Payroll Adjustments Explained
Understanding allowances, deductions, and premiums on a payee's record, and one-time additions on a run
Not the same thing as an Amendment run
"Adjustments" here means allowances, deductions, and premiums on a payee's own record — not the Amendment run type that corrects an already-paid payroll. The two use similar-sounding words for different things; see the comparison at the bottom of this page.
Payroll adjustments are the recurring allowances, deductions, and pay premiums that sit on a payee's own record and feed into every run they're part of. They live on the payee's page, organized into three sections: Pay (rates and premiums), Allowances & reimbursements, and Deductions.
The Three Kinds
| Kind | Where it lives | Tax treatment |
|---|---|---|
| Allowance | Allowances & reimbursements section | Paid on top of wages — never taxed, never counted in the dues basis |
| Premium (called "increment" internally) | Pay section, under Rates | Wages — taxed and counted in the dues & benefits basis, same as base pay |
| Deduction | Deductions section | Withheld from pay; can be pre-tax or post-tax |
Every adjustment row — regardless of kind — shares the same basic shape: a name, a value (a flat dollar amount or a percentage of a basis), a frequency, an effective date range, and an optional GL code for your chart of accounts.
Allowances & Reimbursements
This section covers both allowances and reimbursements — they share the same mechanics, just different standard names. Pick from a standard list or choose "Other" to type a custom name:
| Standard allowance names |
|---|
| Travel allowance |
| Per diem |
| Housing allowance |
| Car allowance |
| Cell phone allowance |
| Meal allowance |
| Wardrobe allowance |
| Reimbursement — travel |
| Reimbursement — supplies |
| Reimbursement — other |
Allowances and reimbursements are paid on top of wages, never taxed, and never counted toward the union dues basis.
Adding an Allowance or Reimbursement
On the payee's page, go to the Allowances & reimbursements section, click Add allowance or reimbursement, pick a name (or "Other" to type your own), set a flat dollar amount or a percentage, choose a frequency, and set an effective date range.
Deductions
Standard deduction names — again with an "Other" option for anything custom:
| Standard deduction names |
|---|
| 401k participation |
| Health insurance |
| Garnishment |
| Advance repayment |
| Equipment |
Union dues and representative fees don't go here
Union dues come from your union configuration, and representative fees come from the payee's Representatives section — entering them as a manual deduction here would double them up. This section is for everything else withheld from pay: garnishments, benefit contributions, equipment costs, and similar installments.
Deductions have two fields allowances don't:
- Pre-tax — a checkbox marking whether the deduction reduces taxable pay before or after tax is calculated.
- Lump-sum target — an optional total to collect. Once the deduction has withheld that much across however many runs it takes, it stops automatically — useful for paying off an advance or a fixed garnishment amount.
Premiums (Pay Section)
Premiums are contract add-ons on top of base pay — often role-driven (Dance Captain, Media Fee) or a percentage of scale. They're entered under the Pay section, alongside the payee's rates.
For unions with configured contractual premiums (Actors' Equity is the main example), the premium name is picked from that union's own list, pre-filling the standard amount or percentage. For payees whose union doesn't define contractual premiums, or for a custom entry, you type a name directly. Unlike allowances, premiums are wages — they're taxed and counted in the dues and benefits basis, same as base pay.
Frequency
Every adjustment (allowance, deduction, or premium) has one of three frequencies:
| Frequency | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Weekly | Applies once per week the adjustment is effective |
| Daily | Applies per day |
| Once | Applies a single time |
One-Time Additions on a Specific Run
Outside of a payee's standing record, you can also add a one-time line directly to their entry within a specific payroll run — useful for something that only applies this week, like a one-off reimbursement, an activity-based union premium (an understudy performance, a rehearsal overtime session), or a manual payment line. These run-only additions don't change the payee's standing record and don't carry forward to the next run.
If a contract premium added this way should actually be a standing part of the payee's pay going forward, there's an option to save it to the payee's profile instead — that turns it into the same recurring premium described above rather than a one-time line.
Salary Proration
For performance-based union contracts, a full pay week is 8 performances. If a payee works fewer than 8 in a week, their base pay and any premiums prorate down proportionally; if they work more than 8, the overage is added on top of the full package. This proration is specific to performance-based contracts — it isn't a general calendar-based "days worked this period" calculation.
Validation Rules
| Rule | Description |
|---|---|
| Maximum amount | $1,000,000.00 per adjustment line |
| Maximum percentage | 100% of the basis |
| Required fields | Name, and either a flat amount or a percentage |
| Name length | Up to 120 characters |
| Decimal precision | Amounts support two decimal places |
Amendment Runs vs. Payroll Adjustments
| Feature | Payroll Adjustments (this page) | Amendment Runs |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Ongoing allowances, deductions, and premiums on a payee's record | A separate payroll run that corrects one that's already been paid |
| When used | Configured any time; feeds every applicable run automatically | Created after a specific payroll has been paid |
| Scope | One payee's recurring pay components | A whole correction run, with its own payment lines |
| Availability | Always available | Any paid run can be amended — see Amendment Runs |
Best Practices
- Use the standard name list where it fits — it keeps reporting consistent across payees
- Set an effective end date on anything temporary so it doesn't keep applying after it should stop
- Use a lump-sum target on deductions that should stop once a fixed amount is collected, rather than remembering to remove them manually
- Double-check pre-tax vs. post-tax on deductions — it changes the payee's taxable wages
- Use GL codes consistently if your company relies on them for reporting
Next Steps
Continue with Reviewing Payroll to verify all calculations, or see Payroll Calculations to understand how amounts are computed.