Run the month's payroll

Choose the pay period, tick the checklist, select the employees and generate. Each gets a draft payslip you can view, print or delete until it is approved.

HR & payroll Running payroll
6 min read
Updated October 20, 2026

For Payroll officer Accountant HR officer

On this page

The idea
Before you start
Generate
After generating
Difference salary
Common questions

The idea

A pay run makes one payslip for each employee you select, for one pay period. It reads everything set up in How a payslip is worked out: salary, allowances, deductions, PF or SSF, CIT, tax, overtime, absence, loans. The payslips start as Draft; nothing reaches Accounting until they are approved and posted.

Open List payroll (Payroll › Payroll generate). The Payroll tab lists the payslips made so far; Payroll JV is for posting (What payroll posts to Accounting).

Before you start

The month's overtime is approved (Overtime: request, approval and payment).
Absent days and attendance-based deductions are entered, if you use them (Absence, unpaid leave and attendance in payroll).
One-off income and deductions, medical tax discount, previous income and any variable allowance rates for the month are entered (Extra income and deduction: one-off items, PF loan, medical discount, previous income, Payroll items: the allowances and deductions you can use).
Loan installments are set, and any change to one is entered as a loan override (How loan installments and interest are taken from pay).
Every employee has a basic salary and the fiscal year has a tax rule (Tax rules: slabs, discounts, rebates and relief).

Generate

Open the form
Who
Payroll officer
Where
Payroll generate › Add (choose Detail)
What changes
The Payslip generate page opens.
Choose the period and date
What changes
Pick the Period (the month the salary is for) and the Payroll date. Paid period follows the period. You can narrow the list by Department and Designation.
Confirm the checklist
Where
The button beside the dates opens the Payroll drawer
What changes
Tick that the allowances and deductions, the loans and overrides, and the special income and deductions are set. The note "If you're not sure, click to setup here" links to the setup. Tick the confirmation and Submit to list the employees.
Select the employees
What changes
Each employee has a Remark box. An employee shows "For this post salary not set till" when there is no salary, or "Income tax rule not set" when the fiscal year has no tax rule: such an employee cannot be selected. Employees who joined after the period are not listed. If nobody is listed the screen says "Either all employee payroll generated or there is no employee".
Generate
Where
Submit
What changes
A draft payslip is made for each selected employee and the list shows them. The message "Payroll successfully created" confirms it.

Worked example: a pay run day with four employees

The payroll officer opens Payroll generate › Add, chooses Detail, picks the Period and the Payroll date, and confirms the checklist. The list shows:

Employee	What the list shows	What the payroll officer does
A	Can be selected	Ticks the employee
B	"For this post salary not set till"	Adds a salary row for B's designation on Designation salary (Designation salary and grades), then returns to the pay run
C	"Income tax rule not set"	Asks the accountant to add the fiscal year's Tax rule for C's group, Single or Married (Tax rules: slabs, discounts, rebates and relief)
D	Not on the list	D already has a payslip for this period, or joined after the period. Nothing to do

The officer selects A and presses Submit. The message "Payroll successfully created" appears and A's payslip is Draft.

Looking at A's Payroll sheet, the officer sees that a day of absence entered for A was never saved. The officer deletes the draft payslip, enters the day on Absent day entry (an absence cannot be entered once the payslip exists), and generates A's payslip again. B and C are generated later, when their salary and tax rule are set.

After generating

The list shows each employee's Salary type, Department, Designation, and a Status of Draft, Approval Process, Approved or Disapproved. On a row you can:

View payslip to open the Payroll sheet: income lines, deductions, tax, the net amount and the year-to-date totals, with Print.
Delete a draft payslip to make it again after a fix. Delete does not work on an approved payslip.
Recommendation for approval and, for an approver, Approve or Disapprove (Recommend, approve or disapprove payslips).

Difference salary

The Quick choice on Add opens the Difference salary form. Use it when a month has already been paid and the salary was later raised back-dated: it makes a separate payslip of the salary type Difference salary for the extra pay of that month. Check the result with your accountant before approving (Tax rules: slabs, discounts, rebates and relief).

What happens when you generate

Area	Change
Payslip	A Draft payslip for each selected employee for the period, with salary, allowances, deductions, PF or SSF, CIT and tax
Overtime	The employee's approved, unpaid overtime is added and marked paid with this payslip
Leave and absence	Approved unpaid leave, absent day entries and the attendance deductions chosen for the period are taken off and marked as used
One-off items	The period's occasional income and deductions are added and marked paid
Loans	The month's installment and interest are deducted and added to the loan's paid totals
Medical tax discount	The discount given is added to the employee's Till relief amount
Accounting	Nothing yet: the journal is made only after approval (What payroll posts to Accounting)

Common questions

An employee is not in the list.

Only working employees with a basic salary for the period and a tax rule for the fiscal year are listed, and only once per period. An employee who joined after the period is not listed.

A payslip is wrong. Can I fix it?

While it is not approved, delete it, correct the setup or the month's entries, and generate it again. Choose the attendance deductions again first if you use them.

Why is the tax higher this month than last month?

Tax is worked out for the whole year. Overtime or leave salary paid this month is counted as if it came every month for the rest of the year, so the month that pays it carries more tax and the following months even out. A raise or a new allowance changes the tax from that month on.

The pay run says nobody can be paid.

Every selected employee already has a payslip for the period, or nobody qualifies. Check the list and the period.

An employee was promoted during the month.

Check that payslip with your accountant before you approve it (Promote or transfer an employee).

Can I run the pay for some employees now and the rest later?

Yes. You choose the employees. An employee who already has a payslip for the period is not offered again, so the rest can be generated whenever they are ready.