Flipping an employee from cheque to direct deposit

[PuzzledbyPayroll]

I am flipping my employees from cheque to direct deposit. They are paid every other Friday and the pay period normally covers 10 days (cuts off one day before pay day). See the calendar dates below. I want to keep that pay schedule but the pay period now needs to cut off sooner to allow the 2 days extra processing time for direct deposit. In effect, there will be an "interim" pay period of 8 days. When I updated the pay schedule to end on July 30, QuickBooks kept the ten-day pay period and set the pay period from July 17 to July 30 but the employees have already been paid for July 17 and 18. I need to create a custom pay schedule that is only 8 days for the interim period. Is that possible? How do you change employees from cheque to direct deposit and allow for the extra processing time?

Last pay period Jul 5 – Jul 18 > paid Jul 19 (Friday to Thursday–10 days, run cheques Friday) Interim pay period Jul 19 – Jul 30 > paid Aug 2 (Fri to Tuesday–8 days, submit Wed; paid Friday) New pay period Jul 31 – Aug 13 > paid Aug 16 (Wed to Tues–10 days; submit Wednesday)

[RenjolynC]

Hi PuzzledbyPayroll,

You can edit or create a new pay schedule for the pay period by following these steps:

1. Click the Gear icon located in the upper right-hand corner.
2. Under Your Company, click Payroll Settings.
3. Click Pay Schedules under Payroll and Services.
4. Click the Edit link or select the Create button.
5. Choose the pay period from the drop-down list and select the date of the pay date.
6. Click OK.

Then, go to the employee's page and assign the pay schedule to the employee.

To change the payment method for this period, you can go to the Run Payroll page. Then, click the Payment method icon and choose Cheque.

Here's a sample screenshot of what it looks like:

If you need more help with QuickBooks Payroll, please let us know. Thanks. 

[PuzzledbyPayroll]

Thank you for the detailed instructions RenjolynC! I did those precise steps, which is when QuickBooks included the two paid days in the pay period to maintain the ten-day window. The issue is that the "interim" pay period does not follow the actual schedule. I'm thinking that I could create a new pay schedule starting July 31-Aug 13 but that still doesn't solve the interim pay period. There is no daily schedule, there is no manual setting, there is no ability to override the dates.

[PuzzledbyPayroll]

Perhaps I simply leave the pay period as July 17 - July 30. It will only be "wrong" for that period, which is the problematic interim period. I won't include the hours for the two paid days obviously and then going forward all the dates are correct. The overlap in the pay schedule is easily identified as the point at which the employees changed to direct deposit. I don't see any other way that QuickBooks can manage it mathematically. Thanks again for your input!