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Accounting Splits Made Easy

We’ve listened to your suggestions and are thrilled to launch our long-awaited Accounting Splits feature.

Now you can create groups of employees (known as Accounting Splits) based on your expense-tracking needs, and split payroll items according to how you wish to account for the various expenses associated with each specific group e.g. Directors. The Accounting Splits feature gives you more insight into your payroll expenses, promising to save you time and increase your efficiency.

The impact of the Accounting Split can be seen in the Accounting Info report, which shows the effect of the split across the various expense and liability amounts for the payment run – useful for reporting purposes.

In the past, our accounting reports only reflected a single total per payroll item making it difficult to identify expenses for specific employee groups e.g. Directors.

This new functionality also lets you map the payroll items for a particular Accounting Split, according to your company’s structure and needs, before posting the information directly to your journal in your accounting system.

If I’m a Xero user, how  do Accounting Splits differ from tracking categories?

  • Tracking categories let you see how different areas of your business are performing and can be used to keep track of cost codes – our accounting report will reflect payroll items lumped under one figure, but Xero will allow you to split accounts by tracking category.
  • In contrast, Accounting Splits will split figures on our accounting report as per the groups you created. When posting to Xero, you will be given the option to post to different accounts, based on the group.

More information about setting up Accounting Splits can be found on our help site.

If you have any questions, you are welcome to email us at [email protected] to assist you.

The SimplePay Team

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Leave Take-Ons: New and Improved

We are very happy to inform you that we have re-designed the way that leave take-on balances are captured. The new and improved take-on screen will provide you with greater flexibility and is also more informative. Additionally, you will now have the option to add leave take-on balances in bulk.

Please note: the information in this blog post does, unfortunately, not apply to clients who are still on Version 1 of our leave system; however, we’re working very hard on migrating everyone to the latest version as soon as possible.

In cases where you previously used another payroll system before you started using SimplePay,  you can add leave take-on balances for your employees.

Alternatively, you might want to enter leave balances as at a particular date. The redesigned leave take-on screen allows you to do this too because you are able to choose the date for the end of the take-on period.

The system will automatically calculate the leave accrued from the start of the leave cycle to the end of the take-on period and will also take into consideration leave days taken and leave adjustments recorded on the system. It will even allow you to enter the number of leave days that were captured off-system.

Additionally, the system will automatically calculate a closing balance – as at the end of the take-on period – based on information in the other fields. However, if the leave policy allows for leave to be carried forward, you will be able to override the automatically calculated closing balance and enter the desired balance.

More information about leave take-on balances and the handy new take-on fields that we’ve added can be found on our help site.

Another great improvement is that it is now possible to add leave take-on balances for your employees in bulk – thereby eliminating the need to repeat the same steps over and over for all your employees.  More information about how to do these bulk inputs can be found here.

If you have any questions, you are welcome to email us at [email protected] to assist you.

The SimplePay Team

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August 2017 Employer Interim Reconciliation Filing Season

The August 2017 Employer Interim Reconciliation filing season is now open and you have until 31 October 2017 to submit your Employer Reconciliation Declarations (EMP501s) for the period from 1 March 2017 to 31 August 2017, in respect of the Monthly Employer Declarations (EMP201s) submitted, payments made, Employee Income Tax Certificates [IRP5s / IT3(a)s] and ETI, if applicable.

You can refer to the SARS website for news about this.

Remember that we have a help page about the bi-annual filing process, as well as a guide – to take you through it step by step.

Please pay particular attention to the checklist in the guide, which will help you eliminate unnecessary validation errors when trying to upload files to [email protected]

An updated version of [email protected] is already available, and it is very important that you use the latest version: 6.8.1. Please remember to make a backup of your current information on your computer before installing a new version of [email protected]

We are happy to inform you that we have already made all the necessary updates to the system that were required because of the changes SARS made for this filing season. You will now, once again, be able to generate an export file of your tax certificates on the Submissions tab and upload this file onto [email protected]

One notable change introduced by SARS is the increased reporting requirements for ETI, which include new and amended ETI source codes. Another consequence of the requirement for increased reporting on ETI is a slight change in the way tax take-on balances are captured – and some action might be required on your side.

When you do the pre-validation on our system (as described in the guide linked to above), you might get some IRP5 code errors – especially if you started using SimplePay after 1 March 2017 and if you already had employees who had qualified for ETI when you entered take-on balances.

Many of these IRP5 code errors should be resolved when you enter the additional ETI take-on information that SARS now requires. This should be done individually for all employees mentioned in the IRP5 code errors as follows:

  1. Go to the employee’s profile.
  2. Click on Take-On Balances under Actions on the right.
  3. Click on Edit Balances.
  4. Enter the monthly ETI Wage and ETI Hours information for the same months for which you had previously entered ETI Claimed and Remuneration information.
    • More information about ETI Wage is available here. Please note the distinction between remuneration and wage.
    • More information about ETI Hours is available here.
  5. Re-do the pre-validation and check that the IRP5 code errors related to ETI take-on information have been resolved.

As always, please feel free to contact us at [email protected] if you have any questions or need assistance in resolving the IRP5 code errors.

The SimplePay Team

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New Roles and Permissions

Another exciting new feature has just gone live!

In response to requests from many clients, we have increased the number of roles that you can assign to users on the system, each of which has a different set of associated permissions that determines what the user can see and do on the system.

Previously, you were only able to restrict the access of users to certain companies / payment frequencies / pay points. You will now still be able to do this… and more! There are now three possible roles that you can assign to a user: Admin, Leave Admin and Approval Only.

All existing users on the system will, by default, be assigned the Admin role. Therefore, they will still be able to do exactly what they were able to do in the past. Additionally, any restrictions to companies / payment frequencies / pay points that you had previously put in place, will still be in effect.

The two new roles – Leave Admin and Approval Only – were designed to make your life easier and give you more flexibility. For example, you can assign the Leave Admin role to someone who only administers leave but should not have access to any salary information, or someone who should only be able to approve leave / info update requests, can be assigned the Approval Only role.

However, if you have no need for these new roles, you can ignore these changes and continue as you did before – with all users having the Admin role.

If you would like to read more about the new roles that we have introduced, you can click here. Additionally, you can find more general information about managing users by clicking here.

Please note: this new feature has necessitated some terminology changes on the system: previously, we used to talk about multiple “roles” that could be associated with an email address. However, now we will refer to multiple “users” being associated with that email address. More information about multiple users is available here.

As always, your feedback will be highly valued, especially since we are considering adding more roles in the future.

If you have any questions, you are welcome to email us at [email protected] to assist you.

The SimplePay Team

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New Look Payslips

You spoke… and we listened! We have received lots of feedback regarding our payslip design and numerous requests for an updated version.

Therefore, we are very pleased to announce the introduction of a new look payslip. We trust that you will find this new format fresher and more up-to-date.

All new companies added after 26 July 2017 will automatically have the new payslip format. However, you will be able to switch a newly added company back to the old payslip format by going to Settings > Payslip Settings and ticking the box next to Use old format (Version 1).

Additionally, all existing clients will be able to switch individual companies created before 26 July 2017 to the new payslip format in a similar way – by going to Settings > Payslip Settings and ticking the box next to Use new format (Version 2).

Alternatively, if you are a user with multiple companies, you could contact our support team to request the activation of the new payslip design for all the companies in your profile.

Here is a sample of the new design:

All the existing payslip features and settings will still be available; for example, if you want to use self-sealing confidential stationery, that is still possible.

If you have any questions, you are welcome to email us at [email protected] to assist you.

The SimplePay Team

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Accounting for ETI Made Easy

As always, we are doing our very best to make your life simpler and save you time – therefore, increasing your efficiency.

In the past, you might have had to do manual journals in Xero to account for ETI Utilised because ETI is not included in payslips and, consequently, is not posted as part of the posting of other payroll information.

We are happy to inform you that you will no longer need to do these manual journals because of a new feature that we have introduced. Accounting for ETI Utilised (as per your EMP201) in Xero, will now be as easy as clicking a link in SimplePay.

More information about this very useful and time-saving feature is available on our help site. You might want to look at the section about the Cutoff Date, in particular, to ensure that you use the new feature only from the month that suits you.

If you have any questions, you are welcome to email us at [email protected] to assist you.

The SimplePay Team

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2017 UIF Increase: The Facts

Updated on 7 July 2017 with information about uFiling issues

You might have heard about an increase regarding the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF). We would like to provide some clarity on this issue, which seems to have been creating some confusion.

There has, in fact, been an increase. However, this increase has been to the limit that must be used by the UIF to calculate benefit amounts – not contributions. With effect from 1 April 2017, the monthly limit for calculating benefits has been increased from R14,872 to R17,712, as per the Minister of Labour’s notice in the Government Gazette (of 17 March 2017). The corresponding new annual and weekly limits for calculating benefits are R212,539 and R4,087, respectively.

As far as the monthly limit for contributions goes, it has not been changed yet. Therefore, SimplePay must still apply a monthly limit of R14,872 to UIF contributions calculated on the system. As a result, the maximum monthly contributions remain R148.72 for the employee and the employer. This is in line with information received from SARS and opinions expressed by well-known tax experts.

Before any changes can be made to the system, the Minister of Finance has to announce an increase to the limit that must be used when calculating contributions. Currently, there is no indication of when such an announcement will be made, and until such time that an announcement is made, the limits for calculating benefits and contributions will remain out of sync. As soon as an increase to the contribution limit is announced, the system will be updated to ensure that you remain compliant.

Even though SARS and SimplePay are correctly using the existing monthly contribution limit of R14,872, it has come to our attention that uFiling is applying an erroneously updated limit of R17,712. This has already been reported to the UIF Commissioner, and they are busy investigating and working on fixing this issue.

SimplePay users can use our direct submission function, which sends an electronic file to the UIF that bypasses the incorrect calculations being performed by uFiling. More information can be found here.

If you have any questions, you are welcome to email us at [email protected] to assist you.

The SimplePay Team

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2017 Employer Annual Reconciliation Filing Season

SARS has announced the dates of the 2017 Employer Annual Reconciliation filing season. This year it will run from 18 April to 31 May 2017.

Please note that this is slightly different from other years, where the filing season started on 1 April.

You will have until 31 May 2017 to submit your Annual Reconciliation Declarations (EMP501s) for the period 1 March 2016 to 28 February 2017, in respect of the Monthly Employer Declarations (EMP201s) submitted, payments made, Employee Income Tax Certificates [IRP5s / IT3(a)s] and ETI, if applicable.

An updated version of [email protected] should be available from 18 April 2017, so it is not advisable to attempt to do your filing before then. Please remember to backup your current information on your computer before installing a new version of [email protected]

Remember that we have a help page about this bi-annual filing process, as well as a guide – to take you through it step by step.

Please pay particular attention to the checklist in the guide, which will help you eliminate unnecessary validation errors when trying to upload files to [email protected]

You can also refer to the SARS website for news about this.

As always, please feel free to contact us at [email protected] if you have any questions.

The SimplePay Team

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2017 OID / Workman’s Comp Update

It’s that time of the year again – when you have to complete your Return of Earnings (ROE) or W.As.8. It is basically a declaration to the Compensation Fund of your employees’ earnings for the past year – in this case from 1 March 2016 to 28 February 2017 (the same as the tax year). In addition, you also provide projected earnings for the next year.

Although the official deadline is 31 March, this has been extended to 31 May, and the filing season for this year is 1 April 2017 to 31 May 2017.

As always, we at SimplePay try to make your life easier, and you are able to download a report from our system that will help you to complete your W.As.8. Simply go to Submissions > OID (Workman’s Comp) Return.

Our system has already been updated with the new maximum amount of earnings on which your assessment will be calculated. The maximum will increase from R377 097 to R403 500, with effect from 1 April 2017.

More information about the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases (COID) Act can be found on our help site.

If you are doing a manual submission, please ensure that you are using the latest version of the W.As.8, which can be found here.

Remember: your bi-annual SARS filing / reconciliation is also coming up soon, so if you get your ROE submission out of the way, it’s one less thing to worry about.

Please feel free to contact [email protected] if you need any assistance.

The SimplePay Team

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Updates in SimplePay for the 2017/2018 Tax Year

As we’ve entered a new tax year on 1 March, we’d like to remind you that there is no need to do a manual year end as in other payroll systems – simply continue processing payslips into the new tax year.

When you need to do your filing, the correct period will automatically be used and the relevant documents will be generated. For more information, please see our help site.

In addition, our system has already been updated in order to ensure that you are always compliant. We are pleased to inform you that as from 1 March 2017, your payroll will automatically meet all the requirements for the 2017/2018 period, as announced in the 2017 Budget Speech on 22 February 2017. If you are still processing payroll for the 2016/2017 tax year, the old tax tables will still be used, as you’d expect.

Here are some of the most important changes that you will see in your payroll for the coming year:

As expected, the tax tables have changed with inflation. The major change is the introduction of an additional, 45% tax bracket, for taxpayers earning R1 500 001 and above.

  • 2017/2018 Tax Rates:
Taxable Income (R) Rate of Tax (R)
0 – 189 880 18% of taxable income
189 881 – 296 540 34 178 + 26% of taxable income above 189 880
296 541 – 410 460 61 910 + 31% of taxable income above 296 540
410 461 – 555 600 97 225 + 36% of taxable income above 410 460
555 601 – 708 310 149 475 + 39% of taxable income above 555 600
708 311 – 1 500 000 209 032 + 41% of taxable income above 708 310
1 500 001 and above 533 625 + 45% of taxable income above 1 500 000

The tax threshold has also increased from R75 000 to R75 750 because the primary rebate has increased from R13 500 to R13 635.

The medical aid tax credit has increased as follows:

  • The tax credit for the main member and first dependant has increased from R286.00 to R303.00 per month.
  • For every additional dependant, the tax credit has increased from R192.00 to R204.00 per month.

The ‘tax free’ portion for the subsistence allowance** has increased as follows:

  • The allowance for incidental costs within South Africa has changed from R115.00 to R122.00.
  • The allowance for meals and incidental costs within South Africa has changed from R372.00 to R397.00.

**It is important to note that the subsistence allowance is only a guideline provided by SARS and is not legislated.

If you have any questions relating to the above changes, you are welcome to email us at [email protected] to assist you with these queries.

The SimplePay Team