Making Changes to Employee Pay Rates, Positions, or Contracted Terms – S4Labour

This guide walks you through how to manage employee updates in the system, including pay rises, role changes, and contracted terms like holiday entitlement and working hours.

📍 Navigating to the Employee Profile

To begin making changes:

Click the Employee icon in the top toolbar.
Select View All Employees.
Click on the tile of the employee you wish to update.
Go to the Employment tab to access and review the employee's current pay setup.

💡 Tip: Always double-check you're editing the correct employee before making changes.

💼 Scheduling Pay or Role Changes

To update pay or assign a new role:

Scroll to the bottom of the Employment tab.
Click Schedule a new rate of pay or position.
Enter the new Pay Type, Rate, and Role.
Use Add Role to assign up to four roles for hourly staff. Each role can have a unique pay rate.
- For salaried employees, only the main role can have a pay rate. Additional roles must be set to £0.00. As salaries are fixed, if multiple salaries are added, all active salaries will be paid out to the employee in any payroll exports.
You can also change the main role or remove roles that are no longer needed.

⚠️ Note: Always ensure roles and rates are correctly matched to avoid payroll discrepancies.

📅 Updating Contracted Terms and Holiday Entitlement

To update contracted terms:

Access the Employment tab.
Click Schedule a new rate of pay or position.
Update the following fields:
- Contracted hours and days
- Holiday entitlement
- Position title
Set the From Date to reflect when changes should take effect.

📌 Important: The From Date must align with the start of a trading week.

📆 Understanding the 'From Date'

The From Date determines when scheduled changes take effect.

Key Rules:

Changes apply from the start of the trading week.
You cannot backdate changes if a future change is already scheduled.
Only one future change can be scheduled at a time.

✅ Why it matters: Ensures accurate payroll, rota calculations, and prevents data conflicts.

🚧 Common Issues and How to Avoid Them

1. Blocked Changes

You cannot schedule a change before an already scheduled future change.

❌ Example: If a pay rise is scheduled for 18th August, you cannot add a new role starting 16th August.

2. Error Messages

“Cannot save due to subsequent changes”
“Cannot add new rates when there are new rates scheduled in the future”

🔍 You can only edit the most recent pay change. New setups must be scheduled after the current one and only if no future changes exist.

3. Risk of Lost Shifts

Deleting a scheduled change will remove all shifts that rely on that change from the From Date onward.

4. Duplicate Entries

Repeated scheduling attempts without adjusting the From Date can block edits.

5. Payroll Discrepancies

Incorrect From Dates can lead to underpayment or overpayment.

✅ Best Practices

Align the From Date with the start of the trading week.
Check for existing scheduled changes before adding a new one.
Use View History to review both historic and pending changes.
Delete or edit future changes before re-entering corrected information. By clicking on ‘Edit this pay’ you will be able to make changes to the role, pay or delete it completely.

🛠 Changes that are scheduled prior to this week cannot be deleted without our assistance. Please reach out to our Support Desk if you require historic amendments to pay setups in S4labour.

📝 Re-signing Contracts

If an employee’s terms have changed significantly (e.g., salary, role, hours) you may wish to issue a new contract reflecting these updated terms. If you have your contracts mapped in S4labour, you can action this by following the steps below:

Right-click on the employee’s tile.
Click Sign Contract (available to Level 3 users and above).
Ensure all updates are reflected before signing by clicking 'your contract' to generate a contract preview with all active pay details for this employee included. The contract can be signed by both manager and employee using the boxes shown below.

📌 Summary of Key Rules

Only one future change can be scheduled at a time.
No changes can be made before a scheduled future change.
You cannot delete pay changes for past weeks.
You can delete or edit future scheduled changes.
Deleting a scheduled pay change removes all rotas from that From Date onward.
Use View History to audit changes.