Set up bonus rules and pay-period timing so payouts land correctly
Quick tips
- Walk the Bonus rules wizard end to end once before relying on it.
- Name rules the way you talk about them on the floor.
- Match rule timing to the store pay period settings.
- Re-check pay-period anchors after copying rules to another store.
Building the rule in the wizard
Open Reports, then Bonus rules, and walk the wizard end to end once even if you plan a simple program. It asks who qualifies, what the amount is, and how the bonus attaches to a period, and those three answers are what make a payroll column possible later.
Name the rule the way you say it out loud. "Saturday closer bonus" is findable and self-explanatory six months from now; "Bonus Rule 2" is neither.
Write rules that match real behavior, such as attendance, sales contests, or shift difficulty. If a rule cannot be explained at a huddle in one sentence, simplify it before saving.
Why timing is the most common misconfiguration
Bonus rules fail quietly when the evaluation window does not match payroll. A perfectly correct rule scoped to the wrong period produces nothing on the report, which looks identical to the feature being broken.
The rule type and period scoping together determine when the amount calculates and how it appears. Read those two choices as carefully as you read the dollar figure, because they are the ones that decide whether anything shows up at all.
Copying rules between stores
Copying is a real speed win for multi-unit owners, and it is also where anchors drift. Each store can have different pay-period settings, so a rule that lands correctly at one location can evaluate against the wrong window at another.
After copying, open the new store payroll settings and confirm the anchor. It takes a minute and prevents a period of missing bonuses that you will otherwise discover from an employee.
When an amount is missing from the export
Check configuration before you reach for a side spreadsheet. In nearly every case the amount is missing because of period scoping, rule type, or an eligibility condition that excludes the person you expected to see.
If you edit a rule after exporting, export again. The report is generated at the moment you run it and will not update itself retroactively in a file you already downloaded.
Common questions
- Why is a bonus not showing on the payroll report?
- Almost always a period or eligibility mismatch. Confirm the rule evaluation window matches the store pay period settings, check the rule type, and verify the employee actually meets the eligibility condition. Also re-export if you edited the rule after generating the file.
- Can you use the same bonus rules across multiple stores?
- Yes, rules can be copied between stores, but each store can have different pay-period anchors. Verify the period settings at the destination store after copying, since that mismatch is the most common reason a copied rule pays at one location and not another.
Keep reading
Design an employee incentive program that people believe in
Hand-calculated bonuses get forgotten, and a forgotten bonus is worse than no bonus. Rules turn good work into a column you can actually pay.
Export payroll-ready timesheets without retyping hours
If you are copying hours into another sheet by hand, you are paying a tax every period and inviting typos into your payroll.
Manage schedules and hours across multiple store locations
Jumping store by store hides the patterns that matter. A portfolio view shows which location needs you today.