Getting Started
New to SimplePay? Find out about our free online training here. If you haven’t yet registered as a SimplePay user, we would like to invite you to sign up here for a no-obligation, free, 30-day trial without delay.
Checklist¶
Our Getting Started Checklist aims to streamline the onboarding experience for users signing up for a new account with SimplePay, by providing a structured guide through the essential setup steps for their company and payroll. It addresses common pain points faced by users during the setup process, such as information overload, lack of guidance, and incomplete setup steps. The checklist is divided into four categories:
- Essential
- ETI
- Leave
- Recommended
Once you have signed up for a trial period at SimplePay, you will be prompted to start getting your company set up using the checklist.
You will be directed to first proceed with your company setup via the Company Setup card. You can choose to hide this card in one of three ways:
- Click the chevron () in the top right.
- Click Hide for now.
- Click the blue Company Setup label.
You can access the card again by clicking the Company Setup label.
Please note: Clicking on each task heading will take you to the screen where action is required. Once a task is completed, you will automatically be taken to the next task.
Once all three tasks have been completed, the company setup will be complete.
Proceed to set up your payroll by clicking Start Payroll Setup (above).
You will be guided through your payroll setup via the Payroll Setup card. You can hide and access this card in the same way as the Company Setup card.
Once all three steps have been completed, the payroll setup will be complete, and you'll be directed to the checklist.
You can now proceed to view the entire checklist by clicking on the check-circle icon () in the top right corner. You can navigate through the checklist at your own pace or go back to a previous step, with the option to skip irrelevant steps by clicking the more options icon (), and clicking Mark as not applicable.
Note that, if there is a change in the applicability of a step, you can go back to it, click the more options icon again, and this time click Mark as applicable.
Similar to the Setup cards, when you click on the hyperlink in a step on the Getting Started Checklist, you will be taken to the relevant page to complete the action. The check circle next to a step will turn green once the step has been completed (or faded green when you have clicked Mark as not applicable).
The rest of this article will walk you through some useful topics, such as setting up your company, doing your first pay run, and setting up leave management.
Add a Company¶
Adding a company is a simple 3-step process. The steps are the same regardless of when you decide to add a company to SimplePay: initially, when you’ve signed up for a free trial, or later on, when you want to add companies to your profile.
- Step 1: Enter Employer Details
- Step 2: Create Pay Frequencies
- Step 3: Add Employees
Please refer to the following section for more information on each of these steps:
Basic Payslip Setup¶
If you click on an employee’s name when you are in the Employees section (on the left-hand menu), you will see the screen where you generate their payslips.
More information about the information that is entered on this screen can be found in the following article:
Pay Runs¶
Once you have finalised all of your payslips, you will need to create a pay run. Pay runs are a means of grouping payslips; they are purely for convenience and do not affect any payslip data in any way. Creating a pay run allows you to print payslips in bulk, post to Xero or QuickBooks Online (if you have set up the integration), download EFT files, and send payslips to Self-Service (discussed below). Creating a pay run is simple: click on Pay Runs and then Create Pay Run for the relevant period. That’s it!
More information about pay runs can be found in the following article:
Self-Service for Payslips¶
You are able to download and email or print your employees’ payslips from the system by default; however, there is another option also: Employee Self-Service. This allows you to create accounts for your employees, which they can use to log in to SimplePay and view their payslips.
More information about self-service can be found in the following section:
Once you have set up your employees for self-service, you will be prompted to release the payslips when creating pay runs. If you only set up self-service after creating previous pay runs, any payslips that are part of a pay run will automatically be released once your self-service settings are saved.
Leave Approval¶
In the previous section, you set up your employees for Self-Service so that they have access to their payslips; in addition, this login can be used to submit leave and info update requests. Before you can respond to employees’ requests, the company’s approval group(s) must be set up. This process is explained in the following article:
Monthly Filing¶
Based on your finalised payslips, SimplePay automatically generates the documents necessary to do your monthly EMP201 and UIF submissions. In fact, you have the option to submit your UIF declaration directly to the Department of Labour through SimplePay’s built-in functionality – no need to download and upload forms.
More information about how SimplePay helps to keep you compliant in terms of monthly, bi-annual and annual filing can be found here:
Additional Topics¶
Custom Items¶
Wherever possible, we recommend using our built-in items as they may have special tax treatment attached to them. However, if necessary, you can create custom items by clicking on Settings > Custom Items > Add.
More information about custom items can be found in the following article:
Ending an Employee’s Service¶
When an employee leaves the company, or if you want to remove them for any other reason, you will need to end their service. This has to be done individually for each employee as a UIF code is required.
More information about this can be found in the following article:
EFT Settings¶
SimplePay generates EFT files that can be uploaded to any of the major banks’ online banking platforms, which enables you to pay all of your employees in one go with ease. However, you will first need to complete your company’s bank details.
More information about this can be found in the following article:
Please note that these settings are purely for the purpose of generating EFT files to pay your employees and have no bearing whatsoever on how you pay your SimplePay invoices.
Leave Management¶
The SimplePay system has a comprehensive leave management function. Refer to the below section: