Payroll calendar
A payroll calendar is an employer’s published schedule of pay periods, pay dates, and processing deadlines for the year.
2026 and 2027 payroll calendars
Pay dates, bank file dates and federal deposit due dates, by pay schedule:
A payroll policy defines the pay frequency, while the calendar defines who must do what and by when. Coverage should run the full year, including bank holidays, employer closures, quarter boundaries, year-end deadlines, benefit events, and high-volume periods. Publish the coming year before it starts, and reissue the calendar whenever a pay date moves. The finished calendar should reach administrators, time-approving managers, and support, because a deadline hidden in an implementation email will eventually be missed.
What belongs on a payroll calendar?
Pay frequency sets how many pay dates the year contains, and so how often the calendar repeats its deadlines. A biweekly year has two three-paycheck months, and 27 pay dates in years where the cycle lands that way. Benefit deductions have to be mapped onto that rhythm, because premiums are often monthly while payroll is not. State pay-frequency laws also constrain pay frequency, so confirm the rules for each work location before publishing. Lag payroll pays each period after it closes, leaving time to approve hours before the run.
| ELEMENT | WHAT IT SETS |
|---|---|
| Pay group | The employees processed together under shared settings such as pay frequency and approval path |
| Pay frequency | Pay dates in a typical year: weekly 52, biweekly 26, semimonthly 24, monthly 12 |
| Pay period and pay date | The start and end dates of each period, and the scheduled pay date |
| Payroll cutoff | Input, review, approval, and funding deadlines; a later change misses the current run |
| Bank holidays | Federal Reserve closed days; an affected pay date usually moves earlier |
| Lag payroll | Days from period end to pay date |
General information, not legal or tax advice. Apply current federal and state rules with qualified guidance.