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Configuring Your Payroll Period

5 minutes

Tutorial 4.7: Configuring Your Payroll Period

Introduction

By default, Luminate runs payroll on calendar months — 1st to the last day of each month. Many salons run a different cycle, most commonly the 26th to the 25th of the next month, so that staff are paid late in the month for work done up to the 25th. This tutorial shows you how to switch between calendar months and a custom monthly cycle, and how to handle the transition without losing or double-counting any pay.

Who this is for: Owner, Admin What you'll learn:

  • Choose between calendar month and custom monthly payroll
  • Set the start day for a custom cycle
  • Bridge the gap when switching configurations

Time to complete: 5 minutes

Prerequisites

  • Logged in as Owner or Admin
  • You can update salon settings

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Open the Payroll settings

  1. Click your salon name in the top bar, then Salon Settings.
  2. Click the Staff tab.
  3. Click the Payroll sub-tab.

You'll see two options:

  • Calendar month — periods run from the 1st to the last day of each calendar month. This is the default.
  • Custom monthly — periods start on a specific day of the month (e.g. the 26th) and end on the day before the next period starts.

Step 2: Choose your cycle

If calendar months work for you, you're done — the default is already selected.

If you want a custom cycle:

  1. Select Custom monthly.
  2. Enter the Start day of the month (between 2 and 28).
  3. A live preview shows you what the next period will look like — e.g. for start day 26 in mid-May, you'll see "May 2026 (26 Apr – 25 May)".

Why is the maximum 28? Months have between 28 and 31 days. A start day of 30 would be impossible in February, so we keep the maximum at 28 to avoid surprises.

Step 3: Save your changes

Click Update Salon at the bottom of the page.

Step 4: Handle the transition (if needed)

If you've used Luminate's payroll before and you have finalized periods under the old schedule, you'll likely have a gap or overlap with the first period under the new schedule. For example, if your last finalized period ended 31 July and your new schedule starts on the 26th, your next regular period will be 26 July – 25 August — which overlaps July.

To bridge this, create a one-off period:

  1. Go to Reports → Payroll.
  2. Click Generate custom period.
  3. Pick the start and end dates that fill the gap (e.g. 1 – 25 August for the example above).
  4. Click Generate period.
  5. Finalize the bridge period as usual.

After that, normal Generate will produce periods under your new schedule.

Existing finalized periods are never changed. Switching your payroll configuration only affects new periods. Anything already finalized stays exactly as it was when it was finalized.

What the labels mean

Custom-monthly periods are labelled by the month they end in. So:

Period bounds Label
26 Jul – 25 Aug August
26 Aug – 25 Sep September
26 Dec – 25 Jan January

This matches UK payroll convention: "August payroll" is the one paid out in August for work done up to the 25th.

The period selector dropdown on the Payroll report shows the date range next to the label (e.g. "August 2026 (26 Jul – 25 Aug)") so there's no ambiguity.

Troubleshooting

The Payroll report shows "No active staff members found for this period"

This usually means no staff has rostered shifts inside the period bounds and no transactions have been attributed to staff. Once you click Generate and complete some work in the period, entries appear.

The bridge period was rejected with "overlaps a finalized period"

You can't create a bridge period that crosses a period you've already finalized. Pick dates that sit between your finalized periods — or, if you need to reopen a finalized period, contact support.

I picked the wrong start day

Just go back to Salon Settings → Staff → Payroll, change the number, and save. Any new periods you generate use the latest value. Existing periods are not retrospectively changed.

Last Updated: May 2026