--- title: "Track Time & Process Payroll" slug: "track-time-process-payroll" updated: 2026-05-11T17:34:59Z published: 2026-05-11T17:34:59Z --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.servicetitan.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Track Time & Process Payroll
SERVICETITAN · PAYROLL
Track Time & Process Payroll

Accurately track every hour worked, calculate commissions and overtime, and export clean payroll data to your provider.

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Track Time
Clock in and out (field and office)
ServiceTitan supports two timekeeping systems — Legacy Timekeeping and Flexible Timekeeping. They are mutually exclusive, and their setup, troubleshooting, and features differ. Confirm which one your company uses at Settings > People > Payroll.
Field Mobile App workflow

a. Open the Field Mobile App. Tap Time or go to your timesheet from the Menu.

b. If your company uses legacy timekeeping, tap Clock In at the start of your shift and Clock Out when finished. Use Start Break and End Break to log break time accurately.

c. If your company uses flexible timekeeping, your time is tracked in one of three ways: manually, automatically, or continuously. Confirm with your office how you should track your time.

ServiceTitan Mobile (Legacy) workflow

a. Open ServiceTitan Mobile.

b. If your company uses legacy timekeeping, tap your profile icon then select Clock In at the start of your shift and Clock Out when finished. Use Start Meal Break and End Meal Break to log break time accurately.

c. If your company tracks time automatically, tapping Dispatch, Arrive, and Close Out actions creates and ends timesheets.

Office workflow

a. If your company uses legacy timekeeping, click your Profile icon in the top toolbar and select Time Clock, then click Clock In. Click Clock Out at the end of your shift. To track a meal break or other non-job event (such as a meeting or training), open the Time Clock and click Start for the event; click End when it's done.

b. If your company uses flexible timekeeping, click your Profile icon and select Time Clock. Locate the activity you want to clock into and click Clock In. To move from one activity to another without clocking out first, click Switch Activity. At the end of your shift, click Clock Out.

⚠︎ Office Timesheets requires account configuration. Contact Technical Support to enable this feature. Employees also need the "View employee time tracking and edit page" permission enabled.

Edit a timesheet entry

⚠︎ All timesheet edits must happen in ServiceTitan before exporting to your payroll provider. If you edit hours in an external system but not in ServiceTitan, job costing reports will show incorrect profitability. ServiceTitan must be the single source of truth for time.

a. To edit job timesheets, open the job record. In the Timesheets section, click View Timesheets to edit hours associated with that job.

b. To edit non-job timesheets: Go to Dispatch, click the technician whose timesheet you want to edit and select Edit Timesheets. Use the date range and employee or technician filters to find the entry.

c. To edit office timesheets, click your Profile icon, and click Payroll to open the Payroll Dashboard.

d. Update the clock-in time, clock-out time, or activity code as needed. Add a note explaining the reason for the change, then click Save.

Set up and manage timesheet codes (Legacy) or timesheet activities (Flexible)
Legacy Timekeeping workflow

a. Go to Settings > People > Payroll. In the Timesheet Codes section, click Edit. On the Non-job Event Codes screen, click Add a Non-job Event Code.

b. Enter the code to identify the event, an optional description, and select who it applies to: Technicians or Office Employees. Set the Type: Unpaid, Paid, or Paid Time Off. For Paid types, choose whether to pay the profile hourly rate or a custom hourly rate.

c. Select how you want technicians to view and use the timesheet code, and whether to exclude from reports if the technician fails to clock in.

d. Click Save. Repeat for each non-job event type your team uses — for example, Drive Time, Training, Parts Run, PTO, On Call.

Flexible Timekeeping workflow

a. Go to Settings > People > Payroll. Click Edit next to Timesheet Activities, then click Create Timesheet Activity.

b. In General Settings, select a Timesheet Category, enter a Timesheet Activity Code, choose an icon, add an optional description, and set the Business Unit behavior for reporting.

c. In Visibility, select the roles that can log time against this activity. In Associations, configure whether Job, Project, Project Label, Labor Type, and Budget Code associations are required, allowed, or not allowed.

d. In Pay, select whether the activity pays the base rate, is unpaid, or uses a custom pay rule with earnings codes. Click Save Timesheet Activity.

Process Payroll
Review and approve payroll

a. Go to the top toolbar, click your Profile icon, and click Payroll to open the Payroll Dashboard. Select the pay period you want to review.

b. Review each employee's hours, overtime, commissions, and adjustments. Flag any discrepancies for correction before approval.

c. Select the employees you want to release and click Send to Employee to release the pay period for employee sign-off.

d. After employees review and approve (technicians approve in the mobile app, office employees in Time Clock), managers click Approve by Manager to finalize.

Calculate technician commissions
ServiceTitan automatically calculates commissions based on rules you configure. Which workflow applies depends on which engine you're using — Performance Pay or Configurable Payroll.
Performance Pay workflow

a. Commission is driven by the Sold By technician on the invoice, the Pays Commission flag on each invoice item, and per-technician percentages set in Settings > Payroll.

b. For multi-technician jobs, set Technician Splits on the invoice. Splits drive the Performance Bonus only — they do not override the Sold By sales commission.

Configurable Payroll workflow

a. Pay rules live in Pay Profiles under Settings > Payroll > Configurable Payroll. Each rule applies a take (percentage or amount) against a defined revenue base, optionally filtered by job filters and weighted by multipliers.

b. Run the Master Pay File report to review calculated commissions for each technician for the pay period. Go to Reports and search for the Master Pay File.

c. Adjust individual commission amounts if needed by creating a Payroll Adjustment, add a note for the override, then click Save.

⚠︎ Commissions only populate in payroll reports when the invoice is Posted or Exported. If a technician's pay looks short, check the invoice status first.

Configure overtime rules

a. Go to Settings > People > Technicians or Settings > People > Employees for office employees. Click Edit for the technician or employee, then click the Payroll tab.

b. In the Overtime dropdown, select the overtime profile that applies. ServiceTitan provides several default overtime profiles you can use.

c. Click Save Changes. Overtime is recalculated automatically on every timesheet save based on the assigned profile.

d. If your state has specific overtime laws, create custom overtime profiles that you can assign to your hourly employees.

⚠︎ You can bulk-update employee payroll settings, including overtime profiles, by going to Settings > People > Payroll > Employee Payroll Settings.

Set up earnings codes and map to your payroll provider

a. Go to Settings > People > Payroll. In the Earnings Codes section, create codes that match your payroll provider's earnings codes — for example, Regular, Overtime, Commission, Bonus.

b. Assign earnings codes to your pay types so that when you export, ServiceTitan pay activities map directly to your provider's codes.

c. For GL mapping, go to Settings > Accounting > Payroll GL Mapping. Map each payroll activity type to the appropriate general ledger account so payroll journal entries post correctly.

⚠︎ Burdened labor cost (used in Job Costing) and actual payroll cost (the check) are two different numbers. Job Costing uses the Labor Burden Rate configured in technician payroll profiles — it's a managerial estimate. Payroll is the cash reality. These will almost never match to the penny. This is expected.

Export payroll data to your payroll provider

⚠︎ Always review and approve the pay period before exporting. Exporting unapproved payroll may result in incorrect payments.

a. Go to Reports and search for the Master Pay File report. Run it for the approved pay period.

b. The Master Pay File includes all paid activities: hourly pay, performance pay, and payroll adjustments. The Activity column shows the type of pay earned.

c. Export the report to CSV or Excel. Upload the file to your payroll provider and verify totals match before processing.

⚠︎ After exporting and reconciling payroll, close the Accounting Period to prevent backdated edits. Go to Accounting > Financials > Accounting Periods. Closing an accounting period is effectively irreversible — it blocks users from adding, editing, or voiding transactions in that closed month.

Troubleshoot Payroll Issues
Troubleshoot: Overlapping timesheet entries

a. From the Payroll Dashboard, look for entries flagged with an overlap warning. Overlaps occur when an employee has two time entries with the same time window.

b. Edit or delete the incorrect entry so the times no longer overlap. Add a note explaining the correction for audit purposes.

Troubleshoot: Commissions not calculating

a. Verify the technician's Pay Type is set to Both or Performance Pay in their profile by navigating to Settings > People > Technicians > Edit > Payroll tab.

b. If using Configurable Payroll, confirm the technician is assigned to the correct pay profile. Use the Test Profile feature to validate calculations.

c. Verify the invoice in question is Posted or Exported — commissions calculate only on posted job invoices, not open, pending, or non-job invoices.

d. Verify that the relevant Pricebook items have Pays Commission selected.

e. Confirm the pay period dates include the job completion date. Configurable Payroll applies rules to current and future periods — it does not retroactively apply to historical data.

Measure the impact
Accuracy
Timesheet accuracy rate
Run timesheet exception reports to identify patterns. Frequent manual edits may signal clock-in/out training gaps or mobile app issues.
Reports > All Reports > "Early Clock In" · "Late Clock Out" · "Overtime Alert" ↗
Efficiency
Payroll processing time
Track how long it takes to review and approve each pay period. Use Payroll Sign-off to streamline the approval chain — managers can batch-approve rather than reviewing each technician individually.
Labor Cost
Overtime percentage
Monitor overtime hours as a percentage of total hours. Rising overtime may indicate capacity or scheduling issues. Use the Timesheets report to break down regular vs. overtime vs. double overtime intervals.
Reports > All Reports > "Timesheets" ↗
Revenue
Commission-to-revenue ratio
Compare commission payouts to total revenue generated using the Master Pay File and Technician Performance reports. A healthy ratio ensures your incentive structure drives profitability.
Reports > All Reports > "Master Pay File" · "Technician Performance" ↗