My pay: rate issues & reading your pay stub
Last updated: July 28, 2026
This article is for BTs and RBTs. It shows you where to find your pay, how to read your pay stub, and how to figure out — before you ask anyone — why a paycheck might look higher or lower than you expected. For where your scheduled hours live, see "View your hours and differentials" and "View your schedule and your hours."
Where your pay lives
Open My Payroll from the left sidebar. It has three tabs:
Profile — your personal payroll details, including tax information and direct deposit / banking.
Payments — your pay history and pay stubs.
Documents — your tax documents (W-2s or 1099s) once generated.
Open the Payments tab and select a period to view its pay stub. Your pay stub is the source of truth for what you were paid. (Even if your employment has ended, you can still open My Payroll to see past payments and tax documents.)
Where your paid hours come from
Your paid hours are built from the work you complete in Alpaca — not from your calendar:
Billable (clinical) hours come from session notes you have signed. Until a note is signed, its time isn't counted as worked hours.
Non-billable hours — training, admin/documentation, travel — come from non-billable appointments once they've been approved and verified.
The single most important thing you can do for your own pay is sign your session notes on time. The date you sign a note determines which pay period it lands in.
Reading your pay stub
On the stub, your paid hours are grouped by pay category, and each category can have its own rate. That's why one paycheck can contain several rates:
Category | What it covers |
|---|---|
Clinical | Direct client sessions |
Training | Staff training time |
Admin | Documentation and administrative work |
Drive Time | Travel between locations / clients |
Weekend | Weekend work premium |
A differential is simply a different (often higher) rate that applies to certain work — for example, weekend or drive-time pay. The category a block of time falls into is set on the appointment when it's scheduled and approved. The actual rates are set by your employer and vary by clinic, so this article doesn't list rates.
Why your pay might look off — and what to check
What you're seeing | Most likely reason |
|---|---|
Fewer hours than I worked | A session note wasn't signed in time, so it landed in the next period (or hasn't counted yet). Check for unsigned notes. |
Non-billable time is missing | Training/admin/drive appointments only pay once approved and verified. If one wasn't approved, it won't appear. |
A rate looks wrong for some time | The appointment may be coded to the wrong category (e.g., clinical vs. drive time). Your admin controls how appointments are coded and the rates. |
Take-home is lower than expected | Taxes and withholdings reduce gross to net. Check the deductions section of the stub and your tax elections under the Profile tab. |
I don't see My Payroll at all | Payroll may not be set up for your account or org yet. Contact your clinic administrator. |
If a rate or category is genuinely wrong
Because your clinic administrator controls how appointments are coded and what each rate is, start with them for a suspected rate or category error — they can review and correct the appointment. For a deeper explanation of how differentials and non-billable time are calculated, see "How Differential Pay and Non-Billable Time Work." If your paid-out amount is $0 when you expected pay, see "Why is my payout $0?" For anything else, contact support@alpacahealth.io.