Payroll periods

A payroll period is one pay cycle of one company, usually a calendar month, and its dates are what a payroll run calculates and posts against. You create the period first. A payroll run then points at it, and payroll adjustments, monthly TDS projections, loan recoveries, payslips and salary-TDS challans are tied to the same period record.

Overview

A payroll period carries three dates that matter:

• Start Date and End Date set the calculation window. Days in the window decide proration and loss of pay.
• Pay Date is the date of the payroll accrual journal when the run is posted.

The period is separate from the accounting fiscal period. It has a Fiscal Period field, but payroll posting does not read it: the accrual journal lands in whichever fiscal period covers its date.

Periods are plain records. Nothing generates them, nothing changes their Status, and nothing stops two periods from covering the same dates. Getting the calendar right is your job, and this page shows what each field changes downstream.

When to use it

• Before each month's payroll. Create the period for the month before you create the run.
• At go-live. Create the periods of the current financial year so that payslip year-to-date totals and the TDS projection can find earlier months.
• Before entering one-off pay items. Adjustments are attached to a period record, so the period must exist first.
• When a pay date moves. Change Pay Date before posting, because it dates the accrual journal.

How xMatix handles it

Each payroll feature reads the period in its own way:

Fields the payroll does not act on: Status, Payroll Frequency, Input Cutoff Date, Fiscal Period and Branch (the run chooses its employees by the run's own company, and its journal carries the run's branch).

Prerequisites

• The company exists as one of your own companies (a partner account), with at least one branch.
• The company's fiscal periods exist, because Fiscal Period is required on the form. See Period close.
• Your security profile can create Payroll Period records (see Permissions).

Procedure

Step 1 — Open the payroll periods list

Open the App Launcher, search for Payroll and select the app. In the top navigation, choose Payroll Periods.

The list shows Name, Period Name, Start Date, End Date, Pay Date, Status, Created By, Created and Modified Date. Check that the month you are about to pay is not already there for your company.

Step 2 — Create the period

Click New. The form has two parts.

At the top:

1. Name — type a unique name. Nothing generates it, and it must be unique across all companies, so include the company if more than one company runs payroll, for example CO1-2026-11.
2. Fiscal Period — choose the accounting period the month belongs to. The list is not filtered by company, so pick your company's period.
3. Partner Account — choose the company whose payroll this is. Only your own companies are listed.
4. Branch — choose a branch of that company. The list shows only the chosen company's branches.

In the Period Details panel:

1. Period Name — the name people use, such as November 2026.
2. Payroll Frequency — prefilled with Monthly. It is a text box; keep Monthly or type Weekly, Biweekly or Daily.
3. Pay Date — the salary date. The accrual journal is dated on it.
4. Input Cutoff Date — optional. Your internal deadline for adjustments and declarations; xMatix does not enforce it.
5. Start Date and End Date — the first and last day of the cycle. Neither is marked required, but leaving either blank turns off proration and loss of pay, and a blank End Date turns off the TDS projection.

Click Save. The period opens with Status Open. On a tenant set up with a single company or a single location, Partner Account or Branch may be hidden.

Step 3 — Review the record page

The header shows Partner Account, Branch and Fiscal Period, with Edit and Delete buttons.

• The Details tab has the Informations panel: Period Name, Pay Date, Payroll Frequency, Input Cutoff Date, Start Date and End Date.
• The Related tab lists the payroll runs that use the period and other records linked to it. The lists are read-only here; open each record from its own list.

Step 4 — Use the period

• On a new payroll run, choose the period in Payroll Period. See Running payroll.
• On each payroll adjustment, choose the same period record that the run uses.

The Payroll Period pickers on runs and adjustments list every company's periods. Choose your own company's period: a run does not check that the period belongs to its company.

Step 5 — Change a period

Click Edit in the header to change any field in a dialog, or click a field's value on the record page to edit it in place. Save to apply.

• Changing Start Date or End Date affects the next Calculate. A run that is already calculated keeps its figures until you calculate it again.
• Changing Pay Date after posting does not move the journal that was already posted.

Step 6 — Delete a period

Click Delete in the header (or use the row action on the list) and confirm.

Only delete a period that nothing uses. Runs, adjustments and challans that point at a deleted period keep the link but no longer get its dates. A run calculated afterwards gets no proration or loss of pay, Project TDS does nothing for it, and its journal is dated on the posting day.

On mobile

The Payroll app's home screen on the mobile app titles each payroll run card with the name of its payroll period. Periods are created and edited on the web.

Fields

Business rules

• One record, many consumers. Runs, adjustments, TDS projections, loan recoveries, payslips and salary-TDS challans link to the period record, not to its dates or its name. Two periods with the same dates are two different periods.
• No overlap check. xMatix does not refuse a second period for the same company and month. If you create one by mistake, adjustments on one are not seen by a run on the other.
• Calendar-day proration. Total days are calendar days from Start Date to End Date inclusive. Weekends and holidays are not excluded. Loss-of-pay days are approved leave of an unpaid leave type that overlaps the window; half-day leave counts as half a day, and loss of pay never exceeds total days.
• Both dates or nothing. If Start Date or End Date is blank, the run applies no proration and no loss of pay.
• Journal date. Pay Date, else End Date, else the posting day. The journal then follows the normal posting rules for the fiscal period that covers that date.
• Financial year for TDS. The projection always uses an April-to-March financial year counted from End Date.
• Financial year for payslips. Year-to-date figures use the company's fiscal year that contains the run's period (its End Date, or Start Date if End Date is blank). If the company has no fiscal year covering that date, April to March is used.
• Status is inert. Setting Closed or Locked through an import or API does not block runs, adjustments or postings.
• Unique name. Name is unique across the whole tenant, including other companies' periods.
• Delete is soft. A deleted period disappears from lists and pickers, and records still pointing at it stop getting its dates.

Example

A company pays its staff monthly on the last working day. Its fiscal year runs from April to March.

1. On 20 October the payroll officer opens Payroll Periods, clicks New and enters Name CO1-2026-11, Fiscal Period November 2026, Partner Account the company and Branch its head office.
2. In Period Details they enter Period Name November 2026, keep Payroll Frequency Monthly, set Pay Date 30 November, Input Cutoff Date 24 November, Start Date 1 November and End Date 30 November, and save. The period shows Status Open.
3. A sales bonus is entered as a payroll adjustment with Payroll Period CO1-2026-11.
4. On 26 November the officer creates the November run with Payroll Period CO1-2026-11 and clicks Calculate. Total days are 30. One employee took 3 days of approved unpaid leave, so their payable days are 27 and their pay is prorated by 27 ÷ 30. The bonus is included.
5. After approval the run posts. The accrual journal is dated 30 November and falls in the November fiscal period.
6. Prepare TDS Challan creates a challan named for 2026-11, and the generated payslips show year-to-date figures from April to November.

Training

Practice exercise

In a sandbox company:

1. Create a payroll period for next month with Start Date, End Date and Pay Date filled in.
2. Create a second period for the same month with a different Name, but leave Start Date and End Date blank.
3. Add a payroll adjustment for one employee on the second period.
4. Create a run on the first period and calculate it.

Expected result: the run prorates any employee with approved unpaid leave in the month, but the adjustment is not included, because it sits on the other period record. Delete the second period and its adjustment afterwards.

Quick reference

• Create the period before the run and before any adjustment for the month.
• Always fill Start Date and End Date, or nobody's pay is prorated.
• Pay Date dates the accrual journal; End Date is the fallback.
• Name is unique across all companies: include a company code.
• Pick your own company's period on runs and adjustments; the pickers show all companies.
• Status, Payroll Frequency and Input Cutoff Date are informational.
• One period per company per month: duplicates split adjustments and year-to-date totals.
• Do not delete a period that runs or adjustments use.

Permissions

Access follows the Payroll Period entity's permissions in each security profile:

• See, create, edit and delete need read, create, edit and delete on Payroll Period. The seeded System Admin, Standard User and Sales Executive profiles have full access.
• A user without read access does not see the Payroll Periods list.
• The period has no server actions of its own: Calculate, Post and the other payroll actions are granted on the payroll run.

Because the dates change every employee's pay, restrict create, edit and delete to payroll staff in your own profiles.

Configuration

• Where it appears: the Payroll Periods item in the Payroll app's top navigation.
• Form layouts: Setup → Design Studio → Entities → Payroll Period → Layouts. To get a drop-down for Payroll Frequency, change its text box to a select on the create and view layouts. Add Status to the view layout if you want to record a period's stage by hand; remember that nothing acts on it. Follow Design a form layout.
• Validation rules: none are seeded. You can add your own under Setup → Design Studio → Entities → Payroll Period → Logic → Validations, for example to refuse an End Date before the Start Date or a blank Start Date.
• Picklist values: Payroll Frequency and Status values are edited on each field in Design Studio.
• Lookup filters: Partner Account is limited to your own companies, and Branch to the chosen company's branches. Fiscal Period has no filter. The Payroll Period pickers on runs and adjustments have no filter either; an administrator can add an entity lookup filter on those fields to limit them to the record's company.
• Fiscal calendar: payslip year-to-date totals use the company's fiscal years. See Period close.

Common problems

Saving a period fails with "Name '…' already exists"

Another period in the tenant, possibly another company's, already uses that Name. Choose a different Name, for example add the company code.

Nobody's pay was reduced for unpaid leave

The run's period has a blank Start Date or End Date, so no proration or loss of pay was applied. Fill both dates on the period and click Calculate on the run again before it is posted. If leave still is not deducted, check that the leave is approved and of an unpaid leave type; see Running payroll.

The payroll journal is dated today instead of payday

The period has no Pay Date and no End Date, or the run has no Payroll Period. Set the dates before posting. A posted journal keeps its date.

Posting is refused because of the fiscal period

The journal date (Pay Date, else End Date) falls in a fiscal period that does not accept postings. Reopen that fiscal period, or correct the Pay Date before posting. See Period close.

Project TDS does nothing

The run's period has no End Date, or the run has no period. Fill End Date and click Project TDS again. Other causes are covered on Income tax on salary.

An adjustment is missing from the run

The adjustment is on a different period record, often a duplicate period for the same month or another company's period with a similar name. Open the adjustment and choose the exact period the run uses, then calculate the run again.

Year-to-date totals on payslips are too low

An earlier period of the year has no Start Date, or is on a different Partner Account from the run. Fill the Start Date or correct the company, then generate payslips for a run that has none yet.

Professional tax did not switch to the February amount

The period's End Date is not in February. Correct the End Date and calculate again.

Closing a period did not stop changes

Status is informational. Nothing checks it, so a Closed or Locked period still accepts runs and adjustments. To stop changes, restrict edit rights on payroll records in the security profiles.

Common questions

Is a payroll period the same as a fiscal period?

No. A fiscal period is the accounting calendar that journals post into; a payroll period is the pay cycle that a run calculates. The payroll period has a Fiscal Period field, but posting ignores it: the accrual journal is dated on the period's Pay Date and lands in whichever fiscal period covers that date. Keeping the two aligned is still good practice, so pick the matching fiscal period when you create the payroll period.

Can I run payroll weekly?

You can create periods of any length, for example seven days, and run payroll against each one. Proration uses calendar days within the period, so it works for any length. Payroll Frequency is only a label. Salary structures and compensation amounts are monthly, though, and the TDS projection counts months, so a shorter cycle pays the full monthly amount in every period unless you size the structure for it.

Do I need one period per branch?

No. A run pays every employee of its company, whatever the period's Branch. Branch is required on the form, so choose the head office or the main branch. Create branch-specific periods only if you also run separate payroll per branch, and remember that the run itself still selects by company.

Does xMatix create next month's period for me?

No. Nothing generates periods. Create them by hand, or import the year's periods in one go at the start of the financial year.

What does the Input Cutoff Date do?

Nothing automatically. It records your internal deadline. Adjustments and declarations entered after it are still picked up the next time the run is calculated, as long as the run has not been posted.

Related topics

• Running payroll
• Adjustments, loans and advances
• Income tax on salary
• Statutory deductions and challans
• Payslips
• Payroll configuration
• Period close
• Payroll Period reference