Itemised Payslips for Business Owners in Singapore

Editor’s note: This post has been updated and republished. The original post was published on 17 November 2014. The tripartite guidelines on the issuance of itemised payslips have been revised accurate to the year 2016.

It was then updated on 29 March 2019 to reflect the creation and printing of itemised payslips as a FREE function on Talenox.

Introduction

If you’re a business owner, or an aspiring one, you should already be familiar with the changes to the Employment Act, particularly the Tripartite Guidelines on the issuance of itemised payslips, which was enacted in 2014.

With the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) recent focus on compliance, business owners need to ensure that their businesses are operating in line with these new regulations and safeguard themselves against unintended penalties. Make sure to read more about MOM’s Tripartite Guidelines on Issuance of Itemised Payslips.

From 1 April 2016, all employers must issue itemised payslips, or they will be liable to a “civil breach” that will attract penalties.

Who needs to issue itemised payslips?

All employers in Singapore. 😎

What should itemised payslips include?

Typically, an itemised payslip should include these 14 components:

• Name of employer
• Name of employee
• Date(s) of payment
• Mode of payment
• Start and end dates of each salary period within the month
• Basic salary for each salary period
• Allowances paid for each salary period
• Start and end dates of each overtime payment period within the month
• Overtime hours worked
• Overtime pay for each overtime payment period
• Any other additional payment
• Actual deductions made
• Net salary paid in the month
• Employer’s CPF contribution.

Need a sample itemised payslip template? Download it for free (PDF format):

When should itemised payslips be issued?

Employers should issue payslips to their employees within 7 days after the last day of the month, for a salary period ending that month.

For example, an employer must issue payslips to their employees by 7th April, for work done in March.

*In the case of termination or dismissal, the payslip must be given together with outstanding salary.

The hesitance to switch to itemised payslips

Several months after the enactment, many businesses still experience drawbacks putting these new changes into practice, particularly in the area of providing itemised payslips.

We realised that this occurs frequently with two types of businesses – 1) those that are more traditional in nature (e.g. manufacturing, logistics, shipping, wholesale), and 2) those in the services industry (e.g. F&B, retail, merchandising, hospitality).

The general viewpoints are:

• My business has been writing and issuing payslips in hardcopy form
• I do not run my payroll electronically
• I hire ad-hoc or part-time employees
• I have less than 25 employees

The solution: Run payroll and generate itemised payslips for free!

Did you know that you can run payroll, and generate and print itemised payslips on Talenox for FREE?

With a Talenox FREE account, you can use the Payroll app to run payroll, automatically calculate CPF and ordinance tax, as well as issue and print itemised payslips. Talenox FREE is free forever and has no limit on the number of employees you have.

Jump on the bandwagon to issue itemised payslips now. Talenox offers a 30-day free trial to all new signups.

Like this article? You may also be interested in these resources:

ECF/SINDA/CDAC/MBMF Contribution 2015 and CPF Contribution Updates
Slideshare how-to: Guide to CPF File Upload for Singapore Payroll