Payroll software is a software to compute employee’s salary based on their basic income, overtime with other allowances & deductions. And the payroll software must able to compute the income tax details at the end of the year and monthly provident fund contributions, etc…

In Singapore there are few mandatory monthly contribution must be made to relevant departments like CPF (Central Provident Fund), FWL (Foreign Workers Levy), SDL (Skill Development Fund) CDAC, SINDA, MBMF.

CPF: This fund is management by a Singapore government body called Central Provident Fund. The objective is, to provide retirement income & housing options to the Singapore Citizens & residents. This CPF amount varies depends on the employee’s income & age. There are different set of percentage set by the CPF board to calculate the employee’s & employer’s portion.

It is mandatory that the employee must deduct the employee’s contribution from their salary and must send it to the CPF board together with the employer contribution before 14th of the every next month. It is a basis function that any Singapore payroll software should able to compute the CPF details as per CPF board regulation and should have the online facility to send it the CPF board directly.

SDL : This SDL (Skill Development Levy) is contributed by the employer only. Currently 0.25% of the employee’s salary up to S$4,500 must be contributed by the employer. This fund is managed to provide quality training to the Singapore employee’s workforce. Now the government is offering up to 90% subsidy to the qualified skill & training programmes. The payroll software should have the capable to calculate and should have the online facility to send the details to the CPF board.

CDAC, SINDA, MBMF: these are the community funds independently managed by the relevant ethnic organisations. Singapore government makes it mandatory that the entire employee’s must contribute to the respective organisations. The employer should deduct the relevant ethnic funds and must contribute to the CPF board every month. So the payroll software should have the option to calculate and online facility to contribute to the CPF board.

IR8A : It is a employer’s duty to send the employee’s yearly income to the IRAS (Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore). And the IRAS make it mandatory that the entire Singapore employer’s should contribute it via online method called Auto Inclusion. So the payroll software should able to combine the whole year’s employee’s income and should able to print out the IR8A forms which can be given to the employee’s for their reference. And the payroll software should have the Auto Inclusion online facility to send the income details directly to IRAS.

In addition to that good payroll software should have the option to print out the payslip. It must clearly show the employee’s basic salary, allowances, deductions and CPF & other ethnic fund deductions. At the end the payslip should have the net salary for the months and option to view the Year to Date details as well.