How to Run Monthly Payroll

Process payroll for your entire team in one batch — compute salaries, review deductions, validate payslips, and push entries automatically to your accounting books.

Updated June 2026 Payroll module 6 min read

Running payroll in Vendra is a batch process. Rather than processing each employee individually, you create a single payslip batch for the month, compute all salaries in one action, review the results, and validate. The accounting entries post automatically — no separate journal work needed.

Before running payroll, each employee must have an active contract with a salary structure assigned. The salary structure defines which rules apply — basic wage, allowances, statutory deductions such as PAYE, NHIF, and NSSF — and how each is calculated.

Step-by-step: running monthly payroll

1

Confirm employees have active contracts with a salary structure

Go to Employees and open each employee record. Under the Contract tab, verify there is an active contract with a start date, contract type, salary structure (for example, Standard Kenyan Payroll), and a monthly wage. Employees without an active contract will not appear in the payroll batch.

2

Go to Payroll → Payslips and create a batch

Open the Payroll module and navigate to Payslips. Click Create to start a new payslip batch. Choose to process all employees together rather than creating individual payslips one by one.

3

Select the pay period

Enter the Date From and Date To fields to define the payroll period — for example, 1 June 2026 to 30 June 2026. This controls which work entries and leave records are included in the calculation.

4

Select which employees to include

Choose to include all active employees, filter by department, or select employees individually. Staff who are on leave for the entire period or whose contracts are inactive will not generate payslips.

5

Click Compute Sheet to calculate all salaries

Click Compute Sheet. Vendra runs each employee's salary structure rules against their contract, approved leave, and any overtime recorded for the period. A payslip is generated for each employee showing the full calculation.

6

Review payslips — gross, deductions, and net pay

Open individual payslips from the batch list to review the breakdown: gross pay (basic salary plus allowances), statutory deductions (PAYE, NHIF, NSSF), other deductions or additions, and the final net pay. Confirm the figures match your payroll expectations.

7

Verify overtime additions and leave deductions

Check that approved overtime hours have been added to the correct employees and that any unpaid leave has been deducted proportionally. If corrections are needed, adjust the work entries or contract values and recompute before validating.

8

Validate the payslips

Once satisfied, click Validate on the batch. The status of all payslips changes to Done. Validated payslips cannot be edited — if a correction is needed, refund or cancel and reprocess the affected payslip.

9

Journal entries post automatically to Accounting

On validation, Vendra creates the payroll journal entries: salary expense is debited, and the payable account (net wages payable) and statutory deduction payables (PAYE payable, NHIF payable, NSSF payable) are credited. These appear immediately in the accounting module.

10

Mark as paid and view the payroll summary per department

After transferring salaries to employee accounts, mark the batch as paid. Use the payroll reporting view to see a summary of total salary cost, deductions, and net payments broken down by department — useful for management reporting and budgeting.

Salary structures in Vendra use rule categories: Allowances (additions), Deductions (subtractions), Gross (subtotal), and Net (final take-home). You can build custom rules for any payroll component — house allowance, transport, pension contributions — using fixed amounts, percentages, or formulas referencing other rules.

Statutory deduction registers

After payroll is validated, use the Contribution Registers in Payroll configuration to see the totals owed to KRA for PAYE, NHIF, and NSSF. These registers consolidate all deductions for the period, making it straightforward to prepare your statutory remittance returns.

FAQ

Payroll questions

Common questions about payroll processing in Vendra.

Contact support
What happens if I need to correct a payslip after validation?
Once a payslip is validated it is locked. To correct it, cancel or refuse the payslip, make the necessary adjustment to the employee's contract or work entries, then regenerate and revalidate. The accounting entries from the original payslip are reversed and new ones are created.
Does Vendra calculate PAYE, NHIF, and NSSF automatically?
Yes. The Standard Kenyan Payroll salary structure includes rules for PAYE (using the KRA tax bands), NHIF, and NSSF. When you run Compute Sheet, these deductions are calculated automatically based on each employee's gross pay and contract details.
Can I run payroll for only one department?
Yes. When creating the payslip batch, use the employee filter to select only employees from a specific department. This is useful when departments have different pay cycles or when you need to process payroll in stages.

Payroll that takes care of itself

Automated deductions, instant journal entries, and statutory registers ready for KRA. Start with Vendra today.