Pay employees

Note
This Guide provides instructions on paying employees set up under the Employees tab and whose payroll transactions have been entered in the Payslips tab. It does not address third-party payroll processing.

In Manager, payslips record earnings, deductions, etc. of employees. They do not record actual payments to those employees of amounts owed as a result of payslips. To pay employees, you must enter payments in the Payments tab. Two approaches can be used, depending on whether the employee is owed for a single payslip, multiple payslips, or expense claims.

Single payslip approach

The simplest situation is paying an employee for whom there is only one outstanding payslip. In the Payslips tab, click View beside the payslip to be paid:

Click New Payment:

A payment entry screen will appear, prefilled with information for paying the employee:

  • Date will be prefilled with the current date. Verify or edit as desired.
  • Enter a Reference number if desired. If the box within the field is checked, Manager will automatically assign a Reference by finding the highest existing number among payslips and adding 1.
  • Under Paid from, select the bank or cash Account you will use.
  • Select Cleared or Pending Status in the field that appears if paying from a bank account. Cash account payments are presumed to be cleared immediately, so this field does not appear for them.
  • Payee should be filled with the name to which payments are made for the employee on the relevant payslip. Normally, this is the employee’s legal name, but an employee may have given instructions for payments to be made to someone else. Leave the contact type as Other.
  • Description can contain summary information for the entire payment.
  • Item should be left blank, as no inventory or non-inventory items are involved in payroll transactions.
  • Account will be prefilled with Employee clearing account and Employee name. Do not change these.
  • Description for the line item is optional, but can be filled with distinguishing information, especially if other items are being added to the payment. This field is hidden by default.
  • Qty should remain blank.
  • Unit price will be prefilled with the amount of the payslip.
  • Check the box for Line description to unhide Description fields for line items.
  • Leave the box for Amounts are tax inclusive unchecked. This would have no effect, because no tax code can be applied to payments posted to Employee clearing account.
  • Check the box if you will use a Custom theme. Select the theme from the dropdown menu that appears.
  • Check the box if you will use a Custom title. A field will appear in which to enter the alternate title.

If other items are to be added to the payment, click Add line. When finished, click Create.

Other situations for one employee

When there are expense claims or multiple outstanding payslips for an employee, drill down from the Summary page on Employee clearing account by clicking the blue balance:

Either continue using the total balance shown for the employee, or drill down further by clicking the employee’s balance (in this illustration, no other employees have balances):

If you drill down on the employee’s balance, you will be able to see all transactions contributing to it. Whichever path you follow, make note of the amount(s) owed to the employee:

Initiate payment directly in the Payments tab. Click New Payment:

Manually complete the entry form, exactly as you would for a single-payslip payment. Post the transaction to Employee clearing account and Employee name. For Unit price, enter either the full amount due from Employee clearing account or one contributing amount from the employee’s drill-down listing. If following the second path, click Add line to enter additional contributing amounts.

When all amounts have been entered, the payment total should equal the employee’s balance in Employee clearing account. Click Create to record the payment:

Bulk payments

Multiple employees’ payments can be recorded simultaneously. Go to the Employees tab, where you will see a list of amounts owed to each employee in the Amount to pay column. Click the total for the column:

A new page will appear, listing all employees with amounts due. On this screen, employee details can be edited, but amounts owed cannot. Those must be altered by editing the original transactions, which are accessible by clicking individual employees’ balances. To record the bulk payment, click New Payment:

A new payment transaction form will appear with line items for all employees owed money:

Note
Since several employees are being paid, enter something like Payroll or Various in the Payee field of the payment form.

Edit the amounts to be paid, if necessary. Otherwise, click Create.

Caution
For all methods described above, be sure to complete steps in making the paymenst: write the cheques, enter electronic direct deposits, or prepare cash envelopes. Remember, the payment form records the payments; it does not complete them.

Effect of payments

Each payment line item debits Employee clearing account Employee name and credits the bank or cash account that is the source of funds. If all employees are paid the full amounts owed, Employee clearing account will be reduced to a zero balance.

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