Platform Foundations

Payroll Africa is a multi-tenant payroll platform. Understanding the four core objects makes every other screen predictable.

The account (your login)

Your login is a person, not a business. One login can belong to several companies — useful for accountants, bookkeepers and group structures. Sign-in is protected by email and password, with one-time PINs sent to your mobile number for sensitive actions.

The company (the tenant)

A company is a legal employer: its own registration number, PAYE, UIF and SDL references, its own employees, pay periods, payslips and reports. Data is isolated per company — a user in Company A can never read Company B's payroll unless they were explicitly invited.

Add another company from the company switcher in the top bar. You are not thrown into a one-way onboarding wizard: the Add company dialog opens over your current workspace and you can close it at any time.

The employee

An employee record holds personal details, employment details, statutory settings (PAYE, UIF, SDL switches), hours and rates, banking, leave balances, documents and pay history. Employees can be invited to the self-service portal to see their own payslips.

The pay period and the payroll run

A pay period is a calendar slot (for example, March 2026 monthly). A payroll run is what you execute inside that period: it captures a snapshot of every employee, calculates the payroll, and — once finalised — becomes an immutable record used by payslips, EMP201 totals and IRP5 certificates.

What "snapshot" means

When you create a run, Payroll Africa copies the employee's salary, hours, rates, tax settings and bank details into the run. Editing the employee afterwards does not silently change a finalised payslip. This is what makes historical payslips defensible to SARS, banks and the CCMA.

The signed-in workspace is designed like desktop software: fixed navigation on the left, content on the right, nothing important hidden behind scrolling.

The sidebar

Grouped by function — Dashboard, Employees, Payroll, Leave, Reports, Filings, Documents, Settings. Sections you have no permission for are hidden rather than disabled.

Global search

Press the search box in the top bar to jump to an employee, a payroll run, a report or a settings page by name. It is the fastest way to move around once you know the platform.

Notifications

The bell shows unread platform and company notifications. Clicking a notification opens it in the Notification Centre at /app/notifications, where you can read the full message, follow its action link and mark it read.

The getting-started checklist

New companies see a task list on the dashboard: complete company details, add employees, set up banking, verify tax settings. Each task tells you exactly which fields are missing and deep-links to the right settings tab, where those fields are highlighted. The checklist is guidance — nothing on it is mandatory before you can run payroll.

Loading feedback

Any action that talks to the server shows a spinner on the button and a slim progress indicator at the top of the screen, so you always know whether the system is working.

Payroll data is sensitive. Access is controlled by role, enforced in the database — not just hidden in the interface.

Roles

• Owner — full control of the company, including billing and deleting the company.
• Admin / Payroll administrator — employees, payroll runs, payslips, filings, reports.
• Manager — sees only their team: leave approvals, timesheets, claims, team reports.
• Employee — sees only their own payslips, leave, claims and profile.

Inviting a team member

Settings → Team → Invite. Enter the email address and pick a role. The invitee receives an email invitation; when they accept, they join your company only — never your other companies.

Employee self-service

Invite employees individually or in bulk from the Employees screen. They receive a secure link to set a password and can then view payslips, request leave, submit claims and update selected profile fields (changes to banking and tax details route through an approval queue).

Approval queues

Sensitive employee-initiated changes appear under Change requests. A payroll administrator reviews and approves or rejects, and every decision is written to the audit trail.

Payroll Africa is built for African employers, not only South African ones.

Country

Each company has a payroll country. The country determines which tax engine runs, which statutory fields appear (for example PAYE/UIF/SDL in South Africa), which bank list is offered and which statutory reports are generated.

Language

The interface supports multiple languages including English, Afrikaans, French, Portuguese, Swahili, siSwati and Shona. Switch language from the language selector; the choice is stored against your user so it follows you between devices.

Currency

Company currency is set per company. Exchange rates are refreshed automatically for reporting where cross-currency comparison is needed. Payslips always print in the employee's pay currency.

What does not change

Tax logic never follows the interface language. Changing to Portuguese does not change how PAYE is calculated — only the wording you see.