Payroll Module Overview

Backstage Payroll module enables you to prepare payroll for staffs, and also make use of these result in Payroll modules. The key records in this module are:

How does Payroll Module work?

Defining Pay Type

Backstage has to know what are the different pay types available in your company. Usually, this can be known from your present payslip and look at the different pay item titles. 

Defining Pay Formula

To automate calculation, Backstage needs to know the formula for each pay type. Usually, it should be either one of the following cases:

• Pay Type that can be calculated, with unit rate:
  2 formulae needed to be set. E.g Basic Salary is calculated in terms of "Daily Rate x Number of days Worked". 
• Pay Type that can be calculated, without unit rate:
  E.g if you have a rule that every December, to issue the Basic Salary as "Double Pay", this can be calculated in terms of a single "Pay Amount".
• Pay Type that cannot be calculated:
  Some ad-hoc payments like Commission are out of reach by Backstage. But you can plug them directly in Payroll as well.

Updating Pay Rate in Placement Profile

Some calculation (e.g. Basic Salary) requires you to enter a pay rate that is specific to the staff, and likely they have an effective date too. Update these Pay Rates in the staff Placement profile -> Salary section.

There are two ways to give a Pay Item its rate:

• Type the amount. The usual case. The staff member's rate is whatever you enter, and it changes when you add a new Pay Item with a new effective date.
• Read it from a Pay Scale. For organisations paying on a published or negotiated scale. You tick On Pay Scale on the Pay Item and pick a point; Backstage reads the rate from the scale. When the scale is revised, every staff member on it moves to the new rate with no change to any Placement. See Pay Scale.

Two things are worth knowing about a Pay Item on a scale:

• The rate is resolved when it is needed, not stored on the Pay Item. Revising the scale therefore reaches payroll, payslips, reports and tax forms without a new Pay Item row.
• The scale a staff member pays on comes from the Rank on their Placement Movement, read at the Pay Item's effective date — not at the payroll date. A promotion recorded as a new Movement does not change anyone's pay on its own; pay moves when you add the Pay Item at the new point.

Generate Payroll Batch

Once the above configurations are done, you can generate Payroll Batches and add Staff to the batch. Backstage will follow the formula you defined to complete the calculation. You can then further modify or validate the result.

Finish Payroll

You are likely to make use of the Payroll Batch result for further actions, e.g. issuing your MPF Statement, issuing Autopay instruction file, etc. Once these are done, you can "Post" the payroll batch to lock the result.

Deliver Payslip to your staffs

Once you finished the payroll, you can deliver the payslip

• If you have ESS module, once the payroll batch is posted, your staffs will see it available for download in ESS -> Payroll History, or
• Open the Payroll Batch -> More -> Print or Email the forms to staffsCheck Payslip