Tutor pay goes wrong in the gap between the timetable and what actually happened. A cancelled class, a cover tutor or a bigger group all change what someone is owed.
Paying from the classes that ran closes that gap. This guide covers where timesheets should come from, how to set pay rules, and how to check a pay run.
Start from classes that ran
Build timesheets from the sessions that took place, not from the timetable.
- Cancelled classes come off.
- The tutor who covered a class gets the hours, not the tutor on the timetable.
- A class that ran long or short is paid as it ran, if that is your rule.
The marked roll is the best record of what ran. That is one more reason to catch unmarked rolls early.
Write the pay rules down
Decide how pay is set: by tutor role, by group size, or both. Note any hourly rate for casual work, such as a meeting or a marking session.
Written rules settle questions before they start. They also make pay come out the same, whoever runs it.
Fix the pay cycle
Choose a pay period, weekly or fortnightly for example, and a start date, and keep it. Tutors plan around pay day.
Close each period on the same day, with a cut-off for corrections. Anything found after the cut-off goes into the next pay, with a note.
Review before approving
Before you approve timesheets, check:
- Hours match the roll.
- Extra work is added with a reason.
- Each class has a pay rule. A class with no rule needs a decision, not a guess.
- Late corrections land before approval, not after.
Use a second approver
For a large pay run, have a second person approve it. The person who prepared the run should not be the one who approves it.
This is less about trust than about catching mistakes. A fresh pair of eyes sees the missing class.
Common mistakes
- Paying from the timetable. It pays for classes that never ran.
- Timesheets from memory. Tutors filling in a month at once will miss sessions.
- Edits with no reason. Months later nobody knows why an amount changed.
- Typing pay twice. Retyping it into accounting software invites errors.
Tutor pay in Atrium
- Timesheets build from the classes that ran. Cancelled classes stay off.
- Set pay rules by tutor role and class size.
- Add extra hours by hand, and Atrium prices them from your rules. Each edit keeps its reason.
- A class with no rule is listed with the reason.
- Each centre bundles its approved timesheets into a pay run. Once a run reaches its limit, a second person has to approve it, and whoever started the run cannot.
- Pay runs export to supported accounting software when you are ready.