How do I process payroll for employees with Director Fees?

This article aims to assist you in processing employees that earn a Directors’ Fee on WorkForce Payroll, which will then be reported on the employees’ FS3s and yearly FS7.

Directors Fee (Honorarium) is the remuneration that a person acting as an Executive or Non-Executive Director earns during his employment. An Executive Director has, in many cases, a salary to which this honorarium is topped up. A Non-Executive director usually only earns the honorarium.

The remuneration can also be paid to the director in his capacity as Chairman of the board of directors

To add a Director fee you need to:

  • Step 1: Click the ‘Is a Director’ checkbox
  • Step 2: Adding Director Fees (Directly on the payrun or through Fixed Payroll Data)
  • Step 3: How Director Fees are shown on FSS reports?

Step 1: Click the ‘Is a Director’ checkbox

Irrespective of whether the director is an executive director or a non-executive director, the ‘Is a Director’ check box must be ticked for each employee who will receive a Directors’ Fee.

This can be done by opening the employee from the Employee List, going on the ‘Employment Details’ tab, and clicking the ‘Is a Director’ checkbox. Then, click on Save.

'Is a Director' checkbox
‘Is a Director’ checkbox

Step 2: Adding Director Fees

The Director Fees adjustments can be applied to a pay run in WorkForce Payroll by using one of 2 methods:

  • Method 1: Manually on a per run basis, and for every employee/director
  • Method 2: Through updating employee data, using Fixed Payroll Data

Method 1: Manually on a per run basis, and for every employee/director

Note:  This method is required per employee per pay run

A new field Director Fees has been added into the Pre-Tax Additions tabs in the payroll calculations section as shown below.

Adding Director Fees on a per run basis
Adding Director Fees on a per run basis

Method 2: Through updating employee data, using Fixed Payroll Data

Note:  This method requires updates to be made to every employee’s data only once.

Director Fees (as well as all other Fixed Payroll Data) require a Start Run Number and Start Year. The End Run Number and End Year can be later updated to any future pay run. 

The amount inserted will be added to the employee as a pre-tax addition in each pay run until an End Run Number and End Year have been inserted by the user.

Adding Director Fees through Fixed Payroll Data
Adding Director Fees through Fixed Payroll Data

Alternatively, the user is free to add a future dated (once a year or quarterly) Director Fee as shown in the examples below:

Example 1: A Director Fee which will be processed in Run 12 of 2021 only

An example of a Director Fee processed in Pay run 12 of 2021
An example of a Director Fee processed in Pay run 12 of 2021

Example 2: A Director Fee which will be processed quarterly in 2021 (Runs 2, 6, 9, and 12 only)

An example of Director Fees processed quarterly
An example of Director Fees processed quarterly

Note: If the Start and End have been processed and finalized, the user cannot update or delete a Fixed Payroll Data. As shown in Example 2, the user can only update or delete the fourth Fixed Payroll Data because the first three are included in finalized pay runs. Should you like to make updates, or delete the Fixed Payroll Data, kindly undo your finalized pay runs until the date of the Start of the particular field.

Note: We have also added a new field as a pre-tax deduction: ‘Director Fees Counter Entry’. This field can be used if you are introducing the Director Fee in the middle of the year and would like to add the Director Fees that the employee has received so far to show these in the FS3 and FS7. For example, I am currently in a pay run 7 and would like to add the Director Fee that the employee received from the beginning of the year. The way around this is to add the Director Fees to date in the ‘Director Fee’ field as a pre-tax addition, and the same amount as a ‘Director Fees Counter Entry’. As a result, the net pay for July has not been affected. From the next pay run onwards, the user can add a ‘Director Fees’ Fixed Payroll Data to show on every pay run accordingly.

The 'Director Fees Counter Entry' pre-tax deduction field
The ‘Director Fees Counter Entry’ pre-tax deduction field

Step 3: How Director Fees are shown on FSS Reports?

Employees’ FS3s

The below is an example of an employee who has an annual salary and received monthly/quarterly/year-end Director Fee/s.

An example of an FS3 with Gross Emoluments and Director Fees
An example of an FS3 with Gross Emoluments and Director Fees

The below is an example of an employee who only receives Director Fees

Ax example of an FS3 with Director Fees only
Ax example of an FS3 with Director Fees only

Yearly FS7

Yearly FS7
Yearly FS7

To search for more information on how to use WorkForce, please visit: https://workforce.com.mt/documentation/