Pay Day Woes

Ranger

Today is payday, and we have mandatory automatic deposit for all employees (not a problem). But, our payroll person starting getting phone calls first thing this morning from employees saying there was no deposit in their accounts. Apparently, the Federal Reserve is closed today (holiday), and while some banks received deposits yesterday, others were out of luck today. Anyway, some of our employees really do live paycheck-to-paycheck. I loaned one person $300 to pay his November rent and another $10 so he could eat today. Luckily, I could loan them money out of our EAP bank account. Both signed letters stating they will pay the EAP back tomorrow. I do not do payroll. Will discuss with our senior Accounting person tomorrow. You'd think our payroll service would advise us of this possibility (ADP)!

ray a

Hey Ranger, I'm on my way to pick up my car after getting a brake job. Could you loan me about $500? Just fax it to me.

We have similar problems occassionally. Usually it is a transaction problem with the bank. By midmorning it is usually straightened out. But, don't mess with people's paychecks. One of the worst things you can do.

HRQ

You said you do not do payroll. Do you know who receives the labor distribution and other reports that come in the packet with your payroll? That is where I see my holiday notices (we use ADP too) among other important notices of upcoming events. The holiday notices always arrive around a month prior to the holiday.

I agree that your employees should have been advised that the funds would not be deposited on the normal day. Employees who haven't had direct deposit in the past tend not to think about how a holiday will affect their account.

bamahr

These types of problems make for a long day. I have used ADP in the past - they do send notices prior to the holiday. I doubt you could have processed on Friday - I don't know if you could have prevented this.

moneyman

When we outsourced, we received a bank closure schedule at the beginning of each year. The company also sent their closed days. We were warned that if a closure fell in between out 3-day processing period (fax in day through pay date) then we better send it off a day early. I would say that someone in your payroll department dropped the ball either by not having the payroll processed early or by not notifying the employees that the bank closure would cause a 1 day delay.

JudyT929

As someone who has done payroll as part of my HR role for years, I think it is absolutely ridiculous that your payroll person did not realize that yesterday was a holiday and know that they had to process payroll a day earlier. Our payday is Friday and normally I would have processed it on Tuesday but I did it on Monday to assure that all deposits would be in Friday despite the holiday. Ignorance is no excuse, if you do payroll you can't afford to be be ignorant of bank holidays.

Don D

Yes, this could easily have been avoided by proper planning on the part of the payroll person. Problem is, I'll bet, she/he didn't really care what day HER/HIS check hit the bank and that's what the non-decision was based on. A firm rule needs to be set about doing this early in the future. I'll bet she's also the type of person who will say, "Wellll, they should budget for things like this so they don't run out of money."

moneyman

You are right Don, and I am sure that person probably "fakes themself out" by putting fake entries into their checkbook just so there is money left over even if the balance doesn't show it.

In the real world, not many people budget that well. I worked with doctors for many years and most are just as bad as us, living paycheck to paycheck, I mean. Their mortgage needs to be paid every month like mine, however theirs is 10 times higher than mine. Other employees couldn't understand that they doctors paycheck to paycheck too. We all seem to adjust out lifestyles that have us living right at our means (or just above our means because I am sure the most use a credit card here or there). The doctors just do it on a grander scale because that is what their paycheck supports, it doesn't automatically mean that they have lots of money in the bank just sitting to be used, it is usually tied up in something.

So, just because people probably should budget better it no excuse for the PR to miss something like this.

Dutch2

As someone stated: You don't mess with paychecks. How very true! This does take a bit of advance planning out on the calendar to ensure this does not occur. We too use an outside company to process our payroll. We have a policy that anytime our usual payday falls on a holiday we pay the day before the usual day. This way no one has to wait any additional time to be paid. Being a bank we are very aware of the days the Federal Reserve is closed. Ocassionally we have to make special arrangements to ensure the checkes are delivered on time due to holidays and such. It is always worth a drive to go and pick up the checks rather than receive them late.