Follow these detailed steps if you need to update your payroll schedules. Ideally, this is done a few months before the end of the calendar year.
Step 1: Download the payroll schedule template
Begin by downloading the Payroll Schedule Template. It's important to use a separate template for each payroll schedule your organization has, such as bi-weekly or monthly schedules. This ensures clarity and organization in managing multiple schedules.
Step 2: Fill out the template
Complete the Payroll Schedule Template with the following critical dates and details for each payroll period. Please review your final pay periods for the current year and ensure your new calendars pick up where they leave off. We’ll need only the pay dates you plan on processing donations for:
- Payroll Schedule Name: Include the name for each schedule, such as 'Company_USA Bi-Weekly Pay Schedule_2025'.
- Period End Date: IMPORTANT: This date should be set to the day before your payroll team needs to receive the payroll deduction file from Benevity, ensuring they have sufficient time to process this data. The deduction file will be ready the day after the Period End Date. For example, if your payroll team needs the deduction file on January 15th, 2025 then the Period End Date for that period should be January 14th, 2025.
- Client Pay Date: Indicate the actual date employees will receive their paychecks for this schedule.
- Client Pay Start and End Dates: These dates mark the start and end of the pay period from your organization’s perspective. They are crucial for your internal payroll processing and are typically included in the payroll deduction file.
Step 3: Verify date formatting and data accuracy
After filling out the template, double-check that all dates are correctly formatted (YYYY-MM-DD) and align with your organization's payroll calendar. Accuracy here prevents processing delays and ensures that employee contributions are deducted correctly.
Step 4: Inform internal teams and update automations
It is important to ensure all teams that support the payroll program are aware of the new dates, including any teams that support file transfer automations. You may need to work with your internal team to review any automations that will be picking files and ensure that they are configured for the year ahead. Specifically that your systems are configured to download the deduction file the day after the Period End Date for your new calendars.
Step 5: Submit the completed schedules
Once verified, save each completed template with the name of the schedule, e.g., 'Company_USA Bi-Weekly Pay Schedule 2025'. Submit these templates to the support team who will handle the upload to your site and confirm once active.