A South African bureau's monthly payroll cycle

The month of a South African payroll bureau in Achekam, from collecting inputs and approving runs to the bank file, EMP201, UIF and the wages journal.

By Achekam · 11 October 2026 · 5 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in South Africa

A payroll bureau's month has a shape, whether or not anyone has drawn it. Inputs trickle in, runs are calculated in a rush before payday, bank files go out, and then, a little later, the statutory work arrives: the EMP201, the UIF declaration, the journals for clients' books. Bureaus that struggle are usually not short of skill. They are short of a clear sequence, so that the statutory work gets squeezed by the next month's inputs.

This article sets out the month for a South African bureau running clients on Achekam, stage by stage, with what Achekam does at each stage and what remains a person's job.

Before the month starts: the table

Nothing can be calculated until the tax table is in place. Achekam's PAYE calculation has no tax rates written into it, and a pay run is refused until a named person at the firm has confirmed that year's table, with a note of what they checked. In practice this is an annual task, done before the first March payday, but it belongs at the top of the cycle because a missing confirmation stops every client at once.

Stage one: inputs and the cut-off

Each client sends the period's variable inputs: overtime, commission, allowances, claims, unpaid leave, starters and leavers. The bureau's job is to have them complete, dated and approved by the client before an agreed cut-off. A standing request sent the same way every month works best; the method is set out in collecting variable pay inputs from clients.

The cut-off matters because everything downstream depends on it. Inputs that arrive after the run is approved go into the next run, because once a run is approved its variable inputs are frozen.

Stage two: calculate, review, approve

Payroll staff can run payroll monthly, fortnightly or weekly. Each run works out gross pay, PAYE, UIF and SDL per employee, and can be recalculated as often as needed until it is approved.

The calculator has limits that the preparer must watch for: it does not handle lump sums without a directive, backdated pay or retrenchment packages, and returns warnings instead. SARS tax directives (IRP3) can be recorded and applied. Every warning should be read and resolved before the run goes for approval.

Approval is a second person's task. The person who prepared a run cannot approve it, nobody can approve a run that pays themselves, and a change to anyone's bank account must be verified by a second person. Only the Partner, Admin, Payroll, PayrollAdmin and FinanceManager roles can change payroll. Unverified bank accounts are listed at approval and left off the bank file.

Stage three: payslips and the bank file

Approval releases two things.

Payslips. Achekam produces each payslip as a PDF and e-mails it one person per message, with a record of every send. Automatic sending on approval is off until the firm switches it on for an employer. A client's employees have no login, so their payslips reach them by e-mail only.

The bank file. For an approved run, Achekam produces a bank payment file, either FNB's CSV template or a CSV in a column order the firm sets up for the client's bank, for import into online banking. Achekam does not pay anyone, and a layout counts as untested until the firm records that the bank read a file correctly. The client, or whoever holds its banking mandate, imports and releases the payment.

Stage four: EMP201 and UIF, filed by a person

Once the month's runs are approved, the statutory work begins. Achekam prepares the monthly EMP201 figures and PDF from approved runs. A person files them on SARS eFiling and records the reference in Achekam. The Employment Tax Incentive is claimed only after the firm enters the ETI figures; the detail is in the EMP201 and the Employment Tax Incentive.

SARS's page on completing the monthly employer declaration (EMP201) explains how to complete and pay the declaration of PAYE, SDL, UIF and ETI, and when it is due. Put that due date in the cycle as a fixed point.

Achekam also prepares the monthly UIF declaration, UI-19 forms and the COIDA Return of Earnings from payroll, and a person files each one and records it. The Department of Employment and Labour's own electronic file format is not produced.

Achekam does not submit tax returns or payroll declarations to SARS. The firm files them itself and records the filing in Achekam. That record is what lets the bureau show, months later, that each declaration was filed and when.

Stage five: posting the wages journal

The last stage brings payroll into the accounts. Posting an approved run writes a wages journal into the firm's own books, or into a client's books only when those books are on Achekam and the firm is appointed to them.

For a client with no linked books, posting is refused, and Achekam has no screen that exports the wages journal instead. For those clients, the bureau prepares the journal for the client's bookkeeper from the payroll reports and the EMP201, and keeps a copy with the month's file. The conditions for posting are covered in posting a client's wages journal.

The month at a glance

Draw this table for your own bureau with actual dates for each client, and look for the week where inputs for next month collide with filings for this one. That week is where most bureaus need either an earlier cut-off or a second pair of hands.

General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.