The semi-monthly payroll schedule is established by the State of Washington Office of Financial Management, the system requirements of HEPPS, and banking constraints. There is minimal flexibility with the dates. Below are links to Payroll information with these deadlines.
Glossary of Payroll Deadlines
- Additional Pay Request Deadline: All retro adjustment and separation pay request must be submitted by 1pm on this day to guarantee payment on the upcoming paycheck.
- ETR/PTR Window Open The time reporting system is available this day to begin processing hours. The window is open for four days ending with Cut-Off (the fourth and final day) at 3:00 pm.
- Edit night: At the end of this day, OPUS/HEPPS does an edit of all the time entry that has been done be the central office or by users of the online system. This is done to catch any errors before the start of calculation of payroll that next evening.
- Calculation night/Final cut off: Last day to submit time, make changes to appointments, add new appointments or lines of distribution to affect the current pay period. ALL changes need to be entered by 3:00 pm.
- Online systems unavailable: The day after final cut-off all online systems (HEPPS, OPUS, PTR/ETR) are down in order to process payroll. Updates cannot be made in any of these systems.
- Payday: UW employees are paid on the 10th and 25th of every month. However, if either of these days fall on a Saturday, payday will be the day before, or on a Sunday will be the Monday after. # W4 deadline- The W4s must be submitted at this day to affect the current pay period.
- OPUS Change deadline: All OPUS updates should be completed by this day in order to be reflected on the time reporting system. This is always one business day prior to the start of cut-off or the four day window.
- Check register pick up: Printed copies of employee's check/advice to be verified by the Payroll Coordinator.
- Pay periods: The month is broken down into two cycles. The first cycle runs from the 1st to the 15th, and the second cycle runs from the 16th to the end of the month.