New onboarding experience: Move faster and always know where things stand
We’ve completely redesigned the onboarding experience for contractors, international employees, U.S. employees, and vendor contacts.
Other improvements and fixes
- Vendor department mappings: Vendor profiles now include a Department field. If you use accounting automation, you can apply department-based mapping rules so vendor expenses route to the correct GL account.
- More flexible chart of account mappings: When configuring account mappings with department-specific rules, the top-level account can now be set to “No account.” For example, if a worker is missing a department or a rule hasn’t been configured for them, their accounting item will remain unmapped and surface as an exception instead of being silently misclassified to the top-level account.
- Benefit type locked after saving: Once you define and save a benefit, the benefit type can no longer be updated. This change avoids potential downstream issues.
- Benefit end dates: We fixed issues related to setting end dates on benefits so they now work as expected.
Stay aware of important events in Google Calendar
Admins can now subscribe to the Plane calendar so events in their workspace appear automatically in Google Calendar and other calendar apps.
- Events stay in sync automatically when they are added or updated in Plane.
- The calendar feed can also be used with Apple Calendar, Outlook, or any calendar that supports the iCal format.
To use this feature
- Go to Calendar > Calendar and click Add to Google Calendar to subscribe
- Or copy your private calendar link and add it as a subscription in your preferred calendar app.
Other improvements and fixes
- PTO payout earning type: You can now add PTO payout as a separate earning type instead of using allowances. PTO payouts are taxed as regular earnings and appear in payroll like other earnings. If you’re using Plane’s accounting automation with QuickBooks, PTO payouts can be mapped to a separate GL account.
- Benefit end dates align with pay periods: Fixed an issue that could prevent adding end dates to certain benefits and cause dates to appear outside pay period boundaries. Benefits now align correctly with payroll periods and sync reliably.
- Payroll item amounts stay aligned: Fixed an issue where long tax, deduction, or benefit names could wrap to multiple lines and cause the amount column to appear misaligned in the payroll item view.
New look for onboarding team members
We’ve refreshed the onboarding experience with a cleaner, more user-friendly layout that gives you better visibility into the onboarding process.
- Better organization: Tasks are now grouped into checklists by category (Employment, Profile, Compliance, etc.), so it’s easier to see what needs to be done.
- Enhanced visibility: See all worker tasks upfront with granular status tracking. Previously, worker onboarding status was summarized as high-level milestones — now you know exactly where they’re at in the process.
- Consistency: The interface now matches how tasks are represented throughout your Plane dashboard.
Other improvements and fixes
- “Save and continue” works correctly when adding a team member: The button is now disabled until required information is complete, preventing confusion across worker types.
- Benefits and deductions report sorts correctly: The general export now sorts by Pay date (newest first), then Last name, First name, and Contribution type.
- Missing date of birth payroll issue displays correctly: The Payroll issues page now shows “Employee is missing date of birth” instead of a generic error.
Track contributions across every payroll
Admins can now run a Payroll Benefits and Deductions report to see all benefits and deductions applied to a payroll run, making it easier to review and reconcile payroll data.- The report includes contribution amounts broken out by pre-tax, post-tax, employee, and employer.
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Filter by payroll date or contribution type, and export to CSV or Excel for reconciliation.
Other improvements and fixes
- Simplified earnings view for international employees: Employees now see a clearer view of their historical payroll, showing only gross earnings with a direct link to their pay stub for full details.
- Payrolls stuck in processing now move to Overdue: Payrolls that don’t complete processing now transition to Overdue when the approval deadline has passed, giving you clearer visibility when something needs attention.
- Refreshed visual styling: We updated the color palette and reduced shadows across the app for a cleaner and brighter experience.
New reports for benefits, compensation, and payments
We added several new reports to make it easier to access and review data across benefits, compensation, and payments, supporting different workflows and reporting needs.
- Benefits report: View how benefits are configured for employees, including contribution amounts, frequencies, and coverage periods, for U.S. employees.
- Compensation history report: See compensation changes over time for each employee across all earning types, including regular earnings, bonuses, commissions, and allowances, with clear effective dates and amounts.
- Contractor payments report: Contractors can view and export their own payment history in a dedicated report, making it easier to track payments and keep records up to date.
Other improvements and fixes
- HSA contribution limits can now be set: Added support for configuring the HSA contribution limit (individual or family) when setting up HSA benefits, ensuring contribution limits are handled correctly in payroll.
- Payroll summary totals now reflect actual payroll liability: Fixed an issue where the payroll summary overstated total payroll liability by including employee taxes and withholdings, even though payroll itself was processed accurately.
- Payroll now runs for reimbursement-only payrolls: Fixed an issue where payroll was not generated when a payroll run only included expense report reimbursements and no regular earnings, which could prevent reimbursements from being processed.
- 1099 “Do not file” now works as expected: Fixed an issue where selecting “Do not file” for a contractor did not move them out of the filing list, reducing the risk of an unintended 1099 filing.
Payroll support for taxable non-cash earnings like fringe benefits
You can now add taxable non-cash earnings to payroll for employees, such as fringe benefits that are taxable and not paid in cash.
- Add taxable non-cash earnings to an employee’s profile: For U.S. employees, you can add a Taxable non-cash earning as a one-time or recurring earning. These are managed just like other earnings — such as bonuses or commissions — so you can update or end them before payroll runs as needed.
- Handled correctly in payroll and accounting: Taxable non-cash earnings are included in payroll for tax and withholding calculations, but the non-cash amounts themselves are excluded from payroll journal entries so expenses aren’t double-counted.
Other improvements and fixes
- Manage departments in one place: Add and edit departments from a central view under People > Departments.
- Ongoing layout and interface refinements: We continue to make improvements to layout, navigation, and responsiveness across the app, including a refreshed layout for team member pay history that’s easier to scan and more consistent with other views.
- Previously approved payroll items stay approved when unblocked: When a previously approved payroll item is blocked and then unblocked, it now returns to an approved state. Before, these items moved back to draft and required re-approval, which could be easy to miss and delay payroll.
More detailed benefit mappings to fit your accounting needs
We’ve added more flexible account mapping options so you can route benefit expenses and liabilities to the exact accounts that your chart of accounts (COA) requires.
- Map by benefit type: Assign different accounts for medical, dental, vision, 401(k), FSA/HSA, and other benefit types.
- Choose your level of detail: Keep expenses grouped broadly while using more specific accounts for related payables if that better fits your operations.
Other improvements and fixes
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Off-cycle improvements
- Active W-2 employees can now be added to an off-cycle even if they aren’t assigned to a regular pay schedule.
- Off-cycle runs now accept pay periods where the start and end date are the same.
- Fixed an issue that prevented contractors from being added to off-cycles.
- Fixed an issue that blocked contract review tasks: Users can now complete the “Review and approve contract” checklist even when steps were completed out of order or revisited later.
A refreshed layout with easier navigation and responsiveness
We refreshed Plane’s layout to make navigation smoother and to introduce responsive updates.
- Independent sidebar and scrollable content: The sidebar now stays fixed when you scroll the main content, making it easier to move around without losing your place.
- Better experience on smaller screens: The Dashboard and many other pages, including Teams and Pay Contractors, now adapt more smoothly to smaller screens as part of our shift toward a fully responsive app.
- More focused actions on a person’s profile: Actions that were not relevant on certain tabs have been removed, reducing clutter. Pay-related actions like adding other earnings, benefits, reimbursements, and deductions are now grouped together and available across relevant tabs.
- Softer, clearer visual design: We continued our move to Plane’s softer color palette and introduced more icons to make actions easier to spot at a glance.
- Help moved to bottom: The Help button now sits at the bottom of the sidebar.