Note: The procedures described, below, can be applied converting a fortnightly (26 period) or a bi-monthly (24 period) payroll to monthly. The most common conversion is from weekly to monthly, so we use this as our example.
Converting a Weekly payroll to Monthly:
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Reduction in Payment Frequency
Due to the amount of administration work and cost involved in preparing weekly payrolls some decide to convert their payrolls to monthly pay. In achieving this some organizations:
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transition the change over a range of periods,
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provide loans to cushion the effect of having to wait for their first monthly salary
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Ideal Timing
Ideally, any change to the frequency of payment should be done at the end of a financial year so that that the first period of the new year is at the new payment frequency. If it is done during the year then the conversion can only take place when all the weekly periods of a month are closed so that the conversion starts from a new month.
Steps Required
The steps needed to process the change in Belina PayrollHR are:
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Ideally the frequency change should be done in a new period.
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Take a backup (preferably onto a Cloud-based service or into a folder on the the hard disk drive combined with external media)
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If the period end has not been done from the last pay do the period end into the new period
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If the period end has been done make sure that the Calculation Routine has not been run (since this will have accumulated leave for the current period at the old payment frequency). If the Calculation Routine has been done then consideration should be given to restoring the backup to immediately prior to the period end procedure. This will eliminate the need to adjust leave balances.
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Go to the 'Setup', then 'Periods', then 'Pay Periods' menu option
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In a weekly payroll you will notice that there are 51, 52 or more periods depending on whether there are bonus periods
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Count the number of monthly periods moving forward that will be required till year end.
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Delete the periods beyond the last period required for processing. You should then be left a number of 'Open' periods equal to the number of periods to the end of the year (excluding bonus periods).
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For the current and future periods change the number of 'Weeks Per Period' and the 'Start Date' and 'End Date' dates and enter the 'Accounting Period' one period at a time.
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Changing the 'Days Per Period' and 'Hours Per Period' can be entered using the 'Global Change' button. These changes should only be applied to 'Open Periods'. To do this the 'Apply Changes To' radio button should be moved to 'Open Periods'
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Next you will need to change the individual rates of pay in each Employee Master record. This can be done manually, by importing spreadsheet values or changing the grade rates that apply.
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If Grade Rates are being used then the Days and Hours per period need to be adjusted for each grade.
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If 'Industries' are being used then, again, the Days and Hours per period need to be adjusted for each Industry.
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Some of the transaction codes need to be adjusted to reflect the revised frequency rate. This is especially true of the NSSA and WCIF where the 'Threshold' must be changed to a monthly amount for both the employee and the employer. The NSSA P4 report will also need to be changed to reflect the monthly contributions. Go to each of the other Transaction Codes that may be affected making any changes that are necessary.
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Go to the 'Data', then 'Payroll Maintenance' menu options. Select the payroll being changed and change the 'Number of periods to the number of periods that would be paid on the payroll were it at that frequency for the entire year e.g. 12, 26 or 52 for a monthly, weekly and fortnightly payroll respectively).
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Check each Transaction Code to ensure that it has been correctly set up to reflect the changed number of periods. In particular check Basic Pay, Medical Aid, WCIF and NSSA.
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Loan balances will be affected by the change. The number of repayment periods will be different. The best way of handling this is to adjust the loan by the amount of the balance due bringing it to Zero. Then create a new loan with the balance outstanding and the revised number of repayment periods.
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