Payroll overview
What the Payroll module does, who uses it, the key terms, and what is and is not built yet.
What Payroll does
Payroll calculates what each employee is paid for a period, lets a second person check and approve the result, posts it to accounting, publishes payslips, and produces the bank payment file. It also handles the final pay of employees who leave, and the monthly end-of-service liability.
Every step is controlled. Each run records exactly which inputs and which rules it used, and nobody who prepared a run can approve it.
Who uses it
- Payroll preparers create runs, freeze inputs, calculate and raise payment instructions.
- Approvers acknowledge exceptions and approve runs and inputs.
- Finance posts to accounting, releases payment files and closes runs.
- Specialists review final settlements where a rule needs a human decision.
- Configurers set up rule packages, pay groups, periods and settlement policies.
- Employees see only their own published payslips in the employee portal.
Key terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Rule package | A versioned set of pay elements and calculation rules. It must be approved by someone other than its author before a run can use it. |
| Pay element | A line on a payslip: an earning (basic), a deduction, or an employer cost. |
| Pay group | The people paid together, with currency and rule package. |
| Pay period | A date range of a group with an input cutoff and a pay date. |
| Payroll run | One calculation of a period. Types: regular, off-cycle, correction, final settlement. |
| Freeze | Takes a snapshot of each person's contract, approved inputs and HR facts so the run cannot drift. |
| Exception | A flag raised on a run: block, warn or review. Open exceptions stop approval until acknowledged. |
| Payment instruction | One bank transfer for one payslip. |
| WPS SIF | The UAE Wages Protection System salary information file. |
How a run flows
Draft, Frozen, Calculated, Approved, Posted, then Paid or Closed. Payslips are published after posting, and employees see them only then.
How it connects to other modules
- HR supplies employees, contracts, pay changes, approved unpaid leave, loan and asset recoveries, bank details, labour card numbers, and termination events that create final settlements.
- Attendance supplies approved overtime hours.
- Accounting receives one balanced journal per posted run.
- Employee portal shows published payslips to the employee.
What is not built
Be aware before relying on a result:
- The only rule package shipped is a clearly labelled DEMO package; its runs and journals carry a
[DEMO RULES]mark. Your own package has to be created and approved. - Statutory contributions, tax, and bank-specific SIF variants are not available yet.
- All overtime hours are priced with one multiplier; there is no split by day type.
- Hourly unpaid leave is not deducted.
See Getting started next.