Process Bonus Checks

Year-end is a common time for employers to give bonuses. Since bonus pay is treated as taxable income, bonus checks should be processed in the Payroll application. Most churches prefer to write a separate bonus check rather than increasing the employee's regular paycheck.

If you want to process the bonus checks through the same account number specified on Salary/Hourly (Regular Wages), proceed to the Run the Bonus Payroll Checks section.

Set Up the Compensation Information

1. From the Payroll menu, select Modify > Compensation Information.

2. Click the Search button.

3. Click the Edit icon next to the Bonus compensation.

4. Click the Add New Distribution icon-link.

5. Type a description in the Name field or keep the default set to "Bonus".

Note: The description entered here appears on the check stub or voucher.

6. Click the Edit icon next to the Regular Pay pay type.

7. Enter the Fund, Department, and Account number for the Regular Pay, then click Update.

8. Repeat the process to assign the Social Security and Medicare accounts, then click OK when finished.

9. Click Update to save the compensation.

Run the Bonus Payroll Checks

1. From the Payroll menu, select Manage > Payroll Processing.

2. Select the All Employees option and click Search. If the Filters box does not appear, click the blue Filters bar to expand it.

3. Click the Edit icon next to an employee name.

4. Delete all Compensations, Deductions, and Non-Cash compensations.

Note: Deleting information on the Payroll Processing page only changes the information for this payroll run, not the information stored on the employee's record.

5. Click the Add New Compensation icon-link.

6. Select the Bonus Compensation and the Bonus Distribution from the drop-down lists. This is the distribution you set up earlier in this article.

Note: If you did not set up a Bonus pay compensation, you can use a "Salary/Hourly (Regular Wages)" compensation.

7. Set the # Pay/Year, Pay Type, and Classification fields to "1 for Bonus Pay", "Regular", and "Salaried". Enter the gross pay in the Pay Rate field and click Update when finished.

8. Review the bonus check information and click Update to save your changes.

9. The bonus check appears on the Payroll Processing page. Review the Compensation, Taxes, and Net amounts. Enter additional employee bonus checks as appropriate. When finished, click Process Payroll and process the checks as you normally would.

Updated May 15, 2026 17:45