Pay date
The date funds are released to employees, typically a few business days after the pay period ends.
The pay date is the calendar date funds are released to employees — typically a few business days after the pay period ends to allow time for time-card collection, payroll processing, and ACH settlement. The federal Office of Personnel Management's standard pay date is the second Thursday following the close of each biweekly pay period; many private employers shift the pay date to the following Friday for cultural alignment with the standard "payday is Friday" expectation.
Pay dates that land on a weekend or one of the eleven observed federal holidays cannot be funded that day because the Federal Reserve and most U.S. banks are closed. The standard small-business convention — and the rule used in every schedule on this site — is to shift the pay date earlier (to the prior business day) so employees never wait. The opposite shift (moving the date later) is occasionally used by large employers with a fixed-payday-of-the-week policy but is uncommon outside that context.
The pay date drives several downstream payroll mechanics: the IRS semi-weekly or monthly deposit deadline, the per-pay-period deduction calculation, the W-2 reporting period for end-of-year wages, and the cash-flow draw from the employer's bank account. Document the pay date explicitly on every pay stub.