Pay period

Editorial approval scope: The team checked current source fidelity, scope boundaries, dates, arithmetic, reader usefulness, practical workflow, and general-information limitations.

A pay period groups work into payroll

Common schedules include weekly, biweekly, semimonthly, and monthly periods. Biweekly payroll usually has 26 pay dates in a normal year; semimonthly usually has 24. They produce different period lengths and deduction patterns.

The pay period is distinct from the pay date. It is also distinct from the payroll cutoff and the employer's fixed workweek for federal overtime.

Workweeks cannot be averaged across the period

The FLSA workweek is a fixed, recurring 168-hour period. A two-week pay period can contain two separate overtime workweeks. High hours in one week cannot generally be averaged with lower hours in the next to avoid federal overtime.

Record each employee's applicable workweek, classification, hours, and state overtime rules. A pay-period total is insufficient for overtime review.

Define the period calendar mechanically

For every period, store start date, end date, time-entry cutoff, manager-approval cutoff, processing date, funding date, pay date, benefit-deduction treatment, and tax period. Generate the calendar before the year begins and review every holiday.

The DOL state labor directory routes employers to pay-frequency and wage-payment rules. A schedule allowed in one state may be too infrequent for an employee in another.

Timekeeping must capture actual work

DOL Fact Sheet 21 requires covered employers to retain specified wage and hour records. The time cutoff cannot erase work performed after manager approval.

Use a late-entry route that adds actual hours to the correct workweek and pays them by the applicable deadline. Track missed punches, edits, approvals, and employee attestations without shifting responsibility for accurate pay to the employee.

Rates and status can change midperiod

Promotions, differentials, multiple jobs, bonuses, leave, transfers, and terminations may take effect during a period. Store the exact effective time. Determine regular-rate, overtime, benefit, tax, and statement treatment from current rules.

An employee moving between entities or states can need separate payroll records. Avoid splitting hours in a way that loses combined overtime or restarts a tax wage base without authority.

Benefits and deductions follow their own terms

Health premiums, 401(k) deferrals, cafeteria-plan elections, garnishments, and voluntary deductions can use per-pay-period amounts. A 26-pay-date year and 24-pay-date year produce different annual totals if the configuration is copied directly.

Define how extra biweekly pay dates, unpaid periods, final checks, arrears, refunds, and catch-up deductions work. Confirm legal deduction limits and employee authorizations.

A fictional calendar conversion

Lantern Hill ABA converts from semimonthly to biweekly payroll and prebuilds 26 periods. Twenty-four pass tests for workweek coverage, holiday funding, deductions, pay dates, and state timing. Two remain held because year-end benefit deductions and a holiday settlement need correction.

Calendar readiness is 24 of 26 periods, or 92.3%. The held periods stay in the denominator. Lantern Hill resolves them before publishing the calendar and runs a parallel payroll for the transition.

This ratio measures calendar validation, not wage accuracy for each employee.

Corrections belong to the original work period

A later payment can correct wages while the hours still belong to the original workweek and period. Preserve the original entry, correction date, reason, approval, calculation, payment, statement, tax effect, and employee communication.

IRS Publication 15 governs federal employment-tax reporting and deposit treatment. State wage law can require faster payment than a routine adjustment cycle.

Validate the calendar before conversion

Build a full year of period starts, period ends, fixed workweeks, time-entry deadlines, manager approvals, payroll transmission dates, holidays, pay dates, benefit deductions, tax deposits, and quarter or year boundaries. Confirm that every workday belongs to one period and every period has one pay date.

Test employees who start or leave midperiod, change rates, work overtime, use leave, receive a bonus, cross a benefit threshold, or work in another jurisdiction. Document how each event is allocated without moving hours between workweeks.

Before switching frequency, compare old and new calendars for gaps, overlaps, benefit deductions, salary installments, garnishments, employee communications, and cash timing. Give employees the effective date and a plain explanation of any longer interval between checks.

Measure validated periods divided by all periods in the locked calendar. Leave a period open when a holiday, workweek, deduction, or deadline remains unresolved.

Archive the approved calendar with its version, assumptions, test results, and employee notice. Limit later edits to authorized payroll owners and preserve the prior values. A calendar export should remain available if the payroll platform changes or an old wage dispute requires reconstruction.

Reconcile every period to fixed workweeks before payroll release. Flag missing days, overlaps, duplicated hours, midperiod rate changes, and late entries by employee and workweek. The reviewer should approve each exception explicitly, preserving the original record and correction rather than shifting hours into a convenient later period.