General Payroll Settings


Watch our video instructions.
The first step to setting up your payroll, before doing anything, is to set up your company settings. The General Settings is where the basics are all set up. You can also come back to this page if you need to alter some of the parameters you initially set up.

Jump into "Company Settings", and then "Payroll Settings".

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The first three lines are self-explanatory for the most part, and should be auto-filled based on the details you used to sign up with us.

However, ensure that you have entered your company or client's IRD Number into the "Employer's IRD No" field, and not your accounting firm's IRD Number, and certainly not any personal IRD Numbers, otherwise we will be unable to file you or your client's returns.

You can choose from one or more of the following pay frequencies:

  • Weekly
  • Fortnightly
  • Semi-monthly
  • Monthly
  • Four-weekly

    • Enter the start date of your "First Pay Period". This is the date of the first day of the pay period of work that you will be paying for, and not your first payment date.

    Enter your "Physical Payment Date" as the number of days after (or before) your pay period end date, that your staff will actually be paid. For example, if your pay period ends on Sunday and you are going to pay your employees on Tuesday, you would enter "2" in this field.

    Choose a Payslip Format. There are several different options to choose from ranging from keeping it simple, to being completely transparent in what is displayed. You can find samples below of our popular payslip options.

    Payslip Sample: Basic ; Payslip Sample: Subtotal ; Payslip Sample: Daily Hours ; Payslip Sample: Pay Type ; Payslip Sample: Pay Type & Daily Hours

    Under the "Payslip Format" option, you can choose what leave balances you would like to display on the payslips, if at all any. Here is a brief summary of what these options cover:

  • Show Leave Entitlement: This will show the employee the annual leave and the alternative leave they have available.

  • Include A/L accrued balance: This will show the build-up of annual leave the employee has accrued since their last anniversary, which they cannot yet take unless you allow them to. If you feel confident in being able to explain what this is to the employee, and you do not mind them using annual leave in advance, then this may be worth enabling.

  • Show one total for A/L balance: With the two above options enabled, this option will display a combined total of the annual leave entitlement and accrued balance, rather than two separate lines. This can be helpful in keeping annual leave simple if you really do not mind employees using their balance in advance, but can also be misleading as you do not pay out the accrued annual leave balance when terminating employees.

  • Include Sick Leave balance: This will show the employee the Sick Leave they have available.

    • Select "Save" to record all the options you have changed or enabled.

    Payday Filing Settings

    If you are on our PAYE, Basic Bureau, or Full Bureau service, Automatic Payday Filing will ONLY be activated upon completion of the pay run and the payday filing is sent through by the system two days after the set payment date.

    If you are on our Self Service option, you will find your "Enable Payday Filing Function" checked by default in the "Payday Filing Settings" section.

    Select "Set Authentication" to authenticate with the IRD. You will be redirected back to Crystal Payroll when the authentication is complete.

    Your Auto Filing date is set to "2 days" after your Payment Date by default. We highly recommend leaving the settings unchanged unless you would like to have your returns earlier than the maximum due date for filing returns. Note that reducing this time will allow for less user error when processing payments, as it is not a good idea to alter a pay-run once it has been filed to the IRD.