We've been in the payroll game long enough to know that no matter how well trained you are or how well you know your normal pay run, life when you're running pays will always mean something else crops up from time to time!
This article is a basic how-to to cover you on just the basics of running your pay, and introducing you to important terms and concepts in PaySauce. We have loads of detailed articles on other things that might come up, and we'll include some links here to other things you might need to cover off.
This article focuses on running a pay on your computer or laptop, using PaySauce on the web rather than in the PaySauce app. That looks a little different, so we cover that in a separate article.
Navigating your pay run in PaySauce
After you've logged into PaySauce, click on the 'Run a Pay' icon on the left hand side.
Here's the key things you need to know about how pay preparation and processing happens:
Pay card states
'Pay cards' is what we call each employee's pay entry in your pay run. Each employee's pay appears in a box that we refer to as a pay card. The pay cards show you:
The employee's name.
The days paid in the period, if they are on variable days (this box won't appear if they are on standard days in their settings).
The payments included in the pay run.
The gross pay, which is listed as 'period pay'.
Three icons in the top right for leave, payslip messages and previewing the pay (we'll go through these in more detail).
A 'calculate' button to move the pay card to the next step.
The stages of pay processing in PaySauce are:
Data entry: the pay is being prepared and entries can be added or removed. Changes to employee settings will apply to pays in data entry.
Calculate: depending on how your workflow is set up, pays may or may not go into a calculate state. Some companies have managers who can calculate pays but not 'finalise' them which is reserved for those users processing pays.
Done: pays in 'done' have been finalised and are ready for processing. Changes can't be made to pays in this state unless you return them to data entry.
Most of your work when you are processing a pay happens in these steps, which all appear under the 'processing' tab at the top of the screen.
There is a small banner at the top of your pay run processing area which shows you the number of pays in each of the different states. You can click on each of them to view pays which are in those states, or you can click 'All' to show all employee pays in the period regardless of which state they are in.
One you have finished making entries or reviewing pays in data entry, they are 'calculated'. This is when PaySauce will apply tax and other calculations to determine the correct net pay value for the employee.
Pay run views
There are multiple ways to view information while you are processing pays. The default view is the pay card view.
Immediately below the processing and finalise tabs are four icons:
The clock on the left is the timesheet view: very handy if your employees are submitting timesheets to you.
The landscape icon next along is the leave view. This is important, as this is how you will manage leave entries in your pay run.
The speech bubble is the payslip message view.
The icon on the right with four stacked lines is the pay card view: this is the default view when you first come into your pay run.
Preview a pay calculation
If you want to see what the pay details will look like without moving it from data entry, you can click on the pay preview icon on the employee's pay card. It looks like a magnifying glass. The employee's pay calculations will appear on the right hand side, allowing you to review all the entries and relevant calculations. The expected net pay value will appear at the top. It is a super handy way to see how tax calculations are being applied or ensuring that you can see entries you have made, such as deductions or extra payments.
Apply leave requests
Approved leave requests from employees need to be applied to their pay while it is in the data entry state.
We suggest going to your leave view every time you process a pay - make it a regular part of your process to ensure you're not missing any requests.
We have detailed articles on managing leave, but the main things you need to know here are:
After clicking on the leave view, you have a drop down menu to change what you want to view.
Leave summary: a summary of all leave entries in your pay run so far.
Leave requests: approved leave requests to apply to your pay run.
Cash up requests: if there are approved leave cash up requests from employees, they'll appear here for you to apply.
Public holidays: the drop down menu will show the name of any public holidays that occurred in the pay run so you can apply the correct option for all employees.
When you've finished applying your leave, you can return to the pay card view.
Making changes to your employee's pay
While your pay cards are in data entry, you can make any necessary changes to get them just right.
You can click on the employee's name to add more payments or deductions.
There are instructions here for deductions: Creating and managing deductions.
If you want to add a one off payment or a new allowance to an employee, there is information for you here: Employee payments.
You may want to review and adjust any hours or days paid that appear for your employee, depending on how they are set up.
If your employee has timesheets enabled, we have instructions here for reviewing and changing timesheet entries: Timesheets.
If your employee hasn't submitted a leave request but you need to record leave for them, you can click on the leave icon on your employee's pay card.
Calculating your employee pays
When you're happy with your employee's pay, click calculate.
Depending on how many employees you have and how you want to review them, you can either click on 'calculate' on their pay cards one by one or click 'action all' at the top of the list.
Once you've clicked calculate, your employee's pay will now appear in the 'done' list. If you need to make further changes to their pay, click on the 'done' view and then click on the arrow icon on the left of their name to return it to data entry.
Processing your pay
When all of your employees' pays are calculated, you're ready to move to checking and closing your pay. This happens in the 'finalise' tab, so click there.
You should see a summary of your pay values as well as a number of tabs to review if you wish.
Checking
The value that appears on the left in red is the total value of the pay run, including both the employees' net pays and the funds due to IRD. Those values also appear for you separately.
The banking tab shows you all the payments that are due to be made, including:
Net pay values to be banked to employee accounts.
Any payments that employees have going into additional accounts.
Deductions that are being sent to bank accounts .
The total funds due to IRD.
Other tabs will show you the following:
Summary shows the different amounts for each employee's pay.
Payments will show you hours, rates and if hours have been added or subtracted due to leave.
Detail will give you all of the settings, calculations and balances for each employee.
Costing will show you the breakdown of your pay run to different general ledger codes.
Billing will show you any billing information in the period (in relation to your PaySauce fees).
We recommend you check out all the tabs to become familiar with them.
You can download checking reports from the summary tab. There is a down arrow on the right hand side of the screen which shows you multiple reports for download, including a summary report and a report to compare this pay to the previous one to check for changes.
Closing your pay
When you're totally happy with everything, it is time to close your pay. The 'close and pay' button is on the right hand side of your screen.
A window will appear to confirm:
The total payment value.
The payment date.
The account number the funds will be drawn from.
A quick summary of the key numbers in the pay run.
⚠️ Ensure the funds are available in your bank account before closing your pay to avoid disruption due to dishonoured payments.
When you're ready to close the pay, click 'finish'.
Exactly what happens when you close your pay run depends on which plan and payment method you're using and whether or not PaySauce is acting on your behalf to manage your PAYE requirements with the IRD.
Assuming that you are using PaySauce to make all payments, including both to employees and to the IRD, here's what happens:
We make the payments to your employees, so they get the money in their bank account on your specified pay day.
We collect the funds due from IRD so we can pay it on the due date.
We file all required details to IRD (employment information and pay day filing).
We draw the required funds from your nominated account to cover these amounts.
If your PaySauce processing fees are due, we also collect these when you close your pay.
The exact mechanism of how funds are moved depends on who you bank with and which of our payment types you're using. For more on different PaySauce payment types, check out this article: Payment types.
After your pay is closed
If PaySauce is managing all of your payments and filing, once you've closed your pay there's nothing you need to do until next time!
If you are making payments or doing filing yourself, you'll need to ensure you've done these after you've closed your pay.
You can review past pays and all of the reports or detail by clicking on the 'History' section on the left hand side menu.