A Template pay stores the standard parts of an employee’s pay that are expected to repeat from one pay process to another.
When an employee with a Template pay is selected to pay, the stored entries are automatically loaded into the Payrun screen. This reduces the amount of information that needs to be entered manually each time the employee is paid.
Template pays are particularly useful where an employee has predictable parts of their pay. For example:
an employee may normally receive the same standard hours each pay
an employee with variable hours may still receive the same allowance each pay
an employee may have both standard Work entries and regular Allowance entries
A Template pay does not need to represent the employee’s entire pay. It should contain only the parts that you want SmoothPay to repeat automatically.
For more information about preparing employee pays, refer to:
What can be stored in a Template pay
Clicking Template saves the entries currently held under the following Payrun tabs:
Work
Allowances
Overheads
These areas are saved together as the employee’s Template pay.
The following are not stored as part of a Template pay:
Leave taken transactions
Sundry deduct transactions
Recurring deduct entries do not need to form part of a Template pay. Once a recurring deduction has been configured against an employee, it is applied through its own recurring functionality.
Before saving a Template pay
The Template button saves all applicable entries currently entered under the Work, Allowances, and Overheads tabs.
For this reason, avoid creating or replacing a Template pay from the middle of a normal pay process unless you have first checked everything currently entered for that employee.
For example, if an employee normally receives a regular allowance but their current pay also contains unusual Work entries, clicking Template would save both the allowance and those Work entries.
Only leave entries in the applicable tabs that you genuinely want to repeat in future pays before clicking Template.
Creating or updating a Template pay
Template pays are created directly from the Payrun screen by clicking the Template button on the Payroll control bar.
To create a Template pay:
Go to the Payrun screen.
Load the employee into the current pay.
Enter only the Work, Allowance, and Overhead entries that you want to repeat as part of the employee’s standard pay.
Review the entries carefully.
Click Template on the Payrun control bar.
SmoothPay stores the applicable entries as the employee’s Template pay.
If the employee already has a Template pay, following the same process replaces the previously stored Template pay with the entries currently loaded under the Work, Allowances, and Overheads tabs.
Using a Template pay
Once a Template pay has been stored, no separate action is required to apply it during a normal pay process.
When the employee is selected using Who to pay, the stored Template pay entries are automatically loaded into the Payrun screen.
You can then:
leave the Template pay unchanged where it represents the employee’s complete pay for that period
add additional transactions
edit the loaded transactions
remove transactions that do not apply to that particular pay
Any changes made to the current pay do not automatically change the employee’s stored Template pay.
Reviewing Template pays
There are two useful ways to review an employee’s stored Template pay.
Reviewing the Template pay value from Who to pay
The Who to pay window includes a Template pay header in the employee column.
This displays the indicative value of each employee’s stored Template pay and provides a quick way to see which employees have a Template pay and its current value.
For more detailed information about an employee’s Template pay, review their Template payslip.
Reviewing a Template payslip
To view the employee’s stored Template pay in payslip form:
Go to either the Payrun, or Staff screen.
Right-click the employee in the employee column.
Select Template payslip.
SmoothPay displays the employee’s Template pay as a payslip for review.
This allows you to inspect the stored pay without needing to prepare or complete an actual pay process.
Reverting the current pay to the Template pay
If an employee’s current draft pay has been changed and you want to return it to their stored Template pay:
Right-click the employee in the employee column.
Select Revert to template pay.
SmoothPay replaces the applicable entries currently loaded for the employee with the entries stored in their Template pay.
Important: Reverting to the Template pay removes changes that have been made to the applicable current pay entries. Review the employee’s current pay before using this option if there is information you may need to retain.
Deleting a Template pay
If an employee no longer requires a Template pay:
Right-click the employee in the Employee column.
Select Delete template pay.
The stored Template pay is removed.
This does not delete the employee or their completed pay history.
If the Template pay information appears incorrect
Occasionally, the value displayed in the Template pay column of the Who to pay window or the information shown on the Template payslip may appear inconsistent with the Template pay that has been stored.
SmoothPay provides a troubleshooting function that forces the stored Template pay calculations to be refreshed.
For more information, refer to: