Most businesses who pay employees do so on a regular pay cycle. Special pay runs are any payroll run that occurs outside of the regularly scheduled pay run. It can have the same checkdate as the regular paycheck, or it can be off-cycle, with its own checkdate. It can also be limited to select employees, and exclude the employee deductions typically included in the regular pay cycle.
For example, you may pay your employees every two weeks, but at the end of the year you'd like to give them a bonus. Since the end of the year generally falls between paychecks, you may want them to receive the bonus between paychecks. And since this isn't part of their regular pay, you don't want 401(k) and health insurance deductions to apply. This is a job for a special pay run!
Special pay runs
When processing a special pay run, you may need to make changes* to the Pay Run Settings. This could include:
- Pay schedule selection
- Pay period adjustment
- Check date adjustment
- Direct deposit hold
- Employee deductions hold
*All changes made will revert back to default settings upon completion of this run. They will also revert if you log out of OnPay before completing this run.
Why would I need a special pay run?
Special pay runs can be things like year-end bonuses for employees, or non-recurring payments to freelancers or independent contractors. They typically run outside of the normal pay cycle, and shouldn’t have employee deductions for things like insurance, or 401(k).
Special pay run settings
In this panel, you're able to make changes in the following categories:
Pay Schedule
You can browse your existing pay schedules.
Pay period and check date
Adjust the pay period and/or check date as needed.*
*This will not affect the pay schedule, or how taxes are calculated.
Additional options
If you wish to pay employees by paper check, but they are enrolled in direct deposit, then you'll want to avoid automatically paying those employees by direct deposit. You can also hold all voluntary deductions for this pay run (involuntary deductions, such as garnishments or levies cannot be avoided). These holds can be helpful for bonuses or other payments that should not include deductions, or that you wish to issue in person instead of by direct deposit.
Selecting workers
Uncheck or check the box by any worker name to select which workers are to be included in this pay run. Pay run totals automatically update as you select workers.
In the below example, because only Fabian is selected, you see that it says, "Worker (1 of 3 selected)" at the top of the list of workers, and that the run totals in the upper right confirm that only one worker is included in this run.
You can deselect all, to then select only a few workers from a long list.
Tip: If only some workers are to be excluded from a run, you can use name search to find and deselect those employees.
Enter hours and wages
Once all workers for this run are selected, you can begin entering their hours. If you use a time-tracking software integration, you can import timesheets. You can also import a CSV file with employee hours. However you choose to enter hours, it's always recommended to double-check worker hours before running payroll.
Double-check all imported hours
If you've imported worker hours, and you have no additional pay items to add (like commissions or tips), you can click Next. However, we ALWAYS RECOMMEND you take a few minutes to double-check everyone's hours and pay before processing payroll, even for salary employees, to identify any errors in hours, or unwanted supplemental pay items and overrides.
Add bonuses, commissions, and tips
Click Add/Order Pay Rows to add new bonus, commission, or other supplemental pay items.
Click Add Row.
Click Choose Pay Item, and select the pay item you'd like to add. Unless you enter a recurring amount (covered next) this will not add any pay to this (or any) pay run. Only the pay item (pay type) will be added, and only for this employee (we'll cover how to add an amount next).
Don't see the pay item you're looking for?
Learn about: Adding new pay items→
Click Done when finished adding rows. You may add as many as you need.
Pay types and recurring amounts
When adding a pay type to an employee's payroll, the "Recurring Amount" is optional. "Recurring Amount" allows you to decide whether this pay type is always for the same amount (like some commission payments or bonuses), or for a varying amount to be entered on-the-fly, while processing payroll (like tips, advances, or reimbursements).
Adding a pay type with no recurring amount
In the below example, we'll add a bonus pay item with no recurring amount. This pay type will allow bonus pay to be added for this or any other pay run for this employee. During any pay cycle, an amount can be entered here, and it will apply only to that pay run. If this field is left blank, no supplemental amount is paid.
Adding a bonus with a recurring amount
This example is the same as before, only this time, a recurring amount is entered. This pay type will allow a fixed amount of supplemental pay to be toggled "on" and "off", and it will apply only to that pay run.
Holding and overriding deductions and withholdings
Open More to hold or override active voluntary deductions (involuntary deductions, such as garnishments or levies cannot be held or overridden). You can also override, add, or make exempt from Federal and State taxes and withholdings.
Tip: You can also add to the paycheck memo line, which can be helpful for adding a personal message when paying a bonus or gift by printed check.
After entering hours and wages, It's time to review this payroll.
Click Next.
Run Payroll: Review
Always review a payroll run before approving it, checking:
- Company costs and employee withholdings
- All wages, deductions, withholdings, and taxes itemized by employee and type
- Errors and warnings
- Total payroll cost, debit, and direct deposit details
Company costs and employee withholdings
Get a detailed overview of all company costs and employee withholdings.
All wages, deductions, withholdings, and taxes itemized by employee and type
The pay run report shows all hours and wages by worker. Click column headers to get a closer look at each category. You can also filter by employee name.
Errors and warnings
Errors and warnings are triggered automatically based on conditional rules, like if an employee's check is significantly different than usual, or if state required tax information is missing
Pay run errors
You will not be able to submit payroll when pay run errors are present. For instance, if an employee's paycheck is for a negative amount, this would need to be corrected before submitting payroll by editing the worker's wages, and making sure all hours (or salaries) have been entered.
Warnings
OnPay will also warn you if we see anything unusual about this pay run.
Unlike errors, you can still submit payroll when warnings are present. You can even mute warnings, but that doesn't mean they're not very important.
With more and more employees living or working across state lines, many employers are surprised to learn that they have multi-state tax obligations. Read all warnings carefully before submitting payroll.
Total payroll cost, debit, and direct deposit details
At the bottom of the report are totals for your payroll cost, the payroll amount and debit date, and the direct deposit amount and date.
Submitting payroll
After a thorough review of the pay run, click Submit Payroll.