Role & Pay

The editable sections described here require Admin or Payroll. An Approver can read the available payee summary, but cannot open the payee editor or change rates, allowances, or deductions. Adding a union or agreement to the company requires Admin.

A payee's page has two tabs: Details, the record this page describes, and Pay statements (see A payee's Pay statements tab). For a payee still being set up, the payee detail page is one continuous, always-editable form with a single save bar, including Personal info (Business info for a loan-out or vendor), Representation, and, for a minor, a Child trust (Coogan) card that shows the trust but doesn't edit it (see Child Trust). Role & Pay, as used on this page, is a documentation grouping for four of those sections: Engagement & union, Pay, Allowances & taxable earnings, and Deductions, plus the read-only Automatic union deductions card that sits between the last two for a union payee. All four editable sections render for every payee type — employees, loan-outs, contractors, and vendors alike. (Individual fields inside them can still be conditional for a given type — a vendor isn't required to have a standing pay rate, for example — but the sections themselves aren't hidden by payee type.)

Sections

Engagement & union

Determines the payee's union membership and role classification, and drives rate/minimum lookups and union reporting. The card's own subtitle: Sets pay rules and union reports for this engagement.

A term deal never overrides pay you've set up: a saved weekly rate or recurring pay keeps a week normal. To make a particular week benefits-only anyway, tick Benefits only this week on the payee's row in that payroll. Changing the union or the agreement clears the term-deal dates, because they belong to the engagement being replaced. Once the payee is onboarded, the dates also show on their read-only record, as Weekly benefits under Engagement & union, marked Term deal.

There's no "Union member (dues apply)" checkbox: dues are driven by the union's own configured deduction rules, not a membership flag. For details on changing a payee's union, see Union Configuration.

The block also states the payee's tax classification — Employee, Loan-out, Contractor, or Vendor — rather than offering it, since that's fixed when the payee is created, and it spells out the consequence: every engagement on this payee is paid and reported that way, and paying the same person under a different classification means a second payee record via Add payee. See Payee Types.

Pay

Set up the payee's compensation structure. This section has two parts:

Rate rows

How a Rate row is named and priced depends on the union: AEA is the one union whose CBA splits pay by Classification (Performance or Rehearsal), priced weekly or hourly, except on a Development production, where AEA rates are named rather than classified too. On a Development production every payee has one rate at a time: an unnamed one reads Rate 1, and Add rate reappears only once every rate has an end date. Every other union, and every non-union payee, instead gives each rate its own free-text Name and can price it weekly, hourly, or as an 8/10/12-hour day rate. For a non-union payee with an hourly or day rate, the row previews the applicable New York overtime tiers inline, with a link to a fuller explainer and to the state minimum-wage page — a union's own CBA governs its overtime instead, so union payees don't see this preview.

Minimum warnings never block saving. A union payee's rate below their agreement's minimum gets a Below … minimum banner. A non-union employee's rate below New York's minimum wage gets its own banner per rate, naming the rate, the hours it assumed, the region, and the figure, for example "Stipend: $500.00 a week is below New York's minimum wage for a 40-hour week: $17.00 an hour in New York City, Long Island and Westchester, $680.00 a week. This assumes a 40-hour week, and takes the region from the company's ZIP code. Saving is allowed." A weekly rate is compared as 40 hours, a day rate as its own 8, 10 or 12 hours, and an hourly rate as it stands. Each rate is compared with the minimum in force on its own effective date, and a rate that has ended isn't checked. The region comes from the company's ZIP code: ZIP codes starting 005, 100 to 108 or 110 to 119, and 06390, take the New York City, Long Island and Westchester figure; every other New York ZIP code takes the rest-of-state figure. (The few Putnam County ZIP codes that start 105 therefore take the higher figure, and the banner names the region it assumed.) Loan-outs, contractors, vendors and union payees never get this banner. The same warning appears on the run's Payroll Summary; see Payroll Calculations.

Each rate row shows a Status: New (not saved yet), Active, Upcoming, Past, or Superseded (a rate retired before it ever took effect, shown read-only). A new rate, premium, allowance, or taxable earning starts on the payee's Effective start from Engagement & union, not on today's date. Give a row an earlier date and Greenroom asks first (Use a date before the payee starts?, confirmed with Use earlier date). A row left unconfirmed shows Confirm earlier date, and the save is refused until you confirm it or change the date. The list of problems above the form names each such row, by its name or its place in the table, for example Confirm the earlier effective date on "Stipend", or change its date. If you change the Effective start of a payee who hasn't been on a payroll run yet, Greenroom offers to move the rows still on the old start date (Move default dates) or to leave every row as entered (Keep row dates).

Non-union Contractors and Loan-outs can also switch Pay from Time based payment (recommended) (Standing rates price each run; overtime rules apply.) to Contract / invoice-based payment (For stipends, flat fees and other negotiated pay. Enter the amount on each run.), a radio choice above the Rates table. It's the way to pay a stipend, a flat fee, or an invoice. In that mode there's no rate row to maintain, and the card says where the amount goes: No standing rates. On each payroll run, enter this payee's amount in the Vendors & Contractors step: a stipend, fee or invoice. No upload is needed. For a loan-out it names the Employees & Loan-outs step. Switching doesn't need a tax ID on file. On the run, the payee's Contract pay box reads This run's stipend, fee or invoice amount, and its Add takes a name and an amount (for example Stipend, week 3); attaching an invoice is optional. Employees, vendors (already invoice-only by type), and union engagements (priced from the CBA) don't get this toggle.

To change a contract pay line you added by hand, expand the payee on the run and choose Edit beside that line. You can rename it, change its amount, choose its GL code when your company has a chart of accounts, and update its Memo, then choose Save & recalculate. Use the remove control beside the line to remove it from the run. Activity records an edit as Payroll line updated and a removal as Payroll line removed.

Multiple pay rates can be configured for a single payee, with different rates applying to different names/classifications or time periods. Both wages and premiums are taxed and counted in the dues & benefits basis.

Weekly total

Every union payee with a weekly rate gets one Weekly total box under their rates, on any production type, including a rate that hasn't started yet (it then says Starts [date].). Hourly and day rates, and non-union payees, don't get one. It shows what a full-week payroll would pay on that rate:

• the rate, by the name the rate table shows: its own name, or Performance / Rehearsal for an AEA classification, or Rate 1, Rate 2 and so on for an unnamed Development rate (two rates with the same name are told apart by start date);
• then each premium, any overscale (an Overscale Increase premium is listed as Overscale), and any vacation the agreement adds;
• then Total.

On an AEA rate the premiums are part of the rate: the box reads Premiums are part of this rate. and lists the minimum, each premium and the overscale indented under it. On other unions they're added on top (Premiums are added to this rate.). A payee with more than one weekly rate gets a switch to show one at a time; the box never adds two rates together.

If the rate is below the minimum plus premiums, payroll pays the higher figure, and the box says so in a note rather than an error: "The rate is below the minimum plus premiums, so payroll pays $X a week instead of $Y." Saving is still allowed.

ATPAM Broadway vacation is shown as 8.5% of the base plus the standing premiums. Payroll pays 8.5% of all covered pay, so one-time premiums added on a run (a holiday, say) raise it further than this box shows. Before 2026-10-13 it was 8.5% of the base alone.

Premiums from the union's list

Pick a premium from the union's list and Greenroom saves which premium it is, not a dollar figure. Every payroll then prices it from the union's rate set in force for that run's week, so it follows a rate step on its own. On the payee's page the row shows today's figure and says that's what it is, for example $69.97/week today; a run for a different week can price it differently. A premium that's a share of a minimum says what it's a share of, for example 2% of scale. On AEA Broadway League Development, an actor's Media Fee reads 2% of the Production Actor minimum: it's 2% of the AEA Production Actor minimum for that week, not 2% of the actor's own Development minimum. Stage managers and ASMs there keep 2% of their own minimum.

Type a different amount and it becomes a negotiated premium, saved exactly as typed and labelled Negotiated amount; clear the amount and it goes back to following the list. A percentage you type reads, for example, 1.5% of this payee's rate.

If a run's week has no rate in the list for a saved premium (it was removed or renamed, it's a share of a minimum this title doesn't have, or no rate set covers that week), that premium is left out of the run rather than paid at an old figure or $0. Payroll Summary warns about it, and approval is refused until you fix it on this card: choose the premium again from the list, type the amount you agreed, or remove it. See What can block submitting.

A saved rate that no payroll has used yet can be deleted from its row: the trash icon, then a confirmation (Delete this rate?). The delete takes effect as soon as you confirm; it doesn't wait for the save bar. Once a payroll has used a rate it stays on the record, because the payroll's history points at it; the row shows a disabled trash with that reason, and the way to move on is to set an end date on the old rate and add the new one. An unsaved row you just added can still be removed without a confirmation.

Allowances vs. reimbursements

This section, headed Allowances & taxable earnings, has two lists you can add to, each with its own add button and its own name dropdown. Add allowance and Add taxable earning each open a short form first: pick a name (or Other (type a name)), enter an amount or a percentage, then confirm. Nothing joins the list until the row is complete. Allowances and reimbursements are conceptually different (an allowance is a recurring or one-time extra payment not tied to a specific documented expense, e.g. a wardrobe stipend; a reimbursement repays a specific, incurred expense, e.g. a submitted travel receipt), and our tax partner separately confirmed that a genuinely taxable per diem or allowance shouldn't be treated as a tax-free reimbursement. Reimbursements aren't added on the payee: they are entered on each payroll run, so this section holds only allowances and taxable earnings.

Reimbursements are entered on each payroll run, with their receipts (see Adding Employees). A reimbursement still saved on a payee is listed read-only under Saved reimbursements with a remove control: "Reimbursements are now added on each payroll run, with their receipts. These were saved on this payee before that and are still added to their pay on payroll runs until they end or you remove them."

Deductions

Deductions is one list of amounts withheld from pay, benefits included. The picker offers six standard options to every payee, a seventh (Retirement deferral) to an employee whose union agreement has a retirement fund configured, and Other (type a name) for anything else:

Pre-tax, and what kind of pre-tax

Each deduction row has a Pre-tax checkbox. A new row starts post-tax, and picking any standard name other than Retirement deferral leaves it post-tax: a garnishment, a tax levy, an advance repayment, and union dues all come out of pay that's already been taxed. Retirement deferral is the exception: picking it makes the row pre-tax and keeps it there, with the Pre-tax column reading Pre-tax and the note Retirement deferrals are taken before income tax.

On any other row, tick Pre-tax and a Benefit type picker appears on the same row. This is what tells our tax partner which kind of pre-tax benefit the deduction is, which decides the contribution limit it enforces and the box it lands in on a W-2. The options are:

401(k) · Roth 401(k) · 403(b) · Roth 403(b) · 457 · SIMPLE IRA · HSA · FSA — medical · FSA — dependent care

An untyped pre-tax row still works, but Greenroom can't tell our tax partner what it is, so it's treated as an unknown rather than assumed harmless.

If deductions make an included payee's net pay negative, the payroll cannot be sent for approval, approved, or submitted. For a one-time deduction, a teammate with Admin or Payroll can use the edit pencil on that payee's Payroll Summary row, lower the Amount or choose Remove line under Deductions, then Save & recalculate. For a recurring deduction, correct Deductions on the payee's profile, then try again.

Automatic union deductions

For a union payee, a read-only Automatic union deductions card sits between Allowances and Deductions, and on the payee's read-only record once they're onboarded. Its subtitle names the agreement it reads (Computed on every payroll under the … agreement.). Each line shows the deduction, its rate or amount, its basis, and whether it's taken pre-tax or post-tax. Employer contributions expands to list what the employer pays under the same agreement. If the agreement has no automatic deductions, the card says so. The Deductions card repeats the line names in a small Union deductions and contributions box.

Don't add one of these lines by hand as well. A manual deduction that duplicates an automatic union line is refused when you save, and the banner names it: [line] is already deducted automatically under the [agreement] agreement. Remove this row.

Fee, advance, and royalty-based pay (SDC / USA 829)

SDC directors and choreographers, and USA 829 designers, aren't paid on a weekly-salary basis — their compensation is a negotiated fee plus an advance, drawn down by dated milestones, plus a weekly royalty minimum once the show is running.

This is recorded in its own place, not through the Pay section on this page. A payee on one of those job titles gets a Fee, advance & royalty card on their record instead — see Fees, Advances & Royalties for how to record the deal, the payments already made, and the agreement's milestone schedule.

Greenroom pays the fee part of an installment through payroll, on an off-cycle run, with Add due fees. An advance part is recorded as a payment the production made itself. See Fees, Advances & Royalties and Off-Cycle Payroll.

Payroll readiness

Each payee tracks its own "what's left for payroll" checklist rather than a per-section completion badge. The hard requirements that block a payee from being run-ready are:

• A pay rate (Add a pay rate) that hasn't ended: one in effect, or one starting later. A payee whose rates have all ended reads Add a current pay rate. Not required for vendors, who bill per invoice instead of a standing rate, or for a contractor or loan-out on Contract / invoice-based payment, so their checklist leaves the item out.
• Required documents on file (Collect required documents) — set by payee type. For a loan-out, contractor, or vendor that's the signed W-9, unless they're marked W-9 not required, or our tax partner holds their tax ID from their W-9 while Greenroom holds none. Once a tax ID is entered in Greenroom, the signed W-9 upload is owed again (see Tax Information). Greenroom doesn't collect an I-9 as a document, so an employee owes nothing here.
• Tax setup resolved (Resolve tax setup) — a tax ID on file. It also counts as resolved when our tax partner holds the payee's tax ID even though Greenroom doesn't, and the item then reads Tax id kept with our tax partner. A payee marked W-9 not required doesn't owe one at all, and their checklist leaves the item out.
• Approval of their setup. Until the payee is approved, the item reads Review and approve their setup once their setup is submitted, Approve their setup once they make the changes you asked for after you've asked for changes, and Approve their setup once it's finished before then, and it links to their Finish payee setup, where you approve. A payee is never Payroll-ready before approval.
• No blocking tasks (Resolve 1 blocking task from our tax partner, or however many are open): anything our tax partner marks as blocking for this payee. A demo company doesn't list these. On the payee's own page, an approved payee at a live (non-demo) production who still isn't connected to our tax partner also reads Connection to our tax partner is missing. Before approval that item isn't listed, because approval is what makes the connection when the payee's own setup hasn't.

Some items are advisories instead, listed under Advisory — doesn't block payroll: unfinished tax forms (Tax forms not finished. Until they finish, taxes are withheld at the standard single rate, which can be more than they'd choose.), the employer's I-9 attestation for an employee (Employer I-9 attestation pending), an unsigned W-9 whose tax ID our tax partner already holds (W-9 not signed, until it's signed or a signed copy is uploaded), and, for an Actor/Musician, a missing sub-type or 802 reportable wage. The readiness chip still reads Payroll-ready; when the employer I-9 attestation is among the open items, hovering it says Other setup tasks remain, but payroll can continue. With only other advisories the chip reads Payroll-ready · W-9 not signed when the unsigned W-9 is the only one, and Payroll-ready · tax pending otherwise.

A missing payment method is never on this list. A payee who is paid manually (by paper check) does need a signed manual payment certification in their start-work packet before a payroll that includes them can be sent for approval; see Payment Details. Tax withholding status is only ever an advisory here, for payees whose withholding our tax partner manages, since it (not Greenroom) is the system of record for W-4/state withholding.

Best Practices

• Configure union details first, in Engagement & union — this affects available pay rates and benefits
• Give every union payee a listed or custom job title before their setup is submitted
• Keep pay rates current by adding a new effective-dated row rather than editing history when changes occur
• Use the correct control for the money involved — an allowance or reimbursement dropdown entry, not a deduction, and vice versa
• Document all rate changes with effective dates for audit purposes
• Ensure compliance with union agreements and applicable labor laws

Next Steps

After configuring Role & Pay, continue with Tax Information or see Running Payroll to process payroll.