Weekly temps and monthly staff in one payroll
How an agency pays temps weekly and its own consultants monthly from one Achekam payroll, with a calendar, inputs and approvals that do not collide.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Recruitment businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Most staffing agencies run two payrolls without ever deciding to. The temps on assignment are paid every week, because that is what the work and the workers expect. The agency's own people, the consultants, the payroll officer and the branch manager, are paid once a month like any office. In many agencies the two live in different places: the temps in one system or spreadsheet, the staff in another, with two sets of payslips and two journals for the accountant to combine.
Achekam handles both in one payroll for the same employer. The trick is not the software but the calendar: deciding which run happens when, who enters what, and who approves each one, so that the weekly rhythm and the monthly one never trip over each other.
Monthly, fortnightly and weekly runs side by side
A business sets itself up as an employer and runs payroll under South African, Nigerian or Kenyan rules, chosen when the employer is created. Within that employer, pay runs can be monthly, fortnightly or weekly.
For an agency, the usual set-up is:
| Who | Frequency | Typical payday |
|---|---|---|
| Temps on assignment | Weekly | Every Friday, for the week before |
| Contract staff on longer placements, where agreed | Fortnightly | Every second Friday |
| Agency consultants and office staff | Monthly | The last working day of the month |
Each person belongs to one frequency. Move a temp to monthly only when their contract changes, not to save a run.
The country rules apply to every run, whatever its frequency, and all of them sit under the same employer.
Variable inputs for each period's hours, overtime and allowances
Each period's overtime, commission, allowances, reimbursements and unpaid leave are entered as variable inputs on the run they belong to. The two cadences need different routines:
Weekly temp run. Inputs come from signed timesheets: normal hours, overtime, shift or site allowances, and the occasional reimbursement. Set a fixed cut-off, for example Tuesday at noon for that Friday's run, and accept nothing after it. Late timesheets go into the following week.
Monthly staff run. Inputs are fewer but bigger: consultants' commission on placements, allowances, and any unpaid leave. Commission is the one to plan, since it depends on placement fees invoiced or paid in the month. Agree the rule with your directors in writing and stick to it.
Never put a temp's hours on the monthly run because the weekly one was missed. Correct it on the next weekly run instead.
Approval by someone other than the preparer, every week
Every 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.
With a weekly run, that rule applies every single week, including the week the approver is on leave. Plan the cover:
- Name a primary and a stand-in approver for the weekly temp run.
- Name a primary and a stand-in for the monthly run.
- Check that no approver is paid in the run they approve. A consultant paid monthly can approve the weekly temp run; the monthly run needs someone who is not in it.
Having two cadences actually helps here. The office manager who cannot approve the monthly run, because they are paid in it, can approve the weekly one. Owner-managed agencies face a sharper version of this problem; see who approves payroll when the owner is on it.
Payslips sent automatically when a run is approved
Payslips are PDFs with the business's logo and details. They can be downloaded or e-mailed one per person, and an employer setting sends them automatically when a run is approved, with a delivery log. E-mailing needs an e-mail service configured on the server.
With automatic sending switched on, the approval itself becomes the moment payslips go out, for both cadences. Temps receive a payslip every week, staff every month, with no one remembering to send them.
What a payslip must show is set by employment law in each country. 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. For weekly temps, the pay period and the hours worked are what they check first, so make sure both are right on the first run before thousands more follow.
The wages journal each run posts
When a run is approved, Achekam posts it to the business's own ledger as a wages journal, with amounts owed to the tax authority and funds as liabilities.
Two cadences mean many journals: one per weekly run and one per monthly run. That is a feature for an agency, not clutter. The weekly journals give you the temp cost week by week, which is what you set against weekly client invoices to see whether the desk makes money. The monthly journal gives you the agency's own staff cost, which is overhead.
At month end, your accountant checks that the liabilities from all the month's runs, weekly and monthly, agree with what is declared and paid to each authority. Keep the run dates clear, and agree with your accountant which month a weekly run belongs to when its payday falls after month end.
Getting a large group of temps onto the weekly run in the first place is covered in loading a batch of new temps into payroll, and billing the same weeks to clients in invoicing clients weekly for temp hours.
Draw up your payroll calendar for the next quarter now: every weekly cut-off, every payday, and the named approver for each run.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
