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Payroll Processing

Payday is the most important day of the month for your staff. 4SCH gives you a tidy, end-to-end Payroll module so the only thing you have to think about is who got paid what — not the maths behind it.

Quick Overview​

The full monthly cycle in 4SCH is:

  1. One-time setup — define your salary components (allowances and deductions)
  2. Per-staff setup — set each staff member's base salary and component amounts
  3. Each month — Generate Payroll → Review → Approve & Finalise → Distribute Payslips

Once steps 1 and 2 are done, step 3 takes around five minutes per month.

One-Time Setup: Salary Components​

Before your first payroll run, set up your salary components once.

A salary component is anything that either adds to or subtracts from a staff member's base salary — allowances like housing and transport, and deductions like pension, tax, and salary advances.

Adding a Component​

  1. Open Payroll → Payroll Settings
  2. Click Add Component
  3. Fill in:
FieldNotes
NameWhat appears on payslips (e.g. "Housing Allowance", "Pension")
TypeAllowance (added) or Deduction (subtracted)
Default amountOptional — leave blank if it varies per staff
Calculation typeFixed amount or Percentage of the base salary
Affected by LeaveWhen on, the component is reduced proportionally for any unpaid-leave days in the month
  1. Click Save

Editing, Archiving, and Restoring Components​

You can edit, archive, and restore components at any time from Payroll → Payroll Settings. Components you've already used in a previous month's payroll are preserved on those old payslips even if you later change or archive them — historical payslips never change.

Typical Components a School Sets Up​

ComponentTypeCalculationAffected by Leave
Housing AllowanceAllowanceFixedYes
Transport AllowanceAllowanceFixedYes
PensionDeductionPercentageNo
Tax (PAYE)DeductionPercentageNo
Salary AdvanceDeductionFixedNo
Loan RepaymentDeductionFixedNo

Per-Staff Setup: Setting Each Staff Member's Salary​

Once your components are configured, set each staff member's salary on their profile.

  1. Open Staff → Staff List
  2. Click any staff member to open their profile
  3. Open the Salary tab
  4. Fill in:
    • Base Salary (monthly)
    • Each Allowance with its own amount (default values from Payroll Settings appear pre-filled)
    • Each Deduction with its own amount
    • Effective from date
  5. The Net Salary preview at the bottom updates live as you type, so there's no guessing what someone will actually take home
  6. Click Save

Salary History​

4SCH keeps a full history of every salary change. The history panel under the Salary tab shows every previous record with its effective-from date — so if someone got a raise mid-year, you can always see the before-and-after.

Monthly: Generating Payroll​

At the end of the month, generate payroll in three clicks.

Step 1: Generate​

  1. Open Payroll → Generate Payroll
  2. The current session year is pre-selected
  3. Pick the month/year you're paying for
  4. By default 4SCH includes every active staff member; uncheck Include All Staff only if you want to run a partial payroll for specific people
  5. Click Generate

Within a few seconds 4SCH builds a draft payroll row for every staff member, factoring in:

  • Their current salary structure
  • Their approved leave for the month — paid leave is paid in full, unpaid leave reduces every component flagged as Affected by Leave
  • Any mid-month joiners — only the days from their start date are counted

You're now looking at a draft payroll table with every staff member's gross, deductions, days worked, and net. The status badge for each row is Draft — nothing has been finalised yet, so it's safe to review.

Step 2: Review​

  • Hover any row to highlight it; click to open a side drawer with the full breakdown for that staff member (every allowance, every deduction, days worked, leave days, leave breakdown)
  • To adjust a single row, click the small edit icon — add a one-off bonus, remove a deduction, or correct a typo. The total recalculates instantly.

Step 3: Approve & Finalise​

When you're happy with everything, click Approve & Finalise All at the top.

4SCH locks the payroll for the month:

  • The figures become the official record
  • Payslips become available for staff to download
  • The totals feed into your finance reports

Payslips​

Every finalised payroll produces a payslip for each staff member.

Where to Find Them​

  1. Open Payroll → Payslips
  2. Filter by month, staff name, or status
  3. Click the download icon on any row to open the PDF

Each payslip is a school-branded document showing employee details, the pay period, every line item (allowances and deductions broken out), gross, total deductions, net, and a footer with the accountant's name and a generated-on timestamp.

Distributing Payslips​

  • Single staff member by email — click the mail icon on their row
  • Bulk email — select multiple rows → Email Selected Payslips
  • Staff self-service — when a staff member signs in to 4SCH, My Payslips in their menu shows every month they've been paid for with download links

Common Edge Cases​

SituationHow 4SCH handles it
Mid-month joinerPro-rated automatically from their start date
Mid-month leaverPro-rated automatically to their last day
Unpaid leaveAutomatically reduces every component flagged as Affected by Leave
One-off bonusAdd as an inline adjustment on the draft payroll row before finalising
Salary advanceSet up as a Deduction component, then schedule across multiple months on the staff member's Salary tab
Re-running an already-finalised monthOpen Payroll → History, click Unlock on the month, edit, re-finalise. 4SCH keeps a record that the month was unlocked so there's a clear audit trail.

Troubleshooting​

"Generate Payroll" shows no staff​

  • Confirm there are active staff members with a salary set under Staff → Staff List → [name] → Salary
  • Confirm the month you've selected falls within the Effective from date of each staff member's salary record

A staff member's net pay is lower than expected​

  1. Open the draft row's side drawer
  2. Check the Days Worked vs Total Days in Month counts
  3. Check the Leave Days breakdown — is any of it Unpaid?
  4. Check which components are flagged Affected by Leave in Payroll Settings

A payslip won't download​

  • Confirm the month has been Approved & Finalised (Draft payslips don't download)
  • Refresh the page and try again
  • If the issue persists, contact 4SCH support

I need to change a Finalised month​

  1. Open Payroll → History
  2. Click Unlock next to the month
  3. Make your corrections
  4. Click Approve & Finalise All again

Video Walkthrough​

An 8-minute video version of this guide lives at video-tutorials/scripts/05-feature-focused/18-payroll-processing.md.

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