September Payroll Enhancements: Boosting Flexibility, Accuracy, and Efficiency
As the seasons shift, so do we—rolling out fresh updates to make your payroll processes smoother and more flexible. This month, we’re focusing on features that reduce friction, boost efficiency, and give your platform the tools to handle a wider range of payroll scenarios with ease.
Partner-Controlled Time-Off Policies. Salsa’s time-off module, which automatically handles accruals and policy-based calculations, now offers even more flexibility for platforms that already manage their own time-off functionality. With this update, platforms can now sync existing time-off balances, accruals, and taken time directly into employers' payroll runs via the Time Off objects in the API.
New supported elements can be ingested through the /paystream and /paystream/payroll-elements endpoints. The timeOff object allows developers to send data for time off taken by a worker, accrued time off, and balance adjustments, streamlining the process without the need to configure policies within Salsa
By syncing these values through Paystream, the data flows seamlessly into worker paystubs with minimal effort. This update underscores our commitment to building flexible payroll infrastructure that meets you where you are, allowing developers to avoid redundant configurations and streamline their payroll integration.
Support for Shift Differentials. Shift differentials, commonly used in industries like healthcare, hospitality, and manufacturing, refer to extra compensation for shifts outside of regular working hours, such as nights, weekends, or holidays. With this update, platforms can now configure shift differentials as separate line items on paystubs, ensuring clarity for both workers and employers.
In addition, when setting up supported pay types, you can now prevent these hours from being double-counted towards total hours worked, ensuring payroll accuracy while still capturing differential pay rates.
This feature is particularly relevant for large and mid-market employers in the service industry, helping to manage complex shift-based compensation with ease.
Exposing Missing Requirements in the Worker Profile. We’ve enriched the worker profile component to display any missing information that is preventing a worker from being ready to be paid. This enhancement allows employers to quickly detect and address issues, reducing friction during onboarding and payroll setup. The new card name is worker-setup-checklist and it can be disabled. See the component documentation for more details.
By surfacing these requirements, platforms can reduce support inquiries and the need for extensive help center documentation related to common payroll errors.
Removing the Termination Card from the Worker Profile. Our worker profile component has become more flexible by making the termination card optional. Developers can now control whether this section appears by using the includeCards field during component setup. Simply remove “termination” from the list, and the section will not be shown.
This is particularly useful for platforms that already handle worker terminations and don’t want multiple accesses for the same action. By preventing redundancy and offering more control over the user interface, we help streamline the worker management experience and allow platforms to deliver a cleaner, more focused payroll experience without unnecessary duplication.
Improved Experience for Collecting Workers' Government IDs. We’ve made it easier for employers to collect government IDs (e.g., SSNs in the U.S. and SINs in Canada) during worker onboarding, while offering flexibility for scenarios where this information isn’t immediately available. Key changes include:
- Mandatory Gov IDs: Government IDs are now required during worker onboarding to ensure compliance and prevent issues during payroll runs.
- Temporary Skipping: Employers can temporarily bypass this requirement if workers are still awaiting their IDs, allowing them to add workers to payroll without delay.
- Clear Impact Awareness: The new experience clearly communicates the consequences of missing government IDs, ensuring that employers understand the potential downstream impacts, such as incomplete filings or payroll errors. This helps them proactively manage compliance and avoid issues during tax filings and quarterly reporting.
These updates complement the employer reminders for missing tax IDs introduced in July, helping ensure smooth quarterly filings and payroll accuracy.
With these new features, including flexible time-off policies, shift differentials, and enhanced worker profiles, we’re committed to helping you build smarter, more efficient payroll systems. Stay ahead of the curve with Salsa’s latest updates, designed to streamline operations and give you the tools you need to deliver a seamless payroll experience—without the engineering hassle.
