Staff Compensation & Payroll
Learn how to set pay rates for your team, understand how earnings are calculated, and export payroll reports.
Written By Lucas Stefanski
Last updated About 15 hours ago
Overview
Scritches lets you track what you owe each team member based on the bookings they complete. You set compensation rates, and Scritches calculates earnings automatically in pay reports.
‼️ Important: Compensation tracking is for reporting only. Scritches does not process payments to your staff — you handle that through your own payroll system (e.g., Gusto, QuickBooks, or direct deposit).
Only the business owner can configure compensation rates and view payroll reports.
Setting Up Compensation Rates
Go to Staff → Compensation and select a team member from the sidebar.
There are three types of compensation to configure:
Service Rates
Set a rate for each service variant your team member performs. For example, if you offer a "30-Minute Dog Walk" and an "Overnight Pet Sitting", each gets its own rate.
Two rate types are available:
Fixed amount — the staff member earns a set dollar amount per visit, day, or night. Example: $25 per dog walk, regardless of what you charge the client.
Percentage — the staff member earns a percentage of the service price charged to the client. Example: 60% of a $50 service = $30.
If you don't set a rate for a service, that staff member's earnings for those bookings will show as $0 and the service will be flagged as "missing" in pay reports so you know to configure it.
Extra Pet Rates
Set compensation for extra pet surcharges on a per-service basis. When a booking includes additional pets beyond the base rate, this determines what your staff member earns for the extra work.
Same fixed or percentage options apply.
Weekend & Holiday Surcharge Rates
Set separate compensation rates for weekend and holiday surcharges. These work the same way — a fixed amount or a percentage of the surcharge amount charged to the client.
Example: If a client pays a $10 weekend surcharge and you set your sitter's weekend rate to 100%, they earn the full $10. If you set it to a flat $5, they earn $5 regardless of the surcharge amount.
<!-- 📸 SCREENSHOT: The Compensation page showing a staff member selected in the sidebar, with service variant rates configured (a mix of fixed and percentage), and at least one "missing" unconfigured rate visible. -->
Copying Rates Between Staff
If multiple team members earn the same rates, use Copy Rates to duplicate one person's entire compensation setup to another. This copies all service rates, extra pet rates, and surcharge rates at once.
You can copy rates when adding a new staff member (toggle "Copy compensation rates" during creation) or from the compensation page.
Understanding Pay Reports
Go to Staff → Pay Reports to see how much each team member earned over a given period.
Choosing a Pay Period
Select a predefined period — weekly, biweekly, or monthly — or set a custom date range. The report calculates earnings for all bookings that fall within that range.
The Summary View
At the top of the report, you'll see:
Total earnings across all staff
Total bookings in the period
Staff count — how many team members had earnings
Below, each staff member gets a card showing their total earnings and booking count.
Line-by-Line Breakdown
Expand any staff member's card to see every booking that contributed to their earnings:
<!-- 📸 SCREENSHOT: The Pay Reports page showing the summary section at top and one staff member's card expanded to show the line-by-line breakdown table with a few real-looking entries. -->
Sorting & Filtering
Sort by: highest earnings, lowest earnings, name, or most bookings
Filter: select specific staff members to focus on
Include owner: toggle to include or exclude the business owner's earnings
Projected Earnings
Bookings that haven't happened yet but are scheduled within the pay period are included and marked as projected. This helps you estimate upcoming payroll before the period ends.
Missing Compensation Warnings
If a staff member is assigned to a booking but doesn't have a compensation rate configured for that service, the line item shows $0 and is flagged. The staff member's card also shows a warning indicator so you can quickly spot gaps in your rate setup.
How Earnings Are Calculated
Earnings are calculated on-the-fly every time you view a pay report. No earnings data is stored — the report is always computed from your current compensation rates and booking assignments.
‼️ This means if you change a compensation rate, all non-exported pay reports will immediately reflect the new rate — including for past bookings. Only payroll exports are locked snapshots. If you need to preserve a period's earnings before changing rates, export it first.
Per-Visit Bookings (Dog Walks, Drop-Ins)
For standard visits, the calculation is straightforward:
Fixed rate: Staff earns the fixed amount per visit
Percentage rate: Staff earns that percentage of the booking's service cost
Each surcharge and extra pet fee is calculated separately using its own rate, then everything is added together.
Example: Jake does a Saturday dog walk for a client with 2 dogs.
Overnight & Multi-Day Bookings (Pet Sitting)
Overnight bookings work differently because they span multiple days or nights, and staff members can cover different portions of the stay.
Coverage fraction is the key concept. When a staff member is assigned to an overnight booking, their earnings are proportional to how much of the stay they cover:
Staff earnings = compensation rate × (booking cost × coverage fraction)Coverage fraction = nights (or days) assigned ÷ total nights (or days) in the booking.
Example: A 5-night pet sitting stay costs $250. Jake covers nights 1–2, Emily covers nights 3–5. Both earn 80% of their share.
Surcharges on overnight bookings (weekend, holiday, extra pet) are also pro-rated by the same coverage fraction. If the booking has a $20 weekend surcharge and Jake covers 2 of 4 nights, his weekend earnings are calculated on $20 × 2/4 = $10.
Per-night vs. per-day counting:
Per-night services (e.g., pet sitting): Nights are counted as check-in to check-out. A stay from Monday to Wednesday = 2 nights.
Per-day services (e.g., daycare): Days are counted inclusively. Monday to Wednesday = 3 days.
Bookings That Span Pay Periods
When an overnight booking starts in one pay period and ends in another, Scritches automatically clips the earnings to the report's date range. Only the nights (or days) that fall within your selected period are counted.
Example: A 4-night stay runs Jan 30 – Feb 3. Your February pay report only includes the 2 nights from Feb 1–3.
Which Bookings Count
Pending and confirmed bookings are included because the work may have already been done (or is scheduled). Future bookings within the date range appear as projected earnings.
How Tips Are Split
When a client tips on a paid invoice, the tip is automatically split across all staff members assigned to bookings on that invoice. Each person's share is proportional to their service revenue contribution.
Example: An invoice totals $100 in services with a $20 tip. Emma's assigned bookings account for $60 of the service revenue, Jake's account for $40.
Tip earnings only appear for invoices with a status of Paid or Partially Paid.
Exporting Payroll
When you're ready to run payroll, click Export on the pay reports page to generate a CSV file.
What's in the Export
The export downloads as a ZIP file containing a CSV with each staff member's earnings broken down by booking — the same data you see in the pay report.
Exports Are Snapshots
This is important: Each export is saved as a permanent snapshot of that moment's earnings data. Even if you change compensation rates later, past exports remain unchanged. This gives you a reliable record for bookkeeping.
Managing Past Exports
From the Export History section on the pay reports page, you can:
View past exports with their date range, staff count, and total earnings
Re-download any previous export
Delete exports you no longer need
Staff Viewing Their Own Pay
Staff members with app access can view their own earnings from their My Pay dashboard. They see the same line-by-line breakdown — service earnings, surcharges, tips, and totals — but only for their own bookings. They cannot see other team members' earnings.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Scritches pay my staff for me? No. Compensation tracking is for reporting only. Use the CSV export to feed into your payroll system (Gusto, QuickBooks, etc.).
What happens if I change a compensation rate? All non-exported pay reports immediately reflect the new rate, including for past bookings. If you need to preserve the old numbers, export the report first — exports are permanent snapshots that don't change.
What if I haven't set a rate for a service? The staff member's earnings for that service show as $0, and the line item is flagged as "missing compensation" in the report. Set up the rate from Staff → Compensation.
Can I see projected earnings for upcoming bookings? Yes. Confirmed and pending bookings within your selected date range appear in the report, marked as "projected." This helps estimate upcoming payroll.
Are cancelled bookings included in earnings? No. Only completed, confirmed, and pending bookings generate earnings. Cancelled and declined bookings are excluded.
How are overnight earnings split when two sitters share a stay? Each sitter's earnings are proportional to the nights (or days) they cover. If a 5-night stay costs $250 and one sitter covers 2 nights, their base for calculation is $250 × 2/5 = $100. Their compensation rate is then applied to that amount.
How are tips split when multiple staff are on one invoice? Tips are split proportionally based on each staff member's service revenue contribution to the invoice total.
Need help with something else? Check out our other guides: