Payroll & HR Module Guide

The Payroll module in Vendra handles the full employee compensation cycle: from setting up employee records and defining salary structures, through computing monthly payslips, to posting the resulting journal entries into accounting. It integrates with the Employees module for staff data, the Time Off module for leave tracking, and the Expenses module for reimbursements.

Setting up employee records

Before running payroll, every employee needs a complete record in the Employees module. Go to Employees from the left sidebar and click New.

• Enter the employee's full name, job position, and department.
• Assign a manager so the reporting hierarchy is correct.
• Set the work email, work phone, and working schedule (Full Time, Part Time, or a custom schedule).
• In the Private Information tab, record the national ID, KRA PIN, NHIF number, and NSSF number — these are required for statutory deductions.
• In the HR Settings tab, link the employee to a Vendra user account if they need system access, and set a POS PIN if they work on a till.

An employee cannot be included in payroll without an active contract. Open the employee record and click Contracts to create one. The contract sets the wage, the salary structure to apply, and the contract dates.

Configuring salary structures

A salary structure defines every line that appears on a payslip — earnings, allowances, and deductions. Go to Payroll → Configuration → Salary Structures and click New.

• Name the structure (for example, "Standard Kenyan Payroll").
• Add a salary rule for each payslip line: Basic Salary, House Allowance, Transport Allowance, PAYE, NHIF, NSSF, Gross Pay, and Net Pay.
• Each rule has a category (Allowance, Deduction, Net), a computation method (fixed amount, percentage of another rule, or a Python formula), and the accounts to debit and credit in accounting.
• Rules are evaluated in sequence — Net Pay is calculated last, after all other rules have run.

Public holidays

Vendra includes the payroll_hr_public_holidays module, which adds country-specific public holiday calendars. These holidays are used when calculating working days in a pay period. Go to Time Off → Configuration to set up or review the public holidays list for your country. Any day marked as a public holiday is excluded from working-day counts, which affects salary proration for employees who join or leave mid-month.

Leave management

Setting up leave types

Go to Time Off → Configuration to create leave types. Common types include Annual Leave (21 days per year), Sick Leave, Maternity Leave, Paternity Leave, and Compassionate Leave. Each type has an approval workflow — requiring manager approval, HR approval, or both — and an accrual policy if days accumulate over time.

Submitting and approving leave requests

1. The employee goes to Time Off → My Time → My Time Off and clicks New.
2. They select the leave type, set the start and end date, and add a reason.
3. They click Save then submit to their manager.
4. The manager opens Time Off → Management → Time Off, reviews the request against the team calendar, and clicks Approve or Refuse.
5. The employee receives an email notification of the decision.

Approved leave is visible in the manager's team overview calendar and is deducted from the employee's remaining allocation balance automatically.

Running payroll

Processing a payroll batch

For month-end payroll, use batches to process all employees at once rather than one by one.

1. Go to Payroll → Payslips Batches and click New.
2. Name the batch (e.g., "June 2026 Payroll") and set the pay period dates.
3. Click Generate Payslips and select the employees or departments to include.
4. The system creates individual payslip drafts for each employee using their contract's salary structure.
5. Click Validate on the batch to compute all payslips. The system runs every salary rule for every employee.
6. Review the computed amounts. Each payslip shows gross pay, all deductions, and net pay.
7. Click Close to finalize the batch for the period.

Payslip details

Open any payslip to see the full breakdown: gross salary, each allowance line, each statutory deduction (PAYE, NHIF, NSSF), any other deductions or additions, and the final net pay. Each line traces back to the salary rule that generated it. You can print the payslip as a PDF or send it to the employee by email directly from the record.

Marking employees as paid

After a payslip is validated, it shows a status of Done. To record that the employee has been paid, open the payslip and click Register Payment. Select the payment journal (Bank or Cash), enter the payment date, and confirm. The payslip moves to a paid state and the corresponding accounting entry clears the Salaries Payable liability.

Payroll accounting entries

When a payslip batch is posted to accounting, Vendra automatically creates journal entries based on the accounts assigned to each salary rule. The typical entry debits Salaries Expense (and separate allowance expense accounts) and credits Salaries Payable, PAYE Payable, NHIF Payable, and NSSF Payable. When the bank transfer to employees goes through and is registered as a payment, the Salaries Payable account is cleared. The statutory liability accounts are cleared when you register payment of PAYE to KRA, NHIF contributions, and NSSF contributions.

Expense reimbursements

Employee expense claims submitted through the Expenses module flow into payroll accounting once approved. After a manager approves an expense report, the finance team posts journal entries and registers payment — either via direct bank transfer or by adding the reimbursement to the next payroll run as an additional payslip line. Either way, the reimbursement is tracked separately from the employee's regular salary and appears in the expense analysis report.

Staff cost reports and headcount

Go to Payroll and use the reporting views to analyse staff costs by department, employee, or pay period. The Employees module's Skills Report shows headcount and competency distribution across the business. For a consolidated view of staff cost as a percentage of revenue, add the payroll totals to a custom Dashboard widget using the Dashboards module.