BrightPay doesn’t currently offer a specific “bi-annual” (twice per year) pay schedule.

The available options are weekly, fortnightly, four-weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual. If you need to pay employees only twice a year, the best solution is to use the quarterly payroll schedule and process payroll only in the two quarters when payments are made.

Here’s how you can do this:

Set Up a Quarterly Payroll Schedule:

When you create your employer in BrightPay, select quarterly as the pay frequency.

Process Payroll for the Two Payment Quarters:

Run payroll as usual for the two quarters when you need to pay your employees.

Handle the Other Quarters with No Payments:

For the two quarters where no payment is due, you have two options:

Change the amounts on the payslips to zero, finalise them, and send the zero-value FPS to HMRC.

Alternatively, finalise the payslips with zero amounts but do not send the FPS. Instead, submit an Employer Payment Submission (EPS) to HMRC to declare no payments for that period. This will help you avoid reminders or penalties from HMRC.

**Please note:** 

There isn’t a way to set up a custom pay schedule for exactly two payments per year, so using the quarterly schedule with nil submissions for the unused quarters is the recommended workaround.