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How to Set Up and Manage Pay Groups in Jane Payroll

  1. Payroll
  2. How to Set Up and Manage Pay Groups in Jane Payroll

    3. 6 min read
    Practice Plan Thrive Plan Legacy Plans
Jane Plan: Legacy, Practice, and Thrive
Add-on Required: Yes – Jane Payroll
Geography: Available in: 🇨🇦 Canada only

Getting Started

Pay Groups tell Jane when a group of staff members gets paid and on what schedule. You'll need one Pay Group for each pay frequency you use. For example, if everyone is paid biweekly, one Pay Group is all you need. If some staff are paid monthly and others biweekly, you'll need two.

A default Pay Group is created during onboarding based on the pay frequency you selected. Use this guide if you need to create an additional Pay Group or edit an existing one before running payroll.

Before setting up Pay Groups, make sure you've completed employer onboarding and verified your bank account. If you haven't done that yet, see our guide on Jane Payroll: Getting Started.

Instructions

To set up and manage Pay Groups in Jane Payroll, follow the steps below. Once complete, each staff member will be assigned to a Pay Group and your payroll schedule will be ready to go.

Creating a new Pay Group

  1. Go to Billing > Payroll > Account.
  2. Click Edit next to Pay Groups.

The Account tab showing the Edit button next to Pay Groups

  1. Click + Add Pay Group.

The Pay Groups section showing the Add Pay Group button

  1. Enter a name for the Pay Group.
  2. Select the pay frequency (weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly, or monthly).
  3. Complete the pay cycle parameters for your chosen frequency.

Pay frequency parameters

Each frequency requires slightly different information:

  • Weekly: enter the first pay date and when the first pay period ends
  • Biweekly: enter the first pay date and when the first pay period ends
  • Semi-monthly: enter the first and second pay dates for the month, when both pay periods end, and the first pay date for this Pay Group
  • Monthly: enter the day of the month for pay day, the first pay date, and when the first pay period ends

Once you've entered your pay cycle parameters, review the pay periods and pay days that populate below to confirm everything looks right before continuing.

  1. Click Next.
  2. Select the staff members to include in this Pay Group and click Next.

The staff member selection screen for the Pay Group

  1. Select the bank account to fund this Pay Group from:
    • Select Use employer default funding account if your business uses one bank account or you'd prefer to use the account already set up in your Payroll Account.
    • If you have multiple bank accounts, select the preferred account for this Pay Group. You can override this for individual payroll runs if needed.

The bank account selection screen for the Pay Group

  1. Click Save.

🩵 Jane Tip: Pay Groups are managed in your Payroll Account settings, not in individual staff profiles. Pay Types, on the other hand, are assigned at the staff profile level. See our guide on How to Set Up and Assign Pay Types in Jane Payroll for more on that.

Editing an existing Pay Group

  1. Go to Billing > Payroll > Account.
  2. Click Edit next to Pay Groups.
  3. Click the three dots beside the Pay Group you want to edit.

The Pay Groups list showing the three dots menu beside a Pay Group

  1. Make the necessary changes and click Save.

📣 Heads up: It's best to confirm your Pay Group settings before running your first payroll. If you need to make changes after payroll has been run, contact the Jane Payroll support team at [email protected] for guidance on the best path forward.

What to Expect

Once your Pay Groups are set up, each staff member is assigned to a pay schedule and will appear in the correct payroll run when you run payroll. If you have multiple Pay Groups, each one runs independently on its own schedule.

Important Notes

  • Each staff member can only be in one Pay Group at a time. If you add a staff member to a new Pay Group, they'll automatically be removed from their current one.
  • If you need to move a staff member to a Pay Group with a different pay frequency (for example, from biweekly to semi-monthly), you may need to issue a Record of Employment (ROE). See our guide on Do I Need to Issue an ROE When Changing a Staff Member's Pay Group? for details.
  • Pay Groups are managed in your Payroll Account settings under Billing > Payroll > Account > Pay Groups, not in individual staff profiles.

Before your first payroll run, make sure everything is in order. See our guide on Before You Run Your First Payroll in Jane for a full checklist.

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