Avoiding Payroll Delays During Vacation Season

Summer is great for boosting your team’s morale: PTO, long weekends, and a bit of breathing room for them. But if you’re not careful, it can completely throw off your payroll.

We’ve seen it happen more times than we can count. A manager is out, timecards don’t get submitted, PTO requests don’t get approved, and now you’re trying to clean everything up the night before payday. Or worse of all, you don’t catch it… 

If you've had to send a, "Hey, did you approve these hours yet?" message to someone on vacation, you’re not alone. 

Let’s talk about how you can avoid a payroll mess!

Why Summer Gets Tricky for Payroll

The summer doesn’t slow down the need for your team to get paid, but it could mess with the rhythm. Maybe a manager forgets to approve hours before taking time off. Maybe the payroll lead assumes someone else will handle it while they're gone. Sometimes there’s a holiday midweek, and suddenly your team’s coverage is all over the place.

And when all of these pieces don’t line up? Payroll is affected.

It’s not just inconvenient for your employees and books, but you might even be at risk for compliance issues if tax filings and payday are delayed.

What Can You Do?

You can prepare! This isn’t about overhauling your entire payroll system, a few small changes might just do the trick.

First things first, you should figure out what can be automated. If you’re relying on people to remember things during the most distracted time of year, it’s not going to be consistent - especially if they are OOO.

With Megapay, you can:

🔹 Schedule Payroll in Advance
Set up a recurring payroll so it goes out on time, every time! Even if you’re not in the office or your manager is on a much needed summer vacation.

🔹 Automate Reminders for Staff and Managers
Our system can send automated reminders for things like clock-ins and approval deadlines so no one forgets their part in the process.

🔹 Get Timecard Data Automatically
Clock-ins from Megapay’s timekeeping system flow straight into payroll. No manual entry and no tracking people down for their hours.

Assign Backups

Who’s the person who usually hits “approve” or “submit” in your payroll process? What happens if they’re out of office next Friday or for a full week next week?

If your answer is “uhm,” then that’s your sign.

Set up backups for your key people now, not later. Even if someone’s only stepping in once in a while, it’s worth having them ready.

With Megapay, you can assign roles ahead of time and give just the right level of access - so no one is guessing last minute!

Over-communicate

People are more distracted in the summer, they just are. Maybe it’s the weather, maybe it’s because their kids are home, or maybe their brains are already thinking of the weekend on Wednesday.

So don’t be shy to say the same thing a few times, reminders never hurt anyone.

Slack, email, even verbal reminders. Make sure to let your team know when hours are due and who they can check with if something is off or wrong.

Especially around the summer holidays, Labor Day, Shavuot, July 4th, and Tisha B’av, make sure everyone’s clear on any changes. For example, if your payday is typically Friday, but the bank’s closed, that matters and you should tell your team what to expect.

Payroll Never Takes a Vacation

Your team still expects their paychecks to show up on time and accurately even if things are slower in the summer (plus, timely & accurate payroll builds trust). That’s why it’s worth building a process that doesn’t rely on everyone being “on” all the time.

If you’re already using Megapay, take a look at your automation and roles now.

If you’re not with us yet, we’re happy to show you how to make payroll smoother (and less stressful) during vacation season, or really any season.

No pressure, just good planning! ☺️

Curious on how to manage holiday pay? Read more here.