Run off-cycle payroll

An off-cycle payroll run is any payroll run that falls outside of your company’s regular pay schedule. Some example situations include:

• Paying out a bonus

• Issuing payment to an employee who was missed in the regular payroll

• Processing final pay or severance for a departing employee

Off-cycle payrolls are flexible and designed to help you handle these kinds of one-off situations smoothly.

Important! The Cycle Start Date for your off-cycle must be after the Cycle End Date of your last regular payroll. 

For example, if your last regular payroll run started on June 1 and ended on June 15, then your off-cycle must start on June 16 or later. If you just need to record pay amounts, then you can set the cycle start and end date as the same date. In the example above, you might set both the cycle start and end dates as June 16th.

Set up your off-cycle payroll run

1. In your navigation bar, go to Payroll.

2. On Step 1: Paygroup, select the relevant pay group and click Next. If you only have one pay group, it will be automatically selected for you.

3. On Step 2: Pay dates, enter your pay cycle details:

• First day of pay cycle and Last day of pay cycle: Adjust as needed.
  • No two payrolls can have the same cycle end date. The last day of the pay cycle will automatically roll back by a day to prevent any conflicts with your next normal pay run. 
  • If you require multiple off-cycle runs, each run should have the same First day of pay cycle, with the Last day of pay cycle increasing by one day in each off-cycle run. For example, if your first run has a Last day of pay cycle of September 1, then your second run would have Last day of pay cycle of September 2, and so on.
• Pay date: Adjust the pay date if you'd like to pay your employees sooner. The default pay date is based on your regular payroll schedule.
  • You need to approve payroll three (3) business days prior to the desired pay date by 12pm ET if employees are paid using direct deposit. If a Statutory Holiday falls within the processing time, you will need to account for this by processing 1 business day earlier to retain your desired pay date. For more information, see Canada bank holidays and processing deadlines.
• Off-cycle: Set the toggle to Yes.

4. Add or remove any applicable deductions or benefits by clicking Select deductions.

• Deductions and benefits are automatically withheld on regular payrolls. However, you must manually indicate if you need any deductions withheld within an off-cycle payroll.  
• Deductions and benefits refer to extra amounts like medical benefits. Payroll taxes are still calculated as normal.

5. Click Next.

 

Pay employees in an off-cycle payroll run

Now you can run Payroll as normal. The only difference is the basic exemption option on the Hours step.

In the table, uncheck the box to indicate that you do not want to apply the annual basic Canada Pension Plan (CPP)/Quebec Pension Plan (QPP) exemption for the desired employee. By default, the box will be checked for an off-cycle.

Understanding the Basic Exemption option in an off-cycle payroll

• The exemption should be applied if you are running an off-cycle payroll to make up for an employee’s missed payroll or if you are running a prorated off-cycle payroll for a mid-cycle hire or a mid-cycle termination.
• Running an off-cycle payroll, in addition to a regular payroll with the Basic Exemption box checked in both payrolls, can result in the employee underpaying CPP/QPP. 
• CPP/QPP contributions for eligible employees will still be calculated when the Basic Exemption box is unchecked. However, the annual exemption amounts will not be applied. 

  • For example, if an employee is paid weekly, the annual basic CPP exemption amount of $3,500 will be divided by 52 pay periods, totalling $67.30 per pay period. Based on a sample gross pensionable income of $1,000, the employee’s CPP contributions per pay period will be calculated as follows:

    Gross pensionable income	Basic exemption	CPP rate	CPP contribution for the period*
    $1000	$67.30	5.70%	$53.16
    $1000	$0 (if you uncheck the box)	5.70%	$57.00

    *CPP contribution = (Gross pensionable income - Basic exemption per period) x CPP rate of 5.70%

    If you need a refresher on how to enter employee pay please refer to this helpful article. 

After you have approved your payroll, you are all set. After this off-cycle run is finalized, you will be able to run your next regular payroll. 

FAQs: Run an off-cycle payroll 

• In Wagepoint, you cannot run a payroll with a cycle date that starts before the cycle end date of the last regular payroll you ran.
• No, you will still be able to process your normal payroll without issue.
• This is because your off-cycle payroll is not finalized yet. Your payroll will finalize itself by 12:00 Noon EST 3 days before the selected pay date. If you need it finalized sooner reach out to us by email at [e-mail]
• The fees for an off-cycle payroll are the same as the fees for processing a regular payroll.
• An employee must be active to have a payroll run for them. If an employee is terminated, you will either need to undo their termination (if an ROE has NOT been submitted) or rehire them (If an ROE has been submitted) before you can run a payroll for them.