A business that processes transactions on time gains value in terms of reliability and reputation. Besides those sale/purchase matters, there’s another transaction section that bears equal importance. Payroll management is crucial as the right approach can keep both employees and employers happy while a wrong step might disturb everything at hand. And apart from the number of salaries and hikes, a payroll schedule is something you should plan wisely.
Certain regulations require you to affix a payroll schedule for a particular type of employee. Besides, you can choose from four common options to define the right payout times.
- Weekly: Often the most disliked by business owners, it requires you to release paychecks every week, especially if you have hourly employees. While it can make the staff happy but businesses have to incur extra processing costs.
- Bi-weekly: Another option for hourly workers, bi-weekly is relatively cost-effective than the first one. With 52 weeks, you have to send out 26 paychecks in a calendar year. However, there won’t be fixed payout dates and some months might see three paychecks.
- Semi-monthly: This option sounds similar to the bi-weekly one. But there’s a core difference. In a semi-monthly schedule, paychecks are distributed twice every month on fixed dates. This makes it 24 paychecks every year.
- Monthly: Often suitable for contract-based staff, the monthly schedule involves 12 paychecks in a year, once every month on a fixed date.
Choosing the Right Payroll Schedule
Bi-weekly and semi-monthly might seem to be the most obvious choices for hourly and salaried employees respectively. But the final choice depends on your business and financial structure. Hiring accounting payroll services from Sydney can help you manage finances, accounting, and payroll in the best way possible.