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How To Change An Employee's Pay Rate

Nick
  • Updated

How to update a pay rate, set the correct effective date, create a new employment period, and stay compliant with National Minimum Wage requirements.

Applies to: Admin

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Where pay rates live in Sona

Pay rates in Sona are stored on an employee's employment period, within the Rates of Pay section. Each rate of pay has a start date and (optionally) an end date, which tells the system when it applies. An employee can have multiple rates of pay within a single employment period — for example, different rates for different shift types or locations.

To navigate to an employee's pay rate:

  1. Go to Employees in the admin portal and open the employee's record.
  2. Navigate to their Employment Details > Employment Records tab.
  3. Open the current employment period.
  4. Find the Rates of Pay section.

Permissions note: Pay rate fields have their own view and edit permissions, separate from the broader employment period permissions. If you cannot see rates of pay on an employee's record, your permission role may not include the ability to view rates of pay. Contact your system admin to review your assigned permissions roles.

How to update a pay rate

For a simple, forward-dated pay rate change within the current employment period:

  1. Open the employee's record and navigate to their current employment period.
  2. In the Rates of Pay section, find the rate you want to change.
  3. Set an end date on the existing rate (the last day it applies — typically the day before the new rate starts).
  4. Add a new rate entry with the new amount and a start date of the first day the new rate should apply.
  5. Save.

This approach creates a clean, dated history of pay rate changes within the same employment period. It is suitable for routine pay increases, annual reviews, and adjustments that do not involve changes to contract type, contracted hours, or holiday entitlement.

For changes that involve more than just the rate — for example, a promotion that also changes contracted hours or contract type — see the next section.

When pay rate changes typically require a new employment period

A new employment period is the recommended approach when a pay rate change is part of a broader contract change — particularly when any of the following also change at the same time: contract type, contracted hours, job title, holiday entitlement, or pay group.

The reason is that an employment period represents a set of agreed contractual terms. If multiple terms change at once, creating a new period records when the new terms took effect and preserves a clean history of the employee's previous terms. This is important for payroll accuracy, holiday entitlement calculations, and audit purposes.

For a standalone pay rate increase (same hours, same contract type, same job title), ending the old rate and adding a new rate within the existing employment period is sufficient. There is no need to create a new employment period just to change a rate.

Do not confuse pay rate changes with pay group changes. Pay group is a payroll configuration setting that determines which payroll run an employee is included in. Pay group changes currently require Sona Support to action — they cannot be changed by customer admins in the portal. See Pay Group changes below.

How to create a new employment period for a pay rate change

When a pay rate change is part of a broader contract change:

  1. Open the employee's record and navigate to their Employment Details > Employment Records tab.
  2. Set the end date on the current employment period to the last day under the old terms.
  3. Click Add employment period and set the start date to the first day under the new terms.
  4. Carry over all fields from the previous period (contract type, contracted hours, job title, holiday settings, permission roles) and update only what has changed.
  5. In the Rates of Pay section of the new period, enter the new rate with the appropriate start date.
  6. Save the new period.
  7. Re-apply any permission roles that should apply under the new period — these do not carry over automatically.

How to verify the new rate has been applied correctly

After making a change, verify it has applied as expected:

Check the employee's employment record. Open the employment period, go to Rates of Pay, and confirm the new rate is showing with the correct start date and that the old rate has the correct end date. There should be no gaps (unrated dates) between the old rate ending and the new rate beginning.

Check upcoming shifts. Any shifts starting on or after the effective date of the new rate should calculate pay using the new rate. If the rate was entered correctly with the right start date, this should happen automatically. If shifts are still showing the old rate, check the rate's start date and the shift's date — the rate must start on or before the shift date for it to apply.

Check the TGP output. If the employee is on a Sona Pay payroll, generate the TGP for the relevant pay period after making the change and verify that the gross pay figures reflect the new rate. See the next section for more detail.

How pay rate changes interact with TGP and payroll

The TGP (Time-to-Gross Pay) engine looks up the applicable rate of pay for each shift based on the shift's date and the rate's start and end dates. When you update a rate correctly with the right effective date, the TGP will automatically use the new rate for shifts on or after that date in future pay runs.

Enhancement rules (such as overtime, weekend premiums, or unsocial hours) are calculated as a multiplier or addition on top of the base rate. When the base rate changes, enhancement calculations will automatically update to use the new base. However, if your enhancement rules reference a specific fixed rate rather than a multiplier, they may need to be reviewed separately — contact Sona Support if you are unsure how your enhancement rules work.

Already-processed shifts. If a shift has already been included in a locked payroll run, changing the rate of pay will not retroactively update the processed pay. For correcting pay on already-processed shifts, an amendment to the following payroll period is required.

Rate changes mid pay period. If a rate changes part-way through a pay period (for example, effective the 15th of a monthly pay period), the TGP will apply the old rate to shifts before the effective date and the new rate to shifts on or after it, within the same pay period. This is handled automatically provided the rate dates are correctly set.

How to apply a backdated pay rate change

Backdating a pay rate change is possible in Sona. You can set the start date of a new rate to a date in the past. However, the implications depend on whether any shifts in the backdated period have already been processed for payroll.

If the pay period is still open: Set the rate's start date to the correct historical date. When the TGP is next generated, it will use the backdated rate for all shifts from that date onwards.

If the pay period is locked or already processed: The backdated rate will apply to future TGP runs but will not automatically correct the already-processed pay. You will need to raise an amendment to the affected payroll period to correct the difference. Contact Sona Support if you are unsure how to do this for your organisation's payroll setup.

If you need to backdate a change that involves restructuring employment periods (for example, splitting a period with a backdated start date where shifts already exist): contact Sona Support before making changes. Restructuring employment periods around existing shift and payroll records requires care to avoid data inconsistencies.

Bulk pay rate updates using the Pay Matrix

For updating rates across a group of employees at the same time — for example, for an annual pay review or a National Minimum Wage uplift — Sona provides a self-service Pay Matrix and Bulk Update Rates tool in Customer Admin.

How to access it:

  1. Go to Admin from the top of the left menu in the admin portal.
  2. Open Manage Pay Rates.
  3. If this is your first time, click Set Up and choose your target rate format (Exact amounts is recommended for most organisations).
  4. Click Bulk Update Rates, then use the filters (job title, age band, locations, contract type, current rate) to select the group of employees whose rates need updating.
  5. Set your effective date and enter the new rate (either as a fixed amount or a percentage increase).
  6. Review the preview — you will see a full list of affected employees and their old and new rates before anything is applied.
  7. Click Update Rates and then Confirm to apply.

When you apply a bulk update, Sona automatically ends the old rates and starts the new ones on the effective date, and updates any unprocessed scheduled shifts that start on or after that date to use the new rate. A full audit log of all bulk changes is kept under Manage Pay Rates > Rate Changes.

The Pay Matrix also allows you to override individual employees within a bulk update — for example, if most employees in a group are being uplifted to the new NMW rate but one has already been promoted to a higher rate. This prevents exceptions from breaking the bulk flow.

Permissions note: Access to the Pay Matrix and Bulk Update Rates requires the Admin pay matrix permission. If you cannot see Manage Pay Rates in Customer Admin, ask your system admin to check your permission role, or contact Sona Support.

National Minimum Wage compliance

Sona includes built-in NMW validation on rates of pay. When you create or update a rate of pay with a start date on or after the next NMW uplift date, Sona will warn you if the rate falls below the applicable NMW threshold for the employee's age band.

This validation applies both when updating individual rates on employment records and when using the bulk Pay Matrix tool.

What Sona does not do automatically: Sona does not proactively identify employees whose existing rates have fallen below NMW as a result of their birthday moving them into a higher age band. The NMW rate thresholds change at ages 18 and 21. To manage this proactively, Sona supports a workflow that creates a task for the employee's manager when they are approaching their 18th or 21st birthday, prompting a pay rate review. This workflow can be further automated if the Pay Matrix is set up correctly for your organisation — contact Sona Support or your Customer Success Manager to discuss configuring this.

NMW rate changes each April. Sona updates its NMW validation rules annually when new rates are published. Any rate of pay created with a start date of 1 April or later will be validated against the new rates. The Pay Matrix bulk tool is the recommended self-service approach for applying the annual uplift across your workforce at the correct effective date.

Compliance is ultimately the employer's responsibility. Sona's NMW warning is a helpful guard, but it does not prevent you from saving a rate below NMW (it warns, it does not block). It is the organisation's responsibility to ensure all employees are paid at or above the applicable NMW threshold.

Pay Group changes

A pay group determines which payroll run an employee is included in. Pay group changes are a different and more complex operation than pay rate changes — they require a new employment period and currently must be processed by Sona Support, as they affect the underlying payroll integration.

If you need to move an employee from one pay group to another (for example, because they have changed location or role and now fall under a different payroll), contact Sona Support with the employee's name, their current pay group, the new pay group, and the date from which the change should take effect.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: I changed the pay rate but the TGP is still showing the old rate. What should I check?

Check the start date on the new rate of pay. The rate's start date must be on or before the shift date for it to apply. Also confirm that the old rate has an end date set to the day before the new rate starts — if the old rate has no end date, the system may not know which rate to use for periods of overlap.

Q: An employee's rate changed on the 15th but our pay period runs from the 1st to the 31st. Will the TGP handle the split automatically?

Yes. Provided the rates are correctly dated (old rate ends 14th, new rate starts 15th), the TGP will apply the old rate to shifts before the 15th and the new rate to shifts from the 15th onwards within the same pay period.

Q: I need to backdate a pay rise that should have started three months ago. How do I do this?

Set the start date on the new rate to the correct historical date. If those pay periods are already locked, the backdated rate will apply going forward but will not automatically correct the past. You will need to raise payroll amendments to pay the difference for the periods already processed. Contact Sona Support for guidance on how to handle the amendment for your payroll setup.

Q: Can I set up a future-dated pay increase now, so it applies automatically on a specific date?

Yes. Add a new rate of pay with the future start date. The TGP will use the new rate for any shifts on or after that date when it is run.

Q: We have an employee turning 21 next month. Do I need to do anything to make sure their NMW rate updates?

Sona does not automatically update pay rates at age thresholds — you need to update the rate manually (or via the Pay Matrix). Sona can be configured to send a task to the employee's manager as their birthday approaches, as a reminder to review the rate. Contact Sona Support to set up a birthday workflow for your organisation if you do not already have one.

Still need help?

Contact Sona Support with the employee's name, their current rate, the new rate, and the effective date.

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