Frequently Asked Questions

How do I delete an employee?

We generally don't recommend deleting employees from the system as this will completely remove any and all records relating to them.

Where payslips have been correctly processed for the employee, we would strongly discourage you from deleting them and advise you to rather end their service. This will move them to the inactive list and remove them from your employee count for billing purposes. More information on ending an employee's service is available here.

The only instances in which we would suggest deleting an employee – rather than ending their service – would be where they:

  • Should not have been added to the system in the first place; and/or
  • Have no finalised payslips and have not been paid based on SimplePay figures.

In these instances you can delete the employee as follows:

  1. Go to the employee's profile.
  2. Unfinalise any payslips if necessary by clicking Undo Finalise.
  3. Once there are no finalised payslips, click Delete next to Employee Notes.
  4. Click Delete again to confirm.

Visibility of Delete option

The Delete option will appear only if there are no finalised payslips.

Deleting leave approvers

You can't delete an employee if they're also a leave approver under Approval Groups. More information is available here.

Can I have weekly and monthly paid employees in one company?

SimplePay allows you to create as many pay frequencies per company as you require.

You can, therefore, have employees paid weekly, fortnightly, twice a month, every four weeks and monthly all within a single SimplePay company if necessary.

Additionally, you can have more than one of each of these frequencies, for example, if you have some employees paid monthly on the last day of the month and some employees paid on the 25th.

You can create pay frequencies by going to Settings > Pay Frequencies. An employee's pay frequency is set by going to the employee's profile and clicking Edit Info > Basic Info. More information on both can be found in the following help pages:

How do I transfer employees from an old company to a new company?

There's currently no built-in way to do this. We recommend following the process below:

Step 1: Export employee data from the old company

Confirm that you're working with the old company by checking the name in the blue block in the top left of the screen.

  1. Go to Employees > Bulk Actions > Bulk Add Employees.
  2. Click the link in "You can download the spreadsheet for adding/updating employees here".
  3. Save the file somewhere accessible.
  4. Open the file and delete any rows corresponding to the employees you don't wish to transfer.

Avoiding duplicate employee numbers

If you remove information relating to any existing employees from the Excel file before importing it to the new company, confirm that the new employees don't have the same employee numbers as your existing ones, as this will overwrite your existing employee data.

Spreadsheet format

Don't alter the format of the spreadsheet in any other way, such as moving or deleting columns or changing headings.

  1. Edit the remaining employees' appointment dates to the date on which they start at the new company. You can enter it in the first row and then copy and paste it for the other employees.
  2. Save the file.

Different PAYE numbers

When transferring employees, establish whether the new company is registered under a different PAYE number. If so, the employees need to be added with a new employment date on the new company.

Carrying over leave balances

You can make leave adjustments to carry over leave balances for certain employees. See the Leave Adjustment help page for more information.

Step 2: Import data into the new company

Confirm that you're working with the new company by checking the name in the blue block in the top left of the screen.

  1. Go to Employees > Bulk Actions > Bulk Add Employees.
  2. Upload the file you saved in step 1.
  3. Verify the data and click Save.

Different PAYE numbers

When transferring employees, establish whether the new company is registered under a different PAYE number. If so, the employees need to be added with a new employment date on the new company.

Step 3: Add payroll information in bulk
  • To enter information for regular items such as basic salary, go to Employees > Bulk Actions > Regular Inputs and select the relevant item from the drop-down menu(s).
  • To enter information for once-off items such as hours worked or expense claims, go to Employees > Bulk Actions > Payslip Inputs and select the relevant item from the drop-down menu(s).

Saving bulk changes

You'll need to enter each item separately by selecting it from the drop-down menu(s) — don't forget to save after each set of changes.

Step 4: Enter leave take-on balances in bulk (old leave system)

This option is only available on version 1 of the leave system.

  1. Go to Employees > Bulk Actions > Payslip Inputs.
  2. Select "Leave Adjustment" from the third drop-down menu under Filters (it says "Basic Salary" by default).
  3. Tick the box under Add for each employee.
  4. Enter the balances as at each employee's last day of service with the old company for each leave type.
  5. Click Save.

In newer versions of the leave system, leave take-on balances have to be entered individually. For more information, see the Leave Take-On Balances help page.

Take-on balances and PAYE numbers

Take-on balances are only necessary if the company is registered under the same PAYE number.

Step 5: End the service of the transferred employees in the old company

More information about how to end the service of employees can be found on the Ending an Employee's Service help page.

Why can't I capture take-on balances for an employee?

Take-on balances are only possible if the appointment date for an employee is before the first pay period end date that you capture on SimplePay.

Example:

If you start using SimplePay on 1 November, but you indicate that the first pay period end date is 30 June, this means that you'll be using SimplePay to create payslips from 30 June onwards, not 1 November onwards. Therefore, if you have an employee who has an appointment date later than 30 June, you won't be able to capture take-on balances as they're employed after the date that you start using SimplePay for payslips.

To see the first pay period end date:

  1. Go to Settings > Pay Frequencies.
  2. Click on a pay frequency that is already set up, e.g. Monthly, ending on the 31st.
  3. Take note of the first payroll period end date.

For more information about pay frequencies, see the Pay Frequencies help page.

To view the appointment date of an employee:

  1. Go to Employees and select the relevant employee.
  2. Click Edit Info > Basic Info.
  3. Take note of the employee's appointment date.

For more information about employee setup, see the Employee Setup help page.

Can I use an employee ID number more than once?

No, to ensure data accuracy and prevent errors, our system will restrict the input of an ID number to a single active employee.

For example, when adding a new employee, reinstating an old employee, or updating the ID number of an existing active employee, the system will block the action if there is another active employee with the same ID number. This precaution is in place to avoid the duplication of employees.