Guides

Plain-English explainers, how-tos, and compliance walkthroughs for the small-business payroll questions that don't fit on a calendar.

Biweekly vs. semi-monthly payroll: which to choose

A side-by-side breakdown of the two cadences for U.S. small businesses, with the cash-flow, overtime, and offer-letter math that actually decides it.

Setting up payroll for your first hire

Every form, every registration, and every deadline you hit between offering the job and running your first payroll.

How to set your payroll anchor date

Picking PP1 of the year and the weekday rules that decide when every other paycheck lands.

How overtime is calculated under each pay frequency

The seven-day workweek rule under the FLSA, the regular-rate calculation, and how semi-monthly pay periods complicate it.

The 27-paycheck year explained

Why biweekly payroll occasionally produces 27 paychecks instead of 26, when it next happens, and how to plan salaries around it.

IRS payroll tax deposit schedule (semi-weekly vs. monthly)

How the IRS classifies you as a monthly or semi-weekly depositor, the lookback period rule, and the exact deposit deadlines for each pay date.

How to switch payroll frequency mid-year

The mechanical, legal, and morale-related steps to move from monthly to biweekly, biweekly to semi-monthly, or back the other direction.

Holiday pay policies for U.S. small businesses

Whether you have to pay for federal holidays (mostly no, but with major exceptions), and how the eleven federal holidays interact with your biweekly schedule.

Final-paycheck rules by state

The deadline to issue a final paycheck after termination or resignation in every U.S. state, with statutory citations and waiting-time penalties.

Choosing a time-card cutoff that works

Why most small businesses end the pay period midnight Saturday, run payroll Monday morning, and pay the following Friday — and when to break that pattern.

Direct deposit vs. paper checks vs. payroll cards

The ACH timing rules that govern direct deposit, the legal limits on requiring it, and when paper checks still win.

FICA, FUTA, and SUTA: the small-business explainer

The three U.S. payroll taxes you owe in addition to federal and state income tax withholding — what each one funds, who pays, and when.

Printable payroll calendar templates by year

How to use the schedules on this site as printable, drop-into-a-binder payroll calendars for the year.

Salaried vs. hourly: how pay periods affect each

Salary calculations divide cleanly under semi-monthly; hourly time tracking divides cleanly under biweekly. Mixed teams need both rules at once.

The next-day IRS deposit rule (the $100,000 trap)

When a single payroll triggers an overnight federal deposit deadline — the rule that catches small businesses scaling for the first time.

EFTPS enrollment and how to schedule deposits

Step-by-step EFTPS signup, scheduling a deposit, and what to do when the system rejects a payment at the deadline.

How these guides are organized

Each guide on this site solves one specific problem a small-business owner Googles in the first year of running payroll: choosing between biweekly and semi-monthly, setting up payroll for a first hire, surviving the 27-paycheck year, hitting the right IRS deposit deadline, paying overtime correctly under the FLSA's seven-day workweek rule, and so on. None of them are general personal-finance content; all of them are written specifically for the employer side of the payroll table.

If you're brand new to running payroll, start with Setting up payroll for your first hire, then work through Biweekly vs. semi-monthly to pick a cadence and IRS deposit schedule to understand your deposit obligations. After that, the calendars on the rest of this site become your year-round reference.