Table of Contents

Manual payments

Manual payments let you create individual ad-hoc payroll entries outside of your scheduled payroll runs. Use manual payments when you need to process a one-time payment for a specific employee — for example, a bonus, a final paycheck, or a correction — without running a full payroll for the entire pay group.

How manual payments work

Manual payments use the Manual Payment Journal page, which provides a worksheet where you enter pay type lines for a specific employee. When you run the journal, OnePayroll creates a payroll run with the type Manual and calculates the entries using the same payroll engine as a standard payroll run.

Key differences from standard payroll runs:

  • You enter specific pay type lines manually rather than having all employee payables calculated automatically
  • Manual payments bypass the check that prevents creating a new payroll run when an Open run already exists for the pay group
  • The resulting payroll run has the type Manual instead of Standard
  • You can initiate a manual payment directly from the Employee Card

Create a manual payment

To create a manual payment from Employee Card

  1. Open the Employee Card for the employee
  2. Select Manual Payments from the actions
  3. The Manual Payment Journal opens, filtered for that employee with the journal batch pre-configured for the employee's pay group

To create a manual payment from the journal

  1. Search for Manual Payment Journal
  2. Select or create a journal batch for the appropriate pay group
  3. Enter the fields for each line:
    • Employee No. — the employee to pay
    • Pay Type — the pay type (for example, Bonus, Regular Pay)
    • Description — description of the payment
    • Quantity — hours or units, if applicable
    • Rate — the pay rate
    • Line Amount — the total amount for the line (calculated from Quantity × Rate, or entered directly)
  4. Add additional lines as needed for other pay types or deductions
  5. Select Run Payroll to create and calculate the manual payroll run

What happens when you run the journal

  1. A new payroll run is created with Type = Manual
  2. The journal lines are used as input for the payroll calculation engine
  3. All standard calculations apply — taxes, benefits, and deductions are computed normally based on the entered earnings
  4. The payroll run appears on the Payroll Runs page where you can review, post, and pay it like any other payroll run
Note

Manual payments go through the same posting and payment workflow as standard payroll runs. After creating a manual payment, you still need to Post and Pay it from the Payroll Runs page.

When to use manual payments

Scenario Approach
One-time bonus for a single employee Manual payment
Final paycheck for a terminated employee Manual payment
Correction to a specific employee's pay Reverse the original paycheck, then create a manual payment
Company-wide bonus for all employees Standard payroll run (off-cycle)
Regular scheduled payroll Standard payroll run
Edit this page