Film Accounting Glossary
Off-cycle payroll
What is an off-cycle payroll?
Also called off-cycle run, or supplemental payroll.
An off-cycle payroll is a run processed outside the regular weekly schedule to correct an error, pay a missed timecard, or meet a same-day obligation.
Each off-cycle run carries a fee from the payroll company and re-opens the period's reporting, so productions batch corrections into the next regular run wherever the law and the union agreement permit. Where they do not permit it, prompt payment rules make the off-cycle run mandatory.
Example
Two timecards miss Monday's submission. Running them off-cycle costs a fee per run and reopens the week's reporting; batching them into the next run is cheaper, unless state prompt-payment rules or the union agreement make waiting unlawful.
Figures are illustrative, chosen to show the mechanics rather than to quote market rates.
Where you'll see it
The payroll company's exception process. Worth a written policy so the choice is not made ad hoc every week.
Common mistake
Running off-cycle payrolls casually. Each one carries a fee and reopens the week's reporting, and a pattern of them usually points at a timecard process that is not working.
Related questions
- Why would a production run an off-cycle payroll?
- To correct an error, pay a missed timecard, or satisfy a prompt-payment rule that will not wait for the next scheduled run.
- Can missed timecards wait for the next payroll?
- Sometimes, but state prompt-payment law and union agreements can require faster payment, in which case the off-cycle run is mandatory rather than optional.