How you can capitalise on payroll reports when expanding to multiple African countries

Payroll data is a source of untapped potential for growth, decision-making, and cost savings. But which data would you exactly need to track? And over how much time?
In this blog post, let’s go over what you can expect from standard and custom payroll reports, and how this data culminates into business intelligence.

What payroll data do you get through reports?

Most payroll reports include basic data like the employee code, and the total cost of payroll for the employee, including employer contributions. But these standard reports can be built into more comprehensive data sets, with the addition of trackable data, as requested by you, the client.

Standard payroll reports

Standard reports generally only contain basic information like the employee code (a code which every employee is assigned), and the cost of payroll for this employee (including their wages, overtime, and employer contributions). The main purpose of a standard report is to obtain validation from you, the employer. It serves as final confirmation before payroll payments are processed.

Custom payroll reports

These types of reports can be endlessly tailored to your needs. Whether it is something as simple as wanting to see full employee names on your payroll reports, or wanting to see your employee’s bank details changes to validate them – custom payroll reports respond to your many requirements.

Using payroll reports to acquire business intelligence in Africa

1. Choosing the right candidates

Customised payroll reports can give you better visibility over your team’s qualifications and achievements when there’s a vacant position to fill. You may also request other information like years of service, training received, absences, and more, to help you get information you need at a glance. This facilitates decision-making and can help you fight unconscious biases by using facts first, rather than basing your decision off of general impressions.

2. Financial projections during layoffs

When a company has to close down a department for instance, or needs to scale down for any reason, the management may request what is known as a “leave provision report”. What this report does is retrieve data about how many leave days employees still have left. We further calculate what this total would amount to: individually first, then as a total for all employees. As you may know, any untaken leave must generally be paid for, which can strain your finances and cash flow. This report helps you determine just how much the layoffs are going to cost you, on top of any indemnities you may need to pay your employees. At this point in time, many companies realise that they do not, in fact, have the money or cash flow required to let go of so many employees all at once. In this case, they often choose to retain certain employees and reassign them to different departments as a way to cut losses.  

3. Building synergy between accounting, payroll, and HR

Through payroll reporting, we create stronger, more efficient relationships between the payroll, HR and accounting functions within your company in Africa. As part of our payroll reporting service, we can compile reports with all filled and vacant positions, and create job descriptions based on this data, thereby supporting HR functions. Then, we can also generate specific reports for statutory filings in the exact format required, which frees up time for the accounting department, since they do not have to go over the same piece of documentation twice. Additionally, we can also create reports intended for the accounting department, where all employee personal details are removed, and only the amounts deducted or added are visible.

4. Visibility over training needs

In South Africa for example, it is required for employees in some industries to undergo regular training. Through our payroll reports, we are able to offer updated information about which employees have undergone training, and which ones still need to fulfil this requirement. This can go a long way in ensuring safety and compliance with the local legislation.

5. Preventing financial fraud

One custom report that clients request often enough is one about changes in bank details. Firstly, as a means to validate the changes so that wage payments are made to the correct account, and secondly to prevent financial fraud within the company by knowing which accounts changed and at which point in time.

6. Managing health and life insurance

What does any one employee cost you in terms of additional benefits such as health or life insurance? Our payroll reports can tell you just that. We can offer data about the number of dependents an employee has, as well as the exact contributions you are making on their behalf. This data is not only helpful in knowing just how much these benefits cost – but it can also help you understand if you need more affordable life insurance and health insurance coverage for your workers.

7. Managing retirement fund contributions

On top of medical and life insurance data, we also provide data on retirement funds for each individual employee, and then as a whole. Once again, this gives you visibility over the costs and facilitates decision-making when choosing whether to renew a certain provider or not.

8. Simulation payslips when expanding to Africa

Before you expand to a new African country like the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, or Malawi for instance, it is worth it to include a payslip simulation to establish the financial implications of payroll, as part of your feasibility study. This is because once employer contributions, mandatory benefits and other costs are accounted for, payroll in a certain country, or for a projected number of employees in that country, may end up costing you much more than you initially anticipated.

At Africa HR Solutions, our payroll team runs payroll simulations for the whole year ahead to anticipate any special needs you may have or identify certain special events, like public holidays turned into extended weekends – which may affect your payroll dates.

What is the frequency of payroll reporting?

Payroll reporting can (and in some cases, must) be done on a monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, or yearly basis. In most African countries, company tax returns must only be done once a year. But in South Africa, for instance, these must be submitted twice, on a half-yearly basis.

Entrust your payroll in Africa to an award-winning African team

Crowned Regional Payroll Provider of the year in 2023 by the Global Payroll Association (GPA), the Africa HR Solutions payroll team is at your service to facilitate payroll across more than 46 African countries.

To find out how we can help you manage payroll and focus on your core business, chat with one of our consultants today.