MotionOps keeps a full history of every pay rate change you make. You can see what someone is paid now, what they were paid before, what's scheduled to start later, and who changed it and why.

Because the history is dated, each job is costed using the rate that was in effect when the work happened - not whatever the rate is today.

Available in the Web App.

A pay rate isn't a single value - it's a rule with a date range. Each rule has an effective start, an optional end, and one of three states:

You'll see these as a timeline on the team member's base pay, so past, present, and future rates are visible together.

Separately, an audit trail records every change: who made it, when, what the values were before and after, and the reason they gave. Audit entries can't be edited or deleted - they're append-only, which is what makes them useful in a pay dispute.

Because rules carry dates, you can set a change up in advance. Enter the new rate with an effective date in the future and it sits as Scheduled until that date arrives, then becomes current on its own.

That's the clean way to handle an annual review - set it when you agree it, not on the day it starts.

Cancelling a scheduled rule is also recorded in the audit trail, so a raise that was set up and then withdrawn leaves a trace.

If the dates on a new rule collide with a rule that already exists, MotionOps shows you a confirmation window before saving anything.

The window shows you three things:

On confirming, the existing rule is trimmed to make room for the new one. Both the trim and the new rule are recorded as separate audit entries, so the history shows exactly what happened rather than just the end result.

This window appears whether the new rule starts inside an existing one, starts on the same date as one, splits one in the middle, or covers one entirely. When there's no conflict you'll still be asked to confirm and give a reason.

Open a team member and look at their pay rate history to see every rate they've had.

Each entry shows:

Entries are listed newest first.

The audit trail is the more granular view - every individual change with its before and after values. Use the history to answer "what was this person paid in March", and the audit trail to answer "who changed this and when".

The fully loaded rate is the base rate plus overhead - what a person actually costs you per hour rather than what lands in their pay.

This value is calculated and stored when the rate is set, not recalculated later. So a job costed last year keeps the fully loaded figure that applied then, even if your overhead assumptions have since changed.

A team member's rate can be overridden for one specific job, without touching their standing rate.

You'll be asked to confirm the override, and the change is recorded. Job-level compensation is captured as a snapshot, so the job keeps the rate that applied to it.

One override worth understanding is no compensation. Setting it means that person's cost is excluded from the job's cost totals and from the Job Costing report - useful for an owner working their own job, or a salaried person whose time you don't want loaded onto individual work.

Reverting the override restores their normal rate and recalculates their cost from the hours logged.

Compensation is calculated from logged hours, and which hours count depends on your business settings.

If labor costs look lower than the raw hours suggest, these settings are the first place to check. See How to Set Up Your Company Profile and Settings.

I can't see pay rate history.
It's restricted to roles with permission to create or edit user compensation. Ask an admin to review your role.

An old job's cost changed after I updated someone's rate.
Check the effective date on the new rule. If it was backdated to before that job, the job is recosted at the new rate. Set effective dates forward to leave completed work alone.

A confirmation window appeared that I didn't expect.
The new rate's dates overlap an existing rule. The window shows which rule will be trimmed. Read it before confirming - it's telling you the change is bigger than it looks.

Someone's labor cost is lower than their logged hours suggest.
Check whether your business pays for break and drive time. Unpaid categories don't count toward compensation.

A team member's cost is missing from a job entirely.
Their compensation may be overridden to no compensation on that job, which excludes them from the totals. It's also worth checking whether they were removed from the job - see Unassign vs. Remove a Team Member from a Job.

A scheduled raise didn't take effect.
Check the pay rate history for that person. If the rule shows as cancelled, the audit trail will show who cancelled it and when.

Have questions? Reach out via the support chat or email support@motionops.com.