TropicHR

Getting Started

Set up your company profile, territories and currency before you run your first payroll.

Follow these steps in order the first time you set up a tenant. Each links to the screen where you’ll do the work.

1. Set up your Company Profile

Go to Company → Company Profile and enter your legal name, trading name and registered address. Then choose:

  • Operating territories — every country you run payroll in. This controls which statutory rules, ID formats and reports are available to you.
  • Home currency — the currency your payroll amounts are recorded in by default.

The Company Profile page shows a readiness indicator for each operating territory, listing any registrations still missing before payroll can run there.

USD as a secondary currency

By default every employer runs on its home currency only. If you also want to offer USD — for a USD-denominated funding account, for example — go to Admin → Settings and set a USD conversion rate (home-currency units per 1 USD). Once set, USD becomes available alongside your home currency and each operating territory’s currency. Clear the rate at any time to withdraw USD again.

2. Add tax registrations

On the Tax registrations tab of Company Profile, add the employer registration numbers required for each territory you operate in — for example Jamaica’s TAJ and NIS employer numbers, or Trinidad’s BIR and NIBTT numbers. A territory is not “ready” for payroll until all of its required registrations are on file.

3. Configure payroll policies

In Admin → Settings, set your overtime premium multiplier (the multiple of the ordinary hourly rate paid for overtime hours — 1.5 means time-and-a-half). This applies company-wide to hourly employees on timesheet-driven pay groups.

4. Add funding bank accounts

On the Bank accounts tab of Company Profile, add the account(s) payroll is debited from. You need one funding account per currency you’ll disburse in; the first account added for a currency becomes its primary and is used as the default debit source for that currency’s payment files.

5. Create your pay groups

Go to Payroll → Pay Groups and create a pay group for each distinct pay frequency and territory (for example, “Jamaica – Monthly”). Creating a pay group generates its upcoming pay periods automatically. Turn on timesheet mode for a pay group if its employees are paid from approved timesheet hours rather than a fixed salary.

6. Add your employees

Go to People → Employees to add employees directly, or People → Onboarding to track new hires through to their first pay run. Each employee record captures their pay rate or salary, FTE, statutory identification numbers, bank account and pay elements (allowances, deductions, loans).

Once your company is ready in at least one territory, funding accounts and pay groups are in place, and your employees are added, you’re ready to run your first pay run — see Running Payroll.