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    Training & Learning Centre
    Intermediate
    Module 7 of 1222 min

    Reporting & Analytics

    The standard report pack, variance analysis, cost centre reporting, pension and overtime reports, exports and the general ledger journal.

    Who this is for: Payroll administrators, finance, management

    Lesson 1·9 min

    The standard report pack

    Payroll register, variance, employee cost, cost centre, overtime, pension and leave liability.

    Payroll register

    The definitive per-employee breakdown of a run: every earning, deduction, contribution, tax and net pay, with company totals. This is the report to give an auditor.

    Variance report

    Period-over-period comparison per employee and per item, with a configurable threshold. Use it before every finalisation.

    Employee cost report

    Total cost to company per employee — gross pay plus employer contributions, UIF, SDL and provisions.

    Cost centre report

    Payroll cost split by cost centre, including split allocations, ready for management accounts.

    Overtime report

    Overtime hours and cost by employee, department and period, with trend comparison — the fastest way to spot creeping overtime.

    Pension and provident report

    Employee and employer contributions per fund per period, formatted for submission to your fund administrator.

    Leave liability

    Outstanding leave days valued at current rates, per employee and in total.

    Lesson 2·8 min

    Exports and the general ledger journal

    CSV and Excel exports, GL mapping and posting to Xero or QuickBooks.

    Exports

    Every report exports to CSV and Excel. Column headers are stable, so a spreadsheet model built on last month's export still works this month.

    GL mapping

    Under Settings → Accounting, map each payroll item to a general ledger account, and choose whether to split by cost centre or department.

    The journal

    After finalising a run, generate the payroll journal: debits to salary and employer cost accounts, credits to net pay, PAYE, UIF, SDL and third-party control accounts. The journal always balances or it will not generate.

    Posting to accounting software

    Connect Xero or QuickBooks Online under Integrations → Accounting, sync your chart of accounts, and push the journal directly. OAuth tokens are stored server-side and are never exposed to the browser. If you prefer, export the journal as CSV and import it manually.

    Lesson 3·5 min

    Dashboards and workforce analytics

    Reading the dashboard KPIs and headcount, cost and compliance trends.

    Dashboard KPIs

    Headcount, payroll cost for the period, average cost per employee, PAYE, UIF and SDL liability, and outstanding tasks — all for the currently selected company.

    Cost and headcount trends over the last twelve periods make seasonality and drift obvious.

    Celebrations and reminders

    Birthdays, work anniversaries and probation end dates are surfaced so HR is never caught out.

    Compliance panel

    Upcoming EMP201 due dates, unfinalised runs, employees missing tax numbers, and tax-year verification reminders.