Pay Schedules are located and updated in Payroll > Maintenance > Pay Schedule.  New Pay Schedules ONLY need to be set up if basic information needs to be changed.  For example:  If you have a group of employees that are paid with different begin and end dates for their pay period, different frequency or paid quarterly a new schedule may ned to be added.

• Pay Schedule Setup
  • Add new periods to the pay schedule
  • Add Timesheets to the pay schedule if timesheets or web timesheets are used.
  • Your agency may only have 1 or 2 pay schedules.

Open a Pay Schedule to Update.  This is the process you will do each year to prepare for next year’s payroll batches.

• Do not set up a new pay schedule  otherwise every employee would need to be opened.
• Each schedule used will need to be maintained.
• When opened, the pay schedule will display the latest year set up.  In my example below the pay schedule is for Calendar Year 2021.

Click on the Add Periods to Schedule button

Select the Build Type

• Copy Latest Year  will copy the prior year with a date beginning after the current year dates.  This is the most common build type used.  
  • This selection will not allow you to add periods or change dates but will copy Calculate Accruals, Timecard and Deduction Cycles from the current year.
  • Other options are noted below.

Adding Periods to the Pay Schedule

• Click the Generate New Periods button to create periods on the window.

Review and Modify new periods

• New periods will dislay in the window.  If what you are expecting, click the “Add Periods to Schedule” button (green check) to add the periods to the Pay Schedule.

Review and Modify new periods

• New periods will be added to the newly created year.  
• Review the dates.
• Review calculate accruals toggle.
• If bi-weekly,carefully review the time card and deduction cycles.  Those will typically change months in the new year.

Saving the new Pay Schedule

• If the save button in the Pay Schedule Maintenance window below is not saved, the changes to the pay schedule will be lost.
• Saving can be done now or timesheets can be added before saving.  Instructions to add timesheets are listed in a later section of this document.

Build types other than Copy Latest Year

• Other Build Types are available but generate different information. Other types do NOT copy the Timecard Dates and other schedule information but allow you to generate as many periods as you want (example is 27 biweekly periods to cover the pay periods for 2022).

Available Build Types

• Weekly
• Bi-Weekly
• Semi-Monthly
• Monthly

Generate Options for Types other than Copy Latest Year

• Can select the Number of Periods
• Can change the Begin Date  Normally not necessary.
• Will need to manually set Calculate Accruals, Time Card Cycles and Deduction Cycles before saving the newly created pay schedule year.
• Can optionally change other information.

• Click Generate new periods to have the new period display in the window.
• Once the periods desired are generated click Add Periods to add them to the selected Pay Schedule.

Review and Modify new periods

• Depending on the Build Type you must review the information to assure it is correct.
• All fields are editable.
• Time Card and Deduction cycles will likely change for Bi-Weekly or Weekly schedules each year. These must be correct to assure that the employees are paid and deducted properly.
• It is not required to have Hours, Days and Weeks in the pay schedule.
  • If you key car allowance using the ‘Per Day Worked’ deduction calculation you will not want days filled in.

Make sure these are correct to avoid issues during Payroll

• Check all fields but the most critical are:
• Timecard Cycle
• Deduction Cycle
• Close any periods that employees should not key time to.

Saving the new Pay Schedule

• After review, save the expanded Pay Schedule.
• Expanding the current schedule will avoid having to make any changes to individual employees

Save Errors

• Complete Time Card Cycles before saving if the Copy option is not used..
• This is the disadvantage of generating 27 periods for biweekly payrolls rather than copying and adding the extra period.

Do Timesheet Periods need to be added?

Timesheet periods are required if time entry is being processed outside of the Computer Checks process. Timesheet periods arenevercopied from the prior year.

• Employee Self Service  ESS will not recognize or display the new pay schedule until timesheet periods are added to the Pay Schedule.
  • Employees or clerks enter time in Timesheets or Quick Time Entry.
  • Some custom time clock imports require timesheet periods.
• Not required if you import time cards into the Computer Check process. This is standard in versions 7.17.0 and up.

New Timesheet Periods

• Highlight period in the Pay Schedule window.
• Click New  “add timesheet to paeriod” button.
• Add Timesheet Begin and End Dates.
• This process will need to be completed for each pay period and will take time but is required if using timesheets.
• Save the changes.

Change the Title of a Pay Schedule

• Available in versions 7.17.0 and up.
• The Title of the Pay schedule can be modified in these versions.

Batch Number affects on Payroll

• Batch numbers are CRITICAL to year end payroll batches.
• Make sure batch year matches the check year for the checks.
• Year-to-date amounts on the checks will display by batch year.
• The batch year will set the annual maximums calculated in the process.
  • FICA
  • MEDI
  • Deferred Compensation

Make sure your Payroll batch year matches the check year for the checks.

• Look at the checks or ACH checks printed before committing.
• Support has a utility that can change batch numbers/years when the payroll is open for later versions but cannot change committed information.
• December 31 is a Friday which may be the last payroll for 2021 for your agency.
• If batch is generated in 2021 for checks dated after January 1, 2022 the information will be incorrect when calculated in Payroll.