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Set up employees and import payroll records

Employee records are the foundation of payroll in WiseWage. Each employee should have a clear staff ID, role, payroll eligibility dates, department, location, bank details, pension details, and assigned salary components before payroll preparation.

WiseWage SupportUpdated September 20263 min readCompany Admin, assigned company administrator, authorized platform administratorCore HR, Payroll, Enterprise

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Access required

Employee administration requires company ownership, Company Admin membership, or authorized platform administration. Ordinary employees and viewers cannot read or edit company employee records. Employees use the Employee portal for their own details.

Before you start

1
Create locations, departments, grades, and salary components first.
2
Confirm the staff ID format your company will use.
3
Prepare bank, pension, employment date, department, and location data.

Add one employee manually

1
Open HR > Employees.
After the most recent payroll is marked Paid, the directory opens on the next payroll month so you can review workforce eligibility for the upcoming run.
2
Click Add Employee.
3
Complete personal details, pension details, bank details, and salary component sections.
4
Save the employee and review the record in the employee directory.

Import employees by Excel or CSV

1
Open HR > Employees and choose Import Employees.
2
Download the WiseWage Excel employee import template.
CSV is still supported for compatible existing files.
3
Keep required headers such as staffId and role.
4
Use firstName and lastName, or provide fullName.
5
Enter only confirmed personal details.
- Blank gender, maritalStatus, stateOfOrigin, stateOfResidence, religion, lgaOfOrigin, idType, and nationality remain blank.
- A supplied countryCode is retained; a missing code can be derived from a supplied nationality. If both are blank, both stay blank.
- Existing saved records are not automatically cleared by this change. Review earlier imports against their source files before correcting them.
6
Use the Excel template for phone numbers, account numbers, BVN, NIN, and other identifier fields so leading zeros are preserved.
When copying data from another workbook, choose Paste Special, then Values.
7
Enter PFA Name and Pension ID for employees who will be included in pension filing.
- Place PFA Code immediately after Pension ID for the Pension Schedule export.
- Employee import and general-details CSV templates use PFACode. PFA Code and pfaCode are also accepted headers.
- Older files may omit PFA Code.
- Existing files can still use these older headers: pensionFundAdministrator, pfaName, pfaNumber and PFA Number.
8
Leave employeePensionRate and employerPensionRate blank only when no pension contribution should be calculated; WiseWage does not apply a hidden pension-rate default.
9
If either pension-rate column contains a decimal between 0 and 1 (for example 0.08), WiseWage shows a confirmation before import and converts it to the equivalent whole percentage (8%).
Review the affected rows before confirming.
10
Open Manage Current Employees, choose Template format, and select Download Template.
- Preparing template... confirms the download is being prepared; wait before changing format or opening Imports.
- When the template is ready, check your browser downloads.
- If preparation fails, review the error and try again.
11
For Manage Current Employees General details update templates, a blank cell deliberately clears that saved field.
Leave a field's column out of the file when its existing value should remain unchanged.
12
Use salary component columns only for regular fixed or variable employee-level components.
Formula components are excluded because payroll calculates them from their formula logic.
13
Upload the completed file and review row-level errors before payroll.
- Payroll eligibility starts from employment date; if it is missing, WiseWage creation date is used.
- When an employment date predates WiseWage creation, WiseWage asks you to verify it before payroll is prepared.
14
After payroll is prepared, reports retain the Staff ID, employee details, pay components, pension data, and calculation data captured for that run.
Correct future employee records separately; historical payroll reports are not rewritten.

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