# Setting up your pay schedule and paydays

> Set your pay cadence, weekend and holiday rules, and holidays, then generate a 12-month payday calendar. This is your pay calendar, not payroll processing.

Canonical: https://enmantle.com/help/set-up-pay-schedule · Section: Payroll & Pay · Updated: 2026-08-07

This is where you tell Enmantle *when* payday is. You set your cadence and a few rules, and Enmantle lays out the paydays on the `Payroll Calendar` for the whole team to see.

One thing to be clear about up front: this builds your pay *calendar*. It does **not** run payroll, calculate wages, or move money. It's the schedule of dates — everything else happens in your payroll system.

## Set your pay cadence

1. Go to `Payroll Settings` and open the **General** tab.
2. Choose your `Pay Cadence`:
   - `Bi-weekly` — every two weeks.
   - `Semi-monthly` — twice a month.
   - `Monthly` — once a month.
   - `Custom` — you set the interval.
3. Set the **anchor date** — a known payday Enmantle counts from to place all the others.

## Handle weekends and holidays

When a payday lands on a weekend or a holiday, you decide what happens with two rules:

- `Weekend Shift Rule`
- `Holiday Shift Rule`

Each offers the same three choices: **Previous Business Day**, **Next Business Day**, or **No Shift** (leave the date as-is). Set these to match what your payroll provider actually does.

## Generate the schedule

Once cadence and rules are set, use `Generate Schedule` to build a fresh 12-month run of pay periods and paydays in one step.

> Heads up: `Generate Schedule` **deletes and replaces** any existing pay periods before building the new ones. Use it for a clean start or a cadence change — not for a small tweak to a single date.

## Add or edit a single period

For one-off changes, skip the generator and edit periods by hand on the `Pay Periods` page. It lists Period Start, Period End, Payday, Days Until, and Notes.

1. Click `Add Period`.
2. Fill in **Period Start**, **Period End**, **Pay Date**, and any **Notes**.
3. Save. The new period shows on the calendar right away.

## Add your COD holidays

Open the **Holidays** tab to manage `COD Holidays`. Add each one as **one-time** or **recurring**, and it appears in purple on the calendar. Your `Holiday Shift Rule` uses this list to decide whether a nearby payday moves.

## Share and export

- **ICS Feed** tab — publish a `Feed URL` so staff can subscribe to paydays in their own calendars. See [The payroll calendar and subscribing to paydays](/help/payroll-calendar-and-ics).
- `Export CSV` on the `Pay Periods` page — download the full schedule as a spreadsheet.

Once your dates are set, the next step is getting real pay stubs in front of staff — see [Importing pay stubs from your payroll system](/help/import-pay-stubs).