Find the answers to commonly asked questions about U.S. Bank Payroll. If you’re looking for more details about tax withholding terms or IRS forms, see also:

• Tax withholding terms to know when using U.S. Bank Payroll.
• What tax forms do I need to know about when using U.S. Bank Payroll?

When it comes to payroll, the two important terms to understand are net pay and gross pay. 

• Gross pay is the amount of money your employees receive before any taxes and deductions are taken out. For example, when you tell an employee, “I’ll pay you $50,000 a year,” it means you will pay them $50,000 in gross wages. 
• Net pay is the amount of money your employees take home after all deductions have been taken out. This is the money they have in their pocket on payday. 

Your employees can be classified in different ways based on their salary and the type of work that they do. Once you determine your employee's correct classification, make sure their status is entered correctly in their employee profile.  

Here are common classifications:

• Hourly/eligible for overtime (hourly/non-exempt) 
  Earns wages based on the number of hours the employee works & earns overtime pay when applicable. 
• Salary/Eligible for overtime (Salary/Non-exempt) 
  Earn a fixed salary if they work 40 hours or less per week. Earn overtime if they work more than 40 hours per week (regulations vary per state).  
• Salary/No overtime (Salary/Exempt) 
  Earns a fixed salary regardless of how many hours the employee works.
• Commission Only/Eligible for overtime (Commission Only/Non-exempt) 
  Earn wages based only on commission. Commission only employees need to make at least minimum wage for hours worked. 
• Commission Only/No overtime (Commission/Exempt) 
  Earns wages based only on commission.

Note, most employees are not exempt from overtime.

The general rule is that taxes are owed to the state where the work is done. There are some states have agreements that allow employees who work in one state and live in another to only pay income taxes to their state of residency (aka their home state). This is called a reciprocal agreement. Whether the states you’re dealing with have these agreements could affect an employee’s income tax withholdings. 

Payrolls and direct deposits do not process on Federal bank holidays. If a bank holiday falls on the day you typically run payroll, pay employees, or anytime in between, you must run your payroll on the prior business day. 

• Check date is the date that the paycheck will be made for. This is the day your employee receives their wages for a corresponding pay period. 
• Pay period is the timeframe during which your employee worked.  
• Debit date is the date the funds will be taken out of your bank account to pay your employees by the check date.  

Your pay schedule is a combination of two pieces of info: your pay period & your pay date. The pay period is the timeframe during which your employee worked. The pay date is the day they receive their wages for the pay period. 

If there's a delay between your pay period and your pay date, this is called paying in arrears. This is very common for hourly employees because it gives you time to collect their hours and process payroll.  

You can pay your employees on one of the following payroll schedules: 

• Weekly: Every week on a specific day of the week (52 payrolls per year). 
  • Example: every Friday. 
• Bi-Weekly: Every two weeks on a specific day of the week (26 payrolls per year). 
  • Example: every other Friday.
• Semi-Monthly: Twice per month on two specific dates of the month (24 payrolls per year). 
  • Example: the 15th and the last day of the month. 
• Monthly: Every month on a specific date of the month (12 payrolls per year). 
  • Example: on the 26^th of each month.