Understanding Bi-Weekly and Semi-Monthly Payrolls Career Advice

Since the number of days in a month varies, some pay checks may be smaller or larger than the others. For instance, in the month of February, the second paycheck would cover only 13 or 14 days when in the rest of the months, it covers 15 or 16 https://adprun.net/10-benefits-of-having-professional-bookkeeping/ days. Depending on whether you are a salaried, permanent employee, the total yearly salary may be divided into 24 checks by the employer. An exploration into some of the key differences between a bi-weekly and a semi-monthly payroll schedule.

Because you must run payroll on a different day of the week, you could lose track of your responsibility. To calculate biweekly pay for an hourly employee, multiply the number of hours worked in a two-week period by the hourly rate. If employees want to check their hourly rate based on their gross pay, they simply divide the payment amount by the total number of hours worked.

Bi-Weekly Vs. Bi-Monthly Paychecks

Reporting of time in TimeClock Plus is still required for non-exempt employees. TimeClock Plus includes fields to track time off as well as time worked for the reasons outlined below. Annual leave will not be accrued with the August 12th bridge payment, but it will be doubled in the following Quicken Estate and Trust Fiduciary Accounting Templates FAQs ACTEC August 26th pay. University retirement contributions will not be made on the bridge payment. When you add these parts together, you get an adverb that means occurring every two weeks or every other week. K.A. Francis has been a freelance and small business owner for 20 years.

• In many states, there are regulations about how often the employees need to be paid.
• Because you run payroll less for semimonthly frequencies than biweekly, your employees’ paychecks will be greater.
• There are a number of factors to consider, including your company’s industry and average wages.
• In general, bi-weekly payrolls are used by companies that pay their employees a low to average hourly wage.
• The only thing that matters here is the amount in the check and how frequently you get the same.
• It can be easy to confuse bi-weekly and semi-monthly payroll schedules, however, the key difference between the two lies in how often payment occurs.

Running a semi-monthly pay for non-exempt employees can be challenging. It is significantly different from the more common bi-weekly payroll system. But before detailing how to structure semi-monthly pay for your company, it’s first important to clearly understand what semi-monthly pay means. If you contribute a flat dollar amount each pay period to TIAA you may want to consider changing the amount.

How Is Biweekly Pay Calculated?

She has been writing about personal finance and budgeting since 2008. She taught Accounting, Management, Marketing and Business Law at WV Business College and Belmont College and holds a BA and an MAED in Education and Training. Unless your state laws tell you otherwise, don’t feel like you’re locked into the same system for everyone. You might have some wiggle room to tailor your approach based on employee type.

Knowing the difference between biweekly vs. semimonthly payroll can prevent financial setbacks, keep the business legally compliant, and more. In payroll processing, the terms “biweekly pay” and “semimonthly pay” are not synonymous. When employees are paid on a semimonthly basis, they’re paid twice a month regardless of how many weeks there are.

The Business Owner’s Guide To Biweekly And Semi-Monthly Payroll

There’s less room for errors and more breathing room in your payroll schedule with all your personnel data, hourly data, and payroll processing in a single system. Join us for a live webinar all about how BambooHR seamlessly supports your hourly payroll process. Before making any decision about how often you pay employees, check your state’s payday requirements from the DOL as some states require more frequent pay intervals.

Employees should carefully consider their personal situations and take any necessary action to avoid personal financial miscalculations. Picking between bi-weekly and bi-monthly payroll periods is really up to the business. From biweekly to semi-monthly pay, there are plenty of options out there.

What Are The Benefits Of Bi-Weekly Payroll?

The key difference between biweekly and semi-monthly pay lies in how often pay dates occur. Biweekly pay dates occur every other week, and semi-monthly pay is paid out on two specific dates a month (e.g. every 5th and 20th of the month). However, semimonthly payroll schedules also have their disadvantages. Before choosing, it’s important to know that states regulate how often you must pay employees. You might not be able to use biweekly pay or semimonthly pay frequencies in certain states.