In Hubstaff, it’s common to update pay and bill rates as team roles and responsibilities change. This article explains how those changes impact tracked time, payments, and reports. You’ll also learn how rate changes work across pay periods and where to view historical rate information.
Table of contents
- New user rates
- Changing from “None” to an active pay period
- Transitioning from one pay/bill rate to new rate
- Special cases with a rate defined for a project/user
New user rates
When new users are added through the setup wizard, you can assign specific pay and bill rates right away. However, if a user is added manually (outside the wizard), their pay and bill rates will default to “None.”
- Any time tracked before rates are assigned will be calculated at $0/hour, since no rate was set at the time.
- If a rate is updated more than once in the same day, only the latest change will be used for that day — the previous rate will be overwritten.
Rate changes and pay periods
If you’re on a weekly pay period that starts on Monday, and you change a user’s rate on Thursday, Hubstaff will apply the new rate retroactively from Monday, as long as that time hasn’t been paid yet.
You can update rates at any time during the current unpaid pay period, and Hubstaff will use the new rate for the entire period starting from the beginning of that pay cycle.
Changing from “None” to an active pay period
If a user’s pay period is currently set to “None”, that doesn’t necessarily mean there were no pay periods before. It’s possible that past paid periods could still overlap with the new one you’re setting.
Default pay period options:
- Monthly – Starts on the 1st of each month
- Weekly – Starts on the first day of the week (usually Monday, but can be adjusted in organization settings)
- Bi-weekly – Could either start on the 1st day of the current week or the 1st day of the previous week
- Twice a month – Starts on the 1st and 16th of each month
How can pay periods overlap?
Some pay periods, like weekly or bi-weekly, are based on the day of the week, while others—like monthly or twice a month—are based on calendar dates. This can lead to overlapping time ranges when switching between pay period types.
Example:
If you had a monthly pay period, then switched it to “None” and later changed it to weekly, it’s possible that the new weekly period could overlap with the earlier monthly one.
Since you can’t have paid activity during a period marked as “None”, the new rate will take effect from the start of the pay period that was previously set to “None.” In other words, the new rate replaces the gap entirely—because Hubstaff has to apply some rate, and “None” isn’t valid for paid time.
Changing from one pay/bill rate to a new rate
Note that the new rate starts at the beginning of the current pay period.
For example, if you’re on a weekly pay period and change the rate on January 19, the new rate applies from Monday of that week.
If you then switch to a monthly pay period, the automatic payment will be generated on January 31, at the end of the new monthly period. The next pay period will run from February 1 to 28.
Historical rates
You can view the full history of rate changes for any team member.
To view historical pay and bill rates:
- Go to People > Members in your Hubstaff dashboard.
- Click the pencil icon next to a member’s pay or bill rate.
- Scroll to the Pay Rate History and Bill Rate History sections.
You’ll see each rate amount, the date the rate was changed, and a clear timeline of all rate updates. This is useful for auditing, reviewing changes, and confirming what rate applied to specific time periods.
Special cases with a rate defined for a project/user
Currently, you can assign a rate to an employee per project, but Hubstaff does not store historical records of project-specific rates.
Project rates take priority. This means that any rate set at the project level will override the user’s default rate across all areas—including reports, invoices, widgets, and payments.
