Summary

The Pay Cycle Maintenance window is used to create and maintain pay cycles. Pay cycles are attached to pay schedules and determine the number of pay periods that occur in a calendar year. When a pay cycle is attached to a pay schedule, the pay schedule will populate with the period begin and end date of each pay period based on the number of pay periods in a year. For example, if employees are paid bi-weekly and there are 26 periods in the year, the pay schedule will populate with pay period dates (01/01/10 – 01/14/10, 01/15/10 – 01/28/10, etc.) when the pay cycle is attached to a pay schedule.

You can create multiple pay cycles if you pay employees weekly, bi-weekly and monthly. If you pay employees bi-weekly but on two different pay schedules, you can create one bi-weekly pay cycle but create two separate pay schedules.

Once a pay schedule has been created (PR> Maintenance> Pay Schedule), attach the pay schedule to the employee records using the Employee Maintenance window (PR> Maintenance> Employee> Financial tab> Pay Schedule field). When payroll checks are processed (PR> Computer Checks), employees are included in the batch by the pay schedule attached to the employee records.

Step by Step

1     View the pay cycles.

• Open the Pay Cycle Maintenance window (PR> Maintenance> Pay Cycle).
• Highlight a pay cycle in the left section of the window and the fields in the Maintenance section will populate with the information attached to the selected pay cycle.
• Highlight a pay cycle and press DELETE or click the Delete icon   to delete the selected pay cycle.
  • You cannot delete a pay cycle that is attached to a pay schedule. Pay cycles are attached to pay schedules using the Pay Schedule Maintenance window (PR> Maintenance> Pay Schedule> Pay Cycle field).
• Press INSERT or click the Create icon to create a new pay cycle. This will create a new line item in the left section of the window.

2     Create or modify a pay cycle.

• Enter a pay cycle code in the Code field. The pay cycle code can be up to 15 characters long.
  • Once a pay cycle has been created and saved, you cannot modify the pay cycle code. If you would like to modify the pay cycle code, create a new pay cycle with the desired code and delete the previous pay cycle.
• Enter a description of the pay cycle in the Description field.
• Enter the number of periods in a calendar year in the Periods field.
  • For example, enter 26 if employees are paid twice a month (bi-weekly). Enter 12 if employees are paid monthly, 52 if employees are paid weekly or four if employees are paid quarterly.
• Press ENTER or click the Save icon when complete to save the pay cycle.