Pay Run Settings

Configure when and how pay runs should be created

Period and Basic Config

Recurring Pay Run Name

In this field, provide a descriptive name for your recurring pay run. This name should help you easily identify the group of employees associated with it. For instance, you can name it "Fortnightly Packhouse" or "Permanent Monthly".

Make sure the name of the pay run clearly describes the group of employees and how they get paid. You can edit this name at a later stage if necessary.

Recurring Period

  1. Select the "Start Date" for the first pay run within this recurring pay run. This is the initial date from which the pay runs will begin. The start date of the pay run can be changed once the pay run is activated.

  2. Next, select the period.

    • Weekly: Pay runs that will end once a calendar week

    • Fortnightly: Pay runs that will end every second calendar week

    • Monthly: Pay runs that will end every calendar month

Once a recurring pay run is activated, the period (monthly, fortnightly, weekly) cannot be altered. While the period remains fixed, you have some flexibility in adjusting the end date, with certain constraints to ensure the integrity of the pay period.

  • Monthly: The end date can be shifted to any day in the month that follows the start date of the pay run.

  • Fortnightly: You can change the end date to any day within the week that falls two calendar weeks after the start date.

  • Weekly: The end date can be adjusted to any day in the week immediately following the start date.

Why only Monthly, Fortnightly, or Weekly?

When configuring your payrun period, you can only choose one of the following options, i.e., monthly, fortnightly, or weekly. This constraint ensures that employees are paid on a regular and expected period.

Furthermore, when generating tax certificates for employees, the number of pay periods is used to reconcile their earnings. Consistency in the chosen pay period is crucial to avoid issues when submitting filings to SARS (South African Revenue Service).

It's important to note that while you can change the end date of a pay run, it must not affect the selected period. For instance, the end date of a monthly pay run can be changed to any date within the month, as long as you still pay within the calendar month.

Company

Specify the company to which this pay run belongs. It's essential to ensure that this is accurately set, as all employees linked to this pay run will be included in the monthly filing reports of the selected company.

Leave Configuration

In Agrigistics, leave accrual settings are an integral part of each recurring pay run configuration. Employees linked to a specific recurring pay run will accrue leave based on the configuration set for that pay run. It’s essential to group employees in pay runs according to their payment structure. Avoid mixing different payment types (e.g., fixed salary and hourly wage) within the same pay run.

This separation is necessary because leave accruals can differ significantly between fixed-salary and hourly-paid employees, impacting the accuracy and fairness of leave calculations.

Navigate to Payroll / Pay Runs / Select a Pay Run / Pay Run Settings. Scroll to the Leave Config section.

  1. Annual leave accumulation factor:

    • Annual leave accrue per hour at a default rate of 17 hours worked for 1 hour of leave. Employees accrue leave only for hours they clock.

  2. Average working hours per day:

    • For employees working 9 hours per day, 5 days a week (Monday to Friday) - Average working hours per day: 9 hours.

    • For employees working 8 hours per day during the week and 5 hours on a Saturday - Average working hours per day: 8 hours.

  3. Regular working days per week:

    • For employees working 9 hours per day, 5 days a week (Monday to Friday) - Regular working days per week: 5 days.

    • For employees working 8 hours per day during the week and 5 hours on a Saturday - Regular working days per week: 5.625 days

    • Select pay run templates: The selected pay run templates' quantities will be used as the accumulation hours and divided by the accumulation factor provided in step 1. The pay run templates should include all ordinary working hours, public holidays and paid leave.

    • OR Provide fixed number of hours for leave accrual: Provide a fixed number that will be used for leave accrual each period. Use this option for permanent employees that accrue fixed amount of leave each period.

    1. Quantity Hours or Days: In Agrigistics leave always accrue per hour, but when performing a pay out you can specify to convert the number of hours to days by dividing the total leave hours by the average working hours provided in step 2.

    2. Leave payout rate: When performing a leave pay out, you need to specify which rate must be used to calculate the leave payout amount. If you specify hours in the previous step, ensure that the rate selected here is an hourly rate and not a daily rate.

If you select the leave payout quantity as Days, make sure you create a Variable rate that reflects the daily rate of the employees.

Select Employees

Choose the employees who will be included in this recurring pay run. Once the pay run is finalised, these employees will be automatically included in each subsequent period. You can remove employees later if necessary.

Select Recurring Pay Run Templates

Choose the standard earnings, deductions, and benefits that will apply to the selected employees. The templates chosen will become the default settings for this pay run, ensuring any future employees added to this pay run inherit these configurations, enabling uniform management of all employees included in the pay run.

It's crucial to remember that while there is a default configuration for the recurring pay run, individual employees can have variations in their pay run templates applied to them, such as fewer or additional templates. These deviations will be highlighted next to each affected employee's name to alert you to the special conditions applied to their pay run setup.

Edit Default Config

The default pay run template configuration is crucial as it determines the templates that will automatically apply to new employees added to the pay run, with all default templates being set as recurring.

When Modifying the Default Configuration for Existing Employees:

  • Adding a Pay Run Template: If you add a new template to the default configuration, it will be automatically applied to all employees who currently do not have this specific template. Employees who already have the template will not be affected. Additionally, if any employee has overridden values for a template, those customisations will remain intact.

  • Removing a Pay Run Template: When a template is removed from the default configuration, it will be deleted from the pay run of all employees who have that template applied.

This approach ensures that updates to the default configuration are seamlessly integrated with existing employee setups, while also respecting individual customisations.

ETI Config

The ETI calculation is heavily based on how many hours have been worked for the month. We give you the flexibility to manage this based on your payroll components.

We advise that you reach out to your tax practitioner if you are unsure of what ETI configuration function to use

ETI Config for employees that are hourly paid:

  • Navigate to Payroll.

  • Select the Pay Run you want to configure.

  • Click on Pay run settings.

  • Click on ETI Config.

  • Click on the pencil.

  • Click on the drop down and select Benefit inputs.

  • Now click on the + next to 'No pay run templates linked.

  • You can now select the templates that it should look at to calculate the 160 hours (Example: Hours worked etc.).

  • Once you have made your selection you can click on Save.

ETI Config for employees that are salary paid:

  • Navigate to Payroll.

  • Select the Pay Run you want to configure.

  • Click on Pay run settings.

  • Click on ETI Config.

  • Click on the pencil.

  • Click on the drop down and select Fixed hours.

  • Enter Fixed hours as 160.

  • Click op Save.

OID Config

For more information on OID earnings configuration please refer to this section: OID Definition of Earnings.

Create

Once you've selected the employees and determined the pay run templates, simply click on "Create" to establish your pay run.

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