I built a free payslip generator for South African small employers.
Not a US or UK template.
Not a signup wall.
Not one of those tools that lets you fill in half a payslip and then asks you to create an account.
A working browser app.
You can use it here: Free South African Payslip Generator.
It captures the employer profile, the workers, the pay period, earnings and deductions, hours and rates. It covers the payslip information required by Section 33 of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act. It calculates UIF when you enable it — 1% employee plus 1% employer, with the SARS monthly UIFable-income ceiling. It produces a clean A4 payslip you can save as PDF and send via WhatsApp.
No signup. No cloud account. Your employee personal data stays in your browser.
That is the point.
Why I Built It
Not every South African employer is ready for full payroll software.
Sometimes you just hired a domestic worker and you need to give her a payslip — a real one, the kind that satisfies a labour question or a SASSA application or a loan officer.
Sometimes you run a spaza shop and your staff need a payslip to apply for an RDP or a loan, and the template you found online is for the United States.
Sometimes you are a bookkeeper looking after two micro clients, and paying R200 per month per client for SimplePay or Sage stops making sense at that scale.
Sometimes you are an accountant, and you are explaining BCEA Section 33 to a first-time employer for the third time this month, and you wish you could send them somewhere useful.
That stage of being an employer is real. It is also the stage where most "free" tools online either lock you behind a signup or hand you a US template that bears no resemblance to a South African payslip.
So I built something for that stage.
What Goes On a South African Payslip
The Basic Conditions of Employment Act, Section 33, sets the minimum payslip information employers must give to workers each time they are paid:
- The employer's name and address.
- The employee's name and occupation.
- The period for which the payment is made.
- The employee's remuneration in money (gross pay).
- The amount and purpose of any deduction made.
- The actual amount paid to the employee (net pay).
Where relevant to the calculation, the payslip must also show ordinary hours worked, overtime hours, Sunday and public holiday hours, the rate of pay, and the overtime rate.
The free generator is built around those fields.
What the Free Payslip App Does
It handles:
- Employer profile (name, address, registration, UIF reference).
- Saved workers (reusable across pay periods).
- Pay period, payment date, frequency (weekly, fortnightly, monthly, hourly).
- Earnings — basic, plus added lines (allowances, bonuses, etc).
- Deductions — labelled with the purpose, as BCEA requires.
- UIF calculation, when enabled — 1% employee plus 1% employer, capped at the SARS monthly UIFable-income ceiling.
- A UIF Reports tab summarising contributions per period for record-keeping.
- A live A4 preview that matches what prints.
- PDF download via your browser's print dialog.
- A WhatsApp-ready share message.
- A Backup tab that exports your employer profile, saved workers and saved payslips as a JSON file you can re-import later or on another device.
- A demo workspace pre-loaded with fictional spaza-shop sample data, so you can see how it works without touching your live records.
That last one matters more than it sounds. The demo workspace is a separate area. Anything you do in demo mode stays in the demo workspace. Your real records are not affected.
UIF, In Plain Terms
Many small employers know UIF exists and are unsure of the rate. The current rate is 1% from the employee plus 1% from the employer, on the employee's UIFable income, capped at a monthly UIFable-income ceiling set by SARS / the Department of Employment and Labour.
When you tick the UIF box on a payslip, the tool does the calculation for you and shows it on the payslip and in the UIF Reports tab. It does not file the UIF declaration. It does not submit EMP201 or UI-19. Those stay with you, your bookkeeper, or your accountant.
I would rather say that clearly than imply the tool does more than it does.
What It Does Not Do
PAYE is not auto-calculated. PAYE depends on tax tables, deduction certificates, and the employee's tax status. If you owe PAYE, you enter the amount yourself, label it, and the payslip lists it correctly.
It does not file UIF, EMP201, IRP5 or any other statutory return.
It is not legal, tax, payroll, UIF, SARS or labour advice.
It does not enforce sectoral determinations. Domestic workers, farm workers and contract cleaners have sector-specific minimum wages and hours rules. The tool will produce the payslip you specify; you remain responsible for sectoral compliance.
It is a payslip generator, not a payroll engine.
Where Your Data Is Stored
Employee names, ID numbers, salaries and bank details are sensitive. The tool stores everything in your browser using IndexedDB and localStorage. Nothing about your workers is uploaded to a server.
That is useful, especially if you are POPIA-conscious. It also has a tradeoff: if you clear browser data, switch devices, or use private browsing, your saved records can be lost.
That is why the Backup tab matters.
Export a JSON backup after each payday. Especially before changing devices or clearing browser data. The same backup file imports back into the tool on another device.
Local control is useful. It also means backups are your responsibility.
I would rather flag that than hide it in fine print.
Who This Is Built For
- Micro businesses paying one to a handful of staff.
- Spaza shop owners paying one to five staff.
- Small farms paying farm workers and seasonal staff.
- Domestic employers paying a domestic worker, gardener, nanny or au pair.
- Small contractors paying casual or piece workers.
- Bookkeepers and accountants who handle a couple of micro-employer clients and need something better than a Word template.
- First-time employers who just want to do this correctly.
When the Free Tool Is Enough
When you are paying a small number of people, your earnings and deductions are straightforward, and you keep regular backups, the free tool is enough.
You get a clean payslip. The information items required by BCEA Section 33 are present. UIF is calculated when relevant. The PDF is professional. The data does not leave your device.
When the Free Tool Is Not Enough
When you grow past two or three employees, when you need staff self-service, when statutory submissions (UI-19, EMP201, IRP5) become a monthly job, when leave tracking starts to matter, when you need an audit trail for finance or labour reviews, when you need multi-user access or sync across devices — that is when you have outgrown a browser tool.
That is when a real payroll system makes sense. Either off-the-shelf payroll software, or — if your business has unusual workflows — a custom payroll application built around the platform you already use.
That is the work I do for businesses that have outgrown a browser-only tool.
Use It
The tool is here:
Free South African Payslip Generator
It is free. It is not a trial. It will stay free.
If it helps you, share it with one small employer who needs it.
If you have outgrown it, get in touch.
Built in Cape Town by Anton de Villiers — the developer behind BX1X.