What to set up before a new venue's first payroll
A set-up checklist for a new restaurant or hotel's first pay run in South Africa or Kenya: employer, staff, verified bank details, tax table and approvers.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Hospitality businesses in South Africa, Kenya
The kitchen is fitted, the menus are printed and the soft opening went well. Then someone asks the question that has been sitting at the bottom of the list: how is everyone getting paid at the end of the month? Chefs, waiters, barmen, housekeeping, the night porter and the manager all expect the right amount on the right day, and the first pay run is the one staff remember.
Payroll problems in a new venue rarely come from the calculation. They come from set-up: a wrong bank account, a tax table nobody checked, or a run that only one person can see. This checklist covers what a new restaurant, lodge or hotel in South Africa or Kenya should have in place in Achekam before the first run.
Registering as an employer under the right country
There are two registrations to think about, and they are separate.
The first is with the authorities. A venue that hires staff has to register as an employer before it deducts and pays over employees' tax. In South Africa, SARS explains on its page on registering for employees' tax who must register for PAYE, how to do it on eFiling or the EMP101e form, and the time limit after you become an employer. In Kenya, remember that KRA collects PAYE and the Affordable Housing Levy, but SHIF, NSSF and the NITA levy go elsewhere, so a Kenyan venue deals with more than one body.
The second is in Achekam. A business sets itself up as an employer and runs payroll under South African, Nigerian or Kenyan rules, chosen when the employer is created. Choose carefully: the country decides which calculation runs. A Kenyan employer gets PAYE with personal and insurance relief, NSSF Tier I and II, SHIF, the Affordable Housing Levy and the NITA levy. A South African employer gets PAYE, UIF and SDL from a tax table stored as data.
Adding staff one by one or from a file
A small guesthouse with six staff can add each person by hand. A hotel opening with a full brigade, front office and housekeeping team is better served by a file. Employees can be added one by one or imported from a CSV file, and the import checks every row and writes all rows or none. A single bad row stops the whole file, which is irritating for a moment and far better than half a team loaded and the rest missing.
Before importing, gather from each person:
- full name and identity or passport number;
- tax number (a KRA PIN in Kenya, a SARS tax reference in South Africa);
- start date, job title and department, such as kitchen, bar, front office or housekeeping;
- pay basis and rate;
- bank account details, on a form the employee signs.
Decide the pay frequency too. Pay runs can be monthly, fortnightly or weekly, which suits a venue that pays permanent staff monthly and casual waiters weekly. Overtime, allowances and unpaid leave go in as variable inputs on each period's run.
Kenyan employers should know one current limit: leave days are counted against South African public holidays, and the built-in leave entitlements follow South African law, even for a Kenyan employer. Keep your own leave rules in the employment contract and check leave balances against them.
Bank details checked by a second person
Bank details are where payroll fraud and honest mistakes both start. A digit typed wrongly sends a waiter's wages to a stranger; a changed account number slipped in by someone with access sends them to a fraudster.
In Achekam, an employee's bank account entered or changed by one person must be verified by another person before it is paid in the payment schedule or bank file. For the first run that means every account needs a second pair of eyes. Ask the second person to check each account against the signed bank form or a bank confirmation letter, not against the screen the first person typed.
Confirming the tax table
Achekam ships its payroll tax tables pre-loaded but unconfirmed, and no payroll run uses a table until a named person at the business confirms its own copy. Confirming is a deliberate act: someone puts their name to the figures being right for the year.
For South African venues there is a timing point. Only the 2025/26 South African table ships, so for pay dates from 1 March 2026 the business must start the 2026/27 table from last year's figures, update it to SARS's figures and confirm it. The steps are set out in confirming the 2026/27 tax table. The Kenyan table that ships is the 2026 one.
Who prepares and who approves
A pay run is approved by someone other than the person who prepared it, nobody can approve a run that pays themselves, and an approved run is never recalculated. In practice, a venue needs at least two people in payroll roles before its first run.
| Task | Who does it in a small venue |
|---|---|
| Captures staff and variable inputs | The bookkeeper or general manager |
| Verifies bank details | Someone else: the owner or a second manager |
| Confirms the tax table | A named person who has checked the authority's figures |
| Approves the run | The owner, or whoever did not prepare it |
If the owner is also on the payroll, they cannot approve the run that pays them, so plan for a second approver from the start.
When a run is approved, payslips are PDFs with the business's logo and details. They can be downloaded or e-mailed one per person, and an employer setting sends them automatically on approval, with a delivery log, provided an e-mail service is configured.
Your first-run checklist
- Register with the authorities in your country.
- Create the employer in Achekam under the right country.
- Load staff, by hand or from a checked CSV file.
- Have a second person verify every bank account.
- Confirm the tax table for the pay date.
- Name a preparer and a different approver.
- Upload your logo so payslips carry it.
Casual and temporary staff follow the same steps; loading temporary staff into payroll covers the file route in more detail. Work through the list a fortnight before the first pay date, so the first run is a check, not a scramble.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
