Calendar

Use the Calendar command to create and maintain a calendar of payroll periods. Each payroll period, identified by a period number, is defined by a start and end date. You must have at least one calendar per payroll group. When you use the command, the application detects whether a calendar exists for the current tax year and for the currently selected pay frequency. If not, you will be asked if you want to create one. Thereafter, you can create additional calendars for different groups of the same pay frequency either based on an existing calendar (referred to as a 'model' calendar) or create a new one from scratch. Apart from defining the periods, you also indicate the normal payment day in the frequency's period. For example, in the case of a monthly payroll, you might normally pay employees on the last day of the month. This and other options will depend on the pay frequency selected.

The calendar is also used to help the application process statutory payments automatically. You must create one for each payroll group you use. You can amend the period end dates and date of usual pay for any of the periods prior to the first update. The application automatically maintains the actual pay dates and indicates when the period has been updated, which happens after you have used the Update command on the Utilities menu. You can display a table of income tax dates for the period in the currently displayed tax year using the Income Tax Year command on the Action menu associated with the Calendar form.

Starting to use Payroll after the first period in the tax year

If the calendar for a payroll group is created part way through the tax year, you must set the This Calculation Period box on the Payroll - Utilities - Pay Periods form to the correct period. It is automatically set to period 1 after the payroll group is created but this will not be correct in these circumstances.

When you use the End of Year Cleardown command on the EOY/Special Reports menu, the application automatically creates a new calendar, so you only need to create the first calendar; all subsequent years are created automatically as part of your end of year processing.

Calendar Entries

Box	Description
Options	An option that determines whether the calendar you want to create for the selected group is to be modelled on an existing calendar, provided one has already been created for the same pay frequency.
Model Calendar	If you have chosen to create a calendar on the basis of a model, you select the model you want from this list.
Tax Year	Defaults to the current tax year.
Usual Payment Day or Date	This option will depend on the pay frequency: For 2- and 4-weekly pay frequencies, you enter the usual payment date for the first period of the tax year. The usual payment date for second and subsequent calendar records will then be either 14 or 28 days ahead of the previous period. This date must fall within the first two or four weeks of the Income Tax year. For weekly-based payrolls, you define the end date of the first period worked for the tax year. The end date for a period can be in arrears or in advance of its corresponding usual payment date as you required. For monthly pay frequencies, you choose either the last day of the month or a specific day of the month. If you choose to enter a specific day, you also enter the day number in the month. The usual payment date for second and subsequent calendar records will then be the same day number for each month or the last day of each month as appropriate. In the case of specifying a pay date of 30th, this will be treated as the 28th or 29th for February.
Definition of End of First Pay Period Covered	This option will depend on the pay frequency. For weekly-based payrolls, you define the end date of the first period of the tax year. For monthly-based payrolls, you identify which month is being paid in the first pay period of the tax year.

Calendar Form

Box	Description
Tax Year	Defaults to the current tax year. You can select a different tax year from the list to display details of it's calendar.
Period	The number of the period currently selected in the grid.
Start Date	The start date of the period currently selected in the grid. You can amend the start date for the first period only. Other period start dates will be amended accordingly by the application; but you cannot amend start dates for the subsequent periods directly.
End Date	The end date of the period currently selected in the grid. You can amend this provided it is within the scope of the pay frequency.
Usual Pay Date	The usual pay date of the period currently selected in the grid. You can amend this provided it is within the period range. A warning is displayed if you select a Saturday or Sunday.
Actual Pay Date	The actual pay date for the period. This is updated automatically by the application when the Calculation command is used for that period.
Updated	An indication of whether the Update command has been used for the period.