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Payroll & HR

Add staff to your register

Register each employee or contractor once in the Staff Register so their pay type and rate load automatically every time you do a Pay Run.

What the Staff Register is for

The Staff Register is where you list each person who works for you. You add each one just once. After that, their pay type and rate load automatically every time you do a Pay Run, and for employees their leave balances build up on their own from the start date you enter. It is also where you keep their ID number, tax reference and contact number in one place.

You will find it under Payroll, called Staff Register. Open it to see everyone you have added, then tap a person to view their full details, pay history and leave.

Before you start

  • Know what type of worker they are: a permanent employee, a fixed-term employee, a casual or part-time worker, or an independent contractor.
  • Know how you pay them: a daily wage, an hourly rate, or a monthly salary, and the amount.
  • Have their SA ID number and SARS tax reference handy if you want to capture them. These are optional and you can add them later.
  • The Staff Register is part of the Team and Complete plans. It is not available on the Solo plan, so if you are on Solo the app will prompt you to upgrade before you can add anyone.

Add a staff member

  1. Open the Staff Register under Payroll.
  2. Tap the + Add button in the top right.
  3. Under "What type of worker is this?", pick one: Permanent employee, Fixed-term employee, Casual / part-time worker, or Independent contractor. Each option explains in plain words what it means for UIF, PAYE and leave.
  4. Type the person's First name and Last name.
  5. For an employee, set the Start date. This is used to work out their leave, so get it right. (Contractors do not have a start date.)
  6. If you picked Fixed-term, fill in the Contract end date.
  7. Under Pay type, choose Daily, Hourly or Monthly.
  8. Fill in the rate. The label changes to match your choice: Daily wage / rate, Hourly rate, or Monthly salary / fee. Enter the amount in rand.
  9. For an employee, set Days/week. If they are paid hourly, a Hours/day field appears next to it — set that too. These feed the monthly estimate and the suggested days or hours in Pay Run.
  10. Tap Save Employee (or Save Contractor for a contractor).

Once you enter a rate, Worklog shows a small blue box with the estimated monthly pay. For employees it also previews the UIF, splits it into the employee and employer share, and tells you whether the pay is above or below the PAYE threshold (it shows you the threshold amount). These are estimates to guide you. The real amounts are worked out exactly when you do the Pay Run.

Import a list of staff from a spreadsheet

If you already keep your people in a spreadsheet, you do not have to retype them. The Staff Register has an ⬆ Import button next to + Add that takes a CSV file, the same way Customers and Suppliers do.

  1. Open the Staff Register and tap ⬆ Import.
  2. Tap "Download template CSV". It comes with every column the Add Staff form has, and one filled-in example row to copy.
  3. Open it in Excel or Google Sheets, replace the example row with your people, and save it as CSV.
  4. Tap "Choose CSV file…" and pick your file.
  5. Check the preview. It shows how many will import, how many are duplicates, and a warning against any row it could not read cleanly.
  6. Tap Import.
  • first_name is the only column you must fill in. If your spreadsheet has one "name" column instead, that works too — the first word becomes the first name and the rest the surname.
  • employment_type takes permanent, fixed_term, casual or contractor.
  • pay_type takes Daily, Hourly or Monthly, and rate is the amount for whichever you chose — a daily wage, an hourly rate or a monthly salary.
  • Dates go in as YYYY-MM-DD, for example 2026-01-15.
  • Anyone whose name already appears on the register is skipped, so running the same file twice will not create everybody again.
💡Employee numbers are given out on import exactly as they are when you add someone by hand, so an imported employee is no different from a typed-in one. Contractors do not get one, because they file their own tax.
⚠️Nothing is guessed at silently. A worker type or pay type it does not recognise falls back to permanent or Daily and says so in the preview, a date in the wrong format is left blank and flagged, and a missing start date is called out because leave accrues from it. Read the warnings before you tap Import — you can fix the file and upload it again.

Set a monthly allowance (optional)

Just below the rate there is a "Recurring allowance - optional" box. Use it for a standing amount you pay on top of the wage every month, like a travel or phone allowance. Fill in Allowance per month (R) and, in "What it's for", a short description such as Travel or Phone.

💡Every Pay Run then pulls this allowance in automatically with its description, so you don't retype it. You can still edit or clear it for a single run, and you can add one-off allowances during the run without touching this standing one.

Add ID, tax and contact details (optional)

You do not have to capture these to save someone, but you will need them for payroll and payslips later.

  1. On the add or edit screen, tap "More details - optional" to open it.
  2. Enter the SA ID number (13 digits). The app shows how many digits are still needed as you type.
  3. For an employee, enter the Tax reference (IRP5) from SARS eFiling.
  4. Enter a Contact number.
  5. For a contractor, you can add their business or trading name.
  6. Tap Save Employee (or Save Contractor) at the bottom to save everything, including these extra details.
⚠️When you enter someone's ID number, Worklog shows a POPIA reminder. By capturing it you are confirming the person has been told their personal information is being stored and processed. Only enter these details for people who know and agree.

Details for SARS / UIF filing

For employees there is a second panel, "For SARS / UIF filing", below More details. You only need what is inside it when you file with SARS or UIF, not to run a pay run — but a submission like the EMP201, EMP501 or a UI-19 will ask for it. Open the panel and confirm exactly what your submission needs with your accountant. (Contractors self-file, so they do not have this panel.)

  • Employee number — assigned automatically the moment you save a new employee. It never changes, so you can use it as their permanent reference. Contractors do not get one.
  • Date of birth — filled in for you from the SA ID number you entered under More details. Add the ID above and the date appears here on its own; it always stays in step with that ID, so it can't go out of sync.
  • Residential address — street, suburb, city and code.
  • Bank & account number — the bank name and account number you use to pay them and to file.
⚠️Banking details are sensitive personal data. Capture them only with the employee's knowledge, and use them for payment and filing purposes only.

Editing someone later (like a raise)

You do not delete and re-add a person to change their pay. Open the register, tap the person, then tap Edit details to change their rate or any other detail.

  1. Open the Staff Register and tap the person's name.
  2. Tap Edit details.
  3. Change the rate or whatever else you need.
  4. Tap Save changes.
💡Changes only apply to pay runs from that point on. Everything you have already paid keeps the rate it was paid at, so past pay runs and payslips never change.
⚠️Moving someone between employee and contractor part-way through a tax year changes what SARS is owed and expects. Worklog will warn you when you do this. It is record-keeping software, not a tax adviser, so check with your accountant or SARS before making that switch.

What happens next

Everyone you add appears as a card in the Staff Register showing their pay type, rate, days per week, last pay date, remaining leave and any outstanding advance. From here their rate flows straight into Pay Run, their leave builds up from their start date, and you can record advances or leave against them.

💡Contractors are treated differently on purpose: no UIF, no PAYE and no leave. You can still pay a contractor through Pay Run — it simply leaves off UIF and PAYE. Or, if you would rather not run them through payroll, log what you pay them as an expense under "Subcontractor / contract labour".

The green "Qualifies for ETI" flag

When you open an employee who is between 18 and 29 and earns under R7,500 a month, Worklog shows a green "Qualifies for ETI" flag on their profile with an estimated rand amount per month. ETI, the Employment Tax Incentive, lets you reduce the PAYE you owe SARS for younger, lower-earning staff.

The amount shown is an estimate to claim on your EMP201 — it works off the person's pay type, rate and how long they have been with you. It is a prompt so you don't miss the saving, not a final figure, so confirm the exact amount with your accountant before you claim it.

💡The flag needs the person's age, which it reads from their SA ID. If you haven't captured an ID yet, the profile tells you to add it (in Edit) to check ETI. Contractors never qualify, and the flag falls away once someone has left.

When someone leaves

You do not delete a person when they stop working for you — you mark them as left. That keeps their pay history, payslips and leave record intact, and lets you still run one last pay run for their final money.

  1. Open the Staff Register and tap the person.
  2. Near the bottom of their profile, tap "Mark as left / terminate".
  3. Set the Last day of employment.
  4. Pick a Reason for leaving: Resignation, Dismissal, Retrenchment, Contract ended, Retirement, Death or Other. This is what the UI-19 to the Department of Labour needs.
  5. Say whether Notice was worked, Yes or No.
  6. Read the Final pay checklist, then tap "Confirm — mark as left".

The Final pay checklist is a guide to what you still owe. It shows the accrued annual leave days and a suggested leave payout (BCEA section 40 requires leave to be paid out for anyone employed longer than 4 months), a rough notice-pay figure if notice was not worked, and a reminder to run a final Pay Run, submit a UI-19, and issue a Certificate of Service.

⚠️Worklog records the exit but does not work out the legal final amount for you. Treat the checklist figures as a guide and confirm the final pay with your accountant.

Once you confirm, the person dims and drops to the bottom of the Staff Register with a "Left" tag. They are never removed, so you can still run that last Pay Run, and their profile keeps a reminder to submit the UI-19 and issue the Certificate of Service.

Related guides
Run a pay run (payroll) →Manage staff leave →Record a staff advance or loan →Do your EMP201 →Payroll Reports →
Still stuck? Open the in-app help assistant, or email us at hello@worklogsolutions.co.za.
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