FAQ

Can I Run Payroll in Excel?

Yes, it's legal — South African law doesn't mandate specific payroll software. But "legal" and "safe" aren't the same thing.

What Excel can do

• Calculate PAYE, UIF and SDL manually using formulas you build and maintain
• Generate basic payslips from a template
• Work fine for a single employee with a fixed, simple salary

Where it breaks down

• Tax tables change every 1 March — you have to update every formula yourself, every year, or every employee's PAYE is wrong
• No audit trail — a spreadsheet doesn't track who changed what, when, making it harder to catch or explain errors
• EMP201/EMP501 prep is manual — you're re-typing figures from your spreadsheet into eFiling and e@syFile
• No automatic leave tracking — annual and sick leave accrual has to be tracked and updated by hand
• Formula errors compound — a single broken cell reference can silently miscalculate an entire team's pay for months
• Version control chaos — multiple copies of "final_payroll_v3_ACTUAL.xlsx" floating around is a real, common failure mode

When Excel is genuinely fine

For one employee with a fixed monthly salary and no complexity (no overtime, commission or benefits), a well-built spreadsheet — updated carefully every tax year — can work. See our common payroll mistakes article for what tends to go wrong.

When to switch

Once you have more than 2–3 employees, any variable pay (overtime, commission, allowances), or you're spending more than an hour a month on payroll admin, dedicated software usually pays for itself in time saved and errors avoided.

People Also Ask

Can I run payroll in Excel in South Africa?

Yes, it's legal — there's no requirement to use specific software. But you're responsible for manually keeping tax tables, UIF ceilings and calculations correct and up to date every tax year.

Is spreadsheet payroll less secure than software?

It can be — spreadsheets lack access controls and audit trails that dedicated payroll systems provide.

At what point should I stop using Excel for payroll?

Once you have more than 2-3 employees, any variable pay, or you're spending over an hour a month on payroll admin.

Beyond spreadsheets

Payroll without the spreadsheet risk

TSS Payroll updates tax tables automatically and keeps a full audit trail — no formula errors, no version confusion.

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