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Help centre · Payroll

Setting up payroll for the first time

Confirm the statutory rules, check the pay items, and enter your employer EPF, ETF and TIN numbers before the first run.

Who can do this: Needs manage payroll (TenantAdmin by default).

Before you start

Add your staff under People → Employees first. Payroll pays the people on your books. Then work through the steps below, and set up each person's pay (see Setting up each person's pay and bank details).

1. Confirm the statutory rules

Until someone confirms the rules, a warning at the top of People → Payroll says so, and a run cannot be submitted.

  1. Go to People → Payroll → Rules, or press Open the rules on the warning.
  2. Read the rule set: EPF, employee; EPF, employer; ETF, employer; Overtime; Holiday and Poya work; One no-pay day; APIT tax-free a month; and the APIT bands (monthly).
  3. Ask your accountant to check them against the Inland Revenue's current APIT table and the EPF and ETF rates.
  4. If they are right, press Confirm these rules. Your name is recorded against the confirmation.
  5. If something is different, press New rule set from a date. Enter Applies from, the rates, the overtime and no-pay figures, the tax-free amount and each band, and a Source such as the IRD table you used. Press Save rule set, then confirm it.

When a Budget changes a rate or the tax table, add a new rule set from the date it applies. Earlier months keep their own rules.

2. Check the pay items

Go to People → Payroll → Pay items. A pay item is a line that can appear on a payslip. Some are Built in, such as Basic, Overtime and No-pay, and cannot be switched off.

Each item is an Earning or a Deduction. For an earning, tick Counts for EPF/ETF and Counts for APIT if it should. For a deduction, the ticks say whether it reduces the EPF/ETF base or the taxable pay. Ask your accountant if you are unsure.

Recurring items are set once on someone's pay, for example a fixed monthly allowance. The others are entered each month on the run, for example a bonus or commission.

Press Add a pay item to create your own, give it a Name and a Code such as MEAL_ALLOWANCE, and press Save pay items. Untick In use to stop using an item.

3. Enter your employer numbers

These numbers are printed on payslips and on the EPF, ETF and APIT returns.

  1. Go to People → Payroll → Employer.
  2. Enter the EPF employer registration no., the ETF employer no. and your Taxpayer identification no. (TIN).
  3. Press Save employer numbers.

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