Fixing a temp's pay after the run was approved
A temp was underpaid in an approved pay run. How a recruitment agency corrects it on the next run, explains it to the temp, and prevents a repeat.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Recruitment businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
On Friday afternoon a temp phones the agency. She worked a full week at the client's warehouse, including a Saturday shift, but her pay is short. The payroll administrator checks and finds the problem quickly: the client's timesheet arrived late, the Saturday was never entered, and the run was approved and paid without it.
The temp wants her money. The administrator's first instinct is to reopen the run and fix it. That is not possible, and for good reason. This article explains why, and the correct way to put it right.
An approved run is never recalculated
In Achekam, a pay run is approved by someone other than the person who prepared it, nobody can approve a run that pays themselves, and an approved run is never recalculated. A business therefore needs at least two people in payroll roles to run payroll.
The rule exists because an approved run has already had consequences. It has been posted to the business's own ledger as a wages journal, with the amounts owed to the tax authority and funds recorded as liabilities. Payslips may have been sent: an employer setting sends them automatically when a run is approved, with a delivery log. The payment schedule has been used to pay people. Changing the run afterwards would leave the ledger, the payslips and the bank out of agreement, and nobody could tell which version was true.
So the approved run stays as it is. The correction happens going forward.
No separate correction run
Some payroll systems offer a special off-cycle run for corrections. Achekam does not. There is no separate bonus, correction or final-settlement pay run; these go in as variable inputs on the regular run.
For an agency paying temps weekly, that is rarely a hardship, because the next regular run is only days away. For temps paid monthly, the wait is longer, and the agency may need to agree with the temp how to bridge it. Some agencies make an advance in the meantime. Salary advances can be recorded and recovered from each pay run until repaid, so if you advance the shortfall, record it that way and agree the recovery with the temp.
The shortfall as a variable input on the next run
Pay runs can be monthly, fortnightly or weekly, with each period's overtime, commission, allowances, reimbursements and unpaid leave entered as variable inputs. The missing Saturday goes in on the temp's next run in the same way.
Work it out carefully:
- Confirm the hours or shifts that were missed, from the client's signed timesheet.
- Calculate the amount at the rate that applied to the missed work, including any premium for a Saturday or a night shift your terms provide for.
- Enter it as a variable input on the next run, described so that anyone reading it later knows it relates to the earlier period.
- Let the next run calculate tax in the normal way, and ask your adviser first if the amount is large or the missed work falls in an earlier tax year.
- Have the preparer and the approver both note the reason.
The approver of the next run should see the correction and check it against the evidence before approving. Treat it like any other variable input that has a large effect on one person's pay.
A worked example in words
A weekly temp's Saturday shift is missed from week three's run, which is approved and paid. On Monday the administrator confirms the shift from the client's timesheet, works out the pay at the Saturday rate in the temp's assignment terms, and adds it as a variable input on week four's run with the description "Saturday shift, week three, omitted". A colleague approves week four after checking the timesheet. The temp's week four payslip shows the higher pay, and the administrator e-mails her the same day to explain what the extra amount is.
Explaining it on the temp's payslip
Payslips are PDFs with the business's logo and details, downloaded or e-mailed one per person. The temp's next payslip will show more than a normal week's pay. Without an explanation, she may think it is a mistake, or worse, that her earlier pay was correct and this is an overpayment she will have to give back.
So explain in writing, separately from the payslip:
- which shift or hours were missed, and from which week;
- that the amount is included in the next pay;
- that the earlier run has not been changed and the correction appears in the new period.
In South Africa, section 33 of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act sets out the details an employer must give an employee in writing every payday; the text of section 33 on information about remuneration is worth reading alongside your payslip layout. Nigerian and Kenyan employers have their own pay statement duties.
Keep a copy of the explanation with the temp's records, and file the client's timesheet with it.
Preventing it: checking hours before approval
Almost every underpayment of a temp comes from hours that did not reach the run in time. The fix is a routine before approval, not a better correction afterwards:
- set a cut-off for client timesheets each week, and chase missing ones the day before;
- before the run is prepared, list every temp on assignment and tick off a timesheet for each;
- where a timesheet is missing, decide deliberately whether to pay estimated hours or wait, and record which;
- have the approver compare the run's hours with the timesheets, not just look at totals;
- keep a short log of corrections, and look for clients whose timesheets are regularly late.
Agencies that pay temps weekly and permanent staff monthly face these issues on two calendars; weekly temps and monthly staff covers running both. The payslip and payment side of each run is in temp payslips and the payment schedule.
When the next correction comes up, record it as a variable input with a clear description, explain it to the temp in writing the same day, and add the client's late timesheet to the prevention log.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
