HR & Payroll
Employees, clocking and timesheets, how the payroll engine applies the SARS tables, issuing payslips and what they post, leave, and the EMP201 and EMP501 / IRP5 file.
Overview
Payroll in InnoVisions is part of the main system, not a separate package. You keep employees under Resources → Employees, create a payslip for each employee, and issue it. Issuing posts the journal to the general ledger. The issued payslips then feed the EMP201 and the EMP501 / IRP5 file for SARS. Leave and the PAYE tables sit under the HR menu.
Set Up Employees
Go to Resources → Employees and add the employee. Capture the full name, SA ID number, tax number, UIF number, department, position, start date, employment type (full time, part time or contractor) and monthly salary or hourly rate.
On the employee's Edit tab, capture the residential address, how salary is paid and the bank details, the retirement fund type (pension, provident or retirement annuity) with the employee and employer percentages, the medical aid contribution per month and the number of medical aid members (including the employee). Date of birth is taken from the SA ID if you leave it blank; age sets the rebate.
Go to HR → Departments to add departments with a code, manager and cost-centre code.
ID numbers, tax numbers, bank details and salaries are personal information under POPIA. Give HR permissions only to staff who need them, under Settings → Access.
Time: Clocking and Timesheets
The employee's Clocking tab records clock-in and clock-out events and shows the last one.
On the Timesheets tab, add a timesheet with lines for regular and overtime hours. Approve it, then mark it paid once it has been through payroll.
How the Payroll Engine Calculates
The payroll engine follows the SARS tables for the tax year of the pay date. Tables for the 2026 and 2027 tax years are built in. Each new tax year is added from the official SARS pages before 1 March.
| Item | Rule used |
|---|---|
| PAYE | Monthly remuneration less deductible retirement contributions, × 12; tax per the SARS tables less the age-based rebates; less medical tax credits; ÷ 12 |
| Medical tax credits | R376 a month for the main member and first dependant, R254 for each additional dependant (2027) |
| UIF | 1% employee and 1% employer; ceiling R17 712 a month, so at most R177.12 each |
| SDL | 1% of the leviable amount; not levied where annual payroll will not exceed R500 000 |
| Retirement funds (s11F) | Deductible up to 27.5% of remuneration, annual cap R350 000 (2026) / R430 000 (2027), spread per pay period; employer contributions are a taxable fringe benefit and a deemed employee contribution |
| ETI | Set off against PAYE only; excess carried forward within the reconciliation period and reset on 1 March and 1 September; not claimed below the national minimum wage; pro-rated below 160 hours |
Create and Issue a Payslip
Open the employee and go to the Payslips tab. Click Generate Payslip. Enter the period start and end dates and the gross pay (the monthly salary fills in by default).
On this screen you enter the PAYE and employee UIF amounts, and any other deductions. The screen shows a net pay preview. The system adds employer UIF, SDL, ETI, retirement fund and medical aid from the tables and the employee record. The payslip is saved as a draft.
Click Issue. The payslip and its journal are saved together, or not at all. Once issued, the amounts can no longer be changed.
If you leave the PAYE or UIF box blank on the payslip screen, it is saved as zero. Work out the figure first. The full engine calculation (PAYE, UIF, SDL, ETI) is available through the API preview POST /employees/{id}/payslips/calculate; see /api/docs.
What Issuing Posts to the Ledger
| Account | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| 6000 Salaries and wages | Gross pay | |
| 2300 PAYE payable | PAYE | |
| 2310 UIF payable | Employee and employer UIF | |
| 2320 SDL payable | SDL | |
| 2330 Retirement funds payable | Employee and employer contributions | |
| 2340 Medical aid payable | Medical aid | |
| 6010 Employer payroll contributions | Employer UIF, SDL, retirement | |
| 1000 Bank | Net pay |
Where ETI applies, it is posted Dr 2300 / Cr 6010, which lowers PAYE payable and employer cost. Net pay is credited straight to Bank on the payslip date. There is no separate salaries-payable account.
PAYE Tables and Calculator
Go to HR → PAYE. Here you keep tax brackets, rebates and medical credits per tax year.
Enter a gross annual income, age and number of medical aid dependants to see the tax breakdown, monthly PAYE and effective rate.
The HR → PAYE calculator uses the brackets entered on that screen. Payslips use the SARS tables built into the payroll engine. Keep the screen's tables in line with SARS so the two agree.
Leave
Go to HR → Leave. Add each leave type with a code, accrual days per year, maximum carry-over days and whether it is paid.
Capture a leave request with the dates, days and reason. A pending request can be approved, rejected (with a reason) or cancelled. Approving deducts the days from the employee's leave balance for that year, where a balance has been set up.
SARS Declarations
Go to Finance → Financial Reports → EMP201 Declaration. It totals PAYE, SDL, UIF (employee and employer) and ETI from issued payslips whose period ends in the month. It is due on the 7th of the next month, or the last business day before it when the 7th is on a weekend.
Go to Finance → Financial Reports → EMP501 & IRP5 (e@syFile). Pick the interim (March–August) or annual (March–February) period. The screen checks that the certificates agree with the monthly EMP201 totals and lists errors to fix. Then download the TEST or LIVE file to import into SARS e@syFile.
The e@syFile file covers monthly-paid employees with an SA identity number. Anything outside that scope shows as an error, not in the file. The EMP201 due date does not yet move for public holidays. Payroll cents are rounded by the platform's standard rounding, which can be one cent low on an exact half cent; the SARS rounding rule is still being confirmed. Check figures before you submit.
Employee Reports
Under Resources → Employees, the reports page shows headcount by department and employment type, a salary and rate summary with estimated monthly cost, the employee directory and inactive employees.
Check the ETI rules for your sector. The file uses the national minimum wage; a higher sectoral or bargaining-council wage must be handled by you.
Related Modules
Accounting Policies & Tax Treatment
Section 9 sets out the payroll rules, a worked payslip and the journal in full.
Financial Management
Issued payslips post to the general ledger; EMP201 and EMP501 sit with the financial reports.
Compliance & Governance
Role permissions and the audit trail control and record who works with payroll data.
Platform & Technology
Users, access rights and the REST API, including the payslip calculation preview.