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| Key Word | Topic | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Payment Class Management | How do I specify the payment Class? | You may specify the type of employee payment class so that employees can be sorted for payroll input capture according to their class as opposed to their department. This is accessed using the "Edit-Employee" page where the "Pay-Class" drop down setting is found. The various options you have are: Daily: Employees paid by number of days inputted. Hourly: Employees paid by number of hours inputted. Fixed: Employees paid by a fixed basic wage salary. Management: Employees who are part of management. This last management class is important if you would like to ensure that level 2 or 3 users of your payroll do not have access to these salaries. For example : You may change the payment class of any permanent or seasonal employee to the “management class” if you would like level 2 or level 3 access to ensure that these users can only access casual employees. Those who have management class will still behave just as they were before the change. For example they will still behave like a permanent employee, even if their pay class is changed to management. |
| Payroll Input by Payment Class | How do I process employee payments by Payment-Class? | On the main home page look for the Payroll-Entry-Options icon. You will then have the option to select which Payment-Class of employees. You will then be able start payroll capture according to the class specified. |
| Extras No Input needed in Excel | Why does my custom extra not reflect on excel input? | Why cant I get any change I make on the custom extras "payroll-input-screen" to reflect on the payroll or the pay slip? This is probably because you have chosen the type of addition to be one that does not require user input. All extras that do not require user input are labeled with a message in red saying 'No Input Needed'. If your extra is a company wide extra, then it will show on the offline excel input sheet, but make sure that it is an extra that is of the type that DOES require "user input". If not then Harvester assumes you don't need to "input any value manually" each month for the the extra and it will not show on the excel input template and neither will it show on the "payroll-input-screen". If you would like to capture variable inputs for a particular custom extra then make sure that you edit the extra under settings and change the type to one that requires monthly input. ie Specify "Straight from user Input" in the "Type" field. Extras that do not require input are for those extras that are normally a fixed amount that does not change each month..eg a 5 percent bonus or a fixed Kwacha Allowance where you specify the amount once in the Extra settings. Note: If you want to specify INDIVIDUAL Itemised rates per employee and would like Harvester to "remember" these values from month to month, then type "Individual" in help. |
| Housing Allowance | How do I assign or edit Housing Allowance? | Use the Edit Employee page and then under Rates enter the Employee Housing Percentage. When you change a percentage like Housing, it will only be reflected the next time you process pay. Whatever you enter in the housing percentage will be auto loaded when you process the pay for the next month. You will see the housing calculated amount on the right hand side of the normal payment capture screen. Should you wish the housing change to be reflected on an already processed payment, then delete the payment and re pay the employee. NB As with many settings, you may apply a particular housing allowance percentage to all employees within a Department with one single edit. In this case go to Settings and then Department settings and choose your Department. Once you click 'apply to all' then all employees within the department will have the same Housing allowance percentage. It is calculated as percentage of basic pay as per legal requirement. ie no overtime, holidays or extras are used in the calculation of the housing value. Note: “Cashing of leave” is considered above basic as the employee does not go on physical leave if they are “cashing in” on their leave without taking the days off work. If you want the employee to receive a fixed salary and to have their leave cashed as an extra then we have the option to change the employee ”pay type” from “fixed” to “daily” and then the employee can still remain on a “fixed” basic pay. To change the setting on the employee from “fixed” to “daily” then on the “edit individual employee” page look for the “employee pay-type” drop down setting. (Not on department settings) |
| Tax Return Online | How do I submit my online Tax return? | Simply click on the Monthly Tax return icon on the Print Options page. then click on the 'Export to Excel' icon at the top left to export your return into the format specified and required for direct upload to the ZRA. Note: The excel export does say the sheet is hidden and you can not view it. This is correct and is already in the exact online return format that you can upload to ZRA server. (You do not need to manually add or copy employees using other ZRA excel templates) You may also print the paye online return in a manual form where you can see what the amounts and totals are. To do this, use the same online paye print option and then instead of pressing 'Export to Excel', use your web browser and click on the 'Print Preview' button and then print directly off your browser. |
| Paye | How do I find help on PAYE? | Type 'Tax' in the search box on the Online help and you will have many options to choose from. |
| NAPSA NRC or Passport | How do I enter a Passport No for a non Zambian paying NAPSA? | How do I handle employees on work permits but without NRC numbers? On edit employees at top right hand side enter the passport number. The NAPSA return will then use the Passport Number instead of NRC number. Note: Harvester will still say that a NRC number is required to save the employee, even with a passport number entered. This is correct. You can not enter an employee without an NRC number. This is to stop ghost workers, duplicate employee entries or employees using the same NRC Number. Leave the default NRC Number even though it is officially non-real and auto generated. Only the passport number will be used for NAPSA returns so there is no need to worry about the NRC number. Harvester will ignore the auto generated NRC Number for online NAPSA submissions. |
| NRC Numbers | How do I enter an employee where there is no NRC Number? | Harvester will indicate that a NRC number is required to save an employee. This is still true even with a passport number or Social Security Number entered. This is correct as the NRC number is a unique field. You can not enter an employee without an NRC number. This is to stop ghost workers, duplicate employee entries or employees using the same NRC Number. If there is no NRC Number? By law all Zambian employees must have an NRC Number but this does not always happen. Leave the default NRC Number even though it is officially non-real and auto generated. A Zambian employee has to get an NRC number, so this is a temporary measure. A passport number may be used for NAPSA returns instead of NRC but this is allowed only for Non-Zambians. Harvester will ignore the auto generated NRC Number for online NAPSA submissions. Note: See help on NAPSA Passport Numbers. |
| Tax Settings | How do I view the tax and NAPSA government settings for the current year? | Click on Settings and then click on the View Tax and Napsa settings icon at the top right of the page. You can only view and NOT edit the settings as these are set each year for all companies in Zambia on the Harvester Database Cloud. |
| Gratuity OR Terminal Benefit OR Savings Setup | How do I setup a Gratuity or Terminal Benefit or Savings accumulation? | Terminal benefit is what normally has to be paid by law at the end of each contract. Gratuity is voluntary. Some customers effectively use Gratuity for Savings accumulation for an employee. See note below on Savings. NB The accumulating Terminal Benefit will appear on the payslips each month and NOT Gratuity. Use Terminal Benefit if you are wanting to pay the "compulsory end of contract service amounts". On the "More Reports page" use the "Gratuity or Terminal Benefit Totals" Report to see current Accumulated Totals which may easily be exported to Excel. On the main edit employee screen for each employee there are two fields under the section called 'Payment Rates' called: Gratuity Percentage and Terminal Percentage. Enter the respective percentages here. It is calculated as a percentage of Basic pay. eg Terminal Benefit at 15 percent of Basic pay which is supposed to be paid by law at the end of an employees contract. Once the percentage is entered, Harvester will automatically accumulate the gratuity or terminal benefit that is due. Then once a contract is ended, you are able to see immediately how much is due for payment to each employee on termination of the contract. This Gratuity or Terminal Benefit percentage may be applied at Department level to all employees within a particular employee with one click of the 'Submit' button under 'Settings' and then 'Department Settings'. These percentages may also be applied at a Company-wide level to all employees within the company with one click of the 'Submit' button under 'Settings' and then 'Company Settings'. NB Remember to click the check box 'Click to Apply to All' before you press the 'submit' button if you want to apply to all in a department or across the company. Note: if you have not set up gratuities or terminal benefits yet for your employees(as described above) and you want to pay any accumulated values due to date, then you need to manually enter one, grand-total, "Gratuity" or "Terminal Benefit", Kwacha amount for the whole period for each employee in the "gratuity paid" field or the "terminal benefit paid" field on the payment capture screen, towards the bottom of the screen under the section "End of Contracts". Be sure to enter the employee gratuity percentage once so that for each month, gratuity will be auto calculated so that for the next gratuity payment time, all you have to do is to pay what is due according to the Accumulated Gratuity amount.(no manual totaling of what is due will then be needed) This "gratuity paid" or "terminal benefit paid" entry will NOT be taxed and will be added to the payslip so there is a record of the payment. The accumulated amount will be automatically reduced by the amount you submit as a payment. Note: Once you have paid gratuities or terminal benefits, you may actually just clear or reset every employee's gratuity amount to 0 with just one click. Please type "clear" in help and look for help on "Reset or Clear all Terminal Benefits or Gratuities". Note: Some people use the Gratuity field to record savings values that can accumulate for the user. This is perfectly legal as long as all Terminal Benefit payments are paid separately in the Terminal Benefit paid entry field. |