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Import payslips

Andrew Garbett
Updated
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This help guide will take you through everything related to the payslip importer.

 

Contents

 

What is the Ciphr Payslip Importer?

  • The Ciphr Payslip Importer is an optional utility module that provides the functionality to upload payslips, P60s and P11Ds to the Personal Documents page within the Ciphr HR system via an upload facility
  • For customers that do not access ePayslips, online payslips or payslips via a separate portal provided by the payroll provider, or where the process is to email or print off payslips, the Ciphr Payslip Importer can be installed provided there is a Ciphr Paylink configured in the HR system. It provides a secure alternative method for employees to access and download their payslip documents without the need to login to other systems, portals, or print them

Paylink e-learning available

For detailed, interactive learning on Paylink, check out Ciphr Academy.

⚠ Important: To ensure access via SSO please log in to the Academy via your HR system first.

Once logged in, you can access the e-learning here: Processing Ciphr Paylink.

 

The format of payslips

  • The formatting of the payslips is specific to Ciphr, so discussions should be held with the payroll team or provider to ascertain whether the payslips can be produced with file names and in the right format. The responsibility for this remains with the customer
  • The file should be saved as a PDF format with the following filename:
    • PPPP-EEEE-YYYYMMDD
    • Where PPPP = the Ciphr Paylink code / reference*
    • Where EEEE = the employee number held in Ciphr HR**
    • Where YYYYMMDD = the date of the payslip

Notes

Typically, the ‘Code’ will be a number like 001 or M01, and it can be found in the following location:

  • Latest (left-hand) menu: Payroll > Paylink Configuration > Paylink Configuration
  • Pre 2025 (top) menu: System > Payroll Configuration > Payroll Configuration

The Ciphr Paylink code would typically have been set when the Ciphr Paylink was configured as part of the implementation project and it could be a combination of letters and/or numbers. If multiple payrolls have been configured, they will all have their own unique code/reference number.

The employee number is found in:

  • Latest (left-hand) menu: Personal > Personal Details > Employment Details
  • Pre 2025 (top) menu: Personal Data > Personal Information > Personal Details > Employment Details

  • The length of the employee number, and also whether it contains any alpha characters will need to be saved into the payslip filename exactly with no additional characters or spaces. This is so that when the payslip is imported it finds an exact match.
  • Where the customer has employees that might have secondary or tertiary roles which is common in particular sectors such as education settings, if the additional roles are using the same employee number this will cause a conflict when trying to import the payslips because the routine will not be able to select automatically which record to attach the payslip within the Personal Documents area.
  • In such cases, it is recommended to consider creating additional payrolls within Ciphr HR and moving those secondary or tertiary records onto separate payrolls with their own unique payroll ‘Codes’. This will mean that the HR or Payroll Team(s) will be required to run multiple Paylink workflows each month which will generate separate .csv files and reports, but it will then facilitate more than one payslip to be uploaded to the system via the import routine. There cannot be any duplicate employee numbers on one payroll ‘Code” when utilising the Ciphr Payslip Importer. Nor should any previously used employee numbers be reused for current staff.
Note: You can control whether the system will Allow Duplicate Employee Numbers in System Settings > System Settings (first tab).

 

The format of P60s or P11Ds

Should the customer be required to upload either P60 or P11Ds to the system in addition to the standard payslips, the naming convention of these PDF files should be as follows:

  • P60-PPPP-EEEE-YYYYMMDD
  • P11D-PPPP-EEEE-YYYYMMDD

 

Step 1 – access to the Ciphr SFTP site

  • Ciphr HR System Administrator Licence holders should have access to the SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) site which is the secure portal used to transmit files between Ciphr and the customer. Typically access would have been provided during the data import phase of the implementation project where the import templates would have been shared between both parties in preparation for the data to be loaded in Ciphr HR
  • In addition, when the Ciphr Paylink was configured, access would typically have been provided to the separate “Ciphr Paylink” folder on the SFTP site which is a second main folder within the file structure
  • Users can check if they have access to this separate folder by logging in to the
    SFTP site

                                 

  • Within the Paylink folder should be a separate sub-folder called ‘CompanyRefpayslips’ where the company reference is your organisation reference code, followed by ‘payslips’. The screenshot below is an example, but the format of the folder will usually be ‘XXXXXXpayslips’

                            

 

Step 2 – uploading payslips to the folder

  • Assuming that access has been successful to the “Paylink” folder on the SFTP site, the next step would be to create a sub-folder within the XXXXXXpayslips folder with the naming convention of PPP-YYYYMMDD, so for example, M01-20221130
  • Once this folder has been created, the user can then move or copy the required payslips into this folder retaining their PDF format and naming conventions previously described
  • Each PDF has the Employee Number between the Paylink Code and date to create their unique file name

  • The user can also upload P60s and P11Ds to the sub-folder using their naming conventions
  • Next, return to the Ciphr HR system and move to Step 3
Note: The sub-folders within the ‘payslips’ main folder structure need to be created each and every time more payslips are ready to be imported. Typically, for a monthly payroll, the payslips would be uploaded to this sub-folder once per month but it can sometimes be more often if required.

 

Step 3 – importing the payslips

  • Once the payslips have all successfully been loaded into the correct sub-folder on the SFTP site, the user can navigate to the following page in Ciphr HR:
    • Latest (left-hand) menu: Payroll > Import Payslips
    • Pre 2025 (top) menu: People Admin > Payroll Admin > Payslip Importer
  • There are two tabs visible on this screen. “On Demand” and “History”.
  • The On Demand tab will show the folders from the SFTP site with the number of documents which should match the number of payslips that have been saved to that location. The user can decide to leave the system to upload the payslips in an overnight batch process or alternatively can select to Import the payslips now
  • Any errors or warnings will be displayed. Typically, an error might be that the filename of one of the payslips does not match exactly with the employee number for example. If the import has been successful a pop up message will be displayed
  • A History tab also displays a list of previous imports
  • Once the Payslips have been successfully uploaded to each employee’s Personal Documents folder, in the SFTP site the associated Payslip folder(s) will move into a separate folder called Processed. This is to eliminate the risk of payslips being uploaded more than once

 

To view payslips

  • Users can check against an employee record in the following area: 
    • Latest (left-hand) menu: Personal > Personal Documents > filter on category called “Payslips” 
    • Pre 2025 (top) menu: Documents > Personal Documents > filter on category called “Payslips” 
  • If the payslips are not visible the user should check that their security profile provides them access to the “Pay” field groups and that the documents page is visible etc. Please refer to the related help guide on setting the security around Personal Documents.
  • Typically, a suitable Personal Document Category will already be visible as standard in Ciphr HR in the following area that can be used for the ‘Payslips’:
    • Latest (left-hand) menu: Personal > Personal Information Configuration > Personal Document Categories Configuration
    • Pre 2025 (top) menu: System > Document Configuration > Personal Document Categories.
  • Check that the Payslips Document Category has appropriate security access for employees and usually not for the employee’s line manager

 

Issues or errors

  • After the process has completed, the user can view the issues or errors associated with the upload through the Payslip Importer. If there are any errors in the import, the original payslip file will remain in the SFTP site sub-folder
  • Once any errors have been corrected, the payslip can be resubmitted for upload via the SFTP site but this time by creating and using a sub-folder with a different name, so for example:
    • PPPP-YYYYMMDD-2
  • This new folder will then be displayed with the Ciphr HR Payslip Importer page and again, show the number of documents ready to import

Note: Payrolls and Employee Numbers

  • Payslips, P60s and P11Ds are matched to employees based on the employee’s
    Payroll Code and employee number
  • You should not change an employee's Payroll Code or employee number until after
    the last payroll's payslips have been uploaded
  • You should also use sequential employee numbers, ie do not reuse old employee numbers

 

HR security – page access

HR or Payroll users need to ensure that they have the appropriate access to the HR Import Payslips/Payslip Importer page within the system and also have overall permission to be able to upload / view all payslips. For more information on page access please refer to the linked guide.

 

Multi-entity limitations

  • Whilst the Payslip Importer functionality can support the upload of payslips across multiple payrolls; eg monthly and weekly payrolls, or primary and secondary (records) payrolls, where the naming conventions for each one are unique, there is a limitation for customers who have a Multi-Entity setup within HR and associated security profiles for HR or Payroll users where there might be restrictions on what records can be viewed
  • For example, there could be a scenario whereby HR or Payroll in the UK only have security permissions to see UK employees and payslips but not a different country forming part of the same overall organisation. The Ciphr Paylink can support payrolls for both UK and other countries. However, there is only one root payslip folder on the SFTP site per customer. This means that if HR or Payroll in the UK upload the UK payslips only, the same folder will have been used by the HR or Payroll Teams in the other location where they will also have placed their payslips ready for import. In this scenario, it would be worth considering a user(s) that can have overall permissions to see all records in the Ciphr HR system across all entities / countries for example so that all payslips can be loaded via the one SFTP folder
     

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