Pay Periods

Owned by Stephen Juliano (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Feb 08, 2022 by Colleen Juliano
3 min read

Overview

Pay periods are used for several purposes. They denote the beginning and ending date of a period as well as the number of standard work hours in the period. The number of standard hours in a period is used on the timesheet entry screen to show the number of hours remaining to be entered for an employee. Each period can have a different number of standard hours to compensate for holidays that might occur in a pay period. Pay periods highlighted in blue reflect the current pay period. Pay periods can be designated as open or closed. You can only perform transactions on open periods. It is highly recommended that you only keep one or two periods open at a time as that will help eliminate erroneous transactions from being posted with incorrect dates. 

Detail


On the right side of the pay period screen is a list of years for which pay periods have been defined. If you wish to see those periods, simply double click on the year. The current pay period is always highlighted in blue. 

To create pay periods for a year 

  1. At the top of the screen enter the 4-digit year, the number of hours and days per pay period.

  2. Tab down to the first period record, enter the period number (should start with 1).

  3. Enter the date of the first day in the period.

  4. Tab to the end date, it will default in based on the number of days in the period as previously specified. The hours in period will also default in from the top of the screen. Unless you need to change these values, simply press tab until you are on the next line.

  5. Enter the next period number (should be 1 more than the previous period) and press tab. The beginning date for this period will default in as the day after the ending date of the previous period.

  6. Repeat steps 2-5 until you have created all of the pay periods for the year.

Pay period dates and number of hours can be changed; however, the beginning date of a pay period must always be the next day after the ending date of the previous period. This does not apply to the first period. 
To change a pay period

  1. Double-click on the year in which the pay period falls from the list of years on the right side of the screen.

  2. Locate the pay period to be changed. Make the necessary changes.

  3. Click on the Save icon on the toolbar

Current Pay Period

There is always a current pay period defined and it will be highlighted in blue. The current pay period controls which date timesheets can be entered for. It also appears as the default pay period for many reports and transaction processing functions. 
To make a pay period the current pay period… 

  1. Double-click on the year in which the pay period falls from the list of years on the right side of the screen.

  2. Locate the pay period to be changed.

  3. Double-click on the pay period. A dialog box will appear asking you to confirm that you wish to make that pay period the current period.