When to use a one off pay
If you need to pay and employee or employees a payment outside of your normal pay cycle, you can create a one off pay period to do this.
We recommend only using one off pays when you really need to - if payments can simply be included in your next normal pay run, that is usually a much easier option for you.
Using a one off pay can be a good way to correct an underpayment from a pay run, for example if you've missed a payment to an employee and you really don't want them to need to wait until the next pay day.
If you're needing to make a bonus or other irregular payment to an employee we'd typically recommend just including that in your normal pay cycle.
If you're unsure about whether or not a one off pay is right for you, feel free to contact our Support Team.
One off pay period differences
One off pay periods act a bit differently to recurring periods: they are designed with the intent of making an additional payment to an employee outside of a normal pay cycle and as such assume that a 'normal' pay period has already occurred.
One off pay periods do not accrue any leave entitlements for employees with standard hours, because they are specifically designed only to pay for additional payments outside of a normal pay cycle.
If your employee is set to varied hours, they will accrue leave from hours paid in one off pay periods.
If your employee has recurring deductions, they will not be applied to a one off pay period.
If your employee has a student loan tax code, the minimum repayment threshold will not be recognised and student loan deductions will apply to the full gross value.
Create a one off pay
On your computer (PaySauce on the web)
Go to Run a Pay and click the 'new period' button in the top right, and then work through the following settings:
Choose the appropriate frequency in 'period type'. The frequency is used to calculate PAYE rates.
Set the start date of the one off period.
Enter a 'group name' and 'name' if you want to record something - otherwise it will just appear in your records with the period dates.
Select the appropriate costing template if relevant.
Set 'is recurring' to 'no'. You will see the information text about a one off period display.
For the setting 'If payment day falls on a non-business day' select either 'pay after' or 'pay before'. This won't be relevant for your one off pay period.
In the 'payment date' field, set the date you want to make the payment. This is the pay day for the one off period.
For 'pay card import' select no.
Select how you want to add employees to the one off pay. All will add all of your current employees. If you choose 'selected' you can tick the box next to the name of the employees that you want to add to the period.
Click Ok at the bottom when you're done with the configuration of the one off pay.
Now that you have created your additional pay period, you can change between periods by clicking on the down arrow to the left of the pay period dates.
If you need to edit your pay period after you have created it, you can click on the pencil edit icon.
If you wish to delete the period, you can click on the cross icon.
Creating and editing payments in your one off pay
You can now proceed as normal to set up the details of your one off pay. Your pay run will look the same as normal, but when you close it another period will not be generated.
If you are making one off changes to your employee's settings, ensure that you check the option for 'apply changes to this pay run only' when updating their payments in the pay run.
In particular it is common for normal salary or wages to be removed from the pay run for the one off pay, but if you don't check the 'apply changes to this pay run only' you are permanently saving that change to your employee's settings.
If you want more info on how to load or update specific payments, you might want to check out some of the other articles.