When moving to the new year, the fortnightly dates start on the incorrect week.
When setting up the fortnightly (or four-weekly) frequency the payment week is selected. For Fortnightly, this can be 'First' or 'Second'. For Four-weekly it can be 'First', 'Second', 'Third' or 'Fourth'. Setting this determines the first, and subsequent, payment dates.
Determining on which week the pay date will fall
Fortnightly - First week is selected. Weeks highlighted in red (odd weeks) indicate the pay date.
Week 1: 1 Jan to 7 Jan
Week 2: 8 Jan to 14 Jan
Week 3: 15 Jan to 21 Jan
Week 4: 22 Jan to 28 Jan
Week 5: 29 Jan to 4 Feb
...
...
Week 51: 17 Dec to 23 Dec
Week 52: 24 Dec to 30 Dec
Week 53: 31 Dec
Fortnightly - Second week is selected. Weeks highlighted in red (even weeks) indicate the pay date.
Week 1: 1 Jan to 7 Jan
Week 2: 8 Jan to 14 Jan
Week 3: 15 Jan to 21 Jan
Week 4: 22 Jan to 28 Jan
Week 5: 29 Jan to 4 Feb
...
...
Week 51: 17 Dec to 23 Dec
Week 52: 24 Dec to 30 Dec
Week 53: 31 Dec
Four-weekly - First week is selected. Weeks highlighted in red indicate the pay date.
Week 1: 1 Jan to 7 Jan
Week 2: 8 Jan to 14 Jan
Week 3: 15 Jan to 21 Jan
Week 4: 22 Jan to 28 Jan
Week 5: 29 Jan to 4 Feb
...
...
Week 49: 3 Dec to 9 Dec
Week 50: 10 Dec to 16 Dec
Week 51: 17 Dec to 23 Dec
Week 52: 24 Dec to 30 Dec
Week 53: 31 Dec (Red if pay day falls on 31 dec)
Four-weekly - Third week is selected. Weeks highlighted in red indicate the pay date.
Week 1: 1 Jan to 7 Jan
Week 2: 8 Jan to 14 Jan
Week 3: 15 Jan to 21 Jan
Week 4: 22 Jan to 28 Jan
Week 5: 29 Jan to 4 Feb
...
...
Week 51: 17 Dec to 23 Dec
Week 52: 24 Dec to 30 Dec
Week 53: 31 Dec
Starting new year but the pay date is incorrect. Why is this?
An example. Fortnightly payment frequency was set up with the Second week being the payment week. Wednesday was selected as the Payday. The pay dates for 2014 look like this:
Week 1: 1 Jan to 7 Jan
Week 2: 8 Jan to 14 Jan : Pay date is Wed 8 Jan 2014
Week 3: 15 Jan to 21 Jan
Week 4: 22 Jan to 28 Jan : Pay date is Wed 22 Jan 2014
Week 5: 29 Jan to 4 Feb
...
...
Week 51: 17 Dec to 23 Dec
Week 52: 24 Dec to 30 Dec : Pay date is Wed 24 Dec 2014
Week 53: 31 Dec
Following this pattern, the next expected pay date would be Wednesday 7 January 2015. This is two weeks after the last pay date in 2014 (Wednesday 24 Dec 2014)
However, 7 January 2015 falls in the first PAYE week of 2015, not the second. The Fortnightly payment frequency was set up for every second week in the year. Payback chooses 14 January 2015 as the pay date as this is the second PAYE week of the year - conforming to the way the frequency was set up in the company screen.
How to fix the pay dates
- Select the Company Screen and select the Pay Details tab.
- Under 'Fortnightly', if 'First' is selected for Payment week, then select 'Second' instead.
- OR; Under 'Fortnightly', if 'Second' is selected for Payment week, then select 'First'
- Then click 'Update Company' at the top of the screen.
(In other words, change the payment week)
If you are using the Four-weekly payment frequency, you will have to select the appropriate Week for your first payment. Please refer to the PAYE calendar to determine which week you should select
Week 53 and the PAYE Calendar explained
Notes
- Changing the Payment frequency will not effect your P35 or P60s etc. for the Year.
- If you process 2014 and need to change the frequency for the following year, then the Paydates for 2014 will look incorrect. However, the Payments are still there. Click on an employee in the Payroll screen and select the 'History' tab. Here you will see all the payments that were processed with the correct Pay dates.
- If you change the Pay frequency for the current year and need to make changes to the previous year, you will first have to change back the pay week to its original setting before making the changes. Remember to change it back again to continue processing the current year.