If you start using Sahora partway through the year, Sahora needs what you already paid this year. Without it, the year-end tax, the 13th month pay and each employee's BIR Form 2316 would count only the months paid in Sahora. This guide shows the ways to bring that pay in and how to check Sahora against your current payroll before you switch.
Before you start
- Bring in your employees first (see Importing your data).
- Create the pay periods for the months already paid, so each past pay date has a period in Sahora (see Creating pay periods).
- The owner sets Payroll history up to in Company setup → Payroll settings: the day before your first payroll in Sahora. Pay dates up to that day count as payroll history.
Choose how to bring the year in
| You have | Use |
|---|---|
| Your previous system's payroll register for each cut-off | Previous payroll |
| Only year-to-date totals per employee as of a date | Opening year-to-date balances |
| A new hire's pay from a previous employer this year | The employee's BIR Form 2316, entered on their record |
Previous payroll (per cut-off)
- Open Company setup → Import data, or click Import previous payroll on the Payroll page.
- Upload your registers. One file can hold several periods, but only one tax year. Sahora's own template imports on every plan. Paid plansMatching the columns of your own Excel format to Sahora's
- Check the rows. You can type the register's control totals for each period; the import waits until they match.
- Import. Each period becomes that period's payroll in Sahora, saved as a draft with your register's own amounts. Nothing is recomputed.
- Approve them on the Payroll page in order, oldest first. The approver can't be the person who imported them.
Sahora carries month-to-date and year-to-date figures from one imported pay to the next, so the payrolls after them continue correctly.
For a pay date in the history, the payroll page also shows an Import payroll history card with Download the payroll history template. If a computed history payroll doesn't match your records, open the employee from the register and use Edit the amounts (payroll history). Edited lines are marked "Edited by hand".
Opening year-to-date balances
Use this when you don't have each cut-off's register.
- Open Company setup → Import data and choose Opening year-to-date balances.
- Upload one row per employee with the year-to-date totals as of a date, check and import.
If an employee and year are already on file, the row updates them and shows you the changes first.
Pay from a previous employer
For an employee hired this year who worked elsewhere earlier in the year:
- Open the employee and go to Previous employer and earlier pay this year.
- Choose Previous employer (BIR 2316) and enter the figures from their 2316. (Choose This company, before Sahora for your own pay before the move, if you didn't import it.)
- Click Add record.
Run both systems side by side
During your first cut-offs on Sahora, compare it with your current payroll:
- Compute the period in Sahora.
- On the payroll page, open Compare with your current payroll.
- Click Download the template and fill in what your current register shows (gross and net pay at least).
- Click Upload and compare.
You see Employees that match, Employees with differences, Only in your current payroll and Only in Sahora, item by item. Choose how close counts as a match, and click an employee to see how Sahora computed each line. A new upload replaces the earlier one.
Good to know
- Opening loans and leave balances have their own import types: Opening loans and deductions and Opening leave balances.
- Previous payroll can be imported only for pay dates up to Payroll history up to; otherwise the check says so.
- Imported history payrolls are approved as usual, even in a company whose first payroll waits for an owner-level person (see Your first payroll and the owner-level rule).
- Importing previous payroll is for Owner / Management.