Managing driver payroll doesn't have to be complicated, and with AscendTMS, it isn't!

With just a little upfront configuration, you'll be ready to calculate and manage your drivers' pay, schedule recurring payments and deductions, and simplify your payroll process moving forward.

In this guide, we'll walk you through everything you need to get started with Driver Pay Management, including:

Once everything is configured, you'll be ready to start processing driver payroll in AscendTMS.

First things first! Before you can start managing driver payroll, you'll need to tell AscendTMS how often you pay your drivers.

From the Settings menu, select Edit Driver Pay Settings.

Next, configure your payroll schedule by selecting:

As you make your selections, AscendTMS will automatically display a preview of your upcoming payroll periods, allowing you to confirm everything lines up with your company's payroll schedule.

Once you've reviewed your payroll schedule and everything looks good, click the blue Save Pay Period Cadence Settings button.

That's it! Your payroll periods are configured, and you're ready to move on to setting up your drivers' pay items and deductions.

Now that your payroll periods are configured, let's set up how your drivers get paid for the loads they haul.

Load-Based Pay Items determine how much a driver earns for a particular load, whether that's based on loaded miles, deadhead, percentage of gross, weight, number of stops, or another available rate basis.

And here's the good part: AscendTMS can automatically add these pay items to loads when you assign a driver, saving you from entering the same information over and over!

Before you can configure your drivers' pay items, you'll need to make sure your drivers have been added to AscendTMS.

Haven't added your drivers yet? No worries! Check out our View Drivers Help Guide for step-by-step instructions on adding and managing your drivers, below.

Once your drivers are added, you can configure their pay items and deductions directly from Edit Driver Pay Settings, the View Drivers screen, or within an individual driver's profile. Whichever route you choose, your changes will be reflected throughout AscendTMS.

For this guide, we'll continue from Edit Driver Pay Settings. From within your Driver Pay Settings screen, click on the Load Pay/Deduction Items tab, then select Add New Pay Item to Driver(s) to get started.

Next, you'll configure how the pay item is calculated.

Rate Basis: Enter how the driver will be paid, such as Carrier Mileage, Percentage of Total Load Income, Weight, or Number of Stops, etc.
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Description: Give the pay item a recognizable name, such as Linehaul Rate.

Drivers: Select the driver(s) this Pay Item (or Deduction Item) will apply to.

Adjustment (Optional): Primarily used for additional stop-based pay.

For example: if your company pays drivers for extra stops beyond the standard one pickup and one delivery, enter -2 as the Adjustment. This tells AscendTMS to exclude the first two stops when calculating additional stop pay. So, if a load has four stops, your driver would receive additional stop pay for only two of them.

You can also get more specific! If you only pay for additional pickups or deliveries, select the appropriate Rate Basis and apply an Adjustment. For example, entering -2 for pickups would exclude the first two pickup stops, meaning your driver would only receive additional stop pay starting with pickup #3.

Rate: Enter the amount to be paid based on the selected rate basis.

Notes (Optional): Add any additional information you'd like associated with the pay item.

Using the examples / screenshots shown above: If you select Carrier Mileage (Unit: Miles) as your Rate Basis, enter Linehaul as the Description, and 0.72 as the Rate, your selected driver(s) will earn $0.72/mile on each load. The description Linehaul will also appear on their settlement sheets, making it easy to identify what they're being paid for.

Want to save yourself even more time? Of course you do! 😎

Select Auto-Add to Load to have AscendTMS automatically apply this pay item whenever the driver is assigned to a load.

Using our example above, AscendTMS will automatically calculate the driver's pay at $0.72 per carrier mile, based on the calculated mileage for that load.

No need to manually add the same pay item every time you dispatch your driver!

Once everything looks good, click the green Save Pay Item button.

Your new pay item will appear in the driver's list of configured load-based pay items.

Repeat these steps as needed to configure additional pay items for your drivers.

That's it! Your load-based pay items are configured, and if you've enabled Auto-Add to Load, AscendTMS will handle assigning them to loads for you.

Setting up Load-Based Deduction Items follows the exact same process we just covered for Load-Based Pay Items. In fact, both are configured from the same Load Pay/Deduction Items tab!

While most options in the Rate Basis dropdown are designed for calculating driver pay, two options offer additional flexibility for load-specific deductions:

These two options can accommodate a variety of load-specific deductions without being tied to a predefined pay category.

Simply click Add New Pay Item to Driver(s), select the appropriate Rate Basis, and configure your deduction using the same steps outlined above.

Not every dollar your drivers earn is tied to a load! That's where Scheduled Pay Items come in handy.

Whether you're paying a driver a weekly salary, a recurring bonus, or another form of compensation, AscendTMS lets you schedule these payments so you don't have to manually add them every payroll period.

From Edit Driver Pay Settings, select the Scheduled Pay Items tab.

Click + Add New Scheduled Pay Item to get started.

Next, enter the details of your scheduled payment:

Description: Give the payment a recognizable name, such as Weekly Salary.

Amount to Pay Each Period: Enter the amount your driver should receive each payroll period.

Starting Date: Select when the scheduled payment should begin. This determines the first payroll period in which the payment can be applied.

Should we apply this pay item to all of your drivers? Choose whether the payment should apply to all drivers or only specific drivers.

Putting it all together: Let's say your company pays certain drivers a fixed weekly salary of $1,400. Simply enter Weekly Salary as the Description, 1,400 as the Amount, select the appropriate Starting Date, and choose which drivers should receive this payment.

Once everything looks good, click the blue Save Pay Item button.

Your new scheduled payment will appear in the driver's list of Scheduled Pay Items.

That's it! Your scheduled pay item is configured and ready to be included in your driver's payroll.

Just as AscendTMS lets you schedule payments to your drivers, you can also configure Scheduled Deductions for expenses or amounts that need to be deducted from their payroll.

Whether you're recovering a driver advance or managing an ongoing payroll deduction, AscendTMS makes it easy to set these up and manage them alongside your drivers' pay.

There are two types of Scheduled Deductions:

From Edit Driver Pay Settings, select the Scheduled Deduction Items tab.

Click + Add New Scheduled Deduction to get started.
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Next, select the type of deduction you'd like to configure.

Use this option when you need to recover a specific amount over time.

For example, let's say a driver received a $1,000 advance, and you've agreed to deduct $100 per payroll period.

You would configure:

With this configuration, $100 can be deducted each payroll period until the $1,000 balance reaches $0.

Use this option for deductions that repeat each payroll period without a predefined balance.

For example, if you need to deduct $100 per payroll period for Trailer Rental, enter the amount and select the Starting Date.

You can also specify a Number of Payments if you want the deduction to stop after a certain number of payroll periods.

If you leave Number of Payments field blank, the deduction will continue until it's removed or the driver is no longer active in AscendTMS.

Before saving, scroll to the bottom of the page to review the Deduction Schedule Preview by clicking Generate Deduction Schedule

This allows you to see how your deduction will be scheduled across upcoming payroll periods.

Once everything looks good, click the blue Save Deduction button.

Your new deduction will now appear in the driver's list of Scheduled Deductions.

You've officially configured your payroll schedule, set up your drivers' pay items, and scheduled their deductions. Look at you, payroll pro! 😎

There's just one more thing to take care of before we wrap things up: deciding who on your team gets access to what.

Let's get those Driver Pay Permissions squared away!

Not everyone on your team needs access to driver payroll, and that's perfectly fine!

AscendTMS lets you control which users can access and manage different areas of Driver Pay Management, giving you the flexibility to decide who can approve pay items, process payments, manage payroll periods, and more.

Navigate to Settings. Within the User and Branch / Department Management section, click on Add or Edit Permission Groups.

Scroll down to the Accounting section, where you'll find the permissions associated with Driver Pay Management.

These permissions are identified by DPM at the beginning of their names.

Simply check the permissions you'd like to grant to the selected Permission Group.

Want to remove access? Just uncheck the applicable permission.

Your changes are saved automatically, so there's no need to click a separate Save button.

And that's it! Your users will now have access to the Driver Pay Management functions you've authorized for their Permission Group.

You've officially mastered your payroll schedule, configured your drivers' pay items and deductions, and decided who gets access to what. Look at you, payroll pro! 😎

Now that the setup is behind you, it's time to put everything into action!

Head over to our How to Use Driver Pay Management Help Guide, where we'll walk you through approving pay items, processing driver payroll, and sending settlement sheets to your drivers.

Let's get those drivers paid! 🚛💰