Forum Discussion

Jen65's avatar
Jen65
Trusted Cover User
2 years ago

Payroll Catgegories for Travel - Food & Incidentals

HI, question on payroll categories, we have a few staff travelling overseas to work and they are paid a Food & Incidental allowance.  Each employee gets paid a different amount, do I need to set up a different category for each person to pay them this allowance ?

  • Hi Jen65 

     

    Not sure I agree - creating a new allowance for each employee simply adds to the complexity of your file. Lots of employer complain about having too many payroll categories and that MYOB often does not allow you to delete it once it has been used.

     

    If different employees will use different ATO category assignment, then yes you will need different payroll categories, but not if all assigned to same ATO Category.

     

    It does depend on how the allowance will be entered.  Due to the nature of the allowance you mentioned, this is likely to be a manually entered amount each payroll, or possibly a standard amount each pay.

     

    You could set up just one allowance - call it what you like  eg 'Food & Incidentals', set it as salary (unless rate is linked directly to hours or payrate) and under employee select affected employees who will use this allowance.

     

    When processing pay you can manually add the relevant amount for each employee. Or you can set the amount on their Standard Pay screen if the amount will be regular. Each employee can be set a different amount. One can be set to $44, one to $144.

     

    Regards

    Gavin

  • Doreen_P's avatar
    Doreen_P
    MYOB Moderator

    Hi, Jen65

     

    Thanks for your post.

     

    If each employee has a different amount of their allowances, you may set up a different wage category for each employee. However, if you do not want to have multiple wage categories, you can set up one category for the allowance. To know more about setting up allowances, kindly check The Help Article: Allowances

     

    Please let us know if you require any further assistance with your concern.

     

    Best regards,

    Doreen

    • gavin12345's avatar
      gavin12345
      Ultimate User

      Hi Jen65 

       

      Not sure I agree - creating a new allowance for each employee simply adds to the complexity of your file. Lots of employer complain about having too many payroll categories and that MYOB often does not allow you to delete it once it has been used.

       

      If different employees will use different ATO category assignment, then yes you will need different payroll categories, but not if all assigned to same ATO Category.

       

      It does depend on how the allowance will be entered.  Due to the nature of the allowance you mentioned, this is likely to be a manually entered amount each payroll, or possibly a standard amount each pay.

       

      You could set up just one allowance - call it what you like  eg 'Food & Incidentals', set it as salary (unless rate is linked directly to hours or payrate) and under employee select affected employees who will use this allowance.

       

      When processing pay you can manually add the relevant amount for each employee. Or you can set the amount on their Standard Pay screen if the amount will be regular. Each employee can be set a different amount. One can be set to $44, one to $144.

       

      Regards

      Gavin

      • Doreen_P's avatar
        Doreen_P
        MYOB Moderator

        Hi, gavin12345 

         

        Thank you for your response.

         

        We are truly grateful for your knowledge and for sharing this information with our Community Forum. This is a great help to our Community Forum users. 

         

        Best regards,

        Doreen

  • Doreen_P's avatar
    Doreen_P
    MYOB Moderator

    Hi, Jen65 

     

    We are closing this case, as we were not able to receive updates. Please feel free to start a new post in the future if you encounter any further issues. We are delighted to assist you.

     

    Best regards,

    Doreen