Republic of South Sudan, August 2013

Interim Payroll Tool v156

For GRSS health, education and water county payrolls, and for processing pay of NGO health staff paid on the harmonised salary scale

Prepared with technical support from the Health Pooled Fund

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The South Sudan Electronic Payroll System (SSEPS) is designed to ensure hard-working staff are paid on time, accurately, in full and transparently

SSEPS and its predecessors have been in operation since 2008. Around 150,000 staff’s pay is processed through SSEPS every month

SSEPS provides numerous benefits. Some of these are:– Transparency of WHO is being paid WHAT and WHEN;– Standardised and transparent salary grading, deductions and allowances;– A comprehensive database of information by which state policy makers can

review their employment and expenditure and take informed decisions;– Standardised reporting from counties to States and RSS through County

Transfers Monitoring Committees (at State level) and State Transfers Monitoring Committee (at national level)

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Counties assume responsibilities for primary service staff in GRSS Budget 2013-14. The v156 interim SSEPS tool is being made available to support this, and process NGO health staff payroll using the harmonised salary scale The South Sudan Electronic Payroll System (SSEPS) has been implemented

comprehensively at both the state and central levels in South Sudan, but not yet fully at County level; the latter becomes particularly important in Budget Year 2013-14, as GRSS has decentralised payroll responsibility for primary service staff to Counties

At the state level, SSEPS currently primarily works through a Microsoft Excel based paytool that Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) complete each month.

Following approval from both the State Ministry of Labour, Public Service and Human Resource Development (SMoLPSHRD) and State Ministry of Finance, Trade and Industry (SMoFTI) these paytools are then used as the basis for that MDA’s pay as well as uploaded onto a secure website for storage and compilation.

A new database system, SSEPS II, is due to be rolled out to States later this year. Pending its introduction, a version of the existing SSEPS tool, ‘v156’, is being made

available for use for processing payrolls at County level. MoH has also instructed NGOs funding primary health care services in the Counties to

pay their South Sudanese staff according to an agreed “harmonised salary scale” for transparency, increasing the potential to deploy staff throughout the country and to facilitate a possible transfer of NGO funded staff to the government payroll in the near future.

MoH has also instructed, and MoLPS&HRD concurred, that this pay should be calculated and recorded through the SSEPS tool. Funds for these staff will remain under the control of the NGO.

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MDAs that possess the technical capacity to prepare their monthly payroll using the SSEPS are expected to do so.

Where State MDAs lack the technical capacity to prepare their own payroll, SMoFTI and SMoLPS&HRD will work with them to submit it in SSEPS.

At County level, County Education, Health and Water departments will, where possible, process their payroll and submit it in SSEPS to the County Administration for checking and release of funds.

Monthly paysheets, and funds to match, are sent, signed for, and returned; States and counties have slightly different cashier arrangements, but the key points are that:– A copy of the paid paysheet, with signatures, is returned as soon as possible to its

originator– The officer paying, and a respectable witness, must both countersign the paysheets– For NGOs; overview of salary payment is standardised and easily checked by Fund

Manager

Paysheets are produced by individual workstation - e.g. department, school, health facility, police station – and should wherever possible be paid out at the workstation, so that staff’s attendance can be checked, and so that staff do not have to travel to be paid.

Key principles of SSEPS are empowerment of MDAs, payment at the workstation, and clear, timely reporting

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Overall System & Processes

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Hard Copy Payroll Reporting: Transfers can be withheld for MDAs that fail to submit copies of previous month’s paid paysheets to State Ministries of Finance each month. Individual employees MUST sign or give their thumbprint in person for their pay. “Progression” or

“procuration” is unacceptable. Cashiers/Paying Officers who sign for others may face serious consequences;

Paysheets are printed for verification and record keeping. Four collated copies of the paysheets should be made on plain A4 paper.

Immediately after payment, copies of all paid paysheets are to be taken to MDA headquarters where the Payroll Manager/Analyst or other designated Civil Servants supervise the separation of the four copies. Payroll Analysts/Managers are NOT to release the new paysheets for MDAs that have failed to present copies of previous month’s paid paysheets;

One copy must be given to State Ministry of Finance to check and file. SMoFTI should not authorise the release of next month’s pay for MDAs that fail to submit a copy to their respective SMoFTI;

One copy must be returned back to the workstation: this can be a Department / Directorate at a Ministry or a school or clinic out in a County or Payam. The point is that a record should be available wherever employees are posted.

One copy should be filed either MDA Headquarters. In the case of State Ministry staff, this would be the State Ministry; for County Administration staff, this would be the County Headquarters;

The fourth copy must be carefully stored and filed ready to be sent to GRSS Ministry of Finance upon request. MDAs and States will be targeted randomly. They will be given minimum notice from GRSS Ministry of Finance to compile the requested paid paysheets for checking at GRSS – level;

Failure to comply and to report puts MDAs at risk of receiving no money for salary payments that month.

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Soft Copy Payroll Reporting: Paytools for all MDAs must be submitted timely each month to the SSEPS Reporting Email Address. Failure to do so may result in transfers being withheld at the GRSS -level. Each month, payroll tool is to be submitted to submissions@ssepsreporting.org

Version 156 has a red ‘Export Data’ button in the ‘Control’ sheet of the tool. Instead up uploading the entire tool, the ‘Export Data’ function selects all the crucial information that is required for State Transfer Monitoring Committee Analysis and the creation of monthly feedback to States in the Technical State Reports.

Once the tool to be used for payment has been run and checked, the Payroll Manager/Analyst should click the ‘Export Data’ button. Several windows will appear where he/she is asked to provide and confirm various pieces of information. Once the necessary information has been provided and confirmed the ‘Export Data’ function zips /compresses the data. The file is now ready to be sent via email.

Payroll Analysts/Managers should upload the zipped/compressed files immediately after finalising each tool.

Failure to report on time puts MDAs at risk of their funds being withheld at the GRSS -level.

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The spreadsheet tool is designed so that the user inputs information, and the tool then performs all the calculations

Summary of Worksheets in Excel Spreadsheet Tool

Summary Report Sheets

Control Sheet Sets inputs for

taxation; contains

switches to run production of

paysheets and exporting of data

for uploading onto GRSS

website.

Database

Contains detailed information of

each member of staff.

Salary Data look-up table

Contains GRSS standard

salaries by grade and increment.

Payroll

Automatically uses information

from Control Sheet, Database and Salary Data

to calculate monthly salaries.

Payroll (by w’stn)

Automatically produced from Payroll for each

Workstation.

Sheets in yellow are designed for inputs by states; sheets in orange

are automatic to minimise opportunities for error or confusion

Sheets in yellow are designed for inputs by states; sheets in orange

are automatic to minimise opportunities for error or confusion

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The tool is an Excel spreadsheet with “macros” used to automate key tasks: these need to be ‘enabled’ to operate the system When opening the tool you need to:

– Click “enable macros” when prompted (Windows 2003);– Click on the gold “shield” bar just below the tool bar to enable macros (Windows 2007) –

unprompted;

If using Windows 2007, it is best to save the tool as a Windows 1997-2003 file, or otherwise as a “macro-enabled workbook”;

You may also need to check your macro settings (versions older than 2007): go to tools\macros\security and tick the “medium” box, then, if necessary, reopen the tool;

The tool is generally relatively quick to save – taking two to three minutes;

To make the computer’s job easy, when working on the tool, close down all non-essential programmes and extract any external devices (memory flash etc.);

Generating the paysheets when the “Run Payroll” button is pressed is a complex operation, which can take the computer up to one hour depending on the size of the MDA;

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It is important to keep clear and consistent file names when making changes

File names should be kept to the following standard format:– yymmdd Name of Month Year Name of MDA Name

For example:– 130726 July 2013 County Health Ikwoto County EES – 130815 August 2013 County Health Ikwoto County EES– 130901 September 2013 County Health Ikwoto County EES

130726 reflects the day the file was worked on by the Payroll Manager/Analyst. July 2013 reflects the month that payment is for.

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Update the top section with date, name of State, MDA and operator’s name an whether paysheet contains externally funded staff using the drop-down menu when provided

Select Civil Service for civilians Bank reports are generated if the ‘Print Bank Report’ switch is set to ‘Yes’ for staff with bank details in the

‘Database’ sheet. Salary assumption on increments should always be ‘Min’ for Civil Service.

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Setting up the ‘Control’ sheet involves populating with specific assumptions for salary calculations

“% to pay” should be set to 100% Standard deductions should be:

– PIT (Personal Income Tax) 10%

formula = Gross Pay ( - Pension 8% - 300 SDG Tax Free Allowance) * 10%

– Pension 8%

formula = (Basic Pay + CoLA) * 8%– Monthly tax-free allowance 300 SDG

Unauthorised absence deduction is 5% per day. Number of days are entered in the ‘Database’ sheet

Non-Standard deductions are discouraged, but a facility is provided for such deductions, either on a flat amount, or on a %. Note that some State deductions have a problematic basis in law

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The ‘Database’ sheet is populated with all relevant payroll data - names, ministry, workstation, job title, rank, salary grade, allowances etc. One row per person; Click on the cell and type; to make a change, click on the cell to be changed, and edit the existing contents or

type new contents; For certain columns you can double-click on a cells and enter data using the pop-up panel. All other Rows: never delete any information entered. Instead, always use ‘Clear Contents’ function; If staff is being removed from payroll and no one is replacing them, deleting row(s) may become necessary.

Delete the respective rows. Then copy data and paste/special/values into a clean tool; Blank rows are not allowed until the end of the list. If there are, copy data and paste/special/values into a

clean tool; If you are adding rows – for example, for new staff, add these at the bottom of the ‘Database’ list; All four names should be used, to avoid confusion between people with common names; If a name cell is left blank, the tool will not be able to sort the data; Be careful about spelling: small mistakes in spelling the name of a ‘workstation’ results in two separate

paysheets for the same workstation being produced and/or double counting; If no grade is given, staff are assumed to be in Grade 14; If no increment point is recorded, the staff member is assumed to be in Increment 1; Save your work regularly (every 5-10 minutes); All cells with data have a yellow background colour; Records of changes made must be kept by using a ‘Change Request Form’, which documents in hard copy who

has approved a change, and the reasons for it.

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An new column in the database has been added to account for staff paid on a time basis for the month

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The column is to the far right of the database sheet You can type in a formula to calculate the percentage e.g. “=15/30” for 15 out of 30 days Percentage must be from 0% to 100% If nothing is in the cell, then nothing will be calculated (make sure the cell is white not yellow) The calculation affects the base pay The percentage does not appear in the payroll sheet. This may be considered in a future update

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The ‘Salary Data’ sheet details the monthly Salary for Civil Servants by grade and annual increment

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The ‘Salary Data’ sheet details the monthly Salary for Organised Forces by rank and annual increment

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The ‘Salary Data’ sheet details the monthly Salary for external health staff also by job position and annual increment

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The harmonised health payscale provides a way to account for externally funded staff

Those funded externally by NGOs can be included in tool by using payscale documented by letter from establishment titled ‘Harmonisation of salaries for South Sudanese health service delivery staff paid/funded by NGOS’, on 18th July 2013.

Externally funded staff are paid against harmonised pay scale based on department, job title and increment with affect from 1st July 2013.

Incentives are paid to certain job titles, such as PHCU in-charge, MDs and COs.

It is important in the tool to allocate such a payscale using the pre-fix ‘H’ infront of the grade using the table in ‘Salary Data’ as a reference.

Externally funded job titles and grades can be accessed by double clicking in the job title or grade columns in the database. It is important that in the control sheet that a health MDA has been selected.

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To apply these payscales to external health staff in the ‘Database’ sheet, double-click on the ‘Job Title’ or ‘Salary Grade’

For this function to work, in the ‘control’ sheet, the ‘MDA Name’ must be either County Health or Ministry of Health.

When adding external-funded staff, it is good to note this using the drop-down box under ‘Additional Information in the ‘control’ sheet

Other Important Notes

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To apply an incentive to external health staff, double-click on the Rank column, or alternatively, type in ‘Incentive’

Other columns such as Staff Classification, Payam, County, State, Salary Increment, DoB, Appointed, Gender also have data-entry windows, by double-clicking on a cell

Other Important Notes

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All salary calculations are found in the ‘Payroll’ sheet which shows the fully transparent manner of the formulae used

Basic monthly salary for each staff member which is based on lookup reference to the

‘Salary Data’ sheet

Individual allowance from either the ‘Database’ sheet or

lookup reference to ‘Salary Data’

Gross salary (basic salary + allowances)

Deductions – PIT, Pension, but also bespoke items such as trade union, health and other as specified under the non-standard deduction in the

‘Control’ sheet

Net monthly pay (Gross salary less deductions)

Absence (basic salary * days of absence *

absence deduction rate)

Specimen

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Before running the Payroll tool, it is always recommended to save. To run the payroll, press the red ‘Run Payroll’ button

1. Press the red ‘Run Payroll’ button on the ‘Control’ worksheet;

2. Confirmation will appear

If numbers are matching, then click ‘yes’ to continue...

If numbers do not match, then check database for any data entry errors and try again

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Before running the Payroll tool, it is always recommended to save. To run the payroll, press the red ‘Run Payroll’ button

3. The tool display in the bottom left corner of the screen messages shows how the run progresses such as % completed and the specific activity it is working on;

4. After the payroll has finished running, the computer will beep and prompt that the payroll run has finished. Click ‘OK’.

The payroll is ready to be run once you have finished making changes in the ‘Control’ and ‘Database’ sheets

– Changes should not be made to any other sheets

Save with a “Final Version” file name, if it is the final version…else give the file name some kind of ‘draft’ or ‘work in progress’ label so it can clearly be identified as an intermediate file version

The time it takes to complete a run varies:

– It may take a few minutes, but in some cases it can take up to 30 minutes or more for large MDAs.

Other Important Notes

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How the tool works when you press the red ‘Run Payroll’ button on the ‘Control’ sheet

The ‘Payroll’ sheet copies each row in the ‘Database’ sheet

It looks up the right amount for the grade and increment from the ‘Salary Data’ sheet

It then takes the allowances from the database sheet... ...calculates the gross salary... ... and then calculates the deductions When the tool has run, the ‘Payroll’ sheet is renewed, to

make sure it has covered all those listed in the database

The ‘Payroll (by w'stn)’ sheet lists all staff in the ‘Database’ and ‘Payroll’ sheets, but presents them sorted by workstation - This is the report used for printing and payment

The sheets ‘County Report’, ‘Gender Report’, ‘Salary Report’, ‘Pension Report’, ‘Analysis Report’ give some useful summaries for management purposes

An output sheet named ‘Bank Report (by bank) or (w’stn) is generated if the relevant switch is set to ‘Yes’ in the ‘Control Sheet’

You should never need to make changes to any sheets other than the control and database sheets - this will interfere with the tool’s automatic working. Sheets are password-protected to discourage unnecessary changes

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When using the ‘Print Payslips’ function, it is important that the Epson payroll printer is NOT used. You must use an A4 printer. To print payslips, disconnect the

Epson payroll printer and connect an A4 black and white printer;

Change the print settings for the ‘Payslip’ worksheet to print with the A4 black and white printer;

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When you are ready to print the payslips, navigate to the ‘Control’ sheet, and press the red ‘Print Payslips’ button;

A confirmation box will appear to continue printing the payslips. Selecting ‘Yes’ will print a payslip for each staff member by cycling through the payslip form and printing individual staff details.

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The export function can be accessed from the ‘Control’ worksheet or from the ribbon tool bar

Export Function in the Ribbon Export Function on the Control Sheet

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Pressing either of these buttons will open the Export Payroll Data menu. Confirm or change details and press ‘Next’ to continue

Press to exit the menu

1. The month of your payroll data

2. The year of your payroll data

5. Press ‘Next’ to continue

Press the down arrow to select the correct detail from the drop

down list

3. Your State

4. Your Ministry/ Department/

Agency

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Add text to the export data’s filename and select a folder to save the data

1. If you need to add more details to the filename, type them

in this box. For example, if you are exporting data for a county, you can type in the county details

here

3. Press ‘Export’ to export the data file to

the folder

If the filename is long, click and scroll to the

right to see more of the name. There is a 100

character limit.

2. Pressing this icon will open up an

explorer window to select a folder

Press to go back to the previous screen

This is the folder where the data will

be saved

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After pressing ‘Export’, the tool will begin generating and zipping the data file. A confirmation screen will appear after it finishes

Progress messages in status bar Confirmation screen

In the bottom left hand side of the screen,

progress messages will appear;

A message box will appear to confirm the export was

successful or not successful. Press ‘OK’ to continue;

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After pressing ‘OK’, the folder where you exported your data to will appear

Exported data file

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Paysheets in sheet ‘Payroll (by w'stn)’ should look like this

Specimen

Header, with details of State, Institution and

date (Month and Year)

Header which

appears on each payroll

printout

Information about state, workstation, payam and

county

Staff specific payroll information - name,

job title, salary grade, basic salary,

allowances, gross salary, deduction

(specific and total) and net pay

Signature box to comfirm payment

Summary showing total payment for workstation

Signature boxes to

verify payment

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Printing ‘Payroll (by w'stn)’

Paysheets in sheet ‘Payroll (by w'stn)’ is ready for printing when the paytool has completed the run– Paysheets are printed with standard layout - same header on each sheet

The tool is set up for printing on A4 Go to ‘Print’, and check the ‘Payroll by w’stn’ worksheet in ‘Print Preview’, making sure that the whole page

width is on one page when you select the correct printer. If not, go to ‘Page Setup’, double-check that Orientation is set to ‘Landscape’, and ‘Paper Size’ is set to A4.

Press ‘Print’! If you are working somewhere where electricity is unreliable, you may need to interrupt printing and then

restart printing by using ‘print pages from... to...’

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Payroll tool has several additional summaries containing useful information for reporting, analysis and planning purposes

Output reports: (5) Gross Salary broken down by Salary Grades; (6) Overall Summary

County ReportAnalysis Report

Summary Report

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Gender Report2

Salary Report3

Pension Report

Output reports:(1) County; (2) Gender ;

(3)Salary showing Gross Pay; (4)

Pension;

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Trouble-shooting

If the tool does not run properly try one or all of the following:– Ensure that macros are enabled properly; – Carefully check that all the assumptions and information in the ‘Control’ sheet is

correct;– Carefully cross-check the data in the ‘Database’ sheet making sure that nothing has

been entered into unintended cells. A cell will turn yellow if it contains any data;– Paytools that have been ‘rerun’ month after month for payment will eventually stop

running efficiently. When this happens, prepare a new tool; copy the data from the old paytool and paste it into the new one using the ‘paste special’ function and select ‘values’;

– If the above doesn’t work, try running a clean paytool with only 4-5 names; – Try re-starting the computer and upload the payroll tool again;

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Once the system is in regular service, changes to the database must be supported by standard forms

Payroll Managers should not make changes in the paytool ‘Database’ sheet without appropriate documentation;

A standardised ‘Change Request Form’ should be kept for any payroll changes to enter into effect;

Every ‘Change Request Form’ must be signed by the MDA Accounting Officer. The form must be approved by the relevant Establishment department ().

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How to use the tool - a one page reminder

Open the tool and enable macros - in Office 2003, by clicking enable on the pop-up box, in Office 2007, by clicking on the gold/pink security bar below the toolbar;

Save the tool with a file name in the format YYMMDD Name of Month Year Name of MDA Name of County Name of State Version Name, thus 110727 July 2011 SMoLPS LS v1/v2/final version/for payment etc.

Check the assumptions in the ‘Control’ sheet; fill in the file name, date, state, institution, month etc.

Enter the data in the ‘Database’ sheet. Be as precise as possible and include Gender, Date of Appointment and Date of Birth;

Never delete Row 17 - just ‘Clear Contents’ or overtype - the tool works by being able to find Row 17;

If you need to delete a row, for example staff are being removed and no one is replacing them, deleting a row may become unavoidable. This means that you will NOT be able to ‘run’ the tool you are working in. Instead, you must create a new tool copying the data from the old tool and paste it into the new one using the ‘paste special’ / ‘values’ function;

Only make changes to the ‘Control’ and ‘Database’ sheets; never try to edit the ‘Payroll’ or ‘Payroll (by w’stn)’ sheets, except to adjust column widths;

Never change the name of any worksheets;

Always ‘Save’ before running the tool. You run the tool by clicking on the red ‘Run Payroll’ button on the ‘Control’ sheet. You must follow a number of steps. The last window will ask you to delete ‘Payroll (by w’stn)’ sheet. Click ‘Yes’.

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How to print – a one page reminder

 Select the worksheet that you want to print.

Select the ‘Print’ function, clicking on ‘print’ which brings up the ‘Print’ window.

Select the Printer that will be used

Go to ‘Properties’ and select ‘Landscape’ in Orientation under ‘Layout’ Tab. Select ‘Print Preview’.

In ‘Print Preview’, conduct a final check, ensuring that all columns are visible. If satisfied, press ‘Print’.

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Support to the tool

Please contact Imke van de Honing imke@charliegoldsmithassotiates.co.uk

Or for IT support, Phil Lee at phil@charliegoldsmithassociates.co.uk

For support in Unity State, please contact Simon at simon@charliegoldsmithassociates.co.uk

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