Changing Pay cycles

[stevet]

Hi

We use AccountRight Premier.

We want to change from a fortnightly payroll cycle to a monthly payroll cycle and we would like to do this at the end of the 2019 financial year. So, the last pay in the 2019 financial year would be a fortnightly pay and first pay in the 2020 financial year would be a monthly pay. Any advice as to pitfalls and/or considerations for this changeover would be greatly appreciated. Is there anything in particular I should look out for?

Thanks

[Neil_M · Accepted solution]

HI @stevet

In terms of things to keep an eye on when changing the pay frequency, one of the big ones would be the entitlement calculations, particularly if the employees are on a salary basis. As most entitlements for salaried employees will be a fixed amount per pay period, if the pay period increased this would cause an imbalance in the amount of the entitlement that the employee will receive.

[GDay53]

@stevet

Welcome to the MYOB Community Forum, I hope you find plenty of useful information.

The biggest thing is to talk to your staff and let them know what is happening.

When the change happens they will miss out on a fortnights pay and if they are on tight budgets, like most of us these days, it can have major ramifications.

By that I mean they will get paid one week then the next pay will be at least four weeks away, depending on what day of the month are you going to pay on.

I know when it happened to me it was a nightmare for the first few months until I sorted out a new budget.

Make sure you have set exactly how they will be paid. e.g. all staff paid on last working day of month, or paid on the first working day following the end of month.

As far as the recording of the payroll is concerned like @Neil_M has mentioned any Entitkements will need to be reviewd for Salary staff otherwise there should be no problem just make sure everything is setup correctly.

[stevet]

Great point.

Thanks Neil.

[stevet]

Thanks Graeme.

Yes, I suppose it is easy to get caught up in the technical solution and forget about the staff. That will probably be my first job.