Before your first pay run: what has to be in place

Pay works out each person's gross pay from the timesheets you already keep, and hands it to your payroll provider, which works out tax and take-home pay. Before the first run can do that, a few things have to be in place. Work through them in this order.

1. The plan

Basic employee pay is on every plan: rates, holiday pay, pay runs, additions, files for your payroll provider, the minimum wage floor, expenses repaid and earnings statements. Free pays everybody on one pay calendar; Team and above have as many as you need.

Paying contractors needs the Crew plan (or Enterprise): self-billing, contractor withholding, the contractor ledger, piece, job and stage rates, gangs, and bank details for a contractor payment file. So do company deductions and the query window. On a plan without them, each change you try opens the upgrade sheet, and everything already paid stays readable — runs, statements and the exports. See changing your plan.

2. The module and the permissions

The Pay section appears in the menu when the Pay & payroll module is switched on, under Global settings › Modules.

Whoever runs pay needs Manage pay rates. Without it, the section says Pay is not yours to open. Owners have every permission. Some tabs read other parts of the workspace, so they need a second permission as well:

• Calendars and Gangs list your people — they also need Manage users.
• Piece rates reads your rate cards — it also needs Manage commercial and Manage users.
• Withholding return covers suppliers too — it also needs Manage bills & expenses.
• Opening a statement PDF on somebody's record needs Manage pay documents.

See permissions explained.

3. The workspace currency

Rates and runs are in the workspace currency, set when the workspace was created. If a pay screen says Set the workspace currency first, there is no screen to set it yourself: contact Maliru support.

4. Contractor withholding, if you pay contractors

This needs the Crew plan. Employees need nothing here: their tax, social insurance and pension are your payroll provider's to work out.

If you pay contractors through Maliru, open Pay › Contractor withholding. A workspace in the United Kingdom or Ireland is offered its country's scheme — Add the CIS deduction, for example. Add it, then check it against the scheme's own figures. Anywhere else, press Add withholding and set the scheme up yourself. A run that pays a contractor won't be worked out while any withholding in use is unchecked; switch off anything your workspace doesn't use.

The figures are yours to keep current. Edit a component to change its rate: a changed figure needs checking again, and it applies to every run worked out afterwards.

See setting up pay.

5. Work patterns and timesheets

Each person's work pattern decides how they are paid — by the hour, or by the day — and when overtime starts. A pattern for Subcontractors makes everybody on it a contractor, which decides whether withholding comes off and which statement they get. For people paid by the day, or on a salary whose attendance the clock tracks (a pattern with Pay salaries without clocking in switched off), set Full day from (hours) and Half day from (hours) on their pattern where 75% and 25% of the standard day is not how you count a day, and say under Hours whether the pattern's hours are regular, irregular or part of the year: it decides which holiday pay its people may have. See work patterns.

A run prices the timesheet as it stands, approved or not. Settle missing clock-outs and overlaps before you work a run out. See reviewing timesheets.

6. Each person's rate, and where a contractor's withholding differs

On each person's record, Users › Pay › Show pay › Add rate, from a date on or before the first day you will pay them. A day before any rate on record can't be priced, and it is in nobody's pay until a rate covers it.

For a contractor, Contractor withholding on the same tab is where they differ from the workspace: unverified at 30%, or gross payment status at 0%. Set those before you work the first run out. See setting withholding for one contractor.

For a salaried person, check the Start date and End date on their record, because a part period is paid by them.

7. A calendar, with everyone on it

Pay › Calendars › New calendar (on Free, the workspace holds one). Choose How often and A period starts on carefully: they are fixed once the calendar has a run. Set the Pay date rule, and check it against The next twelve periods before you press Create. Then Who is on it. If the screen says anybody is on no pay calendar, they will not be in any run.

8. Holiday pay

If your employees' holiday pay must include more than their basic rate — in the UK, regular overtime — set it up under Pay › Holiday pay: adopt your country's buckets or build your own, then Confirm them. A run that pays an employee won't be worked out while a policy is unconfirmed. With no policy, leave is paid at the basic rate. See holiday pay.

9. Your payroll provider

Under Pay › Payroll provider, choose the file your payroll software imports, give everyone their payroll ID, map your pay items, then download a sample, import it and tick Totals matched. See setting up your payroll provider.

10. The parts you may not need

All of these are on the Crew plan, except the minimum wage floor and expense tax treatments, which every plan has.

• Gangs — one person paid for a crew's work. See paying a gang.
• Supplied by a company — people invoiced through a subcontractor company rather than paid. See self-billing a subcontractor.
• Bank details — for a payment file for your contractors, to upload to your bank. See where wages go.
• Company deductions — money people owe the company, taken only with their agreement. Before one for the company's benefit is taken from an employee, set the Minimum wage floor; and give each expense category a tax treatment, so expenses are repaid through pay. See company deductions.
• Job and stage rates and the Contractor ledger — paying contractors per completed job or route stage, and checking their work before it is paid. See paying by the job or by the route stage.
• Query window — letting people check their own figures before a run closes. See letting people check their pay.

11. The run

Pay › Runs › New pay run, then Work it out, read the lines and what the run asks you to check, and Close the run. After that:

• Export for payroll, for whoever runs your payroll, in the file you chose under Pay › Payroll provider. They work out tax and take-home pay, issue the payslips, file and pay your employees. See setting up your payroll provider.
• Issue statements — an earnings statement for each employee, a self-bill statement for each contractor.
• If the run pays contractors, pay them from your bank with More › Payment schedule or Payment file for your bank, then Mark as paid.

See running pay.

Maliru works out gross pay, company deductions and contractor withholding. It never moves money, never works out an employee's tax and never files a return, and the withholding and holiday pay figures you confirmed are yours to answer for.