This article is about Justworks Payroll. What product am I using?
While your company’s payroll will process automatically according to the payroll frequency you’ve selected for salaried employees, there may be instances in which you need to issue an off-cycle payment to a member of your team.
You can schedule off-cycle payments through Justworks Payroll by navigating to Pay on the left-hand side menu and clicking on the "Add payment" button in the upper right-hand corner.
From there, choose the type of off-cycle payment you'd like to make. You'll enter the payment details — like pay date, pay period, and payment amount — and select employees and their payment amounts all in one step.
Once you've filled in the required details and employee amounts, click "Continue" to review, then "Submit" to confirm. Adding a note is optional, as the note will appear on both the company’s payroll and the employee’s paystub.
After the payment has been saved, it will show up under the ‘Upcoming Payments’ section of your Justworks Payroll dashboard until it has been processed. Upcoming Payments will show all payments scheduled to process within the next 60 days.
Once the payment has been processed, you will be able to find the payment details in the ‘Payrolls’ tab under the category ‘Payments’ in the left-hand side menu.
What Types of Off-Cycle Payments Can I Make?
You can schedule the following types of off-cycle payments through Justworks Payroll:
- Expense reimbursement: This is a non-taxable payment often used to pay back an employee or contractor for business or job-related duties.
- Bonus: This is a supplemental payment issued in addition to an employee’s regular salary or wages.
- Commission: This is a supplemental payment issued in addition to an employee's regular salary often related to sales achievements or company-specific goals.
- Off-cycle salary: This payment type is taxed the same as a regular salary payment, and often used to schedule payments to employees outside of regular payroll.
- Owner’s draw: This is an owner’s equity distribution, most often used by sole proprietors, partnership partners, and LLC members.
- Contractor pay: This is a non-recurring 1099 payment method used to pay contractors providing services to your company.
- Severance: This is a supplemental payment issued to eligible employees as part of their separation agreement with the company.
- Tips: This payment type is used to pay tips to employees with taxes applied.
How Do I Change an Off-Cycle Payment?
If you ever need to edit or delete an off-cycle payment, you can do so by bringing up the member's profile page and clicking the 'View Payments' button at the top of the page.
From there, you can click 'One-time payments,' which will bring you to a screen showing any scheduled payments with the option to delete or edit them.
Please note, any changes to a one-time payment needs to be submitted before 2pm Eastern on the payment’s processing date.
Can I Record External Payments?
Yes, you can record payments in Justworks Payroll that were issued to team members outside of the platform. This would apply to cases such as writing an employee a physical check or sending an employee a direct wire.
When you record an external payment with Justworks Payroll, you will add the net payment amount and we will then gross-up the payment. This means the employee receives the net payment amount from you directly, and you will pay the associated taxes and deductions through Justworks Payroll. Once the external payment has been submitted, the net amount will be accurately recorded in the system for the employee’s year end forms and the associated employer and employee taxes for the payment are automatically calculated, collected and remitted to the applicable agencies.
If you’re issuing an external payment, such as a bonus, and recording it in Justworks Payroll, we’ll automatically calculate the gross payment based on the net amount you enter. For example, if you want Employee A to receive $1,000 net, Justworks will calculate the required gross amount (e.g., $1,500). Before payday, we’ll debit your account for the amount needed to cover tax obligations for the employee and your company, ensuring accurate year-end records and timely remittance of all associated taxes.
Please note that we cannot currently record backdated external payments which may be subject to tax penalties and interest. Saved external payments also cannot be edited at this time.
You can issue an external payment by navigating to the ‘Payments Center’ tab in Justworks Payroll or by navigating to Pay on the left-hand side menu and clicking on the "Add payment" button in the upper right-hand corner.
Next, click the type of payment you need to record (e.g., off-cycle salary or bonus). In the combined payment details step, set the "Delivery method" field to "External payment," fill out the payment details, and enter the net amount the payee is receiving. Then click "Continue" to review and "Submit" to confirm.
Disclaimer
This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, legal or tax advice. If you have any legal or tax questions regarding this content or related issues, then you should consult with your professional legal or tax advisor.