Set up Pay Schedules
Note
Pay Schedules is currently in beta and available exclusively for Zenoti Integrated Payroll (ZIP) customers. A phased rollout to all customers is planned.
Overview
Pay Schedules is the central configuration hub for your payroll calendar in Zenoti Integrated Payroll (ZIP). It replaces the legacy Pay Period screen and eliminates the manual overhead of creating new periods every cycle.
With Pay Schedules, you can:
Create multiple schedules with different pay frequencies to support different employee types (e.g., W-2 staff on Bi-Weekly, 1099 contractors on Weekly)
Define a payday offset so employees are paid a set number of calendar days after the period closes
Define a payday offset so employees are paid a set number of calendar days after the period closes
Override individual pay periods to shift payday or resize a period (e.g., around holidays)
Map each schedule to specific centers and assign individual employees to the right schedule
Important
Key improvement over the legacy Pay Period screen
Previously, admins had to specify an end date and manually return to create new pay periods each time a cycle ended.
With Pay Schedules, you select a start date once. Zenoti automatically generates periods for the current year and the next year - and continues generating new periods as you progress into future years. There is no end date to manage.
Running multiple pay frequencies for different employee types
Many businesses pay different groups of employees on different cycles — for example, full-time staff on a Bi-Weekly schedule and independent contractors on a Weekly schedule. Pay Schedules is designed exactly for this.
Use case — W-2 Employees on bi-weekly, Contractors on weekly
A salon group pays its regular W-2 employees every two weeks and its 1099 booth-rental contractors every week.
Setup:
Create a schedule named "Bi-Weekly for W2" with Bi-Weekly (26/yr) frequency.
Create a second schedule named "Weekly for W9" with Weekly (52/yr) frequency.
Map both schedules to the relevant centers.
In the Centers tab, open Manage Employees for each center and assign each employee to the correct schedule by checking the appropriate column.
Result: When payroll is run in ZIP, each employee appears only under the schedule they belong to. Admins never need to manually filter out irrelevant employees from a payroll run - the assignment does that work automatically.
Steps for creating a Pay Schedule
Click New Schedule (top-right of the Schedules tab) to open the three-step wizard.
Step 1 - Configuration
Field | Description |
Pay Frequency | How often employees on this schedule are paid. Options: Weekly (52/yr), Bi-Weekly (26/yr), Semi-Monthly (24/yr), Monthly (12/yr), Custom. |
Schedule Name | A descriptive name, e.g. "Bi-Weekly for W2" or "Weekly for W9". |
First Pay Period Start Date | The start date that anchors the first period. Zenoti calculates the duration and end date automatically based on the selected frequency. No end date is required. |
Payday Offset | Number of calendar days after the period ends that employees are paid. Default is 2; allowed range is 2–13. If payday falls on a weekend or holiday, Zenoti advances it to the next business day. |
Note
First Period Preview
After entering a payday offset, a live preview shows the first period's start date, end date, payday, and submission deadline (1 business day before payday). Use this to confirm your configuration before advancing.
Step 2 - Pay Periods
Zenoti generates all pay periods for the current calendar year (and the next year) automatically. Review the table to confirm period start, period end, submission deadline, payday, and day count. Use the year arrows to navigate to future years - periods are already there.
Step 3 - Mappings
Map the schedule to one or more centers. Click Add Center(s), select centers from the panel (searchable, grouped by zone), and click Continue. The schedule is now active and visible in the Schedules tab.
Assigning employees to the right schedule
When a center is mapped to more than one schedule, you need to tell Zenoti which employees belong to which schedule. This is done through Manage Employees in the Centers tab.
Use case — Assigning W-2 employees and contractors at the same center
The Colorado center has 4 employees: 2 are W-2 managers paid Bi-Weekly, and 2 are 1099 contractors paid Weekly.
Go to the Centers tab.
Click the three-dot (⋮) menu next to Colorado → Manage Employees.
In the panel, two schedule columns appear: WEEKLY1 and BI-WEEKLY.
Check WEEKLY1 for the contractors and BI-WEEKLY for the managers.
Click Save Changes.
Now, when a Weekly payroll run is initiated, only the two contractors appear. When a Bi-Weekly run is initiated, only the two managers appear. No manual filtering is needed at run time.
The Manage Employees panel also shows a summary at the top (e.g., "Colorado - 4 employees · 2 schedules") so you always know the state of assignments before making changes.
Tip
Tip — Setting a default schedule for a center
In the Centers tab, each center has a Default Schedule badge. New employees added to the center are automatically assigned to this schedule. Set the default to the most common frequency at that center to reduce manual assignment work.
Adjusting Payday around holidays (override)
Some pay periods land in weeks with bank holidays — Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Day, Independence Day. If the calculated payday falls on or near a holiday, Zenoti auto-advances it to the next business day. But when a business wants to proactively prepone payday (pay employees earlier rather than later), the Override feature gives admins full control.
Use case — Moving payday before Thanksgiving
A Bi-Weekly schedule has payday falling on Wednesday, November 26 — the day before Thanksgiving. The business wants to pay employees on Tuesday, November 25 instead, so staff receive funds before the holiday.
Open the Bi-Weekly schedule → click Edit Periods.
Find the November period row → click ⋮ → Override.
In the Edit Pay Period panel, change the Payday field to 11/25/2026.
The Submission Deadline automatically updates to 1 business day before the new payday (Monday, November 24).
Click Save Changes.
The payroll admin now sees the updated deadline on the schedule and can plan the submission accordingly. Employees are paid before the holiday as intended.
Use case — Postponing payday after a holiday weekend
A Weekly schedule has payday on Monday, January 19 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day - a federal bank holiday). Zenoti would auto-advance it to Tuesday the 20th, but the business wants to confirm this shift is correct before the period closes.
Open the Weekly schedule → click Edit Periods.
Find the January 19 payday row → click ⋮ → Override.
Confirm or adjust the Payday date to 01/20/2026.
Review the Period Preview to confirm start, end, and day count.
Click Save Changes.
Proactively locking in the adjusted payday gives the team visibility well in advance and removes any ambiguity on the day.
Note
How Override works
Override lets you change the Period End, Payday, and Submission Deadline for any individual period. The Period Start of the first period is fixed.
The Submission Deadline always stays 1 business day before Payday and updates automatically when you change the Payday date.
A Period Preview inside the panel shows the resulting start, end, and day count in real time before you save.
Resizing Pay Periods for year-end or holiday weeks
Sometimes a business needs to shrink or extend a pay period — for example, to align payroll with a fiscal year-end, accommodate Christmas week, or clean up a partial period at the end of the calendar year. The Override feature supports this: when you change the Period End of a pay period, Zenoti automatically adjusts the start of the next period to maintain continuity.
Use case — Shrinking a period for year-end payroll
A business runs Bi-Weekly payroll. The final period of 2026 would normally end on January 2, 2027. The payroll team wants to close the year on December 31, 2026 so year-end reports are clean.
Open the schedule → click Edit Periods → navigate to the December period.
Click ⋮ → Override on the last period of 2026.
Change the Period End from 01/02/2027 to 12/31/2026.
The Period Preview shows the period is now shorter (e.g., 12 days instead of 14).
Click Save Changes.
Result: The next period automatically starts on 01/01/2027, keeping the calendar continuous. No gap, no overlap.
Use case — Extending a period over Christmas week
A business wants to combine the last week of December and the first few days of January into one longer period so employees receive a single, larger paycheck covering the holiday stretch rather than a short partial-week paycheck.
Open the schedule → Edit Periods → find the period that covers Dec 20–26.
Click ⋮ → Override.
Extend the Period End to 01/02/2027.
The Period Preview updates to reflect the longer duration.
Click Save Changes.
Result: The following period automatically starts on 01/03/2027. Payroll is consolidated over the holiday stretch without any manual calendar juggling.
Note
Key behaviour — cascading period adjustment
When you change the Period End of any pay period, the next period's start date adjusts automatically to the day after your new end date.
This means you never create a gap or overlap between consecutive periods. Subsequent periods continue at their original frequency from the new boundary.
Always-on Pay Period calendar
Unlike the legacy Pay Period screen — where admins had to set an end date and manually return to create new periods each time - Pay Schedules generates periods on a rolling basis.
Periods for the current year and the next year are created automatically when you set up a schedule.
As the calendar advances, Zenoti continues generating periods for the incoming year — no manual action required.
The Schedules tab always shows an up-to-date period count per year, and you can navigate future years using the year arrows on the schedule detail page.
Note
What this means in practice
A payroll admin who creates a Weekly schedule in June 2026 with a start date of June 21 will see 14 periods for 2026 already generated, and all 52 periods for 2027 ready and waiting. When 2027 arrives, 2028 periods appear automatically.
There is no end-of-year task to "renew" or "extend" the pay calendar.
Voiding a Pay Period
In exceptional circumstances (such as a duplicate period created in error), a period can be voided. A voided period is excluded from all payroll runs.
In Edit Periods mode, click ⋮ → Void for the relevant period.
Voided periods remain visible in the table with a Void status.
Important
Use Void sparingly
Voided periods cannot be recovered and may affect year-to-date totals if the period contained processed payroll. Use Override to adjust dates before considering a void.
Pay frequency reference
Frequency | Periods / Year | Common use case |
|---|---|---|
Weekly (52/yr) | 52 | Hourly service providers, contractors paid for hours rendered each week. |
Bi-Weekly (26/yr) | 26 | Full-time W-2 employees. Most common frequency in US beauty & wellness. |
Semi-Monthly (24/yr) | 24 | Salaried employees; fixed dates (e.g. 1st and 16th) simplify budgeting. |
Monthly (12/yr) | 12 | Executive or senior salaried staff with fixed monthly compensation. |
Custom | Variable | Non-standard pay arrangements, franchise-specific requirements. |
Payday offset and submission deadline
The payday offset is the number of calendar days after a pay period ends that employees receive their pay.
Example: A Bi-Weekly period ends Saturday, July 4. With an offset of 6, payday falls on Friday July 10. Because July 10 is a business day, no adjustment is needed.
Holiday / weekend adjustment: If the computed payday falls on a weekend, public holiday, or non-banking day, Zenoti automatically advances it to the next available business day.
Submission Deadline: Always 1 business day before payday. In the example above: Thursday, July 9. This is the last day a payroll admin can submit the pay run for employees to be paid on time.
Note
Allowed range
Payday offset must be between 2 and 13 calendar days. Values outside this range are not permitted. The default is 2.
Tips and best practices
Name schedules by frequency and employee type. E.g. "Bi-Weekly for W2", "Weekly for W9" - makes the Schedules list instantly scannable.
Set the default schedule per center. In the Centers tab, set each center's default to the most common frequency so new employees are assigned correctly without extra steps.
Plan holiday payday overrides in advance. Use Edit Periods at the start of the quarter to pre-set adjusted paydays for known holidays. Submission deadlines update automatically, giving your team early visibility.
Use Override before Void. If a period has incorrect dates, override it. Only void a period if it is a genuine duplicate or was created in error.
Review the First Period Preview. Before finishing the Configuration step, confirm the payday and submission deadline in the preview panel to catch offset misconfiguration early.
Use Manage Employees after adding a new center. Any time a center is mapped to more than one schedule, open Manage Employees right away to assign each employee - this prevents them from appearing in the wrong payroll run.