Planning Employee Payments: A Guide to Calculating Salaries, Bonuses, Additional Payments, and Outstanding Amounts

How to Calculate and Pay Employee Salaries in Torgsoft

In a retail store, a salesperson's salary may consist of more than just a fixed base salary. One employee is paid for scheduled shifts, another receives a percentage of personal sales, a team earns a bonus, someone has already received an advance payment, and part of another employee's salary needs to be paid later. Business owners need to see how much has been accrued, how much has already been paid, and how much is still owed to each employee. For this purpose, the «Employee Salaries and Motivation» option includes a payroll statement and the «Payment Planning» feature. 

What Is a Payroll Statement?

A payroll statement is a calculation of employee salaries for a specified period.

For example, a store owner creates a monthly payroll statement. Torgsoft collects employee earnings and calculates the amount payable to each employee.

Salary components may include:

• fixed base salary;

• payment for scheduled shifts;

• hourly pay;

• team bonus;

• bonus or individual bonus;

• additional payment for product sales;

• recurring earnings;

• amounts owed to the employee.

These are the types of earnings that can be used in the «Payment Planning» feature. 

How to Prepare Salaries for Payment

First, create a payroll statement under Payroll Calculation → Payroll Statement and specify the period.

Then select «Calculate Payroll Statement».

The software takes into account the payment methods configured for employees, earnings, advance payments, and other information included in the calculation.

For accurate calculations, the documentation specifically states that actual working-time data must be entered. Calculations based on profit and sales targets also require the relevant data for the period. 

Simply put, the software must first know who worked and which payroll rules apply to them. Only then can payments be prepared.

How to Choose Which Earnings to Pay Now

After calculating the payroll statement, open «Payment Planning».

You do not have to pay the entire accrued salary in a single payment. You can select the required earning types and click «Calculate».

For example, a salesperson has earned:

• UAH 6,000 for scheduled shifts;

• UAH 2,000 as an individual bonus;

• UAH 1,500 as a team bonus.

If only the payment for scheduled shifts needs to be made now, you can include only this earning type in payment planning. The software recalculates the amount payable according to the selected parameters. 

This is convenient when salaries are paid in installments or different salary components are paid at different times.

How to Account for Advance Payments and Deductions

An employee may have already received part of their salary. In Torgsoft, advance payments are included in the payroll statement calculation.

The «Payment Planning» feature also includes the «Include Deductions When Calculating the "Amount Payable"» setting. When enabled, the software takes deductions into account when determining how much should be paid to an employee. 

For example, an employee has accrued UAH 12,000 according to the payroll statement but has already received an advance payment. When making the final payment, it is important to check not only total earnings but also the amount payable after previous transactions have been taken into account.

Can Only Part of a Salary Be Paid?

Yes. The «Amount Payable» in the payment planning feature can be changed manually. 

For example, an employee is owed UAH 10,000, but the owner pays UAH 4,000 today. You can enter UAH 4,000 in the amount field and process the payment. The remaining amount stays unpaid.

When the payroll statement is closed, Torgsoft checks unpaid amounts and allows outstanding balances to be transferred to the next payroll statement.  Therefore, a partial payment does not mean that the salary must be manually calculated again the following month.

How to Pay Salaries from a Cash Register or Bank Account

Select the required employee and click «Pay».

In the payment window, you can:

1. specify the date;

2. choose «From Cash Register» or «From Bank Account»;

3. select a specific cash register or account;

4. check or change the amount;

5. add a comment.

By default, the transaction is recorded under the «Salary» financial analysis category, but another category can be selected if necessary. After saving the transaction, the software offers to print a salary receipt. An employee whose payment has already been processed is no longer available for another payment in the same payroll statement. 

This is important for stores with multiple cash registers: the owner can immediately identify where the money was actually paid from, and the payment is recorded in Torgsoft's financial accounting system.

What to Do with Unpaid Salaries

There is no need to manually create a new accrual for the remaining amount. When closing a payroll statement, the software checks payments and allows outstanding balances to be transferred to the next statement. 

For example: an employee earned UAH 10,000 → received UAH 7,000 → UAH 3,000 remains unpaid. When closing the statement, this balance can be carried forward. In subsequent calculations, it will be included as an amount owed to the employee.

Torgsoft also allows employee debts already recorded in the software to be included in the payroll statement. For this purpose, the «Include Employee Debts in Payroll Statement» action is available. 

How to Check What an Employee's Salary Consists Of

If an employee or business owner does not understand the final amount, there is no need to recalculate it manually.

The payroll statement includes «Payroll Statement Breakdown». For each employee, you can view:

• earnings;

• deductions;

• recurring earnings and deductions;

• outstanding balance;

• total earnings;

• amount already paid;

• amount remaining to be paid. 

Employees can also view their own payslips under Payroll Calculation → My Payslip, provided their user role has the appropriate access rights. 

If salaries depend on sales, the payslip includes «Breakdown by Products, Work, and Operations». The report shows the products and transactions that affected an employee's salary, including personal and team sales when the relevant earnings depend on them. 

This is useful in a common situation: a salesperson asks why their bonus is a particular amount this month. The owner can open the payslip and review the data used by the software to calculate it.

When to Close a Payroll Statement

A payroll statement should be closed after the calculations have been checked and payments for the period have been completed, or after determining which outstanding amounts need to be carried forward.

After closing the statement, Torgsoft locks its data: changes to the work schedules, earnings, and targets used in the calculation are blocked, and payroll data is stored in the archive. 

Therefore, before closing the statement, check:

• whether all employees have been included correctly;

• whether actual working hours have been entered;

• whether advance payments and deductions have been taken into account;

• whether payments have been processed correctly;

• whether any unpaid amounts need to be carried forward.

The Main Rule

Payroll processing in Torgsoft consists of four steps: create a payroll statement → calculate earnings → verify and process payments → close the statement and carry forward outstanding balances, if any.

If an amount seems unclear, first open the payroll statement breakdown or payslip instead of manually changing the earnings.

If you cannot identify the cause yourself, contact Torgsoft technical support.