Payslips and pay schedules for temporary workers
How temporary workers receive their payslips, how an agency proves they went out, and how a pay run is paid when Achekam itself moves no money.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Recruitment businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
For a staffing agency, payday is when the business is judged. Temporary workers on a warehouse contract or a call-centre assignment may be paid every week, and each of them wants two things: the right amount in the bank, and a payslip that shows how it was worked out. When either is late or wrong, the phones ring, the client hears about it, and good temps drift to an agency that pays more reliably.
Getting this right at scale means separating two jobs that often get mixed up: producing and delivering payslips, and actually paying people. Achekam does the first and prepares the second, but it does not move money. Understanding that line helps an agency design a payday routine that works every week.
Weekly, fortnightly or monthly runs
Pay runs in Achekam can be monthly, fortnightly or weekly, with each period's overtime, commission, allowances, reimbursements and unpaid leave entered as variable inputs. Temporary staff on short assignments are often paid weekly, and an agency may run a weekly payroll for temps alongside a monthly one for its own permanent staff.
Every 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. For an agency, that means at least two people in payroll roles, and it means mistakes are corrected on a later run rather than by quietly reworking an approved one.
Payslips sent automatically on approval
Payslips are PDFs carrying your business's logo and details. They can be downloaded or e-mailed, one per person. An employer setting sends them automatically when a run is approved, so the moment payroll signs off, every temp with an e-mail address on file is sent their own payslip. In South Africa, the Department of Employment and Labour's basic guide to pay slips lists the details an employer must give a worker in writing each payday, such as the pay period, hours worked, deductions and net pay.
Two practical notes. E-mailing needs an e-mail service configured on the server, so test it with one payslip before the first real run. And because payslips go one per person, each temp receives only their own.
The delivery log: proof each payslip went out
Automatic sending comes with a delivery log. When a temp says they never got their payslip, the log shows whether it was sent to them and to which address.
Temporary workers change e-mail addresses and phones more often than permanent staff, and a payslip sent to an old address is as good as not sent. Read the log after each run, and treat failed deliveries as a task: confirm the right address with the worker, update the record, and resend.
Temps with their own login
A staff member whose login is linked to their payroll record can use self-service to download their own payslips, apply for leave, and submit expense claims, detail changes or a new bank account for payroll to decide.
For longer assignments, giving temps a login saves the payroll team from resending old payslips on request. For short assignments, e-mailed payslips may be enough. Decide per assignment, and tell each worker on their first day how they will receive their payslips. Workers who know where their payslip will come from are far less likely to phone the office on payday asking for it.
Paying the run: Achekam moves no money
Each approved run has a payment schedule that can be downloaded as a CSV. It lists who is to be paid and how much. Marking the run paid only records that the payment was made; Achekam moves no money. The payment itself happens in your online banking.
South African agencies can also produce a wages file for the bank for an approved run, in FNB's import layout or as a column-mapped CSV for Standard Bank, Absa, Nedbank or another bank. A new layout is marked untested until someone confirms a test import, so run a small test with your bank before payday. No bank-file layout for a Nigerian or Kenyan bank ships yet, so agencies there work from the payment schedule.
Mark the run paid only once the bank has confirmed the payment, not when the file is uploaded. The record then means what it says.
When a temp changes bank details
Bank changes are where payroll fraud often starts, and agencies with a large, shifting workforce are exposed. In Achekam, an employee's bank account entered or changed by one person must be verified by another person before it is paid in the payment schedule or bank file.
That applies to self-service requests too. A temp can ask for a new bank account through self-service, payroll decides on the request, and even after approval, a second person still has to verify the change. Verify by calling the worker on the number already on file, not one given with the request.
A weekly payday routine
- Enter the week's variable inputs, such as overtime and allowances, once timesheets are signed off.
- Prepare the run; a second person approves it.
- Check the delivery log and deal with failed payslips.
- Download the payment schedule or bank file, and pay through online banking with your bank's own approvals.
- Mark the run paid once the bank confirms.
- Review any pending bank changes before the next run.
Getting temps into payroll in the first place is covered in loading a batch of new temps into payroll. Permanent placements are invoiced differently; see when to issue the placement fee invoice and, if a placement fails, rebates when a placed candidate leaves early.
Before the next payday, switch on automatic payslip delivery for your temp employer and send yourself a test payslip to see exactly what workers receive.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
