Payroll Period
A payroll period is one dated pay window inside a cycle: 1 July to 31 July, paid on 1 August. The payroll run takes its dates from the cycle, and every other screen that needs to know what a period means takes them from here. Both have to exist.
What it is for
This screen answers a question that comes up all over the system: somebody has typed a pay period on a document, so what dates does it actually mean.
Employee Overtime, Employee Payroll Loan and Leave Encashment all ask that question, and all of them look the answer up on this record, under the cycle named here. The payroll run itself reads the copy of the calendar held on the Payroll Cycle. So the same calendar is needed in both places, and a client who builds it on the cycle only will find the payroll runs perfectly while overtime and loans refuse to process.
Two things follow that are worth saying before a client starts typing.
A period that does not exist produces nothing. The payroll run for a month with no period line simply has no window to work in, and the other screens stop with a message naming the period they could not find. Neither is a system fault, and neither is obvious on screen.
A period code is only unique inside its cycle. A monthly cycle and a weekly cycle can both carry a period called 010726, which is why every screen that looks a period up also carries the cycle. Do not rely on the code alone to identify a period.
The grid is the calendar. You can type the lines, and the bulk layout tool lives on the Payroll Cycle screen under Generate Period, which is the easier way to build twelve months at once.
Every field, in plain words
Basic Data
| Field | What it means | What to put in it | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Payroll Period | The code for this period record | FY2627 for a record holding one financial year of periods | Required |
| Name | How the record reads in a list | Monthly periods FY 2026-27 | Required |
| Pay Cycle | The cycle these periods belong to | MONTHLY | Required. Pick from the list. It is what makes a period code unambiguous |
| Number of Periods | How many period lines this record is meant to carry | 12 | Required |
| Date From | The day the first period starts | 01-Jul-2026 | Required |
| Date Payment | The day the first period is paid | 01-Aug-2026 | Required |
| Block | Stops the record being picked | Leave it clear | Do not block a record whose periods are still being used |
Periods Lines
| Field | What it means | What to put in it | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Line # | The line number | Fills itself | Leave it |
| Pay Period | The code for this one period, the same code that is typed on an overtime or a loan document | 010726 | Required. Use the same codes as the matching lines on the cycle |
| Date From | The first day of the period | 01-Jul-2026 | |
| Date To | The last day of the period | 31-Jul-2026 | The loan screens treat an instalment as collectable once it falls on or before this date |
| Date Payment | The day the money is paid | 01-Aug-2026 |
Period lines produced automatically on this screen always step one month at a time, whatever the cycle frequency says. For a weekly or quarterly cycle, build the lines on the Payroll Cycle with Generate Period, which follows the frequency, and copy the same codes and dates here.
How to configure it
- Build the calendar on the Payroll Cycle first with Generate Period, so you have the codes and dates in front of you.
- Open this screen and create a record per cycle per year. Code
FY2627, name Monthly periods FY 2026-27, pay cycleMONTHLY. - Set Number of Periods to 12, Date From to 01-Jul-2026 and Date Payment to 01-Aug-2026.
- On the Periods Lines tab enter the twelve lines with the same period codes and the same dates as the cycle carries. They must agree, because one is read by the payroll run and the other by the overtime and loan screens.
- Save, and check one period by opening Employee Overtime and picking it. If the dates come back, the lookup works.
Scenarios
"Overtime will not process and says the pay period was not found"
The period exists on the cycle but not here. Add the line to this record, under the right cycle, with exactly the code the overtime document is using.
"We are starting a new financial year"
Extend the cycle with Generate Period, then create a new Payroll Period record for the new year, or add the new lines to the existing one. Do both before the first run of July, because the run needs the cycle line and the overtime and loan screens need this one.
"We pay the workers weekly and the staff monthly"
One Payroll Period record per cycle. The weekly record names the weekly cycle and carries 52 lines, the monthly one names the monthly cycle and carries 12. The two can hold the same period codes without clashing, because the cycle tells them apart.
What it is connected to
- Needs a Payroll Cycle to belong to.
- Read by Employee Overtime, Employee Payroll Loan and Leave Encashment whenever they have to turn a period code into dates.
- The payroll run reads the period lines on the cycle, not this record. Keep the two in step.
- Changing a period end date after a run has been produced changes nothing already produced, and it will change which loan instalments the next run collects.
If something looks wrong
- "It says the pay period was not found, check the Payroll Period document of this payroll cycle" - exactly what it says. This record has no line with that code under that cycle.
- "The payroll run gave us nothing for August" - the Payroll Cycle has no period line for August. The run reads the cycle, so adding the line only here will not fix it.
- "The same period code exists twice" - two records under the same cycle hold the same code. Keep one record per cycle per year and the codes unique inside it.
- "A loan instalment was not collected this month" - the instalment date falls after the Date To of the period being run. It will be collected in the period that covers it.