Payroll Management Software
3 min read

Change payday for Christmas (or any other month!) 🎄

Harshita Kumbhar
December 15, 2022

With Christmas just around the corner, People and Finance teams across the UK are up to their necks in important payroll changes. Be it bonuses, reimbursements, or commissions; there's plenty to take care of before everyone is off for the holidays. And when you consider the cost of Christmas festivities, it’s easy to see why many companies choose to pay their employees early in December.

Change your pay date directly in Pento

Pento customers can change their pay date for any month, and this applies to fortnightly payrolls too. Simply update your current pay date with a new one, and we'll take care of the rest. Here’s how it looks when you make the change:

Why this is a Game-Changer:

Many companies choose to pay their employees early in December to support their teams’ financial planning and minimise disruption from any payroll stakeholder holidays. Here’s what Alex, Senior People Operations Partner at Cuvva had to say:

December can be an expensive month for everyone. I think it is always good to give your team their December pay early so they can pay for travel, buy last minute Christmas gifts or splash out on festive socials.

From a practical point of view, lots of team members take time off in December to have an extended break. This can mean key payroll stakeholders might be on annual leave around the usual payroll date at the end of the month. So it’s good to get everything signed off and completed early, if possible.

As well as impacting your team’s cash flow, changing your pay dates also impacts the people running payroll in People and Finance teams. 

Impact on People and Finance teams

Running payroll in December can be very hectic and tiring. Before joining Pento, many of our customers were using payroll outsourcing companies — these are notorious for having extremely early, inflexible deadlines for payroll changes. Some even set a cut-off date of the 5th of the month!

For People and Finance teams, this causes a few problems:

  • You have to start planning Christmas bonuses as early as September.
  • You need to be sensitive around managing employee expectations for reimbursing expenses and paying commissions.
  • Commercial teams may only receive December bonuses in their January pay, causing cash flow issues.

Extending pay date changes beyond December

While the industry norm is to allow a pay date change only for December, we've taken this step further.

Through talking to our customers, we discovered that many teams want more flexibility and control over their payroll. For example, some companies pay employees early in January and February too, to avoid a long gap between pay dates and support employee cash flow. Doing this with a payroll outsourcing provider would mean more early deadlines, additional fees, and even contractual changes.

By changing pay dates in Pento, our customers can save time, get more flexibility on their payroll, and support their employees in need.

How Pento customers are using the pay date change feature

We’re committed to delivering an exceptional payroll experience and proud to enable our customers to support their teams. Check out the heartwarming reaction from Cuvva's team when they heard that their People team were moving pay dates for December, January, and February. And to learn how changing pay dates would affect Universal Credit or FPS, read our help article.

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