Payroll runs

This page is for payroll administrators: people allowed to read, prepare or approve payroll runs. By default only the Owner has these permissions.

Caution

The run page says: “Statutory contributions (EPF, SOCSO, EIS, PCB) are not calculated yet. Enter them by hand; do not run real payroll on this alone.” Every statutory amount you enter must come from your payroll adviser. mcomtask does not check them.

Do the Payroll setup first.

The Payroll runs page

There is one run per month. Another member approves it, unless the organization has only one member. The cards at the top (Draft, Pending, Approved, Paid, All) total net pay by status; select one to filter the list. Each row shows Month, Reference, Status, Payslips and Net pay.

Status	Meaning
Draft	Prepared; can still be changed and recalculated
Awaiting approval	Submitted; the figures are frozen
Approved	Approved and posted to the ledger; payslips are waiting to be paid
Paid	Every payslip with net pay has been paid
Rejected	Sent back by the approver; it can be revised
Voided	Withdrawn as a draft, or voided after approval

Prepare a run

1. Select New run.
2. Choose the Month.
3. Select Prepare. The run opens as a Draft.

Preparing calculates a payslip for everyone employed for any part of the month: the basic salary (prorated for a mid-month start, last day or salary change), recurring items in force, and a deduction for approved unpaid leave in the month.

Check and adjust the draft

The run page is titled with its reference and month. Check each section:

Needs attention lists people who will not be paid as expected, for example someone who “has no login, so no payslip”, “has no salary in force, so no payslip”, “is paid outside their grade’s salary band”, or “has no bank details yet: not payable in a batch”. These are warnings, not blocks. Fix what you can (record a salary, ask the person to add their bank details) and select Recalculate. If it says “Nothing needs attention.”, carry on.

Entered on this run lists amounts you added by hand. To add one:

1. Select Enter an amount.

2. Fill in:

   Field	What to enter
   Employee	Someone with a payslip in this run
   Kind	Statutory amount, One-off item or Adjustment
   Contribution	For a statutory amount: EPF, SOCSO, EIS or PCB
   Type	For a one-off item: a one-off pay item type
   Amount	Whole sen, e.g. 120.00. Only an adjustment can be negative.
   Description	Required for an adjustment, e.g. the reason for a correction

3. Select Save. The run is recalculated.

Use Remove to take an amount off again. Recalculate also picks up salary, item and leave changes made since you prepared the run.

Payslips lists each employee’s Gross pay, Deductions, Net pay and Status (Paid or Unpaid). Select a row to see the payslip: each line, the totals, how the basic was worked out (days employed and the divisor), and whether it is paid. Use Print for a copy.

Submit and approve

The buttons at the top of the run are the moves you are allowed to make. In a standard setup:

Button	Who	What happens
Submit	The preparer	Sends the draft for approval. The payslips are frozen.
Withdraw	The preparer	Abandons a draft, with a reason; it becomes Voided
Approve	The approver	Approves the run
Reject	The approver	Sends it back, with a reason
Revise	The preparer	Turns a rejected run back into a draft
Void	The approver	Voids an approved run, with a reason

A greyed-out button shows why when you point at it. The person who prepared a run never approves it, and nor does anyone who entered an amount on it. In an organization with only one member, that member may approve their own run with a reason; the run then says “Approved by the organization’s only member, as a recorded sole-owner exception.”

On approval, the run posts to the ledger: salary expense, deductions payable and the net pay owed to each employee. Employees then see their payslips under My payslips (see Leave and payslips).

Caution

An approved run cannot be changed. To correct it, either Void it, which reverses its ledger entries, or enter an Adjustment on next month’s run. Voiding is refused while a payslip of the run is paid or in a payment batch.

Pay the payslips

Net pay is not paid from the run page. Each approved payslip becomes a payment waiting under Payment batches, where finance puts it in a batch with other employee payouts, gets the batch approved, uploads the bank file and marks it paid. Only payslips whose bank details have been verified can go into a batch.

When the batch is marked paid, each payslip shows Paid and “Paid in batch …”, and once every payslip with net pay is paid the run shows Paid. A payslip still waiting says “Not paid yet.”

Problems

• “Choose the payout method, the salary expense account and the deductions payable account in the payroll settings first.” Fill in the settings on Payroll setup.
• “That month already has a payroll run that is not voided.” Open that run from the list.
• “A payroll run is for the current month or an earlier one.” Choose another month.
• “This payroll run pays nobody. Set employees’ salaries first.”
• “Deductions exceed gross pay on one or more payslips.” Correct their inputs before submitting.
• “You entered an input on this payroll run, so someone else must approve it.”
• Someone is missing from the payslips. Check Needs attention: they may have no login or no salary in force.
• “An amount is in whole sen: at most two decimals.” Enter the amount with two decimals at most.