Pay Period Groups organize employees by how and when they're paid — a weekly field crew, a bi-weekly office group, a commission-based sales group. Putting people into the right group keeps payroll on the right schedule for each part of your workforce.
Where to find Pay Period Groups
From the left sidebar choose HR & Payroll, then Pay Period Groups.
What you see on this screen
The page is in two parts:
- Groups (top) — the named groups, each with its Name and when it was Created (e.g. Field Crews, Office / Admin, Sales / Commission).
- Members (bottom) — the employees in the group you've selected, with their Name, Job Title, Department, Pay Type, and Status.
Setting up a group
- Click New Group and name it for how that set of people is paid (e.g. "Field Crews"). A group is simply a cohort of employees that share a payroll cadence.
- Select the group, then click Add Members. The picker lists active employees — check the ones to include and confirm; the dialog shows how many you've selected.
- To take someone out, use the remove action on their row in the Members panel.
An employee belongs to the group that matches their actual pay schedule. Each employee's pay cadence (weekly, bi-weekly, and so on) lives on their employee record's Compensation tab — the group is the bundle payroll runs against.
How groups drive a payroll run
Pay period groups are the unit payroll works in:
- When you create a payroll run, you pick the group it pays — that decides who's included. As you set the run's period dates, the end date snaps to the group's pay cadence, and GO may suggest a group based on who actually clocked time in the window.
- A group already claimed by another open run is disabled in the run dialog — you can't pay the same group twice at once.
- Different groups can run on completely different rhythms (a weekly crew run and a semi-monthly office run coexist happily).
See Payroll for the full run walkthrough.
Permissions
Viewing requires HR view access; creating groups and managing members requires the manage permission.
Tips & best practices
- Name groups after the cadence and audience ("Field Crews — Weekly") so the right one is obvious when creating a run.
- Every payable employee should be in exactly one group. Someone in no group won't be picked up when their cohort's run is created.
- Keep the sales team separate if they're paid on a commission cycle — it keeps commission-type runs clean.
Common questions
Can an employee be in two groups? An employee has one pay group on their record — the one whose schedule they're actually paid on.
Why is a group greyed out when I create a payroll run? Another open run has already claimed it. Finish or void that run first.
Where do I set how often a group is paid? The cadence follows the members' pay frequency, set on each employee's Compensation tab; the run's period dates snap to it when you create the run.