Pay schedules determine how often you pay employees and/or contractors. Many states have pay schedule frequency requirements for employers, which can be dependent on the size of the company and the industry, to check these requirements please visit the United States Department of Labor. It is recommended that you have a separate pay schedule for each of your company’s different pay periods. Most companies just have one, such as a bi-weekly payroll that falls every other Friday, or a semi-monthly payroll that falls on the 1st and 15th of the month. Some companies have more than one, such as a bi-weekly payroll every other Friday for some employees, and a monthly payroll on the 1st of each month for owners and/or managers. OnPay gives you the ability to have as many pay schedules as makes sense for your company.
To create a pay schedule, simply navigate to the dashboard and choose + Add Pay Schedule.
The first step is to name your schedule. The most common naming convention is the pay frequency. The frequency determines how often your employees will be paid. So you could name a bi-weekly schedule "Bi-Weekly". You can also name it based on the type of employees who are assigned to it, such as "Management", or "Floor Techs". The trick here is to keep it simple and to make sure that you can easily tell who should be in each schedule. Once you have named your schedule, you will need to choose the frequency.
Select the Pay Schedule you would like to learn about below:
Weekly
A weekly payroll schedule is for companies that pay on the same day each week. This pay schedule will result in 52 paydays each year. For example, your check date is Friday each week. Here is a typical schedule: The pay period (the time period in which employees or contractors accrue hours or earn a salary) is Sunday to Saturday (it will always be 7 days), and they are paid on the following Friday (known as a one week hold). We always recommend a 5-day hold for employers with hourly employees as it allows time to collect, process, and run payroll without being rushed.
Here's how you set that schedule up in OnPay:
Bi-Weekly
A bi-weekly payroll schedule is for companies that pay on the same day every other week. This pay schedule will result in 26 paydays a year. For example, your check date is on Friday every other week. Here is a typical schedule: The pay period (the time period in which employees or contractors accrue hours or earn a salary) is Sunday to Saturday plus the next Sunday to Saturday (it will always be 14 days) with the check date being the following Friday after the last week of the pay period.
Here's how you set that schedule up in OnPay:
Semi-Monthly
A semi-monthly pay schedule is for companies that want to pay on the same two days every month. This pay schedule will result in 24 paydays per year. The most common semi-monthly pay schedule results in pay days on either the 1st and 15th of a month or paydays on the 5th or 20th of a month. OnPay simply needs an example of the next two pay periods to produce the schedule. Here is an example of pay days on the 5th and 20th:
As you can see the pay schedules vary based on the number of days in the month and can often time cause a check date to fall on a weekend. If your check date falls on a weekend please keep in mind the system will pay the employee on the nearest business day. For example, if the pay date is on a Sunday, the employee will see the funds on Monday. These things can make a semi-monthly pay schedule more difficult for employers to process, especially with hourly associates. Here is how to set up this pay schedule in OnPay:
Monthly
A monthly pay schedule allows a company to pay on the same day every month. This pay schedule will result in 12 paydays per year. For instance, a company has a pay period that starts on the 1st of the month and ends on the last day of the month, with a check date of the 5th of the following month. Many companies that have mainly salary employees making larger amounts, or companies where the owner is the only employee, choose to use a monthly schedule. It is simply not practical for most regular employees to be paid only once a month. Here is an example of a monthly pay schedule:
Here is how to set it up in OnPay:
If you are a brand new business, we highly recommend the use of one of the examples listed above. Of course, please feel free to contact us if you need any help setting up your schedule!
Make a mistake? No worries! You can edit any pay schedule you have already added. Click here to learn how to edit an existing pay schedule. However, if you created more schedules than you need, or if you no longer need one of your pay schedules, then you can request removal of that schedule by sending an email to hello@onpay.com.
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