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Payroll is an Enterprise-only feature. It is not available on Core or Operations plans. To unlock the Payroll module, upgrade your school’s subscription to the Enterprise plan. Visit Plans & Pricing to compare plans, or contact the Edustream team for pricing information.
Setting Up Employee Salary Profiles
Before you can run payroll, every staff member who receives a salary through Edustream must have a salary profile. A salary profile defines the employee’s fixed compensation structure — base pay, allowances, and department — and forms the foundation for all payroll calculations.1
Navigate to Payroll Setup
In the left navigation, go to Payroll → Employee Profiles. This screen lists all staff members synced from your school’s employee directory. If a staff member is missing, add them first via HR → Staff before proceeding.
2
Open a staff member's profile
Click on a staff member’s name to open their salary profile. If they have not yet been configured, the profile will be in a Draft state with empty compensation fields.
3
Set the base salary
Enter the employee’s gross monthly Base Salary in your school’s base currency. This is the fixed pay before any allowances or deductions.
4
Add allowances
Click Add Allowance to include supplementary pay items. Common allowances include:
For each allowance, enter the name and the fixed monthly amount. You can add as many allowance lines as needed.
5
Assign the department
Select the staff member’s Department (e.g., Academic, Administration, Support Services, Finance). Department assignment determines which department salary ledger the employee’s pay is charged to and enables department-level payroll reporting.
6
Save the profile
Click Save Profile. The profile status changes from Draft to Active. Repeat this process for every staff member before running your first payroll.
Configuring Tax and Pension Deductions
Edustream applies statutory deductions automatically during each payroll run, based on the rates you configure here. Set these up once; they apply to every subsequent payroll run until you change them.PAYE Tax Configuration
1
Open Tax Settings
Go to Payroll → Settings → Tax Configuration. The PAYE setup screen displays the current tax band table.
2
Review or enter tax bands
Edustream uses a progressive tax band structure aligned with the standard PAYE schedule. Verify that the income thresholds and corresponding tax rates reflect the current rates published by your country’s tax authority. Click Edit to update any band if the rates have changed.A typical PAYE band table looks like this:
3
Set the consolidated relief allowance
Enter the Consolidated Relief Allowance (CRA) percentage and fixed amount as specified by the relevant tax authority. Edustream deducts the CRA from gross income before applying the tax bands.
4
Save tax settings
Click Save Tax Configuration. Changes take effect from the next payroll run. Previously completed payroll runs are not retroactively altered.
Pension Deduction Setup
1
Open Pension Settings
Go to Payroll → Settings → Pension Configuration.
2
Enter contribution rates
Enter the employee and employer contribution rates as percentages of the employee’s gross emoluments (basic salary + housing + transport allowances, as defined by the applicable Pension Act). For example:
- Employee Contribution: 8%
- Employer Contribution: 10%
3
Assign PFA codes (optional)
If your school tracks individual Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) details, you can enter each employee’s PFA name and RSA PIN on their salary profile. This information is included in the payroll export for remittance purposes.
4
Save pension settings
Click Save Pension Configuration. Edustream will apply these rates when calculating net pay during every subsequent payroll run.
Adding Bonus and Extra Pay Items
For months where staff receive one-off payments — such as a 13th-month bonus, a performance bonus, or a special allowance — you can add extra pay items to the current payroll run before finalising it.1
Open the current payroll run
Go to Payroll → Monthly Payroll and open the payroll run for the current month (see the next section for how to initiate a run).
2
Add a bonus item
Click Add Extra Pay, select the employee (or choose All Staff for a school-wide bonus), enter the pay item name (e.g., End of Year Bonus), the amount, and indicate whether the item is Taxable or Non-Taxable. Taxable bonuses are included in the gross taxable income calculation.
3
Save and review
Click Save. The extra pay item appears on the employee’s payroll row, and the net pay figure updates to reflect the addition.
Running the Monthly Payroll
1
Initiate a new payroll run
Go to Payroll → Monthly Payroll and click New Payroll Run. Select the Month and Year for the run (e.g., November 2024). Edustream will not allow you to create a duplicate run for the same month.
2
Review the payroll summary
The system automatically generates a payroll row for every active employee, calculating:
- Gross Pay = Base Salary + All Allowances + Any Bonus Items
- PAYE Tax = Calculated per the configured tax bands
- Pension (Employee) = Employee contribution rate applied to emoluments
- Pension (Employer) = Employer contribution rate (for ledger reporting)
- Net Pay = Gross Pay − PAYE Tax − Employee Pension Contribution
3
Add any bonus or extra pay items
If applicable, add bonus items now as described in the previous section. Net pay figures will update immediately.
4
Approve the payroll run
Once you are satisfied that all figures are correct, click Approve Payroll. Approval locks the payroll run — no further edits can be made after this point. A confirmation dialog will display the total gross payroll amount, total tax liability, total pension deductions, and total net pay for the month. Confirm to proceed.
5
Dispatch payslips
After approval, click Dispatch Payslips. Edustream generates a personalised digital payslip PDF for every employee and sends it to their registered staff email address. A dispatch log shows the delivery status for each email (Delivered, Pending, or Failed).
Reviewing the Department Salary Ledger
The department salary ledger gives a breakdown of payroll expenditure by department for each month, making it easy to analyse staffing costs and prepare management accounts.1
Open the Salary Ledger
Go to Payroll → Salary Ledger. Select the month and year you want to review.
2
Filter by department
Use the Department filter to drill into a specific department (e.g., Academic). The ledger shows every employee in that department with their gross pay, deductions breakdown, and net pay for the selected month.
3
Review summary totals
At the top of each department view, a summary row shows the department’s total gross payroll, total tax, total pension, and total net pay. This matches the figures that feed into the school’s overall financial reports.
4
Export the ledger
Click Export to download the ledger in Excel or CSV format. The export is scoped to the current filter selection — for a full school export, clear all department filters before exporting.
Employee Payslip History
Staff members can view their own payslip history by logging into the Edustream staff portal and navigating to My Payslips. Every dispatched payslip is archived here, downloadable as a PDF, and accessible at any time.
Payroll Audit Trail
Every action taken within a payroll run — creation, edits, approval, and dispatch — is timestamped and attributed to the logged-in administrator. This audit trail is accessible under Payroll → Audit Log and cannot be modified.
Edustream does not process the actual salary disbursements to staff bank accounts — it calculates payroll and generates payslips. Use the exported payroll file to instruct your bank on the net pay amounts to transfer to each employee. Integration with bank bulk-payment platforms is on the Edustream product roadmap.