logo
Payroll Help
Payroll Concepts
Initializing search
    Support      Blog      SimplePay
    Support      Blog      SimplePay
    • Home
    • Getting Started
    • Free Trial
    • Getting Started Checklist
    • General Setup
      • Managing Companies
      • Managing Users
        • Add Users
        • Add API Users
        • Edit Users
        • Remove Users
        • Roles
        • Edit Roles
        • Restricted Access
        • Multiple Users per Email
      • Reminders
      • Frequently Asked Questions
        • Why can't I add a company?
        • Is there a quicker way to find employees on SimplePay?
        • Can I transfer a company to a different profile?
    • Payroll Setup
      • Company Setup
        • Payslip Settings
          • Hiding Leave Balances on Payslips
        • Split Pay for Custom Leave Types into Separate Accounts
        • Employer Details
        • Employer Filing Details
        • EFT Settings
        • Pay Frequencies
        • Beneficiaries
        • Pay Points
        • Job Grades
        • Custom Items
        • Formulas
        • Templates
        • Basic Pay Settings
        • MIBFA
        • Bargaining Councils
          • MEIBC
          • PSIRA
          • Bargaining Council Templates
      • Employee Setup
        • Add Employees
        • Employee Classification
        • Basic Info
        • Custom Employee Fields
        • Regular Hours
        • Tax Take-On Balances
        • Skills and Equity
      • Frequently Asked Questions
        • How do I delete an employee?
        • Can I have weekly and monthly paid employees in one company?
        • How do I transfer employees from an old company to a new company?
        • Why can’t I capture take-on balances for an employee?
        • Can I use an employee ID number more than once?
    • Account Dashboard
    • Account Settings
    • Feature Labels
    • Payroll Processing
      • Payslip Basics
      • Entering Employee Hours
      • Notes
      • Add a Payslip
      • Pay Runs
      • System Items – Benefits
        • Accommodation
        • Bursaries and Scholarships
        • Company Car
        • Company Car Under Operating Lease
        • Employee’s Debt Benefit
        • Medical Costs (Other than medical scheme)
      • System Items – Income
        • Annual Bonus
        • Arbitration Awards
        • Extra Pay
        • Leave Paid Out
        • Loss of Income Policy Payout
        • Restraint of Trade
      • System Items – Deductions
        • Donations
        • Garnishee
        • Income Protection
        • Maintenance Order
        • Provision for Tax on Annual Bonus
        • Medical Aid
          • Medical Tax Credits
        • Repayment of Advance
        • Retirement Funds
        • Voluntary Tax Over-Deductions
      • System Items – Allowances
        • Broad Based Employee Share Plan
        • Computer Allowance
        • Gain on Vesting of Equity Instruments
        • Phone Allowance
        • Subsistence Allowance (International/Local)
        • Tool Allowance
        • Travel Allowance
        • Relocation Allowance
        • Uniform Allowance
      • System Items – Other
        • Employer Loans
        • Foreign Service Income
        • Savings
        • Tax Directives – Other
        • Termination Lump Sums
        • Long Service Award
      • Service Periods
        • Ending an Employee's Service
        • Payments on or after Termination
        • Recording Maternity and Parental Leave / Long-Term Absence
        • Assisting Employees with UIF Claims
        • Frequently Asked Questions
          • How is remuneration reported on the UI-2.7 form?
      • Additional Topics
        • Annual Shutdown
        • Changing Payslip Dates
      • Frequently Asked Questions
        • How do I capture daily paid employees?
        • Why can’t I finalise my payslip?
        • How does the pro-rata calculation work?
        • How do I roll over to next pay period or tax year?
        • Why can’t I remove an Employer Loan from a payslip until the balance is settled?
        • My employee repaid their loan outside of payroll. How do I record this so that I can remove the Employer Loan?
        • Why can’t I remove Savings from the payslip until the balance is paid out?
        • I paid out my employee's savings outside of payroll. How do I indicate this on SimplePay so that I can remove the Savings item?
        • Why can’t I remove a Garnishee from a payslip until the balance is settled?
        • My employee settled the outstanding balance on a Garnishee item outside of payroll. How do I indicate this on SimplePay so that I can remove the Garnishee item?
        • Does foreign service income affect the taxable income calculation for a subsistence allowance?
      • Goal Seek
    • Payroll Concepts
      • Payslip Components
      • Pay-Related Calculations
        • Salary Calculations
        • Leave Pay
      • Statutory Deductions and Contributions (ZA)
        • Tax (PAYE) (ZA)
          • PAYE Methods
          • Calculating PAYE on Regular Income
          • Calculating PAYE on Irregular Income
          • Understanding the Tax Trace
          • Tax Averaging vs Periodic Method
        • Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF)
        • Skills Development Levy (SDL)
      • Independent Contractors
      • Non-Standard Employment
      • Tax Directives – Termination
      • Deemed Remuneration
      • Cost to Company
      • Frequently Asked Questions
        • Why is the tax on the payslip not what I was expecting?
        • Why is there Annual Leave Pay Extra on my payslips?
        • Why is tax calculated for 12 months if the employee has only been employed for a few months?
        • Are PAYE and Income Tax the same thing?
        • How is the UIF cap applied to employees who are not paid monthly?
    • Bulk Actions
      • Employee Actions (Bulk Terminations)
      • Bulk Finalise and Review Payslips
      • Excel Import for Employee Details
      • Excel Import for Tax Take-On Balances
      • Excel Import for Leave Take-On Balances
      • Bulk Add Once-off Payslips
      • Custom Bulk Inputs
      • Bulk Inputs
      • Frequently Asked Questions
        • Why can’t I select the date I want for bulk payslip inputs?
      • Bulk Leave Management
      • Excel Import for Capturing Leave
    • Filing and Processes
      • Monthly Submissions
        • EMP201s
        • UIF Declarations
        • ETI Corrections (Over-Claims and Under-Claims)
      • Bi-Annual Filing
      • Guide to Bi-Annual Employer Reconciliation
      • OID (Workmen's Comp) Return of Earnings
      • SARS Codes
      • SARS Employment Taxes Validation Process
      • Frequently Asked Questions
        • If I sign up with SimplePay after the start of the tax year, can I still use it for my Bi-Annual Filing?
        • I have multiple companies on SimplePay with the same PAYE number. Can I combine their submission data?
        • What can I do if my EMP501 figures generated by SARS do not match my figures on SimplePay?
        • Can I use the tax certificates generated on SimplePay for eFiling?
        • The Calculated ETI amounts show as Unclaimed on the EMP501. How can I fix this?
        • Can I resubmit the filing documents for previous periods after making changes on SimplePay?
        • Can I move from using eFiling to e@syFile for my submissions/declarations?
        • I cannot update e@syFile. Is it working?
        • When I import the EMP501 from SARS, there are penalties / late submission fees that are greyed out and cannot be edited. This is throwing out the reconciliation. What can be done?
        • Often when I create a custom item, the code shown on the tax certificate is slightly different than expected. Is there a way to check what the code will be before going ahead and using the custom item for 6 or 12 months?
        • What do I do if I get a Thin Client error?
    • Reports
      • Employee Basic Info
      • ETI
      • Leave Report and Leave Days Report
      • Leave Requests
      • Transaction History Report
      • Variance Report
      • Balances – Loans, Savings and Garnishees
      • Payslips
      • Leave Liabilities
      • Termination Certificates and Salary Schedules
      • Custom Reports
      • Employee Changes
      • Frequently Asked Questions
        • Why are reports not matching payslip information?
        • How does SimplePay calculate Cost to Company figures?
    • Security
      • 2-Factor Authentication
      • Automatic Logout Settings
      • Support Access
    • Employment Equity Reporting
      • Employment Equity Terminology
      • Employment Equity Reporting on SimplePay
      • Submitting Employment Equity Reports
      • Allocating Items as Not Applicable, Fixed, or Variable
    • Accounting
      • QuickBooks Online
      • Accounting for ETI
      • Xero
      • Advanced Options
        • Accounting Splits
        • Integrating Accounting Splits
        • Using Xero Tracking Categories
        • Posting to Separate Entities
        • Xero Gatekeeper: SimplePay Access Key
      • Troubleshooting Common Xero Errors
      • Frequently Asked Questions
        • Why should I re-authenticate my connection?
        • Why has my employee’s information been posted to the wrong account?
        • Can I setup accounting splits and use Xero tracking categories?
        • Do I need 2-Factor Authentication to use the Xero Integration?
    • Time and Attendance
      • Clocking Imports
      • Generic CSV Clocking File Specification
      • Notes on Clocking Import Mappings
    • Employment Tax Incentive (ETI)
      • What is ETI?
      • Qualifying Employees
      • Employer Qualifying Criteria
      • Qualifying Wage
      • Qualifying Months
      • Claiming ETI
      • ETI System Changes for qualifying months
      • Calculating ETI
      • Special Economic Zones (SEZs)
      • ETI Management on SimplePay
      • Additional ETI (COVID-19)
    • Leave Management
      • Leave Types and Entitlements
        • Parental and Commissioning Parental Leave
        • Annual Leave
        • Sick Leave
        • Family Responsibility Leave
        • Maternity Leave
        • Unpaid Leave
      • Custom Leave Types
      • Editing Entitlement Policies
        • Editing Leave Details
        • Creating Entitlement Policies
        • Active Entitlement Policies (Company Defaults)
        • Employee-Specific Leave Management
      • Leave Take-On Balances
      • Recording Leave
      • Deleting Leave
      • Leave Adjustments
      • Leave on Any Day
      • Frequently Asked Questions
        • Can I display leave in hours instead of days?
    • Self-Service Admin
      • General Setup
        • Enabling Self-Service
        • Self-Service General Settings
      • Requests
        • Managing Employee Leave Requests
        • Managing Employee Info Update Requests
        • Managing Employee Claim Requests
        • Approval Structure Setup
        • Actioning Employee Requests
        • Approval Override
      • Email Tax Certificates
      • Issuing Payslips
      • Frequently Asked Questions
        • Can I enable Self-Service for all my employees automatically?
        • Why am I getting an error saying that options have been removed when approving a claim?
    • Employee Self-Service
      • Payslips
      • Tax Certificates
      • Requests
        • Managing Your Info Update Requests
        • Leave Requests
          • Upload Supporting Documents to Leave Requests
        • Managing Your Claim Requests
      • Frequently Asked Questions
        • Why am I receiving this email?
        • Why is my leave expiring?
        • Who do I contact about my leave expiry?
    • Billing
      • Switching to Paid
      • Billing Details
      • Billing Method
      • View Statements or Invoices
      • Freeze Warnings, Freezes and Unfreezing Your Account
    • Archives
      • Leave Version 1 (Old Leave System)
    • Troubleshooting
      • I am having trouble logging in
      • I do not see my payslip(s) when logging in
      • I see incorrect / incomplete / no information when logging in
      • I am not receiving SimplePay emails
      • I am unable to action leave requests
      • I am having trouble with a bulk upload
      • I can't see the chat widget
      • The queue is full for chat support
    • Other Frequently Asked Questions
      • How do I download SimplePay?
      • How do I back up my information?
      • Is there a SimplePay app?
      • Does SimplePay have a blog?
      • Can you integrate with other systems?
      • Do I have a contract or agreement with SimplePay?
      • Is my data safe with SimplePay?
      • Does SimplePay have a sandbox for testing the API?
      • How do I delete/close my account?
      • Does SimplePay provide training for users?
      • How much space does SimplePay make available to me?
      • How do I start a chat with Support?
    • COVID-19 (Archived)
      • COVID-19 TERS CSV Export
      • COVID-19 TERS
        • TERS Phase 2
        • NIOH Registration
        • Sectoral Claims
        • Non-Sectoral Claims
      • COVID-19 Disaster Relief Payments
      • TERS Payouts
      • COVID-19 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
        • TERS FAQs – December 2020
        • Why is my employee’s tax lower than expected after lockdown?
        • Why are the UIF and SDL amounts on the payslip different?
        • What relief measures are there for employees?
        • What relief measures are there for businesses?
        • My business is closing temporarily during lockdown, what UIF code should I use?
        • What support can my employees receive if they contract COVID-19 at work?
        • My employees will be working reduced hours and need to claim UIF, which code do I use?
        • What is the 35% PAYE deferment?
        • I have employees who are ill as a result of COVID-19 and need to claim UIF, which code should I use?
        • What ETI changes are there for COVID-19?
        • How do I get the SDL payment holiday?
        • My business is having to close down completely and will not reopen after lockdown. Which UIF code should I use for my employees?
        • I am an employee, will I be able to claim TERS / UIF because of COVID-19?
        • Is TERS the same as UIF?
        • How do I apply for TERS?
        • The Department of Labour has stated that I, the employer, can complete the application on my employee’s behalf; How do I do this?
        • How can I track the progress of my TERS application?
        • Who do I contact for assistance with UIF and / or TERS?
        • How long does TERS run for and what are the application deadlines?
        • When do TERS applications close?
        • Part of the TERS application is proof of income for the employees – how do I provide this from SimplePay?
        • [Archive] Is TERS available for May 2020?
        • Does employee income still attract PAYE during the COVID-19 period?
        • [Archive] I applied for TERS for April and May, but my employee only received a pay out for May. What do I do?
        • I am registered with SARS for UIF, but not with the Department of Labour. Can I receive TERS benefits?
        • [Archive] Can I still apply for TERS benefits in May if I didn’t apply in April?
        • I’ve received feedback on my TERS application – what does it mean?
        • How should I reflect TERS advances on my EMP201?
        • How do I account for TERS payouts in my books?
        • I am not a SimplePay client, is it still possible to use your forms for UIF and TERS?
        • How do I get my UIF reference number?
        • I need to refund the UIF, how do I do this?
        • Does the type of business or the sector I’m in affect eligibility for TERS?

    Payroll Concepts

    The following articles cover the most important and / or commonly confusing concepts related to payroll processing:

    • Payslip Components
    • Pay-Related Calculations
    • Statutory Deductions and Contributions (ZA)
    • Independent Contractors
    • Non-Standard Employment
    • Tax Directives – Termination
    • Deemed Remuneration
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    Copyright © 2009-2025 Orange Thunder Technologies (Pty) Ltd
    Made with Material for MkDocs