Last Updated: September 27, 2026 Reading Time: 9 min

If NFC runs your payroll, the NFC pay period calendar for 2026 and 2027 is split across two places that never meet: a one-page PDF with the period dates and a month-at-a-time widget with the pay dates. This page joins them. Every one of the 52 pay periods below shows the begin date, the end date, the day the deposit settles and NFC's official pay date of record, read from NFC's own Form NFC-1217 and its interactive calendar.

NFC Pay Period Calendar 2026: All 26 Periods

All periods run Sunday through Saturday. Begin and end dates are from Form NFC-1217 (2026, revised March 2024), read against OPM's leave-year dates and GSA's printed period ends. Deposit and official pay dates are from NFC's interactive pay period calendar. Holiday shifts are from OPM's 2026 federal holiday list.

PP Begin End Deposit settles Official pay date Note
1 Sun Jan 11 Sat Jan 24 Mon Feb 2 Thu Feb 5 2026 pay adjustment takes effect this period
2 Sun Jan 25 Sat Feb 7 Tue Feb 17 Thu Feb 19 Presidents' Day Feb 16 moves the deposit a day
3 Sun Feb 8 Sat Feb 21 Mon Mar 2 Thu Mar 5
4 Sun Feb 22 Sat Mar 7 Mon Mar 16 Thu Mar 19
5 Sun Mar 8 Sat Mar 21 Mon Mar 30 Thu Apr 2
6 Sun Mar 22 Sat Apr 4 Mon Apr 13 Thu Apr 16
7 Sun Apr 5 Sat Apr 18 Mon Apr 27 Thu Apr 30
8 Sun Apr 19 Sat May 2 Mon May 11 Thu May 14
9 Sun May 3 Sat May 16 Tue May 26 Thu May 28 Memorial Day May 25 moves the deposit a day
10 Sun May 17 Sat May 30 Mon Jun 8 Thu Jun 11
11 Sun May 31 Sat Jun 13 Mon Jun 22 Thu Jun 25
12 Sun Jun 14 Sat Jun 27 Mon Jul 6 Thu Jul 9 July 4 is a Saturday, observed Friday July 3; Monday settlement unaffected
13 Sun Jun 28 Sat Jul 11 Mon Jul 20 Thu Jul 23
14 Sun Jul 12 Sat Jul 25 Mon Aug 3 Thu Aug 6
15 Sun Jul 26 Sat Aug 8 Mon Aug 17 Thu Aug 20
16 Sun Aug 9 Sat Aug 22 Mon Aug 31 Thu Sep 3
17 Sun Aug 23 Sat Sep 5 Mon Sep 14 Thu Sep 17 Labor Day Sep 7 is the first Monday after the period, so no shift
18 Sun Sep 6 Sat Sep 19 Mon Sep 28 Thu Oct 1
19 Sun Sep 20 Sat Oct 3 Tue Oct 13 Thu Oct 15 Columbus Day Oct 12 moves the deposit a day
20 Sun Oct 4 Sat Oct 17 Mon Oct 26 Thu Oct 29
21 Sun Oct 18 Sat Oct 31 Mon Nov 9 Thu Nov 12 Veterans Day Nov 11 falls between the two dates
22 Sun Nov 1 Sat Nov 14 Mon Nov 23 Thu Nov 26 Official pay date is Thanksgiving Day; money settled Nov 23
23 Sun Nov 15 Sat Nov 28 Mon Dec 7 Thu Dec 10 Use-or-lose scheduling deadline is this period's last day
24 Sun Nov 29 Sat Dec 12 Mon Dec 21 Thu Dec 24 Last NFC official pay date of calendar 2026
25 Sun Dec 13 Sat Dec 26 Mon Jan 4, 2027 Thu Jan 7, 2027
26 Sun Dec 27 Sat Jan 9, 2027 Tue Jan 19, 2027 Thu Jan 21, 2027 Straddles the calendar year; MLK Day Jan 18 moves the deposit a day

FedTools 2026 compilation. Sources: Form NFC-1217 (2026) for period boundaries, NFC's interactive Pay Period Calendar for EFT and official pay dates (January, November and December 2026 re-verified September 27, 2026), OPM's 2026 federal holiday schedule for shifts. The two January 2026 paydays, January 8 and January 22, belong to pay periods 25 and 26 of the 2025 leave year and are not in this table.

NFC Pay Period Calendar 2027: All 26 Periods

The 2027 leave year runs January 10, 2027 through January 8, 2028. NFC's 2027 Form NFC-1217 is already posted, and NFC has published calendars through 2030.

PP Begin End Deposit settles Official pay date Note
1 Sun Jan 10 Sat Jan 23 Mon Feb 1 Thu Feb 4 Any 2027 pay adjustment takes effect this period
2 Sun Jan 24 Sat Feb 6 Tue Feb 16 Thu Feb 18 Washington's Birthday Feb 15 moves the deposit a day
3 Sun Feb 7 Sat Feb 20 Mon Mar 1 Thu Mar 4
4 Sun Feb 21 Sat Mar 6 Mon Mar 15 Thu Mar 18
5 Sun Mar 7 Sat Mar 20 Mon Mar 29 Thu Apr 1
6 Sun Mar 21 Sat Apr 3 Mon Apr 12 Thu Apr 15
7 Sun Apr 4 Sat Apr 17 Mon Apr 26 Thu Apr 29
8 Sun Apr 18 Sat May 1 Mon May 10 Thu May 13
9 Sun May 2 Sat May 15 Mon May 24 Thu May 27 Memorial Day is May 31 in 2027, so no shift
10 Sun May 16 Sat May 29 Mon Jun 7 Thu Jun 10
11 Sun May 30 Sat Jun 12 Mon Jun 21 Thu Jun 24
12 Sun Jun 13 Sat Jun 26 Tue Jul 6 Thu Jul 8 Independence Day observed Monday Jul 5 moves the deposit a day
13 Sun Jun 27 Sat Jul 10 Mon Jul 19 Thu Jul 22
14 Sun Jul 11 Sat Jul 24 Mon Aug 2 Thu Aug 5
15 Sun Jul 25 Sat Aug 7 Mon Aug 16 Thu Aug 19
16 Sun Aug 8 Sat Aug 21 Mon Aug 30 Thu Sep 2
17 Sun Aug 22 Sat Sep 4 Mon Sep 13 Thu Sep 16 Labor Day Sep 6 is the first Monday after the period, so no shift
18 Sun Sep 5 Sat Sep 18 Mon Sep 27 Thu Sep 30
19 Sun Sep 19 Sat Oct 2 Tue Oct 12 Thu Oct 14 Columbus Day Oct 11 moves the deposit a day
20 Sun Oct 3 Sat Oct 16 Mon Oct 25 Thu Oct 28
21 Sun Oct 17 Sat Oct 30 Mon Nov 8 Thu Nov 11 Official pay date is Veterans Day
22 Sun Oct 31 Sat Nov 13 Mon Nov 22 Thu Nov 25 Official pay date is Thanksgiving Day
23 Sun Nov 14 Sat Nov 27 Mon Dec 6 Thu Dec 9 2027 use-or-lose scheduling deadline is this period's last day
24 Sun Nov 28 Sat Dec 11 Mon Dec 20 Thu Dec 23 Last NFC official pay date of calendar 2027
25 Sun Dec 12 Sat Dec 25 Mon Jan 3, 2028 Thu Jan 6, 2028
26 Sun Dec 26 Sat Jan 8, 2028 Tue Jan 18, 2028 Thu Jan 20, 2028 Straddles the calendar year; MLK Day Jan 17 moves the deposit a day

Sources: Form NFC-1217 (2027) and OPM's 2027 leave-year dates for boundaries, NFC's interactive calendar for pay dates, OPM's 2027 holiday schedule for shifts. NFC has also published pay period 1 of 2028: deposit Monday, January 31, 2028, official date Thursday, February 3, 2028.

The NFC Payday Rule, in NFC's Own Words

NFC publishes its rule on the PAYE page, and it has four parts.

The official payment date of record with Treasury is "the Thursday following NFC's biweekly payroll processing." NFC calls that Thursday the official payment date; the Monday settlement is when the money reaches your account.

The money moves earlier. "In 1994, with Treasury's approval, to encourage employee participation in Direct Deposit, the settlement date on all Direct Deposit payments was moved to the Monday following the completion of the PAYROLL process, or Tuesday for those pay periods when Monday is an official Federal holiday."

Paper checks follow the same Monday. "In 2016, NFC updated the payment date for paper checks from the official Thursday pay date to the Monday following NFC's biweekly payroll processing."

And on the weekend posting some banks offer: "Saturday is not the official payment date." An early Saturday posting is your bank's courtesy, not an entitlement, and it can stop without notice.

Two dates, two meanings. When someone asks "when do we get paid," the deposit date is the answer they want. When NFC or your agency cites the official payment date, the Thursday is the one they mean.

Why the "Friday After" Rule Is Wrong for NFC

Search for a federal pay calendar and most of what you find is GSA's. GSA Payroll Shared Services publishes a clean month-by-month calendar, and its deposit really does land the Friday about six days after the period ends. Copy that rule onto an NFC pay stub and you are three days early on the deposit and one day early on the official date.

FedTools 2026 analysis of the two providers' published calendars, same two weeks of work:

Pay period Jan 11 to 24, 2026 NFC GSA
Pay period number for these dates PP 1 of 2026 PP 3 of 2026
Deposit date Mon Feb 2, 2026 (9 days after period end) Fri Jan 30, 2026 (6 days after)
Official pay date of record Thu Feb 5, 2026 (12 days after) Wed Feb 4, 2026 (11 days after)
Pay periods in calendar 2026 26 (last payday Dec 24) 27 (last payday Dec 31)
Pay periods in calendar 2027 26 26

The numbering offset trips people up as much as the dates do. GSA's calendar prints "Pay Period 3 end: Jan. 24," while the same two weeks are pay period 1 at NFC. If a coworker at a GSA-serviced agency says "PP 3," check the dates before you compare timesheets.

DFAS, which pays Defense civilians, is not in this comparison. Its calendar pages would not load for us, and we will not guess at its rule.

26 or 27 Paydays? It Depends on Who Runs Your Payroll

This question has two correct answers in 2026, and the internet keeps mixing them.

GSA-serviced employees have 27 paydays in calendar 2026. GSA's 2026 calendar runs to "Pay Period 27 end, Q4 end: Dec. 26" and lists three December 2026 official pay dates: December 9, December 23 and December 31, with a W-2 cutoff of December 26. GSA's 2027 calendar tops out at pay period 26.

NFC-serviced employees have 26. Three NFC documents agree. NFC's 2026 PAYE Processing Schedule covers "Pay Periods 01 through 26, 2026." Form NFC-1217 for 2026 lists pay periods 01 through 26. And NFC's December 2026 calendar page shows only pay periods 23 (December 10) and 24 (December 24), with no 27th. FedTools counted NFC's published official pay dates across both years: 26 in 2026 and 26 in 2027.

NFC does recognize a 27th period when the cycle produces one. Its November 2023 bulletin said plainly: "Calendar year 2023 has 27 pay periods. PP 27 is divided between the current and next calendar year." So 26 is a fact about 2026 and 2027, not a definitional trick.

Why it matters: if you set TSP contributions using a 27-payday assumption you found on a GSA-based page, you will undershoot the limit by one period. The 27 pay periods paycheck math post walks through the arithmetic; use the NFC count of 26.

Holidays Move the Deposit, Never the Official Date

NFC's rule shifts the Monday settlement to Tuesday when that Monday is a federal holiday. In 2026 that happens four times: pay periods 2, 9, 19 and 26. In 2027 it happens for pay periods 2, 12, 19 and 26.

The counter-case proves the rule. Labor Day 2026 falls on Monday, September 7, which is the first Monday after pay period 17 ends, not the second. The deposit settles on schedule the following Monday, September 14.

The official Thursday never moves, even onto a holiday. FedTools 2026 analysis of NFC's published dates against OPM's holiday list shows NFC's official pay date of record landing on Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 2026, and in 2027 on both Veterans Day (November 11) and Thanksgiving (November 25). Nothing is late in any of those cases. The money settled the Monday before, and the Thursday is a date of record, not a transfer.

The T&A Deadline and What Happens If You Miss It

NFC's instruction to agencies is specific: "All T&As should be validated, certified, and transmitted by close of business on the Tuesday following the end of the biweekly pay period." A timesheet that arrives after that is processed in the next pay period's first schedule, which means your pay for those two weeks shows up two weeks late.

Your agency's own cutoff in GovTA or webTA is almost always earlier than NFC's Tuesday, often the Friday or Monday before. The agency needs time to certify and correct before it transmits. Treat the agency cutoff as the real deadline.

NFC also tells agency timekeepers to run three reports before payroll computes: the report of T&As not received, the error analysis by contact point, and the error analysis for missing personnel actions. If your pay is short, the first question to your timekeeper is whether your record appeared on one of those.

Dates to Put on Your Calendar Now

  • Saturday, November 28, 2026: the last day to schedule use-or-lose annual leave in writing, the end of NFC pay period 23. Leave above your carryover ceiling is forfeited only if it is still unused when the leave year ends in January 2027. Scheduling it by November 28 is what keeps it eligible for restoration if a work emergency or illness later stops you from taking it (OPM annual leave fact sheet). The Federal Leave Optimizer maps your remaining balance against the periods left.
  • Thursday, November 26, 2026: official pay date for pay period 22 falls on Thanksgiving; the deposit settled November 23.
  • Mid-November 2026: NFC usually posts its "Pay Period 25 and 26 Special Processing Instructions" for the year-end rollover around then (November 18 in 2025, November 13 in 2023). It has not posted the 2026 version yet, so no rollover transmission dates appear here.
  • Thursday, December 24, 2026: last NFC official pay date of calendar 2026.
  • December 27, 2026 to January 9, 2027: pay period 26 straddles the calendar year. NFC's own bulletin language is that "PP 26 is divided between the current/next calendar year," and the check for it arrives January 21, 2027, in the 2027 tax year.
  • Sunday, January 10, 2027: the 2027 leave year and NFC pay period 1 begin. Under 5 U.S.C. 5303(a), any January pay adjustment takes effect "the first day of the first applicable pay period beginning on or after January 1," so it shows up in the February 4, 2027 paycheck, not on January 1.
  • Saturday, November 27, 2027: 2027 use-or-lose scheduling deadline, the last day of pay period 23.

Which Agencies NFC Pays

NFC runs payroll for more than 156 agencies and more than 590,000 federal employees, by its own count. The largest customers on its customer board are DHS, Treasury, DOJ, USDA, Commerce, Labor, HUD and FDIC. The small-agency roster includes the Smithsonian, SBA, USAID, Library of Congress, GAO, GPO, FCC, Peace Corps, CFPB, MSPB, the U.S. Capitol Police and the VA Office of Inspector General.

If you work for a DHS component or a Treasury bureau, NFC is almost certainly your provider, but confirm it on your earnings and leave statement before relying on any calendar, including this one.

Plan Your Leave Against the Calendar

Use the free Federal Leave Optimizer: enter your current use-or-lose and regular leave hours to find recommended leave dates around holidays and days off, then submit your leave schedule by November 28. Try it now. For the lump-sum value of the hours you carry into a retirement date, the Annual Leave Payout Calculator prices them at your current rate.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is my next NFC payday?

NFC deposits settle the second Monday after your pay period ends, and NFC's official pay date of record with Treasury is the second Thursday after it ends. For pay period 19 of 2026 (September 20 to October 3) the money lands Tuesday, October 13, because Columbus Day pushed the Monday settlement a day, and the official date is Thursday, October 15.

Why is my NFC payday different from the federal pay calendar I found online?

Most calendars online are GSA's or generic. For the same two weeks, January 11 to 24, 2026, GSA deposits Friday, January 30 and NFC deposits Monday, February 2. The numbering differs too: those dates are pay period 1 at NFC but pay period 3 on GSA's calendar.

Does 2026 have 26 or 27 pay periods?

It depends on who runs your payroll. GSA's 2026 calendar runs to pay period 27 and pays three times in December 2026. NFC's does not: its 2026 PAYE Processing Schedule covers pay periods 01 through 26, Form NFC-1217 lists 01 through 26, and FedTools counted 26 NFC paydays in 2026 and 26 in 2027. NFC's last 27-period year was 2023.

What is the NFC T&A deadline?

Close of business the Tuesday after your pay period ends. NFC's own instruction is that all T&As should be validated, certified and transmitted by close of business on the Tuesday following the end of the biweekly pay period. Miss it and your timesheet processes in the next pay period's first schedule. Your agency's internal cutoff is usually a day or two earlier.

When does my use-or-lose annual leave have to be scheduled?

By November 28, 2026 for the 2026 leave year, which is the last day of NFC pay period 23, and by November 27, 2027 for the 2027 leave year. OPM sets the deadline; the pay-period framing is ours.

What happens when my NFC payday lands on a federal holiday?

The deposit moves and the official date does not. NFC's settlement shifts from Monday to Tuesday when that Monday is a federal holiday, which happens four times in 2026 (pay periods 2, 9, 19 and 26). The official pay date can land on a holiday: it falls on Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 2026, and on both Veterans Day and Thanksgiving in 2027. Nothing is late; the money settled the Monday before.

Which agencies use NFC for payroll?

More than 156 agencies and over 590,000 federal employees. The largest are DHS, Treasury, DOJ, USDA, Commerce, Labor, HUD and FDIC, plus dozens of smaller ones including the Smithsonian, Library of Congress, Capitol Police, CFPB, Peace Corps, GAO, SBA, USAID and the VA Office of Inspector General.

Is the NFC 2027 pay period calendar out yet?

Yes. Form NFC-1217 for 2027 is posted, and NFC has published calendars through 2030. NFC's interactive calendar already serves 2027 and 2028 dates.

When does the January pay raise hit my NFC paycheck?

By statute the adjustment takes effect on the first day of the first applicable pay period beginning on or after January 1. For NFC that is pay period 1, beginning January 11, 2026 or January 10, 2027, not January 1. The first paycheck at the new rate is February 5, 2026 or February 4, 2027.

Why does pay period 26 cross into January, and does it matter for taxes?

NFC's own bulletin language is that pay period 26 is divided between the current and next calendar year. Pay period 26 of 2026 runs December 27 through January 9, 2027 and is paid January 21, 2027, so those two weeks of pay land in the 2027 tax year.

Sources