“Show me the money!” It’s more than a funny movie line Tom Cruise yelled in Jerry Maguire; it’s the ultimate motivation for almost all employees. No matter how much your employees (or you) love your job, it’s the paycheck that keeps them coming back. Your payroll schedule influences employee loyalty, your business’s cash flow, payroll costs and even payroll accuracy.
A payroll calendar helps you plan out pay periods and paydays. We’ve created downloadable sample payroll calendar templates for weekly, biweekly, bimonthly and monthly payroll to help you stay on track easily. We’ve also sat down with the experts to get the inside scoop on the far-reaching ramifications of which payroll period you choose for your business.
Featured Partners
1
Gusto
Yes
Yes
$49 per month plus $6 per user
2
SurePayroll
Yes
Yes
$29 per month plus $6 per user
3
Justworks
Yes
Yes
$59 per month per employee ($49 per month after 50+ employees)
4
Paychex
Yes
Yes
Custom
What’s the Best Payroll Schedule?
The most common payroll periods are weekly, biweekly, bimonthly and monthly, although each has specific best use cases, benefits and downsides.
“There’s not necessarily a one-size-fits-all approach, as not all small businesses are created equal,” says Rushi Patel, CRO and co-founder of small business teams management system Homebase. “A bed-and-breakfast with a busy season will have a different cash flow and payroll needs than a restaurant that experiences consistent, year-round traffic.”
The right payroll schedule for your business will differ from that of others, even from your competitors. Patel suggests that “tech tools can help small businesses determine the best payroll schedule for their need. For example, AI can analyze patterns in your revenue, expenses and staffing to suggest the ideal payroll schedule for your business.” Then, you can use that information to help you select the best HR, payroll and teams management software or completely outsource your payroll.
Here’s a breakdown of each of the most common payroll frequencies, along with downloadable sample calendars.
Weekly Payroll Period Calendar
Weekly payroll means paying your employees once per week. The exact day you choose for payday is up to you, but traditionally it is on a Friday, right before employees are off for the weekend. Similarly, you can set your payweek schedule to fit your needs.
For some businesses, that means a workweek that runs Saturday to Friday. For others, it might mean Sunday to Saturday or even Friday to Thursday. Likewise, the delay between work completion and pay varies. Most companies will have a delay between the end of the workweek and payday. While a week’s delay is most popular, some have as little as a single day’s delay.
| Weekly Payroll Pros | Weekly Payroll Cons |
|---|---|
| • Raises employee morale
• Helps employees with cash flow and keeping up to date on their bills
• Often easiest to use when laws and regulations affecting how quickly employees must be paid are in play
• Simplifies calculating overtime vs. regular hours worked in a pay period | • Running payroll every week adds payroll costs compared to less frequent runs
• Increases the risk of errors due to the frequency of tasks
• Could lead to cash flow problems |
When to Use Weekly Payroll Periods
- If you have a variable workforce, such as more part-time workers with fluctuating hours than regular full-time employees, weekly payroll may be the best option, especially when a recent study found 62% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.
- Your industry traditionally uses weekly pay. The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that weekly pay is most popular among construction companies, with mining, logging and manufacturing industries also showing heavy weekly pay adoption.
- Most of your workers are hourly.
When to Avoid Weekly Payroll Periods
- If your payroll software charges per run or caps the max number of payroll runs in a specific time frame, weekly payroll may become cost-prohibitive.
- If your business typically receives payments from customers only at certain times of the month, paying employees weekly may put a strain on your cash reserves.
- Most of your employees are on salary.
- You have limited HR staff to run payroll so frequently.
2025 Weekly Payroll Calendar Template Downloads
Biweekly Payroll Period Calendar
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Employment Statistics survey (CES), 43% of businesses use a biweekly pay schedule. It’s often seen as a happy medium between an employee’s desire to be paid quickly and an employer’s need to reduce payroll administrative costs, especially if you have a large number of non-exempt employees.
“Running payroll biweekly instead of weekly means fewer processing fees, fewer tax deposit deadlines and fewer chances for errors,” says Paul Miller, managing partner and CPA at New York accounting firm Miller & Co. LLP. “Over time, that can add up to real savings, especially for small businesses with tight margins.”
| Biweekly Payroll Pros | Biweekly Payroll Cons |
|---|---|
| • Reduced payroll administration costs
• Balances employee and employer needs
• Employee morale often gets a boost from three-paycheck months being perceived almost as a bonus | • Cash flow may be a problem during three-paycheck months
• Generally disliked by part-time staff
• While less expensive than weekly payroll administration, 26 pay periods a year can still be time-consuming and expensive |
When to Use Biweekly Payroll Periods
- When you have mostly full-time staff.
- If you need to reduce your costs compared to running weekly payroll.
- You have staff with frequent overtime and need to keep pay cycles and workweeks synchronized.
When to Avoid Biweekly Payroll Periods
- Biweekly payroll generally has two months a year with a third paycheck. For some companies, that is a strain on cash flow to support the extra paycheck during those months.
- If you have a large number of part-time or seasonal employees.
- Most of your employees are paid at or near the minimum wage. For low-wage earners, biweekly pay may be a strain on their budgets, especially when they first start working.
2025 Biweekly Payroll Calendar Template Downloads
Bimonthly Payroll Period Calendar
While bimonthly payroll (or longer) can be beneficial for employers, it has downsides as well.
“Fewer payroll runs mean fewer deadlines for depositing taxes, which reduces the risk of late penalties,” Miller says. “On the flip side, if you stretch pay periods too far apart, especially for hourly workers, it could impact morale or even violate state labor laws.”
Many SMBs like the idea of eliminating three-paycheck months for administrative reasons. That can be a concern for hourly workers, but bimonthly payroll tends to be more popular for salaried employees, where checks are often the same every time. Most businesses using this method pay either on the 1st and 15th of each month or the 15th and last day of each month.
| Bimonthly Payroll Pros | Bimonthly Payroll Cons |
|---|---|
| • Simpler benefit payroll deduction calculations
• Predictable pay dates each month often help employees and employers budget more easily
• Works well for handling payroll for salaried employees | • Results in uneven paychecks for hourly workers
• Overtime calculations can be more complex as workweeks and pay periods aren’t aligned
• If employees have bills that mostly come due at the beginning of a month, they may have cash flow problems |
When to Use Bimonthly Payroll Periods
- You want to simplify benefit calculations, such as PTO and health insurance deductions.
- You need to avoid three-paycheck months.
- All of your staff are full time, and many are in salaried positions.
When to Avoid Bimonthly Payroll Periods
- Using bimonthly payroll with part-time employees can damage morale.
- You have employees working significant overtime hours, as pay cycles and workweeks do not align.
- You pay your employees in cash, as the amounts to have on hand could be quite high and require extra security.
2025 Bimonthly Payroll Calendar Template Downloads
Monthly Payroll Period Calendar
Running payroll only once a month may sound attractive on the surface, but most companies find it isn’t practical in most applications.
“Monthly payroll often looks clean on paper but doesn’t work in practice,” says Santiago Nestares, co-founder of AI-powered accounting software company DualEntry. “Companies end up doing off-cycle runs for bonuses, commissions or corrections, which defeats the purpose of having a simple monthly cadence.”
Most companies find that monthly payroll cycles work better for paying freelancers and independent contractors working under 1099s instead of traditionally employed staff.
| Monthly Payroll Pros | Monthly Payroll Cons |
|---|---|
| • Simplifies PTO accrual in many cases
• Could help cash flow issues for struggling companies
• Works well with freelance workers | • Often results in the need for off-cycle payroll runs that add to costs
• Can result in significant employee dissatisfaction
• May not be compliant with pay frequency regulations in some states
|
When to Use Monthly Payroll Periods
- If most of your staff are in higher-paying salaried positions, a monthly payroll is easier for staff to tolerate.
- Cash flow is a serious issue, and you’ve had to take out cash flow loans in the past to cover payroll.
- You have a large number of contract employees or freelancers.
When to Avoid Monthly Payroll Periods
- You have many hourly and part-time employees who may suffer a significant morale hit due to personal budgeting concerns related to monthly payroll.
- Monthly payroll can be a compliance issue, and payroll frequency laws in your location may forbid a monthlong gap between paychecks.
- Your HR and accounting staff have many other end-of-month tasks. While the frequency of payroll runs is low, it often results in a very busy end-of-month task set that can lead to errors and burnout.
2025 Monthly Payroll Calendar Template Downloads
How Does Payroll Schedule Affect My Business?
Just like your employees are juggling income versus when bills are due, your business needs to balance cash flow with payroll. How often you run payroll could make the difference between staying in business and losing everything.
Nestares explained the stakes to us, saying that “for SMBs, timing can matter a lot. If you pay employees at the end of the month but hire them at the beginning, that’s essentially a one-month interest-free loan from the employee to the business. In cash-strapped industries—like distribution, retail or manufacturing—that kind of float can be the difference between surviving and not.”
However, longer payroll periods also tend to create lower employee morale, and that can affect employee retention and productivity. For most small businesses, choosing a payroll cycle is a delicate balancing act between practicality and keeping quality employees.
Administrative Concerns Affecting Pay Schedules
Payroll can be time-consuming. Every decision affects how long payroll administration takes, how many staff members are needed to handle it, what costs are involved and how long you need between the end of a pay period and payday to complete all tasks.
Further complicating things is the need to stay compliant with employment and payroll laws on a local, state and federal level. You must stay compliant with regulations such as overtime pay rules under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and employee benefits like paid time off (PTO) or other qualified leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
Wage garnishments, pay raises (or cuts), sick time, employee benefits, taxes and reimbursements are just some of the factors affecting your payroll administration. Plus, the rules (both government-mandated and your own internal policies) often vary for full-time vs. part-time employees and hourly versus salaried staff.
Most small business owners find it beneficial to look into HR and payroll software. The best payroll services and payroll apps help reduce your workload by streamlining the process and often assist you in staying compliant.
What Day of the Week Should You Pay Your Employees?
While Friday is the most traditional day for payday, you can usually choose whatever day of the week you like to run payroll as a payday, as long as it doesn’t conflict with other payday rules. For most companies, it’s preferable to pick a weekday that is easy for employees to remember, rarely falls on a holiday and is a day most employees are in the office.
However, your pay period schedule choices are high-stakes.
“Payroll schedule decisions aren’t just HR choices,” Nestares says. “They impact finance, operations and employee trust.”
It’s also worth noting that if you issue paper checks, the day of the week may influence how quickly employees are able to cash or deposit their paychecks. For most workers, banks are closed by the time they get off work in the evening, so receiving pay on a Friday means it will be Saturday morning (for some banks) or Monday before they can deposit the check.
What Happens If Payday Falls on a Holiday?
Due to both employee morale and the need to avoid pushing pay frequency limits beyond the statutory requirements, such as Arizona’s requirement that paydays be no more than 16 days apart, most companies choose to pay a day early instead of the day after a holiday.
Should You Pay Your Employees With Direct Deposit, Paper Checks or Cash?
How you pay your employees is mostly up to you, but each method has benefits and risks. For example, if you pay cash, you have to provide security, withdraw a large sum, have it transported to your location and get signed receipts for each worker as they pick up their pay.
For paper checks, you gain an extra paper trail proving employees were paid, but you do so at the cost of the checks themselves, along with printing, sorting and either hand delivering or mailing them.
Direct deposit, while it is cost-effective, secure and reduces the costs of paper checks, can be prone to errors during setup, and some employees may not have traditional bank accounts.
A newer option is a payday debit card, where an account is set up for the employee and all pay is deposited directly to that account. The employee can transfer the pay to another account or spend from the card directly. Some of these cards support daily pay deposits as well.
Featured Partners
1
Gusto
Yes
Yes
$49 per month plus $6 per user
2
SurePayroll
Yes
Yes
$29 per month plus $6 per user
3
Justworks
Yes
Yes
$59 per month per employee ($49 per month after 50+ employees)
4
Paychex
Yes
Yes
Custom
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Which months have three pay periods?
Biweekly payroll generally results in two months each year that have three paychecks. Which months will vary based on the timing of the first paycheck of that year, but they are generally five to seven months apart. For 2025, if the first paycheck is January 3, the three-paycheck months will be January and August. If the first 2025 paycheck is January 10, the three-paycheck months will be May and October.
Can I change pay periods?
Yes, you can usually change pay periods at least once, but there are rules that must be followed. In general, the courts look at whether your pay period changes have a legitimate business purpose, are permanent, don’t violate labor laws or contracts, and if they are designed to delay wages or punish workers.
What are some common payroll mistakes to avoid?
Some of the most common payroll errors are misclassifying employees (independent contractors versus employees or exempt versus nonexempt), incorrect withholding, deduction errors, overtime miscalculations, ignoring garnishment orders, and missing or improper reporting to the IRS. A good HRIS (human resources information system) software package can help you avoid payroll errors and mistakes.
What are the different payroll cycles?
The most common payroll cycles are weekly, biweekly, bimonthly and monthly. However, some businesses occasionally pay daily or on demand in certain circumstances. For example, service staff may receive tip jar splits daily, or a business may use an on-demand pay provider to allow employees to withdraw earnings as needed with an earned pay access program.
Can I have more than one payroll cycle?
Yes, in most cases, you can use different payroll cycles for different groups of employees. That said, you can’t swap between payroll cycles for the same set of employees except for planned permanent changes. Many companies use one payroll cycle, such as weekly, for hourly employees and another payroll schedule, such as biweekly, for salaried employees. Likewise, a company might manage independent contractor payouts monthly while running bimonthly payroll for traditional employees.
What’s the best cheap payroll software?
There are plenty of payroll software programs, including great free payroll software for small businesses just starting out. If you have a budget for software, but still need to watch the bottom line, some of the best cheap payroll software includes Gusto and Square Payroll.
