How to use employee groups to run payroll faster in Timekeep

Most businesses do not pay everyone on the same date. Maybe your kitchen crew is paid weekly and your office staff is paid every 15th and 30th. Maybe each branch runs its own payroll. Whatever the reason, you end up creating payroll runs for the same set of people again and again.

Before, that meant ticking the same checkboxes every cutoff. If you have 30 staff and 12 of them belong to the weekly batch, that is 12 careful clicks every week, and one wrong click means someone is missing from the run or someone extra is in it.

Employee groups fix that. You save the selection once, and every payroll after that is one click.

What an employee group is

An employee group is a saved list of employees with a name you choose. Some examples:

• 1st Cutoff Crew for staff paid on the 15th
• Weekly Kitchen Staff for the weekly batch
• Makati Branch for one location

When you create a new payroll, you pick the group from a dropdown and Timekeep selects everyone in it. No more scanning the list name by name.

Why use groups

It is faster. One click replaces a dozen. Creating the payroll for your weekly batch takes seconds.

It is safer. The group remembers the list for you, so nobody gets skipped because you scrolled past their name. The payroll button even confirms the count, like Create Payroll for 4 Employees, so you can check the number before you commit.

It keeps batches clean. Each pay date gets exactly the people who belong to it. Your 15th cutoff run and your weekly run stay separate, which makes review and payslip checking easier.

It protects your history. Every payroll stores the exact employees you picked. If you edit or delete a group next month, your past runs do not change.

How to create a group

1. Go to Payroll and click New Payroll.
2. Next to the Employee group dropdown, click Manage groups.
3. Click New group.
4. Give the group a name, like 1st Cutoff Crew.
5. Tick the employees who belong to it. You can search by name or employee number, and use Select all or Clear to move faster.
6. Click Create group.

The group is saved and shows up in your list with its member count. You can edit or delete it anytime from the same dialog.

How to use a group when running payroll

1. Click New Payroll and set your cutoff and date range.
2. Open the Employee group dropdown and pick your group.
3. Timekeep selects every active member of the group. A note confirms how many employees were selected.
4. Adjust the selection if you need to, then create the payroll.

That is the whole flow. The payroll is built around that group only, so the run matches the batch you meant to pay.

Tips

Save a selection you already made. If you hand-picked employees for a run and want to reuse that list, click Save this selection as a new group right inside the New Payroll dialog. You do not have to rebuild it from scratch.

Adjust freely after applying. Applying a group fills in the checkboxes, it does not lock them. Someone on leave this cutoff? Untick them for this run. The group itself stays the same for next time.

Archived staff stay out. If a group member resigns and gets archived, the group shows them as unavailable and skips them when you apply it. You do not need to clean the group right away, though you can edit it whenever you like.

Name groups by how you pay. Names that match your pay schedule, like Weekly Crew or 2nd Cutoff, make the dropdown easy to read when payroll day gets busy.

Less clicking, fewer mistakes

Payroll has enough things to double check. Who is in the run should not be one of them. Set up your groups once, and every payroll after that starts with the right people already selected.

Try it free for 30 days at timekeep.ph.