Paying Salaries

Timesheets

Payroll is based on timesheets.  Staff must begin to fill these out as soon as they start.

We’ve attached a timesheet you can download if the CP did not give you one.

Timesheet Template

The information on these forms, approved at the end of the month, will be the basis of the payroll.

Paying Staff

If at all possible, have the main office handle payroll for you.  Payroll is a messy business. Doing it right is heavily dependent on knowledge of local laws.  And the local laws are usually complicated.    The main office should be able to use the systems they already have to prepare all the information, then transfer the pay to each staff person’s bank account, and send the pay stub information to each employee (or to you to hand out).

Even if you have to hand out cash payments locally, the remote office can still prepare all the information about what to pay to whom and send it you.

However, if you must come up with the payroll on your own, here is a basic payroll calculation spreadsheet that should get you started.  Clicking the link below will download the template.

Payroll Calculation Template.

There are two sheets in this workbook, one with instructions, the other with just the column headings.

Note this spreadsheet only deals with how much each staff person should be paid.  It does not deal with where those salaries should be charged (i.e. the breakdown of each amount between DSPNs).

We have also attached instructions for:

How to Prepare Payroll

and

How to Pay Salaries in Cash

You should avoid doing this if at all possible.  Checks, bank transfers, even mobile banking payments are preferable to cash.  But if you have to use cash, these are instructions that should help.

Tips:

If you are doing this on your own, without main office finance or HR department:

1. Pay salaries once each month on a specific date.  The date should remain the same each month.
2. Have staff submit their approved timesheets four to five days before payday. This will give staff time to do the calculations.
3. You can set your own Timesheet Month beginning and end dates.  For example, if you want to pay staff on the last day of the month, you can make the timesheet start on the 26^th of the previous month, and end on the 25^th of the current month.  Then you’ll have five or six days to prepare the payroll before the 30^th or 31^st.
4. If you will pay staff from a local bank account (that is, if the money won’t be transferred to each employee from a central bank account operated by the main office), estimate the total amount of the entire payroll the week before you will pay it, and make sure you will have enough money in the bank when it comes time to pay.
5. Pay staff with checks or bank transfers.  In some places it might be possible to use mobile banking.  Avoid paying in cash if at all possible.  It is highly risky and a lot more work.