Managing someone’s payroll details

From your Payroll homepage, find someone in the Team section and select their name to open their profile. From there, you can manage how they’re paid and view their payroll information.

Changing someone’s pay

The Pay tab shows someone’s current compensation, including whether they’re salaried or hourly and when their current compensation took effect.

To make a change:

1. Select Manage pay
2. Select Edit compensation
3. Make your changes, then select Save changes

Keep in mind:

• You can set an effective date in the past. The new rate applies from that date, but paychecks that have already been processed aren’t changed
• If the effective date falls in the middle of a pay period, that period is split between the old and new rates, so the next paycheck may not reflect a full period at the new rate

Viewing someone’s pay history

Select Manage pay, then View compensation history to see previous changes to someone’s pay and when each change took effect.

Compensation history is a record and can’t be edited.

Adding a recurring earning

A recurring earning is an amount added to someone’s paycheck on top of their base pay. Someone can have multiple recurring earnings at once.

To add one, select Manage pay, then Add recurring earning. Choose the appropriate earning type and enter the details of the payment.

Earning types include:

• Bonus (supplemental wages) and Commission — supplemental wages that are taxed differently from regular wages
• Regular allowance — a taxable cash allowance, such as a car or remote-work allowance
• Reimbursement — a recurring expense reimbursement, such as a phone or internet stipend
• Group term life and Other imputed income — imputed income that increases taxable wages without being paid out. For group term life, enter the imputed cost rather than the coverage amount
• 2% shareholder benefits and 2% shareholder HSA — for S-corp shareholders with more than 2% ownership

The tax treatment of an earning can depend on the circumstances. Make sure you select the earning type that applies to the payment.

Adding a deduction

Deductions are recurring amounts withheld from a team member’s pay after tax. They’re only available for team members and can’t be added for contractors.

Select Manage pay, then Add deduction and choose the appropriate type:

• Miscellaneous — deductions that aren’t garnishments, such as union dues, donations, or loan repayments
• Garnishment — wage garnishments calculated using disposable income, such as tax liens or student loans
• Child support — child support garnishments ordered by a state authority

For miscellaneous deductions, percentage-based deductions are calculated from gross pay. For garnishments, they’re calculated from disposable income. You can also set limits and, for garnishments, a priority when someone has multiple orders.

Child support requires information from the order, including the case and issuing state. You can also choose whether the payment is remitted through payroll or paid separately by your company.

Keep in mind:

• Child support is withheld before other garnishments, subject to each order’s disposable-income limit
• If someone’s pay can’t cover all garnishments, child support is withheld first, followed by other garnishments from oldest to newest. Any amount that can’t be withheld in full is flagged on the pay run

Garnishment and child support requirements can vary. Review each order carefully to make sure the information entered in Mercury is accurate.

Changing someone’s pay schedule

Someone’s "Pay" tab shows their current pay schedule and next payday.

Select Manage pay, then Manage pay schedule to move them to another schedule. See Understanding pay schedules for more information.

When you move someone to a new pay schedule, their pay, recurring earnings, deductions, and benefits move with them.

For salaried team members, their salary is divided across the new schedule’s pay periods. Because pay accrues daily, no days go unpaid and a separate catch-up run isn’t needed. If the change takes effect in the middle of a pay period, that period’s salary is split between the old and new schedules.

Viewing their details and documents

The "Details" tab shows someone’s personal and work information, along with their payroll permissions.

Payroll documents, including I-9 and tax withholding forms, are at the bottom of the "Pay" tab and can be downloaded from there.

Managing someone’s email addresses

The "Details" tab shows two emails for each team member:

• Work email — managed by your company and used for payroll
• Personal email — an address they control, so they keep access to their pay stubs and tax documents after they leave your company

Team members can update their own personal email from their profile. Only admins can change a work email.

To make a change:

1. On the "Details" tab, select Edit next to Work email or Personal email
2. Enter the new address, then select Save

Keep in mind:

• We send a verification email to the new address and notify the team member at their login email that a change was requested. The team member needs to be logged in to Mercury and open the link to confirm it. Until they do, the current email stays in place. If the new address is already verified on their Mercury profile, the change takes effect right away.
• Verification links expire after 30 days. While a change is pending, you can Resend verification email or Delete it, and only one change per email can be pending at a time.
• An email already used by another Mercury profile can’t be added, and changing a work or personal email doesn’t change the email they log in with.

Mercury Payroll helps businesses manage payroll and related administrative tasks. Mercury does not provide legal, tax, accounting, or investment advice and does not act as your employer, professional employer organization (PEO), employer of record (EOR), or plan fiduciary. You remain responsible for your legal and regulatory obligations, including worker classification, wage-and-hour requirements, tax withholding and reporting, and benefits eligibility.