General Provisions
Payroll Due Dates and Direct Deposit Deadlines
State agencies must process their payrolls with sufficient time for the Comptroller’s office to print warrants and initiate direct deposit transmission of payroll payments, if the Comptroller’s office is responsible for processing those state agencies’ payrolls.
Comptroller’s office Responsibility
Payroll due dates
The Comptroller’s office annually publishes a schedule of the payroll due dates for regular payrolls paying either monthly or twice monthly. A monthly payroll is the document associated with the total transactions for paying payroll (base pay and other regularly scheduled or earned entitlements) to employees who are paid one time per month. A twice-monthly payroll is the document associated with the total transactions for paying payroll (base pay and other regularly scheduled or earned entitlements) to employees who are paid two times per month. Two twice-monthly payroll documents must be processed on time to ensure an employee who is paid twice monthly receives the entire month’s compensation.
- The payroll due date is seven business days before payday.
Direct deposit deadlines
The same schedule provides deadlines for payroll processing to allow sufficient time for the payments to process electronically and ensure that the payments are disbursed to employees’ accounts on payday.
- The direct deposit deadline is four banking days before payday.
See the fiscal policy and procedure (FPP) Payroll Due Dates and Direct Deposit Schedules (FPP E.030) for current payroll due dates and direct deposit deadlines.
For more information on when a payday occurs, see the Method and Frequency of Payroll policy statement.
Agency Responsibilities
To ensure payroll data is accurate when it is processed, a state agency must manage salary actions, payroll changes and reconciliation to provide enough time for required data entry and submission by the payroll due date appropriate to the type of payroll being processed.
An agency that fails to meet the Comptroller-established deadline for monthly and twice-monthly payrolls risks not paying its employees on time and causing them undue hardship. Agencies must also process direct deposit instructions and pay card authorization forms with enough time to set up the accounts and post to them on payday.
Sources
Texas Government Code, Sections 659.081 and 659.082.