Contents

• Pay Frequency
• Name
• Pay Day Type
• Cut off date
• Reference period
• Preview schedule
• Changing Pay Frequencies
• I've set the wrong date as my first pay run. How do I change it?

When setting up your account for the first time, you’ll be asked to choose your pay run frequency. This determines how often you pay your employees and the dates on which those payments are made.

When creating your first pay frequency, you can do this from the Home screen, or at any time by going to Company Setup › Pay Run Settings.

Your pay frequency must be set up before you can process your first pay run.

Go to Company Setup › Pay Run Settings to Edit or + Add Pay Frequency.

Pay frequency

Your pay frequency determines how often your employees are paid. You can choose from the following options:

• Weekly
• Fortnightly
• 4 Weekly
• Monthly
• Quarterly
• Biannual
• Annual

If you’re unsure how to work out the correct dates for your chosen pay frequency, our Payroll Charts provide a full overview of all pay periods throughout the year.

Name

You can enter an optional name to help identify this pay schedule. This is especially useful if you have multiple pay frequencies of the same type (for example, two separate monthly pay runs). Naming them can make it easier to differentiate when assigning employees to the correct pay run.

For more information, see our article on Multiple Pay Runs.

If you choose not to enter a name, the system will automatically use the default frequency type (for example, Weekly or Monthly).

Pay Day Type

Select the day on which you pay your employees.

For Weekly, Fortnightly and 4 Weekly you can select from:

• Monday
• Tuesday
• Wednesday
• Thursday
• Friday
• Saturday
• Sunday

For Monthly, Quarterly, Biannual, Annual select from:

• Last day of month
• Last weekday of month
• Last Friday of month
• Last set day of month
• On a set day

If you pay on the same date every month, for example the 25th, choose On a Set Day. Enter 25 in the Day of Month field, then use the calendar to select the pay date for your first pay run.

Cut off date

The cut off date applies only to the calculation (or “cutting off”) of Sickness Absences.

Cut off date - this applies to calculating (cutting off) Sickness Absence only

Reference period

Controls the date range to use for pro-rata salary and Statutory Parental Absences calculations.

• From day of month/ week - The reference period will start on this day of the month/ week.
• Offset - By default the pay date will be in the last month/ week of the reference period.

Use this field to move the reference period back or forward by x months/ weeks.

For example, use the value -1 to move the reference period back 1 month/ week.

Preview schedule

Click Preview schedule in the bottom‑right corner to review your setup and confirm that everything is configured as expected. See examples below.

For this setup, the monthly period runs 1st-last of the month with a pay date on the 25th.
The sickness absence cut off is the 20th, so any absence after that (e.g., sick leave on the 21st) will be included in the next month’s payroll.

This example is for a customer who pays weekly in arrears, covering Monday to Sunday. The cut‑off date matches the end of the reference period, so the week’s absences are calculated up to Sunday and included in that week’s payroll.

Changing Pay Frequencies

You can change an employee’s pay frequency, but only after the current pay period has ended. For example, if moving from monthly to weekly, the first weekly period must start after the monthly period closes to ensure correct tax and NI calculations.

If changing from weekly to monthly, you must ensure that all weekly pay runs within the current tax month have been completed, and no weekly runs have been processed in the following tax month. An employee cannot be paid twice in the same tax period, so pay periods must not overlap.

Please refer to our Payroll Charts to confirm when periods no longer overlap.

HMRC guidance:  Running Payroll - Changing paydays.

I've set the wrong date as my first pay run. How do I change it? 

If you’ve entered the wrong first pay run date, you’ll need to update it in your Pay Run Settings. It cannot be changed directly within the pay run itself.

If there are employees already in the pay run, you must remove them first before you can edit the date.

Please see How to Remove an Employee from a Pay Run for steps on how to do this, and then return to your Pay Run Settings to update the date.