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This article will walk you through the basics of signing up for SimplePay, setting up your company and doing your first pay run. Click on a section header to jump ahead on this page. All other links on this page will open in a new tab, which will make it easier to keep following along on this page.

  1. Free Trial
  2. Add a Company
  3. Basic Payslip Setup
  4. Pay Runs
  5. Self-Service for Payslips
  6. Leave Approval
  7. Monthly Submissions
  8. Additional Topics

Free Trial

If you haven’t yet registered as a SimplePay user, we would like to invite you to sign up here for a no-obligation, free, 30 day trial without delay.

When you first log in, you will see a message notifying you that you are working with a Demo Company and giving you a link to create your own. The Demo Company comes pre-populated with dummy employees that you can use to play around on the system.

Please note: We recommend that you add another user to the account after signing up. This will ensure that another user is able to access the account should you lose your login details. More information about adding users can be found in the following article:

As you have full access to the system during the trial period, we recommend setting up your own company from the start so that you can begin processing your actual payroll immediately. You are, of course, welcome to work with the Demo Company initially if you prefer.

You will have the option to switch to a paid account – either during your trial or after the expiry of your trial. Information on how to switch to paid and how you will be charged once you have a paid account can be found here:

Add a Company

Adding a company is a simple 3 step process. The steps are the same regardless of when you decide to add a company to SimplePay – initially, when you’ve signed up for a free trial or later on, when you want to add companies to your profile.

  • Step 1: Enter Employer Details
  • Step 2: Create Pay Frequencies
  • Step 3: Add Employees

Please refer to the following section for more information on each of these steps:

Basic Payslip Setup

If you click on an employee’s name when you are in the Employees section (on the left-hand menu), you will see the screen where you generate their payslips.

More information about the information that is entered on this screen can be found in the following article:

Pay Runs

Once you have finalised all of your payslips, you will need to create a pay run. Pay runs are a means of grouping payslips; they are purely for convenience and do not affect any payslip data in any way. Creating a pay run allows you to print payslips in bulk, post to Xero (if you have set up the integration), download EFT files and send payslips to Self-Service (discussed below). Creating a pay run is simple – click on Pay Runs and then Create Pay Run for the relevant period. That’s it!

More information about pay runs can be found in the following article:

Self-Service for Payslips

You are able to download and email or print your employees’ payslips from the system by default; however, there is another option also – Employee Self-Service. This allows you to create accounts for your employees, which they can use to log in to SimplePay and view their payslips.

More information about self-service can be found in the following section:

Once you have set up your employees for self-service, you will be prompted to release the payslips when creating pay runs. If you only set up self-service after creating previous pay runs, any payslips that are part of a pay run will automatically be released once your self-service settings are saved.

Leave Approval

In the previous section, you set up your employees for Self-Service so that they have access to their payslips; in addition, this login can be used to submit leave and info update requests. Before you can respond to employees’ requests, the company’s approval group(s) must be set up. This process is explained in the following article:

Monthly Filing

Based on your finalised payslips, SimplePay automatically generates the documents necessary to do your monthly EMP201 and UIF submissions. In fact, you have the option to submit your UIF declaration directly to the Department of Labour through SimplePay’s built-in functionality – no need to download and upload forms.

More information about how SimplePay helps to keep you compliant in terms of monthly, bi-annual and annual filing can be found here:

Additional Topics

Custom Items

Wherever possible, we recommend using our built-in items as they may have special tax treatment attached to them. However, if necessary, you can create custom items by clicking on Settings > Custom Items > Add.

More information about custom items can be found in the following article:

Ending an Employee’s Service

When an employee leaves the company, or if you want to remove them for any other reason, you will need to end their service. This has to be done individually for each employee as a UIF code is required.

More information about this can be found in the following article:

EFT Settings

SimplePay generates EFT files that can be uploaded into any of the major banks’ online banking platforms, which enables you to pay all of your employees in one go with ease. However, you will first need to complete your company’s bank details.

More information about this can be found in the following article:

Please note that these settings are purely for the purpose of generating EFT files to pay your employees and have no bearing whatsoever on how you pay your SimplePay invoices.

Leave Management

The SimplePay system has a comprehensive leave management function. Refer to the below section:

You are using the help system of SimplePay, a payroll system that simplifies the payroll process. Designed just for South Africa, it's a fully online solution. Read more.