When employees are on leave, Workspace and Pay admins will receive an email notification every pay period that their pay file is ready for download in the Documents tab of their dashboard. As Sequoia One doesn't possess access to your employer dashboard, Cocoon's payroll specialist will securely transmit the necessary payroll files directly to Sequoia for processing. Subsequently, Sequoia will use the information from Cocoon's payroll file to update Prism.
Although your Sequoia One Payroll Specialist will incorporate Cocoon’s pay files into the payroll run that is provided to you for that period, below is an explanation of how the pay file works so you can familiarize yourself with Cocoon's pay method.
When you open Cocoon’s pay file, you’ll see some columns in yellow and some in blue. The columns in yellow give a high level overview of what makes up an employee’s leave pay amount for that pay period, and the other columns in blue provide further information about the employee and specific payroll calculations. The blue columns are for reference, and you’ll just need to focus on the yellow columns to make sure your employees are paid correctly. Here’s what you need to know about the most important columns in the pay file:
Employee ID column
The ‘Employee ID’ is your employee’s unique payroll identification number. This ensures that the correct pay amounts are given to the right employee. In order for Cocoon to include a payroll ID in your pay file, you must include the employee ID in the census file you provide to Cocoon.
Pay Code column
The ‘Pay Code’ is a label to identify the correct type of earning an employee is receiving. Cocoon will show ‘LEAVEPAY’ for any employer pay during their leave.
Amount column
The ‘Amount’ column shows your company's total leave pay obligation to the employee, which is net of any estimated benefit deductions from other sources of pay (state disability, paid family leave programs, and/or private disability).
Hours column
The 'Hours' column reflects the regular working hours of an employee during a pay cycle. There are two primary scenarios when the regular pay may not be zero:
When an employee initiates their leave during an ongoing pay cycle.
When an employee returns to work in the middle of a pay cycle.
In both these situations, the regular pay will account for the hours worked before the leave started or after the employee returned.
Pay Period End Date column
The ‘Pay Period End Date’ column shows your company's pay period end date for the prepared pay file.
Now that you know what each column represents, let’s take a look at some example files:
Scenario: an employee goes on leave in the middle of a pay period and is not eligible for benefits.
For this scenario, Tim is preparing to take parental leave as a non-birthing parent. Let's consider a pay period running from 2/1/2023 to 2/15/2023. Tim worked for the first three days of this period, which were Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (2/1/2023 - 2/3/2023). Starting the following Monday, 2/6/2023, Tim began their leave. This means that for the remaining eight workdays of the pay period, Tim was officially on leave.
The ‘Hours’ column is where you can see how many hours Tim worked during the pay period and was not on leave.
The 'Amount' column reflects the total leave pay for Tim, calculated by multiplying his hourly rate by the number of hours he was on leave. This totals to $5,423.16.
As Tim does not have any additional paid leave benefits from other sources, this entire amount is the employer's responsibility to pay.
If Tim had other sources of paid leave benefits, the figure in the 'Amount' column would be adjusted to account for those benefits. Essentially, the amount due from the employer would be reduced by Cocoon's estimate for the benefits from these other sources for that pay period.
Lastly, the ‘Pay Period End Date’ column shows the last day of the semi-monthly pay period for this pay file.
In this example Tim is on a semi-monthly schedule. Cocoon's system assumes an 8-hour workday for each regular day worked, and any remaining hours in the pay period are prorated for leave pay. Therefore, Tim’s leave pay Amount’ is calculated as follows:
Total hours in semi-monthly period = 86.67 total pay period hours Total hours Tim earned regular pay in this pay period: 8 hours * 3 days = 24 regular pay hours Total hours attributable to leave pay: 86.67 total pay period hours - 24 regular pay hours = 62.67 leave pay hours
Tim’s annual salary = $180,000 Tim’s hourly rate = $180,000/2,080 work hours in a calendar year = $86.54 hourly rate
Therefore, Tim’s total leave pay = $86.54 hourly rate *62.67 leave pay hours = $5,423.16 employer leave pay |
Scenario: an employee is on leave for the entirety of a pay period and is eligible for benefits
In our next scenario, we'll examine Kylie's situation. Kylie is getting ready to take parental leave as a birthing parent. In this instance, Kylie will be on leave for the entirety of the pay period, and she is eligible for additional benefits.
The ‘Hours’ column therefore shows 0, as Kylie did not work during this pay period.
The ‘Amount’ column shows that based on Kylie’s hourly rate and the number of hours they were on leave, they should be paid $1,891.03 in leave pay. This amount is the calculated total leave pay net of Cocoon’s estimated benefit deduction for pay Kylie will receive from other sources.
Lastly, the ‘Pay Period End Date’ column shows the last day of the semi-monthly pay period for this pay file of 2/15/2023.
In this example, Kylie’s employer uses a semi-monthly pay schedule. Cocoon's system assumes an 8-hour workday for each regular day worked, and any remaining hours in the pay period are prorated for leave pay. Therefore, Kylie’s ‘Leave Pay’ is calculated as follows:
Total hours in semi-monthly period = 86.67 total pay period hours Total hours Kylie earned regular pay in this pay period: 8 hours * 0 days = 0 regular pay hours Total hours attributable to leave pay: 86.67 total pay period hours - 0 regular pay hours = 86.67 leave pay hours
Kylie’s annual salary = $80,980 Kylie’s hourly rate = $80,980/2,080 work hours in a calendar year = $38.93 hourly rate
Therefore, Kylie’s total leave pay = $38.93 hourly rate * 86.67 leave pay hours = $3,374.30 employer leave pay |
Since Kylie is eligible for benefits from her state disability and paid family leave program, as well as private disability, Cocoon has reduced Kylie’s employer leave by her estimated benefits received and therefore is showing a total leave pay for this pay period of $1,891.03
We’re excited to help your employees take leave and in order to ensure the best pay experience possible, we need your Payroll team’s help. Make sure you’re familiar with Cocoon’s payroll method and please review our additional pay resources.