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Pay periods

 

School districts employ many types of employees, some of whom may be paid on different schedules. The first step of setting up these schedules is to create pay periods. The second part is discussed in our article on pay period groups.

A pay period defines an amount of time worked, which is paid on a single paycheck. Each pay period has a Start Date and End Date, defining the first and last days worked in that period.

You may have multiple, overlapping periods. For example, if some employees are paid monthly and others are paid semi-monthly, you may have one pay period covering the dates 9/1-9/15, while another pay period covers the dates 9/1-9/30.

For more information about the choices you make when building pay periods groups, see Picking Pay Period Dates.

Pay Period Creation
Pay Period Cleanup
    Description
    Start Date and End Date

Pay Period Creation

To create new pay periods at the beginning of the year:

  1. Go to Financials Main > Payroll > Pay Periods
  2. Click the create many link
  3. Choose a pay period type
    • Monthly
    • Semi-Monthly (twice a month)
    • Bi-Weekly (every two weeks)
    • Weekly
  4. If choosing Semi-Monthly or Monthly, adjust the end date(s) so the system can predict the pattern.
    • e.g. if you have semi-monthly pay periods from the 1st to the 15th and the 16th to the end of the month, your end dates should be 15 and 31.
  5. Create

You can create subsequent sets of pay periods using the Create Many link at the bottom of the page.

If you need to create a single new pay period instead of a whole set, you can use the Create link at the bottom of the page.

Pay Period Cleanup

Description

We strongly recommend that all pay periods be renamed with a description that includes the pay date on which the pay period will be used. This makes selection of pay periods during the payroll creation process easier.

For example, if you pay 12 times per year, on the 20th of every month, you should have pay periods named something like July 20th, August 20th, September 20th, etc. or 7/20, 8/20, 9/20, etc. The exact description is entirely internal, displayed only to other Financial Users. It does not show on pay stubs.

Start Date and End Date

You should also verify that the Start Dates and End Dates are correct. Weekly and bi-weekly pay periods don’t have a good prediction mechanism, so you will likely need to edit each pay period to adjust those dates.

Monthly and Semi-Monthly pay periods should be pretty good if you chose the correct dates during prediction, but there may be adjustments you need to make for dates surrounding school holidays, the beginning of the year, etc. [see TRS considerations in other article]

To edit pay periods:

  1. Go to Financials Main > Payroll > Pay Periods
  2. Edit a pay period that needs correction
  3. Change the description, start date, or end dates as needed
  4. Save