How do I manage pay items?¶

Pay items are the building blocks of every pay — earnings such as ordinary hours, overtime, leave and allowances, and deductions such as salary sacrifice. The Payroll → Pay Items page lists the ones your business uses, grouped under headings like Ordinary Wages, Leave, Salary Sacrifice, FBT, Allowance and Deductions.

Items that come built in with myaccountant show a small padlock next to their name. Items you've added yourself don't.

Adding a pay item¶

Step 1. Go to Payroll → Pay Items and click Add Pay Item.

Step 2. In the Pay Item dropdown, choose an item from the catalogue. The list is grouped the same way as the page, and once you pick one you'll see whether it's an Earning or a Deduction, plus a short description.

Step 3. (Optional) Give it a Custom Name — leave it blank to use the default name.

Step 4. Click Add Pay Item. The item appears in its group, ready to use in pay runs.

What the switches mean¶

Each pay item shows a row of indicators. When you edit an item (pencil icon), these become switches you can turn on or off:

Tax — tax is withheld on amounts paid with this item.
Super — amounts paid with this item are included when the employee's super is calculated. (Earnings only.)
QE — the item counts towards the Qualifying Earnings figure reported to the ATO. (Earnings only.)
Deductible — the item is treated as tax deductible.
Active — whether the item can be added to an employee's pay.

Click the green tick to save your changes, or the ✕ to cancel.

Changing Super or QE asks you to confirm. Because these switches affect the super the system calculates and what's reported to the ATO, flipping either one shows a confirmation first. The change applies from the next finalised pay run — it doesn't rewrite past pay runs.

Deactivating and reactivating¶

To retire a pay item without losing it, edit it and turn Active off. The item stays on the Pay Items page (so you can reactivate it later), but it no longer appears when adding pay items to an employee's pay in a pay run. Existing pay runs aren't changed.

Deleting a pay item¶

Click the trash icon on the item's row, then confirm in the Delete pay item? dialog. Deleting is permanent and can't be undone.

If the item has ever been used in a pay run, it can't be deleted — you'll see "Cannot delete a pay item that has been used in a pay run." Deactivate it instead.

Where pay items show up in a pay run¶

Open a Draft pay run and click an employee to open their pay. Their existing pay item lines are listed with editable hours and amounts, and the Add Pay Item button opens the Add Pay Items dialog — a list of every active pay item that isn't already on their pay, showing each item's name, code and category. Tick the ones you want and add them.

The Payment Types tab¶

The Pay Items page has a second tab, Payment Types, which lists the full underlying catalogue of payment types. It's a reference list — the Tax, Super and Deductible settings for your business are managed on the Pay Items tab.

Understand the concepts (Academy):

Which pay item category do I use?

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