Skip to main content

Payroll in Roubler – Overview for Payroll Administrators

Audience

This article is for payroll administrators, payroll managers, and finance users in the UK, South Africa, and Singapore who:

  • Use Roubler to manage timesheets, leave and expenses and run pay runs.
  • Either pay employees directly from Employment Hero / KeyPay payroll, or

  • Run pay in Roubler, then export pay‑run summaries and upload them into SimplePay or Payspace.

Before you start

  1. Confirm your payroll setup

    Your Roubler account will be using one of these patterns:

    • Direct Employment Hero / KeyPay payroll

      • Roubler and Employment Hero share a payroll engine; pay runs, tax, and statutory reporting are completed inside Employment Hero/KeyPay.

    • Roubler with external payroll (SimplePay or Payspace)
      • You run the full pay run in Roubler, then export pay‑run summaries and upload them into SimplePay or Payspace.
      • SimplePay/Payspace then handle local tax and statutory submissions based on that uploaded data.
  2. Confirm your permissions

    • Your permission group should include, where used:

      • Authorize Timesheets for Payroll – to sign off timesheets as ready for payroll.
      • Payroll Management – to commit timesheets/pay runs and generate exports.

  3. Upstream data is ready

    Before each pay run, ensure:

    • Timesheets are in the correct status (e.g. up to Payrolled for the period) with no unresolved exceptions.

    • Leave and expenses are approved and mapped to valid pay items in payroll (and accounting, where relevant).

  4. Know your downstream outputs
    • Who generates and reviews:
      • Payment files for the bank.

      • Journals into accounting (e.g. Xero from Employment Hero/KeyPay).

How Payroll works in Roubler

At a high level, Roubler:

  1. Collects and validates worked time (timesheets), leave taken, and expenses.

  2. Uses its payroll engine (Employment Hero/KeyPay) to cost and calculate pay from that data.

  3. Depending on your setup:
    • Either completes the pay run directly in Employment Hero/KeyPay, or
    • Produces export files for SimplePay or Payspace.

1. Common preparation steps

For every pay period:

  1. Timesheets
    • In Time & Attendance / Timesheets, ensure all relevant timesheets for the period are:

      • Completed → Approved (by line manager) → Authorized / Committed / Payrolled (by payroll), per your internal workflow.

    • Fix:
      • Missing clocks / unassociated shifts.

      • Obvious errors in start/finish/breaks or location/work type.

  2. Leave
    • Check that leave to be paid this period:
      • Is fully Approved.
      • Appears as leave timesheets or leave entries to be included in the pay run.

    • Where leave balances come from the payroll engine (e.g. Employment Hero), remember they update after pay runs are processed.

  3. Expenses
    • Confirm Payroll → Expenses is cleared for the period:
      • Approved claims to be reimbursed in this pay run.

      • No unresolved issues (e.g. missing mapping, missing tax codes in the payroll engine).

How Payroll differs by payroll engine

1. Employment Hero / KeyPay – direct payroll

For accounts using Employment Hero / KeyPay as the payroll engine:

In Roubler / Employment Hero

  1. Create or open the pay run in Employment Hero/KeyPay.
  2. Import data from Roubler:
    • Timesheets (including leave timesheets).

    • Expenses, where configured.

  3. Review and adjust:
    • Hours, rates, overtime and other pay conditions.

    • Pensions and statutory deductions as configured in Employment Hero (UK/SG context).

  4. Finalise the pay run:

    • Generate payment files and statutory submissions (e.g. RTI to HMRC in the UK).

Key points

  • If an employee’s timesheets or expenses do not appear in the pay run:
    • Check that they’re properly authorised in Roubler.

    • Confirm the Roubler employee is linked to the correct active Employment Hero profile (not a terminated one).

  • If the pay run will not finalise (e.g. spinner for a long time), capture details (business, pay run ID, time of day) and escalate via your internal Roubler/Employment Hero contacts.

2. Roubler + SimplePay – export and upload

For customers using SimplePay as the payroll system of record:

  1. Create the pay run in Roubler
    • Use Roubler to:
      • Add a new pay run.
      • From Timesheets screen add the relevant timesheets to the pay run.

      • Open the pay run, review and finalise the pay run.

  2. Export pay‑run summaries
    • From the completed pay run in Roubler/Employment Hero, export the pay‑run summary/report format your business uses for SimplePay (for example: CSV or other supported layout capturing earnings, tax, and contributions).
  3. Upload to SimplePay
    • Log in to SimplePay.
    • Go to Employees> Bulk Actions >Payroll inputs > Clocking System Import
    • Select the pay frequency, set the file format to Roubler, upload the Roubler Pay run summaries file.
    • Review and reconcile figures in SimplePay.
    • Complete filings and payments from SimplePay as required by local legislation (e.g. SARS in South Africa).

Key points

  • Roubler is your calculation engine; SimplePay is your statutory and payment engine fed by the exported summary.
  • If SimplePay totals don’t match, check:
    • The correct Roubler export file was uploaded.
    • Mappings from Roubler earnings/codes to SimplePay items are correct.

3. Roubler + Payspace – export and upload

For customers using Payspace as the payroll system of record:

  1. Run the pay in Roubler
    • As with SimplePay:
      • Complete the pay run in Roubler/Employment Hero using authorised timesheets, leave, and expenses.
  2. Export pay‑run summaries
    • Export the pay‑run summary from Roubler/Employment Hero in a format accepted by Payspace.
  3. Upload to Payspace
    • Log in to Payspace.
    • Import the Roubler pay‑run file for the correct company and period.
    • Review, reconcile, and finalise the Payspace pay run, including any local statutory submissions (e.g. in South Africa).

Key points

  • Again, Roubler provides the detailed breakdown; Payspace becomes the official ledger used for compliance and statutory reporting.
  • If upload fails or values don’t align, check:
    • File format and column mapping.
    • That the Payspace period and company match those used in Roubler.

Frequently asked questions and troubleshooting

1. “Some employees are missing from the pay run in Employment Hero/KeyPay.”

Check:

  • The employee has authorised/committed timesheets in Roubler for the period.

  • Their Employment Hero payroll profile is active and correctly linked to the Roubler profile (not to an old, terminated profile).

  • They are included in that business and pay period in Employment Hero.

If timesheets still won’t import, you may need to:

  • Ask your internal technical admin to have Roubler Support unlink/relink the employee mapping; then re‑sync and re‑export timesheets.

2. “Leave in Roubler doesn’t match what payroll shows.”

  • For Employment Hero / KeyPay:
    • Only leave that has generated a leave timesheet and been added to a pay run will update payroll balances.

    • Check which leave timesheets have actually been pay‑run processed; incomplete processing will cause discrepancies.

  • For SimplePay / Payspace:
    • Treat the external payroll system as the source of truth for leave balances if you are not syncing them automatically.
    • Ensure any differences between Roubler’s calculated pay and the external system’s leave tracking are understood and adjusted via normal reconciliation.

3. “Expenses are causing errors in the pay run.”

If your pay run shows an error like “select an expense tax code”:

  • This normally means the expense pay item in the payroll engine has no tax/VAT code configured, so the pay run cannot finalise.

Fix in the payroll engine (not in Roubler):

  1. For each relevant expense pay item, assign an appropriate default tax/VAT code.

  2. Refresh or recreate the pay run so the new defaults apply, then reimport expenses.

4. “Exported totals don’t match what SimplePay/Payspace show after upload.”

Check:

  • You exported from the correct pay run and period in Roubler.
  • No manual edits were made in SimplePay/Payspace that would change totals after upload.
  • Your mapping of earnings/allowances/deductions from Roubler to each external payroll code is correct.

If mismatches persist, do a spot check on one employee:

  • Compare their Roubler pay‑run details vs. SimplePay/Payspace after upload.
  • Adjust mapping or make manual corrections in the external payroll as per your internal policy.

Who to contact for help

  1. Internal payroll / HR / finance
    • For:
      • Interpreting local tax and statutory rules (UK, South Africa, Singapore).

      • Deciding how to handle adjustments, back pay, and reconciliation between Roubler and external payroll systems.

  2. Internal Roubler/system administrator or IT
    • For:
      • Issues with employee mappings, permissions, locations, timesheets, leave, or expenses.

      • Helping configure or maintain the export formats and code mappings used for SimplePay or Payspace.

  3. Payroll engine vendors (Employment Hero/KeyPay, SimplePay, Payspace)
    • For:

      • Pure payroll‑engine questions (e.g. HMRC/SARS/CPF submissions, pension/tax configuration, errors inside the engine UI).

  4. Roubler / MYOB Support

    • Contacted by authorised admins only, when:

      • Pay‑run data from Roubler isn’t behaving as documented (e.g. missing or duplicated employees, broken exports).
      • Mappings between Roubler and Employment Hero/KeyPay need technical changes.

When escalating (internally or to Roubler Support), include:

  • Company name and region (UK / South Africa / Singapore).
  • Payroll pattern (direct Employment Hero/KeyPay vs. export to SimplePay/Payspace).
  • Pay period and pay run ID.
  • Example employee(s) with:
    • Screenshots from Roubler (timesheets/leave/expenses and pay‑run details).
    • Screenshots or files from the external payroll system (after upload).

This context makes it easier to identify whether the issue is in Roubler, the export file, or the external payroll system, and to resolve it quickly.