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changing the pay period help please

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steveo922

New member
Hey Guys,

Well my partner decided to for some odd reason have the pay period start on a Sat and end on a Fri… Don’t ask why, but its really screwy if you ask me. And now its messing with my mind. We’re a new business and I guess his thinking was we wanted to hold a paycheck and thats just the way it ended up working out. Its weird cause I schedule people starting on Monday and ending Sunday. So if I have someone schedule 80 hours, the pay period only shows 70, thats just the way it works out.

Heres my exact situation:

1 - 9/20 - 10/3 and pay was on 10/10
2 - 10/4 - 10/17 and pay was on 10/24
3 - 10/18 - 10/31 and pay will be on 11/7

etc etc.

Is there a way to change it now with still holding some pay and it start on a Mon and end on a Sun? I don’t want to short anyone. And to be completely honest, I’m extremely confused.

Thanks for any help!!!
 
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If you’re using DiamondTouch for your timeclock, you can set your pay periods to start and end whatever day you choose just be going into Period Labor and creating a payperiod. If it were me, I’d pay the extra two days on the pay period you currently have ending 10/31, making it end on 11/2 instead. I assume you’re going to pay them on the following Sunday? Then start fresh on 11/3 paying Monday - Saturday. You’ll have one pay period that’s 9 days long, but otherwise there shouldn’t be any issues.

Are you doing your own payroll or do you have someone else preparing it? Just be sure you note on the paychecks the actual dates included so there is no misunderstanding on the employee’s paychecks. One of the major things to note as an employer, Don’t mess with your employee’s money!
 
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Yes I am using DT (unfortunately) and I do know how to set the pay periods and everything. That is not the problem though… Figuring out how to pay my staff from Monday to the next Sunday (14 days) with still holding some of their time, and to keep the pay dates the same order.

I need the pay day to start on a Monday and end on the next Sunday. Bi-weekly, every other Friday. And since pay is this week, how would I set it up now for them to be paid on the 7th? Man I am so confused.
 
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steveo922:
Heres my exact situation:

1 - 9/20 - 10/3 and pay was on 10/10
2 - 10/4 - 10/17 and pay was on 10/24
3 - 10/18 - 10/31 and pay will be on 11/7
Click to expand...
For pay period #3, make it 10/18 to 11/2. From a cash flow standpoint you’ll be out Saturday and Sunday’s pay two weeks earlier than normal, but you’ll be on track after that.
 
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Piper:
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steveo922:
Heres my exact situation:

1 - 9/20 - 10/3 and pay was on 10/10
2 - 10/4 - 10/17 and pay was on 10/24
3 - 10/18 - 10/31 and pay will be on 11/7
Click to expand...
For pay period #3, make it 10/18 to 11/2. From a cash flow standpoint you’ll be out Saturday and Sunday’s pay two weeks earlier than normal, but you’ll be on track after that.
Click to expand...
Do you mind explaining what that means? I’ll be out Sat and Sundays pay two weeks earlier?

What about holding some of their pay?

Sorry, these 100+ hour weeks are really getting to me and I can’t think straight.

thanks!
 
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Under your old pay periods, that Saturday and Sunday (Nov 1st and 2nd) would be be on the pay period with check date 11/21. You’ll be paying them on the 7th instead.

Basically, you’re just making your last pay period (under the old system) two days longer. Your new pay period will start on Monday the 3rd (for check date 11/21) and you’re ready to go.
 
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Not speaking for them, but a lot of businesses will hold back a week so they can guarantee the return of their stuff upon the employee leaving.

SO, if they know they have to return a shirt and apron before they get their last paycheck, most often they will comply.

Of course, just telling them you will hold their paycheck until they bring in their stuff will do the same thing.

The only other thing I could think of would be that once an employee leaves, if they are “2 weeks behind” on their payroll…then they have a check to look forward to 2 weeks after they leave.
 
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Piper:
Under your old pay periods, that Saturday and Sunday (Nov 1st and 2nd) would be be on the pay period with check date 11/21. You’ll be paying them on the 7th instead.

Basically, you’re just making your last pay period (under the old system) two days longer. Your new pay period will start on Monday the 3rd (for check date 11/21) and you’re ready to go.
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Man, thank you very much! That makes perfect sense.
 
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papajgirl:
Not speaking for them, but a lot of businesses will hold back a week so they can guarantee the return of their stuff upon the employee leaving.

SO, if they know they have to return a shirt and apron before they get their last paycheck, most often they will comply.

Of course, just telling them you will hold their paycheck until they bring in their stuff will do the same thing.

The only other thing I could think of would be that once an employee leaves, if they are “2 weeks behind” on their payroll…then they have a check to look forward to 2 weeks after they leave.
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Be sure to check your state labor department. This is in Texas:
Even if an employee is in possession of company property, the Texas Payday Law provides that in such a case, wages may be withheld only when the employer is authorized to do so by law, required to do so by a court or has written authorization from the employee for the deduction. Otherwise, the employer would need to attempt to recoup the property by some other means, such as civil remedies (i.e. lawsuit, small claims court, police report) or arrangements with the employee outside of a wage deduction.
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Best thing is to get an authorization signed by the employee when issuing the uniform if you go this route.
 
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Hey just thought I would throw this out there since you are changing your dates.

Why not pay them on Mondays. Paying employees on Friday is a sure way to get employees calling in on Payday.

We pay bi weekly Starts on Monday ends Sunday and it is always a week behind. Gives me a week to get payroll done.
 
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Hey, here’s a thought that was shared to me by a fellow restaurateur. He recommends starting the pay period on Thursday and ending on Wednesday. He says he saves quite a bit in labor doing it this way. He says that Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays are typically the busiest days of the week, which makes it tough to be aggressive in “cutting” staff early. But with Tuesdays and Wednesdays being slower, he can be aggressive in trimming labor where needed. On slower weeks, he really cuts hours on Tuesdays and Wednesdays without sacrificing too much. By doing this, he also better manage his OT labor.

I only have part-time staff, so OT is a non-issue, but the other reason does sound reasonable. Anyone else doing a Th-Wed pay period?
 
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I can’t see any direct link between labour %'ge and what days of the week you run your payroll period.

If your going to aggresively manage your labour then aggresively manage it - cut down your hours on MTW it doesn’t matter when the pay period starts end does it?

The only way I can think how this could work is that if you had a bad weekend then you cut the labour hard on MTW to reduce your overall labour problem (a bit late to do this afetr the horse has bolted though). But then again you can still do this regardless of the pay period. The only problem with this approach is that if you are busy on MTW then your service will suffer.

Best way to manage your labour is to be looking at it ALL of the time. I get my managers to look at this at least hourly to see if we are ahead/behind at the same time last week or versus the average for that day.
 
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I got a student of mine working on a way to poll our database to calculate labor. Then he will plot it against expected and adjust it for time of day so that a manager can just look at a monitor and know if he is at the correct labor level for that hour of day. We are using upper and lower control limits that change with sales to reflect that labor cost is not level throughout the day.
 
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I actually like that kind of thinking. I know for us when our manager’s are close to getting a bonus they would try and cut labor on Saturdays…which can be dangerous…as opposed to Mon, Tue and Wed which really are labor saving days.

I think it all evens out though.

Charles, lots of programs on a POS do that, the drawback will be doing prep. We start our prep at 6am and don’t get busy until 11:30 then pick up doing prep again after lunch…so it can fool ya a bit. Our day labor is always higher cuz of prep and ticket averages. Just to note I have never used a program that does it so it may account for that…I don’t know.

Kris
 
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