The weekly pay run, built from the roll call
Crew payroll by day rate or piecework, half days included, with no re-keying in a spreadsheet.
Labor & payroll builds the crew's weekly pay run from the roll call the crew already kept. Each worker is paid by day rate (per day) or by piecework, with half days where they apply, and the labor cost ties back to each project's budget line items. Payroll is calculated per worker and per crew, and every week is kept in the project's weekly history.
| Worker | Trade | Days | Scheme | Pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JMJosé Martínez | Site foreman | 6 | Day rate | $3,180 |
| PRPedro Ruiz | Mason | 5.5 | Day rate | $2,145 |
| LGLuis Gómez | Journeyman | 6 | Piecework | $2,760 |
| MSMiguel Sández | Laborer | 6 | Day rate | $1,890 |
| FCFinishing crew | 3 people | — | Piecework | $8,400 |
What problem it solves
Today the pay run gets pieced together by hand on the weekend: paper sheets, text messages and a spreadsheet where someone re-keys who showed up, who was out, who worked a half day and who is on piecework. The totals are added up by hand, the mistakes get paid in cash, and when it is time to know how much labor cost each budget line item, that figure simply does not exist.
How it works
Start from the roll call
Every week begins with the crew roll call: who showed up, who was out, and who worked a half day or a full day.
Pick day rate or piecework
For each worker you set whether they are paid by day rate (per day) or by piecework (by output), and Matterial builds the pay run on that basis.
Tie the cost to the line item
Labor cost is assigned to the budget line items, so it weighs on cost control like any other input.
Close out the week
You get the pay run ready per worker and per crew, and it is saved in the project weekly history.
What's included
- Weekly pay run by day rate (per day) or piecework
- Half day and full day taken from the roll call
- Labor cost tied to your budget line items
- Payroll view per worker and per crew
- Weekly payroll history, project by project
- Built from attendance, with no separate sheet to re-key
Inside the weekly pay run
Day rate and piecework: two ways to pay that fit in one pay run
On site you almost never pay everyone the same way. The journeyman and the helper are paid a day rate — a set amount for each day worked — while the crew member laying floor, running a wall or finishing plaster is paid by piecework, based on the output they left behind: square feet plastered, square feet of slab, pieces set. The same crew mixes both bases in a single week, and that is exactly what makes building the pay run by hand so painful.
Labor & payroll stores, for each worker, whether they are paid by day rate or by piecework. On a day rate, the basis is the day: the pay run pulls how many full days and how many half days they worked from the roll call and prorates the amount without anyone adjusting figures by hand. On piecework, the basis is output: they are paid for the quantity of work completed at the price agreed with the piece worker.
When the week closes, the crew pay run adds both schemes into a single calculation, with no separate sheets to keep and no reconciling two lists that rarely match. The one paid by the day and the one paid by output show up in the same pay run, each on their own basis, and the total comes from a single place.
- Day rate: paid per day worked, with half day or full day taken from the roll call.
- Piecework: paid for the output completed, at the price agreed per unit of work.
- Each worker is flagged with their pay basis, and you can mix bases within the same crew.
- The weekly pay run adds day rate and piecework into one calculation, not two separate sheets.
Payroll starts from the roll call, not from re-keying on the weekend
The costliest mistake in the pay run is not in the final total, it is in the data entry: on the weekend someone copies the paper sheet and the text messages into a spreadsheet, and that is where the day that was not worked, the half day counted as a full day, or the name that got skipped slips in. Everything re-keyed by hand gets paid in cash, and once the money is out the door there is no fixing it.
Here the pay run does not start from a blank sheet: it starts from the roll call the crew already kept through the week. Who showed up, who was out, and who worked a half day or a full day is already recorded day by day, so building the pay run is closing out the week over that attendance, not entering it again. Attendance is the source; the pay run is its consequence.
That is why the half day stops being a manual adjustment. If the roll call flags a half day, the prorated day rate is calculated on its own; if it flags an absence, that day does not count. There is nothing to remember to deduct at the end of the week because the deduction is already built into what was recorded each day.
- The pay run closes over the week’s roll call, with no separate sheet to open.
- Half day and full day come flagged from the daily attendance.
- A half day is calculated as a prorated day rate, with no figures adjusted by hand.
- An absence never enters the pay run: the deduction is already in the day’s record.
Labor cost lands on the line item, not in a loose expense
In a project budget, labor is an input of the line item, just like material: plaster has its cost of mortar and its cost of whoever applies it; the foundation has its rebar, its concrete and its day labor. But when the pay run lives in a separate sheet, that labor cost becomes a lump payroll expense that no one knows which line item to charge it to, and cost control comes up short on exactly the half that varies the most.
Labor & payroll ties the cost of each pay run to the budget line items of the project. The foundation crew’s day labor weighs on the foundation line item; the plaster piecework weighs on the masonry line item. That way labor shows up in cost control alongside materials and purchases, and not as a payroll lump that gets paid every week with no sense of where it went.
That closes the gap between physical progress and financial progress. If a line item has already eaten through its labor budget but the work completed does not match what has been paid, it shows up in the line item cost, not at the month-end close. The pay run stops being just what gets paid on the weekend and becomes a cost figure for the project.
- The cost of each pay run is assigned to the project budget line items.
- Labor weighs on cost control as one more input, alongside materials and purchases.
- Day labor and piecework land on the line item they belong to, not in a lump payroll expense.
- You can see how much labor cost per line item, not just the total paid for the week.
Per worker, per crew, and with weekly history by project
The same pay run is needed at two levels. When it is time to pay, what matters is the detail per worker: how much each one is owed based on their days and their piecework. To control the project, what matters is the total per crew and per week: how much labor is costing on this front and how it compares to the weeks before.
Labor & payroll builds both views of the same calculation. Per worker you see the breakdown of what each one is paid; per crew you see the total for the front in the week. And every week is saved in the project history, so it is not lost when the next one starts and it does not live in a sheet someone filed away on their laptop.
That history is what lets you look back with numbers instead of from memory: how much was paid last week, which line items absorbed that cost, and how labor spend moved as the project advanced. When someone asks how much a front has been paid to date, the answer comes from the weekly record, not from rebuilding several weeks of sheets.
- Per-worker view for paying, with each one’s breakdown of days and piecework.
- Per-crew view for control, with the total for the front in the week.
- Every week is saved in the project history, not in a loose sheet.
- The history lets you review how much was paid and which line items absorbed it, week by week.
Building the pay run in spreadsheets and texts vs. with Matterial
The pay run almost always gets pieced together on the weekend between paper sheets, text messages and a spreadsheet. Here is how that compares to doing it inside Matterial.
| Today (spreadsheets and texts) | With Matterial | |
|---|---|---|
| Source of the data | The roll call is re-keyed by hand on the weekend | The pay run closes over the week’s roll call |
| Half day | The amount is adjusted by hand, sometimes counted full | Prorated day rate calculated on its own from attendance |
| Day rate and piecework | Two separate lists that have to be reconciled | Both schemes add up in the same pay run |
| Calculating the total | Added up by hand; the error gets paid in cash | Calculated per worker and per crew |
| Cost per line item | Left as a lump payroll expense, with no line item | Tied to the project budget line items |
| History | Loose sheets per week, hard to compare | Weekly history saved, project by project |
| Version of the truth | Different copies over text and email | One pay run saved per project |
Illustrative example: a crew’s weekly pay run
Hypothetical numbers to show how a pay run that mixes day rate, piecework and a half day comes together. These are not market rates or a promised result; the amounts per day and per unit are made up for the example.
Illustrative example, with made-up rates. The day labor adds up to $4,360 and lands on the foundation line item; the plaster piecework ($3,000) lands on masonry and the slab piecework ($2,700) on its own line item. That way the same $10,060 pay run is paid per worker and, at the same time, spread as labor cost across the budget line items, instead of sitting as a single payroll lump.
Use cases
On Friday they close the foundation crew’s pay run straight from the week’s roll call: the system takes the full days, the journeyman’s half day and the plaster piecework, and delivers the total per worker without the superintendent rebuilding the sheet on the weekend.
Before paying, they review the pay run per worker to know how much goes out in cash, and per crew to know how much labor weighed on each front in the week and which line items absorbed that cost within the project’s controls.
They carry their piece workers and their day labor in the same pay run: they set who is paid by output and who by the day, and at the close of the week they have each one’s breakdown and the saved history to know how much a front has been paid to date.
Who it's for
Works with the rest of Matterial
Guides to go deeper
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
What is a construction crew pay run?
The pay run is the crew’s weekly payroll: what each worker is paid for the week worked. In Matterial the pay run is built from the roll call, with each worker paid by day rate (per day) or by piecework (by output), and it is saved per worker and per crew in the project history.
What is the difference between day rate and piecework pay?
On a day rate you pay a set amount per day worked; on piecework you pay based on the output completed, at the price agreed per unit of work (square feet of plaster, of slab, pieces set). For each worker you set which basis applies, and the weekly pay run adds both schemes into a single calculation.
Can I mix day rate and piecework in the same pay run?
Yes. For each worker you set whether they are paid by day rate (per day) or by piecework (by output), and the weekly pay run adds up both schemes in a single calculation, with no separate sheets to keep.
How does it handle a half day?
The roll call flags half day or full day per worker, and the pay run calculates the prorated day rate automatically. There is no need to adjust the amounts by hand.
How do you run payroll for a construction project with Matterial?
It is built from the crew roll call: the system takes who showed up, who was out and who worked a half day, applies each worker’s basis (day rate or piecework), calculates the pay run per worker and per crew, ties the cost to the budget line items and saves the week in the project history. There is no need to re-key the attendance in a separate sheet.
Is the pay run built from the roll call?
Yes, that is the idea. The pay run does not start from a blank sheet but from the roll call the crew already kept through the week, so building payroll is closing out the week over that attendance, not entering it again. That is why half days and absences are already accounted for.
How is labor cost tied to the budget?
Each pay run cost is assigned to the project budget line items, so labor shows up in cost control alongside materials and purchases, instead of a loose expense no one can place.
Can I see how much labor cost per crew or per line item?
Yes. The pay run is seen per worker for paying and per crew for control, and because the cost is tied to the budget line items, you can see how much labor weighed on each line item, not just the total paid for the week.
Does it keep the payroll history week by week?
Yes. Each week is recorded per worker and per crew, with its weekly history by project, so you can review how much was paid and which line items absorbed that cost.
Get started today with Matterial
From blueprint to build, with clarity. Try it free, no card.