Payroll is the one job that cannot slip: staff are paid on time, and four agencies expect the right figures. This checklist follows a month from cut-off to filing. Rates and rules change, so it points you to the agencies’ own pages rather than quoting every table.
Before you run payroll
- Update your staff list: joiners, leavers, salary changes, allowances, overtime and bonuses.
- Confirm each person’s status. Contributions differ for Malaysians and non-citizens, so record who is which.
- Close attendance and leave for the month, so nobody is paid for days they were absent.
Calculate
- EPF. Both the employer’s and the employee’s share go to EPF. Use the rates in KWSP’s Third Schedule, which depend on the wage and the employee’s age and status.
- SOCSO and EIS. PERKESO currently caps contribution rates at an assumed monthly salary of RM6,000. It states that EIS is 0.4% of that assumed monthly salary, with 0.2% paid by the employer and 0.2% deducted from the employee.
- PCB. Monthly income tax deductions follow LHDN’s schedule for each employee.
- HRDF. If your business is covered, add the levy.
Pay
- Check each payslip against the last one and investigate large swings.
- Pay salaries, ideally by a bank payment file, not by keying each transfer.
- Send payslips.
File
- Each agency has its own deadline. KWSP states that employers must pay EPF contributions by the 15th of the following month, and that late payment can be fined. If the 15th falls on a weekend or public holiday, payment on the next working day is not charged a late payment fee.
- Put all four agencies’ deadlines in one calendar, and confirm each date on the agency’s own site.
- Keep the forms and files you submit, with proof of payment.
Reconcile and keep
- Match the payroll total to what the ledger shows for salaries, EPF, SOCSO, EIS and PCB.
- Keep payslips, forms and submissions for the period your accountant advises.
- At year end, expect the annual forms, such as Form EA.
Foreign workers
Contributions for non-citizen employees follow their own rules, and they have changed in recent years. KWSP publishes a page for employers of non-Malaysian citizen employees. Check it before you set a foreign worker up.
How software helps
E Stream states that SQL Payroll calculates EPF, SOCSO, EIS, PCB and HRDF at the latest contribution rates and produces the statutory forms, including EPF Borang A, SOCSO Borang 8A, PCB CP39 and EIS Lampiran 1. It supports bank payment files for more than 25 Malaysian banks, and it integrates with SQL Accounting. It prepares the files, but you or your accountant still submit them through each agency’s portal. We show you the payroll cycle in a demo, on your own kind of team.