As the year draws to a close, now is the perfect time to make sure your time clock, employee records, and payroll processes are ready for 2026. We’ve put together our annual Virtual TimeClock End-of-Year Checklist to help you stay organized and avoid last-minute stress during the busy holiday season.
1. Carry Over Unused Leave Hours
If your benefit year follows the calendar year, take a moment to review your leave awards and carry over any eligible unused hours from 2025. This is also a great time to review your leave policies and award rules in Virtual TimeClock to ensure that any necessary updates to employees’ accrual rates are made.
2. Review & Update Employee Information
Accurate employee records make year-end payroll and W2s much easier. Confirm that personal details (names, addresses, SSNs) are correct and up to date. You can use the User Notes tab in the Users panel of Virtual TimeClock to track wage changes, certifications, or performance notes. The User Profile Report makes it easy to print or export these records for your files.
3. Prepare for Year-End Payroll
Payroll providers often have early submission deadlines for the final pay period of the year. Check with your payroll provider to confirm when 2025 payroll must be submitted to ensure timely direct deposits.
After you’ve approved and finalized your last payroll period of the year, remember to close the payroll period in Virtual TimeClock. Closing the period helps lock in your records and prevents accidental edits as you update settings for 2026.
Also take a moment to review any inactive or terminated employees who earned wages during 2025—you’ll still need accurate records for year-end reporting.
Use your updated employee information to ensure your payroll software has correct information for employee W2 forms. Please note that W-2 forms for the 2025 Tax year must be distributed to employees by Monday, February 2, 2026. When the normal due date of January 31st falls on a weekend or holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day.
W-2 forms must be distributed to employees by Monday, February 2, 2026.
4. Verify Your Backups
Reliable backups are essential. Networking or computer changes can cause automated backups to fail. The year-end is a perfect time to confirm that your Virtual TimeClock backups are working as expected:
- Confirm that your Virtual TimeClock backups are setup and operational:
2. Select the Configure menu > Program Logs. Look at the Backup Logs to ensure backups have been working as expected.
3. Look in your backup folder to ensure the backup file(s) are actually present.
A quick check of your backups today can protect you against data loss and hours of extra work in the event of a computer failure, theft or other disaster.
5. Key Dates to Keep in Mind
Here are important upcoming banking and payroll-related dates:
- Thursday, December 25, 2025 | Banks are closed (Christmas Day)
- Thursday, January 1, 2026 | Banks are closed (New Year’s Day)
- Monday, February 2, 2026 | W-2 forms due
For additional planning, visit our Federal Holidays and Business Holidays calendars for a full list of 2025–2026 holidays.