Payroll Payment Option

The Payroll payment method records a workplace donor’s pledge to give via payroll deduction. Unlike credit card or BillMe, payroll payments are not collected directly by DonorPoint — instead, the pledge amount and schedule are recorded, and actual payments are applied later from your payroll extract.

Pay Period Configuration

The pay period (frequency of deductions) can be set in order of precedence from most-specific to least-specific:

  1. Employee relationship custom field — a custom field on the employee relationship record (most specific; overrides all others)
  2. Organization record — the default pay period for employees of that organization
  3. Payment method configuration — the fallback pay period on the Payroll payment method itself
  4. Prompted on form — if no pay period is set elsewhere, the donor can be prompted to select their pay period on the form

Common pay period values: Weekly, Bi-Weekly, Semi-Monthly, Monthly.

Displaying the Per-Period Amount

Donors typically want to see both their total annual pledge and their per-paycheck amount. Use EL in the payment method’s Confirmation Text (which is rendered in the #{PAYMENT} merge tag) to calculate and display the per-period deduction:

Your pledge of $#{purchaseOrder.amount} will be deducted from 
#{purchaseOrder.payment.paymentMethod.get('PeriodsPerYear').value} paychecks,
totaling #{commonRenderer.formatAmount(purchaseOrder.amount / 
  purchaseOrder.payment.paymentMethod.get('PeriodsPerYear').value)} per paycheck.

Start Date

The Start Date records when payroll deductions begin. This is important for the Payout engine’s calculation of “previously paid” amounts and for generating the payroll file for your partner employers.

Start date can be set:

  • On the payment method as a default
  • Dynamically via scripting based on the current payroll period calendar

Minimum Pledge Amount

Set a Minimum Amount on the Payroll payment method to enforce a minimum pledge. Donors who enter an amount below the minimum receive a validation error before the form is submitted.

Payroll File Generation

After your campaign closes or at any point during the campaign, you can generate a payroll file for each employer. The payroll file lists each employee’s pledge amount and deduction schedule for submission to the employer’s payroll department.

See your account’s configured payroll export report for the format used by your employers.

Integration Codes on Payroll Payment Methods

Integration codes on the Payroll payment method are useful for encoding employer-specific payroll identifiers:

// In a post-transaction script, access payroll integration codes:
var payrollCode = purchaseOrder.payment.paymentMethod.get('PayrollCode').value;

Configuring Payroll Confirmation Text via Messages

For multi-employer campaigns with different pay period configurations, use the Messages system to define configurable confirmation text:

payroll_confirmation=Your pledge will be deducted in #{account.get('default_periods').value} installments.

Then reference it in the payment method confirmation text:

#{messages.payroll_confirmation}

See Externalized Text for more on the Messages system.