Before running a period, three things must be in place: streams, the rates, and each person’s compensation profile. Streams are set in Payroll admin, the rates on Company ▸ Settings ▸ Payroll (under Policy in the settings list), and the compensation profile on each person’s page.
Pay streams
New stream creates a payment rhythm: name, period type, cycle type, payment offset days, and an optional category restriction — a CLAIMS stream that pays only commissions and reimbursements is made by fencing the categories here. Mind the rule the form states: a restriction switched on needs at least one category, or the form asks you to pick one or turn the restriction off.
The rates (Payroll settings)
Income tax rate, NHI rate and salary ceiling, labor insurance rate and ceiling, supplementary NHI rate, the monthly hours divisor. The unit is printed beside each field — rates in basis points (hundredths of a percent), money in cents — because a bare number field gives an admin no way to know what they are typing. These values feed every run’s withholding.
Each person’s compensation profile
The Compensation profile card on each person’s page (opened by clicking their row in People) is the basis of individual pay: interval (hourly / monthly), base amount, the derived hourly rate, and currency (set by the organization’s payroll currency).
It is effective-dated: changing pay means adding a version — with an effective start date — never overwriting the old one. The history under the card lists every version, so “why did March pay this number” always has an answer: the version in effect that March.
A person with no profile is skipped by a SALARY stream’s run and listed in its report (“No compensation profile”) — for a new hire, this step is the mandatory stop before their first payroll.