calculate an employee's pay when they clock in on their mobile phone for that job.

Aspire uses the pay code rules you’ve set up in Administration to decide which pay rate to apply, regardless if you use Premium Dollars, Premium Percent, or a Fixed Rate Pay Code.

💡But! Remember, if there is an Override Pay Code set up on the employee’s Contact Record, Aspire will always pay the employee at this rate.

Let’s think about an example for when the Service Override Pay Code set in Administration would be used:

If you have crews that work multiple seasons, and they make $5 more per hour than their base rate in Snow season, you'd set the Premium Dollars on the Snow Pay Code in Administration to be 5.

Then, you would add that Snow Pay Code as the Default Pay Code on the Snow service to account for the difference in pay!

For job-specific rate differences, especially in Prevailing Wage scenarios, you'll need to use an even more detailed version of Aspire’s Pay Code Override settings, which is in the Service Details screen inside of an individual Opportunity’s Estimate, which we will discuss next!

Using Pay Code Overrides on the service level during estimating allows for job specific rates, and also allows Crew Leaders to make a selection of the correct code for their crew members in Aspire Mobile!

You can use Override Pay Codes for services by clicking into the Service Name that has been added to your estimate.

This will bring up the Service Detail Screen, which allows you to set a Pay Code in the Pay Code Override section.

📑To learn more about Pay Code Overrides in Opportunities, read this article.

Let’s think about an example for when the Service Details Override Pay Code would be used:

By going into the service details on an estimate, your Estimators can set Override Pay Code based on different Prevailing Wages of the crew members working on the job that will have time recorded in Aspire Mobile.

You could add three different overrides to the Pay Code Override section. One for your laborer, one for your foreman, and one for your operator. This would allow your crew leader to use the multiple pay codes for each employee when they record time in Aspire Mobile!

Because Prevailing Wage rates can change often, Service specific overrides are really helpful!

🧠 Remember: Pay Code Overrides must be added to this screen before you complete the estimate!

Using multiple pay codes improves labor tracking and job costing because there can be time recorded with different pay codes for each employee on a single ticket!

📑To learn more about Tracking Time with Multiple Pay Codes in Aspire Mobile, read this article.

Finally, you always have the option to set Pay Codes in the Time Entry screen. This is helpful for making any last adjustments before finalizing payroll.

When you are reviewing Time Entry for your Employees, you can set different pay codes if you need to override the Default Pay Code.

💡If no selection is made in the Pay Code field, then the employee's pay code on their assigned pay schedule is applied. Any selection made in this field will override the pay code set for their pay schedule.

📑 For more information on the OT Paycode Exception Warning, read this article.

Let’s think about a few examples when a Time Entry Override Pay Code would be used:

Or:

Or:

📌Note: Aspire does not automatically calculate overtime based on override pay codes because it would be using a different base rate.

You still need to manually manage and allocate Overtime to the appropriate Override Pay Codes in Time Review.