> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.bumara.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Setting up payroll
> The five setup steps to complete before your first pay run, plus registering with NAPSA and NHIMA.
The payroll dashboard shows a setup checklist the first time you open it. Work through it in order
— each step depends on the one before.
## Step 1 — Payroll settings
Open **Payroll → Settings**.
| Setting | What it does | Typical |
| -------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------ |
| **Working days per month** | Divides salary to give the daily rate, used for absence deductions | 26 |
| **Payment day** | When staff are paid | 25th |
| **Cutoff day** | When monthly inputs must be submitted | 20th |
| **Regular overtime multiplier** | Applied to normal overtime hours | 1.5× |
| **Holiday overtime multiplier** | Applied to holiday and weekend overtime | 2.0× |
| **Maximum deduction percentage** | Cap on total deductions as a share of gross | 50% |
| **Leave policy** | How leave accrues and is paid | Per your contracts |
| **Loan policy** | Maximum amount and maximum term | Per your policy |
Working days per month drives every absence deduction. Setting it to 30 rather than 26 changes
the daily rate and therefore every deduction. Set it to what your contracts actually say.
The gap between cutoff and payment day is your processing window. Five days is workable; two is
uncomfortable, particularly with PAYE due on the 10th.
## Step 2 — Departments
Create your departments — Finance, Operations, Sales, and so on. Every employee is assigned to one.
Departments matter for two reasons: department managers only see their own department's staff, and
your payroll cost reports break down by department.
## Step 3 — Job positions
Create the designations you employ: Accountant, Driver, Manager, Technician.
Keep them meaningful rather than exhaustive. Positions are used for reporting and for the employee
record — a list of forty near-identical titles helps nobody.
## Step 4 — Allowances and deductions
Bumara creates a standard set automatically:
| Created for you | Type |
| ------------------- | --------- |
| Housing allowance | Allowance |
| Transport allowance | Allowance |
| Meal allowance | Allowance |
| Leave pay | Allowance |
| Advance | Deduction |
Add your own for anything else you pay or deduct — fuel, communications, uniform, a social fund.
See [Pay elements](/payroll/pay-elements) for how each is configured and taxed.
## Step 5 — Employees
Add your staff. For each you will need:
| Category | Details |
| -------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Personal** | Name, date of birth, gender, marital status, NRC, passport |
| **Contact** | Email, phone, address, emergency contact |
| **Employment** | Department, position, branch, employment type, hire date, probation end |
| **Pay** | Basic salary |
| **Regulatory** | TPIN, NAPSA number, NHIMA number |
| **Banking** | Bank, branch, account number, sort code, SWIFT |
Bumara generates employee numbers automatically. All sensitive fields — NRC, TPIN, bank details —
are encrypted.
For more than a handful of staff, use the bulk import. See [Employees](/payroll/employees).
## Registering with the regulators
Before you can file returns, you must be registered as an employer.
Enter your NAPSA employer number. If you do not have one, raise the employer registration
service request. See [NAPSA and NHIMA](/regulators/napsa-and-nhima).
Enter your NHIMA employer number, or register as an employer.
Your TPIN is already in your organisation settings. Confirm PAYE is ticked on your ZRA
connection. See [ZRA overview](/regulators/zra/overview).
Employing someone creates PAYE, NAPSA and NHIMA obligations from that month, whether or not you
have registered. Register before your first pay run, not after.
## Before your first live run
* Working days matches your contracts
* Payment day and cutoff day set, with a workable gap between them
* Overtime multipliers match your policy
* Maximum deduction percentage set
* Departments created
* Positions created
* Allowances and deductions configured, with the correct tax treatment
* Every current employee added
* Every employee has a TPIN, NAPSA number and NHIMA number
* Bank details verified — check against a statement or a cancelled cheque
* Salaries correct against contracts
* Allowances and deductions assigned
* NAPSA employer number entered
* NHIMA employer number entered
* ZRA connected with PAYE ticked
* Preview a pay run and check every figure
* Compare against your previous payroll, whatever you used before
* Generate a payslip and read it as an employee would
* Only then process
## Your first month
Do not trust the first run blindly. Run it in parallel with however you paid people before, and
reconcile the two.
Nothing is saved.
Employee by employee. Gross, each deduction, net.
Differences are usually a missing allowance, a wrong salary, or a working-days setting that
does not match your contracts. Find the cause rather than adjusting the figure.
Fix the employee record or the pay element, then preview again. Never patch a number.
Then keep the comparison as evidence that the transition was clean.
Next: [Employees](/payroll/employees) to add your staff, then
[Pay elements](/payroll/pay-elements).