Create and manage salary components

Supported component types

1. 1Regular income for recurring fixed earnings such as basic salary.
2. 2Variable income for run-time usage values.
3. 3Time-tracking income for approved synced hours.
4. 4Regular deductible values for payslip deductions, tax reliefs, or both.
5. 5Percentage components calculated from selected source components.

Create a regular component

1. 1Open HR > Salary Components.
2. 2Choose Regular as the component type.
3. 3Choose Income if the component increases gross pay, or Deductible if it reduces pay or records a relief.
4. 4Enter the component name.
5. 5Add an optional Note when payroll admins need internal context about the component policy or usage.
6. 6Choose Staff Scope: All employees, Specific location, or Specific department.
7. 7For deductible components, choose Deduction Rule: FIXED for saved employee amounts or VARIABLE for payroll-run entry/import.
8. 8Choose Deduction Type: Statutory when WiseWage should include the deduction alongside PAYE on the customer invoice remittance page, or Non-Statutory when it should remain outside that remittance offering.
9. 9Set Track in Benefit Filing to Yes when the component should be monitored and remitted through Benefit Filing instead of Tax Filing. Pension, NHF, and NHIS default to Yes; other existing and new components default to No.
10. 10Complete the tax, pension, display route, and scope fields that apply.
11. 11Save and confirm the component appears in the correct section.

Classify statutory deductions for remittance

Deduction Type is a remittance classification only. It does not change the payroll calculation or replace Deduction Selection. Existing deductions default to Non-Statutory.

1. 1Choose Statutory only for a tax deduction that must be paid to a statutory authority and is not tracked through Benefit Filing.
2. 2Choose Non-Statutory for internal, voluntary, loan, union, or other deductions that WiseWage should not offer to remit as tax.
3. 3Use Deduction Selection separately to control whether the item appears on the payslip, tax computation slip, or both.
4. 4After payroll is run, review statutory deductions alongside PAYE on the customer invoice remittance page.

Do not create PAYE or Pension components

PAYE and statutory pension are calculated by WiseWage during payroll. Create the actual pay items only, then use the tax and pension flags to tell the backend what should feed each statutory calculation.

1. 1Do not create a PAYE salary component. PAYE is calculated from income components marked Taxable = TRUE.
2. 2Do not create a Pension salary component unless it is a separate non-statutory company policy item. Statutory pension is calculated from the employee pension percentage/rates in Employee Details and income components marked Pensionable = TRUE.
3. 3Create pay items such as Basic, Housing, Transport, Bonus, or Allowance, then set Taxable Status and Pensionable Status correctly.

Choose staff scope

Staff Scope is available for regular, formula, and percentage components. It uses one condition at a time so reviewers know whether location, department, or all employees will be used.

1. 1Choose All employees when the component can apply broadly.
2. 2Choose Specific location when only employees in one location should receive or calculate the component.
3. 3Choose Specific department when only employees in one department should receive or calculate the component.
4. 4Do not select both location and department for one component; create a separate component when a different rule is needed.

Create a percentage component

Percentage components calculate their value from one or more existing source components. Use them for policy-driven allowances, deductions, or non-statutory formulas that should update automatically during payroll. Do not use them to recreate PAYE or statutory pension, because those are calculated by the backend from taxable and pensionable setup.

1. 1Open HR > Salary Components and choose Create Salary Component.
2. 2Set Component Type to Percentage.
3. 3Set Salary Type to Income when the calculated value should add to earnings, or Deductible when it should reduce net pay or appear as a deduction.
4. 4Enter a clear component name, such as Housing Percentage Allowance or Union Deduction.
5. 5Add an optional Note when the percentage needs policy context for later review.
6. 6In Percentage Formula, enter the percentage rate that should be applied during payroll.
7. 7Select the source component or components that the percentage should be calculated from. For example, choose Basic Salary if the formula is a percentage of basic pay.
8. 8Use Staff Scope only when the component should apply to a limited staff group. Leave it on All employees when it should be available broadly.
9. 9Review the Current Summary panel before saving, especially the structure, selected sources, and where the component applies.
10. 10Save the component and confirm it appears in the correct Income or Deductible section.

Assign and test the component

1. 1Open HR > Employees and select the employee who should receive the component.
2. 2Use the Income tab for income components, or the Reliefs or Deductibles tab for deductible components.
3. 3Add the component to the employee where employee-level assignment is required.
4. 4Run or preview payroll and confirm the calculated amount matches the expected percentage of the selected source components.

Sync component rule changes

When any salary component or its staff-scope rules change after employees already have payroll setup, use the sync preview before applying the change to employee salary components. Sync assigns every configured income or deductible component to employees who match its staff scope, regardless of whether it is Regular, Percentage, or Formula.

1. 1Click Sync salary components when WiseWage prompts for a component sync.
2. 2Review the confirmation modal before any employee salary components are changed.
3. 3Download the preview workbook and open the Component Changes sheet.
4. 4Review the employees, change type, current values, synced values, formulas, scopes, and notes.
5. 5Confirm the sync only after the preview workbook matches the change you expect.

Review before payroll

1. 1Confirm source components exist before creating percentage components.
2. 2Confirm each source component is assigned to the employees who need the percentage calculation.
3. 3Review taxable and pensionable flags with the payroll policy owner.
4. 4Check whether the component should be taxable, pensionable, shown on payslips, or included in reports before using it in a live payroll run.
5. 5Avoid duplicate component names with different spacing or capitalization.