Free tool
Payroll cut-off date calculator
Your pay day and cut-off lead time in, and out comes the cut-off and pay date for each upcoming run. Weekend dates move earlier if you ask.
The link carries your figures in the address itself. Nothing is stored on our side.
Your pay schedule
| Pay period | Cut-off date | Pay date |
|---|---|---|
| The schedule appears here once your figures are in. | ||
How the dates are worked out
Every step, in the open, so you can rebuild it in a spreadsheet and disagree with it if you want to. A calculator you cannot check is an ad.
Finding the pay date
For each upcoming month the tool takes your pay day. If you chose the last day of the month, it uses that month's last day. If you chose a fixed day, it uses that day, and where the day is past the end of a short month, February for example, it falls back to the last day of that month rather than spilling into the next one.
Placing the cut-off
The cut-off is the pay date minus the lead time you entered, counted in calendar days. A pay date of the 25th with a seven-day lead time puts the cut-off on the 18th. The lead time is yours to set, because how long a run takes to compile, check and process is a fact about your team and your payroll partner, not something a web page should assume.
The weekend rule
If you ask for it, any pay date or cut-off date that lands on a Saturday or Sunday moves back to the previous Friday, which is how most teams treat a date on a non-working day. The tool knows weekends only. It does not know your public holidays, because those differ by country and change every year, so a date next to a holiday is one to check by hand.
What this tool does not know
Your public holidays. It moves weekend dates earlier if you ask, but it holds no holiday calendar for any country, because those differ by place and change every year. Check every date that falls near a holiday against your own calendar.
It asserts no statutory pay date or filing deadline, and it is a planning aid, not a compliance tool. For the pay run itself, the payable days calculator works out how many days a joiner or leaver is paid for, and the leave accrual calculator tracks balances. The guide to running payroll for a distributed team covers the wider cycle.
Questions with complete answers
What is a payroll cut-off date?
It is the last date a change can be included in a given pay run. Anything agreed after it, a new joiner, a leaver, an overtime claim, a salary change, waits for the next run. The cut-off is set a number of days before the pay date so there is time to compile, check and process the run, and this tool turns your pay day and that lead time into the cut-off for each upcoming cycle.
How many days before pay day should the cut-off be?
There is no single right answer, which is why the tool asks you rather than assuming one. It depends on how long your compile, review and processing takes, and on what your payroll partner or bank needs. A common range is a few days to a couple of weeks before the pay date. Enter your own lead time and the tool places the cut-off that many days earlier.
What does the weekend rule do?
If a pay date or a cut-off date lands on a Saturday or Sunday, choosing the weekend rule moves it back to the previous Friday, which is how most teams handle a date that falls on a non-working day. It only knows weekends, not public holidays, because holidays differ by country and change every year, so always check your own calendar against the result.
Does this assume a statutory pay date?
No. It asserts no legal pay date, cut-off or deadline, because those differ by country and by contract and change over time. You enter the pay day, the cut-off lead time and the weekend rule, and every date the tool produces follows from those figures and today's date, and nothing else.
Is anything I type saved or sent anywhere?
No. It computes in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere. There is no email wall, no account and no storage. The link button carries your figures in the address itself if you want to send the schedule to someone.
A pay calendar is a plan. The pay runs behind it are a record worth keeping.