BrightPay facilitates the switching of an employee’s pay frequency should this be required.

Within the Payroll utility:

• Select the current open pay period on the payment schedule bar
   
• Click 'More' on the menu toolbar, followed by 'Switch Employee(s) Payment Schedule...'

• Select the employee(s) you wish to switch and press 'Continue'
   
• Select the Schedule you wish to switch the employee(s) to

• If you wish to update the employees’ basic pay amounts, also tick this option
   

• Then select 'Switch Schedule' 

If you currently have no employees in the pay schedule required, you will first need to create a new schedule for that pay frequency. You can do this by going to 'Schedules' and create a new schedule:

• Select the period end date that you want the first period to end on and choose the pay date for this frequency:

• Click on Preview. A list of dates for the schedule will then appear for your review
   
• Next, 'Assign Employees' > Create Schedule

• Once the new pay frequency schedule has been created, you can go to More > Switch Employee(s) Payment Schedule and switch the employee(s) to the required pay frequency

Important Note: Care should be taken that pay frequencies are aligned when switching an employee from one pay frequency to another.

If the original pay frequency isn’t aligned with the selected pay frequency, BrightPay will notify you of this:

For example:

Weekly paid employees should only be switched to a monthly pay frequency when the week ending date in the current open weekly pay period is in line with the month you are switching to. 

If the period end dates do not line up, ie the current pay schedule has already used some days into the period you wish to switch to, then you will need to wait until the periods line with the period you wish to switch the employee to.

If you wish to pay 1 or more employee(s) on a different pay date to what is set up in the schedule, you can use the 'Batch set pay date' option.

Only 1 payment can be made to an employee within a pay period. It is not possible to use the same period on the schedule for multiple payments.

Note: after the employee(s) have been switched to the new schedule, the old schedule will still remain as a separate line with the Payroll section. Do not delete the old schedule as you may need this for auditing or correction purposes in the future. If no employees are still on the old schedule, when you import into the new tax year, this old schedule will not carry forward - but do not remove it in the current tax year if employees have been processed using this schedule.

When switching an employee's payment frequency, you will also need to switch their pension group (if they are in the scheme). To do this, ensure that a pension scheme has been set up on BrightPay for this payment frequency, then go to the employee's Automatic enrolment section and chose 'Switch to a Different Scheme'. BrightPay will default the enrolment date to the first date on the new payment schedule you have moved them to. Select the new scheme/group from the dropdown list and tax relief method, then press 'Continue'. An enrolment summary will appear within the Pensions section - this will need sending to the pension provider to inform them that they have moved to this group.