Sales commission, bonuses and employee payslips

A waiter can earn a percentage of their own sales; a cashier can earn commission on register sales. The manager adds a one-off bonus for meeting a shift target or receiving guest feedback manually to the monthly payroll. The employee sees the approved amount and its breakdown in their cabinet.

This guide covers staff incentives in cenaly.ge. Creating employees, access and shift tracking are covered in Staff.

What you need to get started#

• An owner account to configure pay, and payroll access for whoever prepares the month.
• Employee records, with sales and shifts attributed to the right people.
• An agreed pay type, currency and percentage. The hourly component needs closed shifts.
• An individual employee login to view their own payslip.

Set up pay first, check the sales base in the monthly calculation, then approve it. For Russian payroll on cenaly.ru, start with Russian payroll setup.

Set a sales commission#

For example, you have agreed to pay a waiter 3% of their dish sales.

1. Open “Staff”, select the employee and open their pay settings.
2. Enable “Set up pay” if pay has not been configured yet.
3. Set “Pay type” to “Commission”.
4. Set “Commission base” to “Product sales” — this includes dishes and menu items.
5. Enter 3 in “Commission rate, %”.
6. Leave “Product sales rate, %” at 0 unless you want an additional percentage.
7. Click “Save”.

Result: the rate is saved for the employee and used when preparing payroll. If no commission appears, check the sales base and the person credited with the sale as well as the rate.

The same list includes “Hourly”, “Salary” and “Hourly + salary”. Commission fields are available for “Commission” and “Hourly + salary”. To combine commission with base pay, select “Hourly + salary” and fill in the required hourly rate and salary. For services performed, use “Service revenue” rather than “Product sales”.

Choose who gets credit for a sale#

If a waiter served the table and a cashier took payment, decide in advance who should receive commission.

1. Open “Staff” → “Payroll” → “Settings”.
2. Find “Sales commission: waiter or cashier”.
3. Select “Waiter” or “Cashier” for the relevant location.
4. Wait for the selection to save; each location has its own setting.

With “Waiter” selected, the receipt sale is credited to the waiter on the linked order. Counter sales without a waiter stay with the cashier. If the operator was changed using a PIN, the receipt operator is used rather than simply whoever originally signed in at the register.

Individual lines can have their own people assigned: a product with a seller goes to that seller, and a service goes to its provider. The location setting therefore does not necessarily give every line of a receipt to one person.

If commission went to the wrong employee, check the order’s waiter, receipt operator and individual item assignments.

Check the commission base and amount#

Open “Payroll” → “Monthly payroll”, select the month and click “Start this month’s payroll”. Review the employee’s line before approval.

These are commission accrual examples before other pay components and deductions, not take-home amounts.

POS receipts and orders should not count the same sale twice in the base. A refund receipt reduces the base in the refund month; a refund next month does not automatically rewrite a previously approved payslip.

Payment checks depend on the source. For services settled through POS, paid lines are used, taking discounts and refunds into account. A completed service appointment without a POS order may be included at an estimated value; that does not confirm payment. For product orders without receipts, cancelled orders are excluded, but a separate payment-status check is not applied in every calculation path.

Add a bonus or deduction#

For a one-off bonus, first prepare the monthly payroll and open adjustments for the employee’s line.

1. Select “Bonus” in “Type”.
2. Enter a positive “Amount”, for example 1500.
3. Fill in “Comment (optional)”, for example “Bonus for meeting the 12 October shift target”.
4. Click “Add” and check the accrual in the employee’s line.

You can also award a bonus for guest feedback manually: the manager checks the reason and chooses the amount. Sales targets and reviews do not trigger an automatic accrual.

For a deduction, select the appropriate adjustment type and provide the requested basis. For a cash shortage, select the “Shortage” type and enter the document — a report or an explanatory note; the payslip breakdown may show “Cash shortage”. A register discrepancy does not itself mean that a “fine” has already been deducted from pay.

If “Add” does not work, check the type, positive amount and required basis or document fields. An approved payroll requires the correction procedure first; its amounts cannot be edited directly.

Repeat every month#

Task: deduct ₽300 for a uniform or add a meal allowance every month without re-entering the line.

1. Add the line as usual: type “Bonus”, “Deduction at employee’s request”, “Other earning” or “Other deduction”, amount, basis.
2. Tick “Repeat every month”.
3. If the repeat should stop at a certain month, set “Last month (optional)”; leave it empty for no end date.
4. Click “Add”.

Result: the line gets the “🔁 every month” label. It is added by itself to every following month’s draft with the same amount and basis.

• Not needed in a particular month — remove it with the cross in that month: the rule stays, and the line comes back next month.
• Want to stop — click “Stop repeating” on the line: it stays in this month and will not appear in later months.
• Delete the original line in the month where the repeat was set up — the repeat is cancelled completely.
• A new amount in any month becomes the rule’s amount for later drafts.

Approved months are never touched: the line appears only in drafts. Vacation pay, benefits, advances, shortages and Russian types with limits cannot repeat — their amounts are calculated anew each month.

Set rates by position#

Task: a new waiter without a rate should be paid ₽300/h at location A.

1. Open “Staff” → “Payroll” → “Settings”, block “Rates by position”.
2. Click “+ Add row”, choose the “Position”, the “Location” (or “All locations”) and enter the “Rate per hour”.
3. Click “Save”.

Result: for an employee without a rate of their own, hours are paid at their position’s rate for the location where they worked. If they worked at two locations, each location’s hours are paid at its own rate. The payroll line shows the “position rate” label.

The employee’s own rate always wins: the rate in the card, the employment terms and the history of term changes are never overridden. The table only helps people whose rate is not set. An “All locations” row applies where a location has no row of its own. Salary and piecework pay are not changed by the table.

Rates apply from the next payroll draft. Labor cost in the schedule and on the “Labor cost” screen uses them right after saving.

Custom premiums: holiday, weekday, hours of the day#

Task: on December 31 a waiter should get +500 per shift as a separate line, without a manual bonus for everyone.

1. Open Staff → Payroll → Settings, block Custom premiums.
2. Click Add premium and fill in Name on the payslip, for example “New Year’s Eve”.
3. Under When, set Dates: 12-31 repeats every year, 2026-12-31 is a single date. Instead of dates, or together with them, you can choose Days of the week and Public holidays of the location’s country — the premium applies on any of the selected days (dates, weekdays and holidays combine with “or”). The Hours from … to window narrows the premium to those hours on matching days.
4. Under Who, tick positions and locations. Nothing selected — the premium applies to everyone.
5. Under How much, choose Fixed per shift, Per hour in the window or % of hourly rate per hour in the window, and enter the Amount.
6. Click Done, then save the payroll settings.

Result: in the month’s payroll draft, a waiter who worked on December 31 gets an accrual line “New Year’s Eve (1)” for 500. The amount is included in gross pay and taxes as wages.

• The hours window may cross midnight, for example 22:00–02:00, and belongs to the day it starts.
• Only closed shifts count: both clock-in and clock-out are recorded. Time is taken in the shift location’s time zone.
• The percentage is calculated from the hourly rate. A salaried employee does not get such a premium, and the payroll line shows a note.
• A rule with Valid from and Valid until works only on those dates. Untick Rule is on to switch it off temporarily without deleting it.
• After changing a rule, regenerate the month’s draft. A line removed from the draft is not brought back by recalculation.

⚖️ For a Russian employer the system already pays work on non-working public holidays and night hours under the Labour Code (arts. 153, 154). A custom percentage rule that falls on a non-working public holiday or 22:00–06:00 is accrued only with On top of statutory premiums ticked — otherwise the same hours would be paid twice. Without it there is no line, and the payroll line shows which premium was not accrued and why. Fixed amounts per shift and per hour are always accrued — they do not duplicate the law.

View your earnings#

The manager first reviews the month and clicks “Approve payroll”. The employee then signs in with their own login.

1. Open “My cabinet” → “My payslip”.
2. Choose the relevant period.
3. Review “What the earnings consist of”: hours, salary, “Sales commission: … × …%”, “Bonus” — where present in the calculation.
4. Check “Deductions and adjustments” and the “The employee will receive” total.
5. Download the payslip PDF to keep a copy of the breakdown.

Employees see only their own payslips. Drafts are hidden; approved payroll and payroll already marked as paid are available. A visible payslip does not in itself confirm that money has arrived in a bank account.

If there is no payslip, ask the manager to check the selected month and payroll approval. If commission looks wrong, provide the period and specific line so the manager can reconcile it with sales.

Tips and feedback#

Tips follow separate distribution rules: see Tips. Choosing “Tips” as the commission base does not replace those rules or automatically create a percentage of tips.

The manager can view “Reliability rating” on the “HR” tab. It uses lateness, missed shifts and unclosed shifts over the last 90 days. The “Reliable” badge means a score of at least 85; no shifts means no data.

Use the rating to discuss attendance and check shift records. It is not a sales ranking: it does not award a cash bonus or gifts and does not replace a review of guest service. If the score is unexpected, start with the shifts behind it.

Limitations#

• There is no automatic commission restricted to checks above a specified amount.
• There is no automatic bonus for meeting a sales target or a manager’s percentage of total location revenue. Enter these amounts manually as bonuses.
• A commission rate has no effective-date range of its own; it does not switch automatically by date.
• “Tips”, “Delivery fees” and “No base” do not produce the main sales commission. The additional product-sales percentage is calculated separately.
• For orders without receipts and estimated services, there is no universal “only after payment” guarantee.
• A payslip is the result of monthly payroll, not a live earnings counter for the current shift.
• Russian taxes and deductions on cenaly.ru require Russian payroll setup; a commission setting does not replace it.

Troubleshooting#

Frequently asked questions#

Can I pay a salary and commission together?#

Yes. Select “Hourly + salary”, enter the salary and commission fields; leave the hourly rate at zero if you do not need it. Check both components in payroll.

Can I award a bonus for a good review?#

Yes, manually using a “Bonus” adjustment. Reviews are not automatically linked to bonuses.

Why did a refund reduce this month’s commission?#

Refund receipts are included in the refund period, even if the original sale was earlier.

Will a table rate override the rate in the contract?#

No. The table is only a default for employees without a rate of their own. The rate in the card and the employment terms always win.

Can employees correct their own payslips?#

No. They view their own approved calculation and download the PDF; a manager with the appropriate access makes corrections.

Related sections#

• Staff — records, shifts and the overall payroll process.
• Staff permissions — manager and employee access.
• Tips — a separate reward stream.
• Corporate accounts — ways to arrange staff meals.
• Russian payroll: getting started — setup on cenaly.ru.
• Russian payroll reporting — the related Russian reporting workflow.
• Timesheets — closed shifts and hours behind the hourly part.
• Shift schedule — planned employee shifts.
• Reports — sales by period to check the commission base.