Payroll Setup - TalinoHR Docs

This guide covers the configuration steps needed before running payroll in TalinoHR, including pay frequencies, work schedules, contribution tables, the payroll calendar, and payslip password schemes.

Pay Frequency

Navigate to Settings → Company (/settings/company) to configure your company's pay frequency. TalinoHR supports four pay frequencies:

Frequency	Periods Per Year	Description
SEMI_MONTHLY	24	Most common in the Philippines. Two pay periods per month.
MONTHLY	12	Single pay period per month.
WEEKLY	~52	Weekly pay periods.
DAILY	~260	Daily pay computation.

Semi-Monthly Cutoff Settings

For semi-monthly payroll, configure two cutoff dates:

First Cutoff (default: 15) - The first pay period covers day 1 through this date
Second Cutoff (default: 30) - The second pay period covers the day after first cutoff through this date (or last day of month)

Example: With cutoffs of 15 and 30, January payroll has two periods:

1st half: January 1-15
2nd half: January 16-31

Work Schedules

Navigate to Time & Leave → Schedules (/attendance/schedules) to manage work schedules. Schedules directly affect payroll calculations.

How Schedules Affect Payroll

The payroll engine uses each employee's assigned work schedule to derive:

Work Days Per Month - Number of working days based on which days have scheduled hours
Work Hours Per Day - Derived from scheduled time-in/time-out minus break minutes

These parameters feed into rate calculations:

Daily Rate (for MONTHLY employees): monthlySalary / workDaysPerMonth
Hourly Rate: dailyRate / workHoursPerDay

If an employee has no assigned schedule, the system falls back to company defaults (workHoursPerDay and workDaysPerWeek from company settings).

Grace Period Per Schedule

Each work schedule can have its own gracePeriodMinutes setting that overrides the company-wide default. This is useful when different shifts have different tardiness tolerance (e.g., factory shift vs. office shift).

Government Contribution Tables

TalinoHR stores contribution tables in the database for SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG. These tables are seeded during initial setup and can be updated when government rates change.

SSS Contribution Table

The 2025 SSS table has 61 brackets with Monthly Salary Credit (MSC) ranging from P5,000 to P35,000. The system looks up the bracket based on the employee's derived monthly salary and applies:

Employee Share - Ranges from P250 (minimum) to P1,000 (at P20,000 MSC and above)
Employer Share - Ranges from P500 to P2,000
EC Contribution - P10 (MSC below P15,000) or P30 (P15,000 and above)
MPF Employee - P0 for MSC up to P20,000; increases by P25 per P500 MSC above P20,000, up to P750
MPF Employer - P0 for MSC up to P20,000; increases by P50 per P500 MSC above P20,000, up to P1,500
WISP - Workers' Investment and Savings Program, comprises the MPF employee and employer shares

For semi-monthly payroll, the total monthly contribution is split evenly between the two pay periods.

PhilHealth Contribution Table

PhilHealth uses a percentage-based computation:

Rate: 5% of monthly basic salary (2025 rate)
Sharing: Split 50/50 between employee and employer
Floor: P10,000 monthly salary (minimum contribution)
Ceiling: P100,000 monthly salary (maximum contribution)

Pag-IBIG Contribution Table

Pag-IBIG (HDMF) contributions:

Monthly salary up to P1,500: Employee 1%, Employer 2%
Monthly salary over P1,500: Employee 2%, Employer 2%
Ceiling: P10,000 monthly salary (maximum base for contribution)
Maximum employee share: P200/month
Maximum employer share: P200/month

Updating Contribution Tables

When government agencies update contribution rates, you need to update the GovernmentContributionTable records in the database. The SSS table is stored row-by-row with columns for rangeFrom, rangeTo, employeeShare, employerShare, ecContribution, mpfEmployee, and mpfEmployer.

Payroll Calendar

Navigate to Payroll → Calendar (/payroll/calendar) to view and manage the payroll schedule.

How the Calendar Works

The payroll calendar is generated based on your company's pay frequency and cutoff settings. For a semi-monthly company, it generates 24 periods per year with:

Period Start and Period End dates
Pay Date - Computed as period end + pay date offset days
Label - e.g., "Jan 2026 - 1st Half"

Calendar Configuration

The calendar configuration is stored in the ComplianceSetting table with the key payroll-calendar. Settings include:

reminderDaysBeforeCutoff - Days before cutoff to send reminders (default: [3, 1])
reminderDaysBeforePayDate - Days before pay date to send reminders (default: [2])
payDateOffsetDays - Number of days after period end for pay date (default: 3)

The calendar is informational and does not auto-execute payroll. It provides a visual overview of which periods have existing payroll runs and their statuses.

Existing Run Tracking

The calendar cross-references with existing payroll runs, showing:

Which periods already have a payroll run created
The status of each run (DRAFT, PROCESSING, COMPUTED, REVIEWED, APPROVED, DISBURSED, CLOSED)

Payslip Password Scheme

Navigate to payslip delivery settings to configure how payslip PDFs are protected.

Password Scheme Options

The password scheme is stored in ComplianceSetting with the key payslip-password-scheme. The default scheme is LASTNAME_BIRTHDATE, which generates a password from the employee's last name combined with their birth date.

Payslip PIN (ESS)

Employees can set a personal payslip PIN through the Employee Self-Service portal. The PIN is stored as a bcrypt hash in the Employee.payslipPin field. When viewing payslips in ESS, employees must enter their PIN to access the content (PIN gate).

Payroll Approval Chain

The payroll approval workflow is configured via ComplianceSetting with the key payroll-approval-chain.

Default Approval Chain

The default chain requires two levels of approval:

PAYROLL_ADMIN - First reviewer
HR_ADMIN - Final approver

SUPER_ADMIN users can always approve at any step regardless of the chain configuration.

Custom Chains

You can modify the approval chain to fit your organization's needs. Each step specifies:

The role required to approve
The order in the approval sequence

Allowances and Deductions

Employee Allowances

Each employee can have recurring allowances configured:

Assign allowances that are automatically included in payroll computation
Allowances can be marked active/inactive
Common examples: transportation allowance, meal allowance, rice subsidy

Employee Deductions

Similarly, recurring deductions can be set up:

Regular deductions applied each pay period
Can be marked active/inactive
Common examples: union dues, company loans, salary advances

Loans

Navigate to the employee's profile or Loans section to manage employee loans.

Loan Types

TalinoHR tracks loans with these statuses:

ACTIVE - Currently being deducted from payroll
PAID - Fully paid off (auto-closed when remaining balance reaches zero)
DEFAULTED - Employee defaulted on the loan
WRITTEN_OFF - Loan written off by the company

Payroll Integration

Active loans are automatically deducted during payroll computation (Step 14 of the engine). The system:

Creates a LoanPayment record for each deduction
Updates the loan's totalPaid and remainingBalance
Auto-closes the loan (sets status to PAID) when the remaining balance reaches zero

If a payroll run is recomputed, loan payments from the previous computation are reversed before re-running.

Pre-Payroll Checklist

Before running your first payroll, verify:

Company profile is complete (name, TIN, government registration numbers)
Pay frequency and cutoff dates are set correctly
Work schedules are created and assigned to employees
Government contribution tables are loaded (SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG)
All employees have basic salary and pay basis configured
Government ID numbers are entered for all employees
Tax status and dependents are set for withholding tax computation
Payroll approval chain is configured
Bank details are entered (for bank file export)
Payslip password scheme is configured (for email delivery)