Online payroll system for South African businesses
Payroll Africa is an online payroll system for South African employers. It runs entirely in the browser — no installation, no version upgrades and no server to maintain — and calculates PAYE, UIF and SDL on the current SARS tables, issues payslips by email or WhatsApp, and files EMP201, EMP501 and IRP5 from the same screen.
Payroll Africa Editorial · SARS Payroll Compliance Team
The Payroll Africa editorial team is composed of registered tax practitioners, payroll administrators and BCEA specialists who maintain the SARS PAYE, UIF, SDL and ETI engines that power the platform. Every article is reviewed against the current SARS BRS and Basic Conditions of Employment Act before publication.
- SARS registered tax practitioners
- SAPA-affiliated payroll administrators
- BCEA and LRA compliance reviewers
Last updated 12 Aug 2026
What is an online payroll system?
An online payroll system (also called a cloud payroll solution) stores your employee, pay and tax data on secure hosted infrastructure and runs the payroll calculation on the server rather than on a computer in your office. You sign in from any browser — desktop, tablet or phone — and every user sees the same live data at the same time.
The practical difference for a South African employer is compliance. Installed payroll depends on somebody remembering to apply the annual SARS tax-table patch each March. With an online payroll system the tax year is versioned centrally, so the run you process today is calculated on the tables SARS published for the current tax year, every time.
- Nothing to install, patch or back up — access from any browser
- Tax tables versioned per SARS tax year, updated centrally each Budget
- Multiple users, branches and companies on one login
- Role-based access for owners, HR, payroll administrators and employees
- Employee self-service portal for payslips, leave and claims
- Automatic off-site backups and full audit trail of every change
What the Payroll Africa payroll system covers
Payroll Africa is a complete payroll and HR system, not just a calculator. A single monthly cycle covers earnings and deductions, statutory tax, leave accruals, timesheets and overtime, bank payment files, payslip delivery and the SARS return — with an approval step before anything is finalised.
- Unlimited pay runs: monthly, fortnightly, weekly, bonus and retro runs
- Bank payment files for Standard Bank, FNB, Absa, Nedbank and Capitec
- BCEA-compliant leave management with public holidays and accruals
- Timesheet and clocking imports with automatic overtime pricing
- HR modules: onboarding, performance, training, recruitment, disciplinary
- Xero and QuickBooks journals, plus a general-ledger CSV export
Moving from a desktop payroll system
Most employers switching to Payroll Africa are leaving an installed package such as Sage VIP, Pastel Payroll or Crest, or a spreadsheet. Our migration team imports employees, year-to-date balances and pay history from any CSV or Excel export at no cost, and reconciles your first live run against your last run on the old system before you approve it.
Frequently asked questions
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