Defining Frequency Rules

Recurring elements may require frequency rules to determine in which pay periods they should process. For example, a monthly deduction might be processed in the third period of the month for weekly-paid employees and in the second period of the month for employees paid on a semi-monthly basis.

It is possible to set frequency rules to process once- or twice-yearly deductions on monthly, quarterly, or semi-annual payrolls. These rules' periods then refer to periods within a year (months, quarters or half years) instead or periods within a month. However, for infrequent deductions, you may prefer to define them as nonrecurring and use BEE to make entries when required.

Use the Frequency Rules window to define or change an element's frequency rules at any time.

US and Canada Payroll only: Use the Deduction form to define or change a deduction's frequency rules.

Mexico only: Use the Element Design Wizard to define or change a deduction's frequency rules.

arrow icon   To define frequency rules:

  1. Select the name of the payroll for which you want to define frequency rules.

  2. In the Date field, you can override the default date that the payroll run uses to assess the frequency rule, if required.

    For example, suppose you are defining frequency rules for a monthly deduction. If you select Effective Date for a Weekly payroll and check Processing Period 1, the payroll run only takes the deduction if the run's effective date is in the first week of the month.

  3. Check the boxes for the processing period or periods in which you want the element to process for each payroll.

    For example, if you want a monthly deduction to process in the second week of the month for a weekly payroll, check the box under 2 for that payroll.

    Notice that some periods are not available for all payrolls. For example, a bi-weekly payroll can only have, at most, three periods a month, so periods 4, 5, and 6 are not relevant to this payroll.