Payroll Feature Overview

This topic contains general Payroll features that are common to all native Payroll countries. For country-specific features, see the country section in this guide that your Dayforce instance is configured for.

Use the Payroll module in Dayforce to process payroll and pay your organization's employees accurately and promptly. You process payroll in Dayforce by pay period, pay group, and pay run:

• Pay period: The number of days between the start date and end date during which an employee is paid for each pay run. For example, an organization might process a weekly payroll for June 1 to June 7, and this weekly range is an example of one pay period. Pay periods aren’t always weekly: they can also be biweekly, semi-monthly, or monthly.
• Pay group: A group of employees who share the same pay-period frequency and the same due date when payroll must be approved and transmitted.
• Pay run: Contains the payroll details for a specific pay period for a pay group. You can think of a pay run as a combination of a specific pay group and pay period. For example, an administrator will process payroll for a pay run that is for a US hourly pay group for a pay period from June 1 to June 7.

During payroll processing, you should keep the following calendar dates in mind:

• Commit-by date: The date that your organization sets when you must finalize your payroll details so that payments, direct deposits, and check distribution can be processed.
• Impound date: After you commit your pay run, the date on which Dayforce transfers the funds for the pay run to the Dayforce bank account. Typically a few days prior to the actual pay date, the impound date is when the money to cover payroll and taxes is debited from the employer's account. After the funds are transferred, the Dayforce Back Office prepares, prints, and distributes the payroll reports and physical checks (if necessary) and transfers direct-deposit pay to employees.

The Payroll feature contains essential tabs to help you process your payroll, including Overview, Data Entry, Pay Run Management, and Archived Reports. The following table shows some of the tasks that you can complete in each main Payroll tab:

Common tasks to do in the Payroll feature and where to do them

I need to...	Where should I go?
Load a pay run View and filter lists of committed and uncommitted pay runs Perform the steps of processing my payroll, such as calculate, validate, and commit View existing statement messages or create statement messages Create an off-cycle pay run Run fixed-format or custom payroll reports	Payroll > Overview.
Load pay runs Manage and enter data changes for individual pay runs Perform the steps of processing my payroll, such as calculate, validate, and commit Calculate the pay for an employee or a subset of employees in an uncommitted pay group View existing statement messages or create statement messages Create an off-cycle pay run Create manual, onsite, or additional checks and process check entries Perform check-level overrides Run fixed-format or custom payroll reports View individual employees in a pay group and their earnings, deductions, and taxes in the timesheet slide-out panel and make adjustments by using quick entries Review pay-period summary and details Import and export items for individual pay runs	Pay Run Management Tab.
Enter one-time data changes (such as quick entries, adjustments, checks) across multiple pay runs, pay groups, and native payroll countries Import and export items for multiple pay runs Review pay-period summary and details	Data Entry Tab.
Access payroll reports from committed pay runs Narrow the source of the reports by pay period or pay-date range Filter archived reports	The Archived Reports Tab.

The Payroll feature contains many other functionalities that are vital in reviewing, adjusting, and processing your payroll. For a detailed look into what the feature has to offer, see The Payroll Feature.