# Payroll settings

**People** → **Settings** (**Payroll settings**) has five sections, listed down the left side in this order: **Periods**, **Numbering**, **Delivery**, **Line presets**, **Fields**. Each section has its own address, `/m/payroll/settings/{section}` (for example `/m/payroll/settings/presets`); `/m/payroll/settings` on its own opens **Periods**.

**Periods** and **Delivery** have no Save button of their own: as soon as you change a field, the bar with **Save** and **Discard changes** appears at the bottom of the screen, the same as in [workspace settings](/docs/workspace/settings#saving-changes). **Numbering**, **Line presets** and **Fields** save each change on the spot.

## Periods

The **Pay periods** box sets how often you pay and the defaults every payslip starts from.

| Setting | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| Pay period | **Monthly**, **Every four weeks** or **Weekly**. Fixed once a pay run exists, see below. |
| First period starts on | Only for weekly and four-weekly pay, and required for them: periods count from this date in blocks of 7 or 28 days. Monthly periods always run from the first to the last day of the month. |
| Holiday pay rate (%) | Reserved on top of gross earnings (expense allowances left out), usually 8% (the default). An employee's own **Holiday pay rate (%)** overrides it. |
| Holiday pay is paid in | A month, or **By hand (add a payout line)** (the default). See [Holiday pay](/docs/payroll/pay-runs#holiday-pay). |
| Default hours per week | 40 unless you change it. Prefills **Hours per week** when you add a new employee; existing employees and payslips keep their own hours. |

Period names follow the pay period: `2026-10` (monthly), `2026-P11` (the eleventh four-week period ending in 2026), `2026-W43` (ISO week 43). Changes apply to pay runs you create or recalculate afterwards.

**Pay period** and **First period starts on** are fixed once your first pay run exists, draft or finalized: the fields are disabled with "Fixed once a pay run exists, so periods never overlap." A new cadence or start date would create periods that overlap ones already paid, and would change what **Salary per period** means for every employee. To change them before any run is finalized, delete the draft run first.

## Numbering

**Payslip numbering**: payslips get a number from this series when a pay run is finalized.

- **Number series**: pick a series, or **Default payslip series**. The choice is saved as soon as you pick it (**Payslip series saved**).
- Below it you can add and edit payslip series, the same way as the series under [Numbering](/docs/workspace/settings#number-series) in the workspace settings.

With the default, Borkol creates a payslip series the first time you finalize a run: numbers like `LS2026-0001`, starting again every year.

## Delivery

**Email delivery** sets the account and the text used when payslips are sent by email.

| Setting | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| Send from | One of your [email accounts](/docs/workspace/email), or **Default sender**: your default email account, or Borkol's own mailer when you have none. |
| Subject | The subject line. Empty means the default, "Payslip {period}" in your document language. |
| Message | The text of the mail. Empty means a short default message in your document language. |

Subject and message can hold three placeholders: `{period}` (the period name, for example `2026-10`), `{employee}` (the employee's first and last name) and `{company}` (your business name as printed on the payslip). The payslip PDF is always attached.

## Line presets

**Line presets** are lines added to every draft payslip, for everyone or for one employee: a lease car, a pension contribution, a fixed allowance. Click **Add preset** and fill in **Add preset**:

| Field | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| Employee | Leave it on **All employees**, or pick one employee (type to search). |
| Section | **Earnings**, **Deductions**, **Reservations** or **Employer contributions**. |
| Type | The kind of line, for example **Pension contribution (employee)**, **Expense allowance** or **Other**. Salary, hours worked and holiday pay lines are calculated by Borkol and cannot be presets. |
| Description | The text printed on the payslip. |
| Value | **Fixed amount** with an **Amount**, or **Percentage of gross** with a **Percentage**. |
| Order | Presets with a lower number come first on the payslip. |
| Active | Only active presets are added. |

A percentage is taken of the payslip's earnings: the salary or hours, the fixed earnings presets and earnings lines you added, without the holiday pay payout, without expense allowances and without other percentage presets.

The list shows **Description**, **Applies to**, **Section**, **Value** and an **Active** switch you can flip in the row; edit or delete a preset from the **⋯** menu. Changes reach draft payslips the next time the run is recalculated or finalized. Deleting a preset ("Draft payslips lose the line at the next recalculation. Finalized payslips keep it.") never touches finalized payslips. A preset line you changed by hand on a payslip keeps your amount.

## Fields

**Employee fields** are extra fields on every employee, such as a department, a cost centre or a lease car plate. You define and order them the same way as [custom fields on contacts](/docs/customers/custom-fields); they appear in the **Custom fields** box of every employee. Deleting a field also removes every employee's value for it, and cannot be undone.