Turn on payroll

The Payroll module calculates your employees’ pay every month, at the year’s official Swiss rates. It creates the payslips, the payment file for your bank, the salary entry and, at year-end, the salary certificates.

Before you start

• You must be the company’s Administrator. Other users see the message Only your company’s administrator can switch this module on or off.
• Your subscription must be active.
• The module is made for small businesses, with one to about twenty employees.

To Bill is not Swissdec-certified

To Bill calculates the payroll and prepares the figures, but sends nothing to the social insurance funds. You still file the returns yourself: the OASI (AHV) statement, the report to the accident insurer, the withholding tax at source statement, statistics. You file them on each fund’s portal, with the figures To Bill prepares.

Turn on the module

1. Open Settings › Modules.

2. On the Payroll card, click Switch on (1).

   

3. The Payroll menu appears in the sidebar, after Payments, for you and for the people who have the right to see salaries.

Set up payroll

The first time, the Payroll page shows Set up the payroll (2): three steps, only once.

1. Your insurance contracts. Click Enter the insurances and copy the rates from your contracts: OASI compensation fund, family allowances, accident insurance, pension fund. See Enter your insurance.
2. Your employees. Click Add an employee for each person you pay. See Add an employee.
3. The first payroll. The New payroll button appears as soon as the first two steps are done. See Run the month’s payroll.

Did your year start with other software?

For each employee, enter the year-to-date totals from the previous software (Figures carried over). They keep the unemployment insurance and accident insurance ceilings right. See Add an employee.

Who sees salaries

Salaries are the company’s most personal data. By default, only the Administrator role has access to them:

Permission	What it allows
Payroll · View	See the payrolls, payslips and employees, with OASI (AHV) numbers and IBANs in full; every view is written to the access log.
Payroll · Manage	Everything else: employees, insurance, payrolls, payment files, certificates, access log.

The other roles have none of these permissions. To give them to a specific person, an administrator opens Users, edits the person and ticks the permission under Permissions.

What To Bill does, and what it does not do

To Bill does	You do, outside To Bill
Calculates OASI/DI/IC (AHV/IV/EO), unemployment insurance (ALV/AC), accident insurance (UVG), daily sickness allowance (KTG), occupational pension (BVG) and family allowances, at the year’s official rates and your contracts’ rates	Send the statements and returns to the funds (no Swissdec transmission)
Withholds tax at source at the rate you enter from the cantonal tariff	Find that rate in the tariff, file the withholding tax at source statement with the canton
Creates the payslips and the pain.001 payment file	Upload the file to your e-banking and sign it
Prepares the salary certificates (Form 11) and the annual summaries	Give the certificates to the employees, send copies to the cantons that ask for them
Books the salary entry, if the accounts are kept in To Bill

Turn off the module

In Settings › Modules, click Switch off on the Payroll card, then confirm. The Payroll menu disappears for the whole team. Nothing is deleted: your employees, payrolls and payslips reappear if you turn the module on again.

As long as a payroll is in draft, the module cannot be turned off: “The … payroll is in progress” is shown. Finalise it or delete it first.

Legal basis

• The employer gives the employee a written salary statement: Art. 323b para. 1 CO.
• Payslips, like other accounting vouchers, are kept for ten years: Art. 958f CO. Once finalised, a payroll no longer changes.
• The OASI (AHV) number must be protected by technical and organisational measures, with limited access: Art. 153d AHVG, the Federal Act on Old-Age and Survivors’ Insurance (German version: fedlex has no English one). To Bill stores it encrypted, shows it only to the people with payroll access and writes every view to the access log.