Your Questions, Answered Honestly

"Do I need to provide food or lunch for my worker?"

No. You are legally required to give a meal break - usually after 5 hours of work - but providing food is not required by law. If you choose to provide meals, you cannot deduct money for them and they do not count as wages.

"Do I need to pay for transport or taxi money?"

No. Transport assistance is optional. You are not required to pay taxi fare, petrol, or any travel costs. However, if you agree to it in writing or provide it consistently over time, it can become a condition of employment that you cannot remove without your worker's agreement.

"Is COIDA required for domestic workers?"

Yes. Since a 2020 Constitutional Court ruling, domestic workers are protected under COIDA (Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act). As an employer, you must register with the Compensation Fund. If your worker is injured on the job and you are not registered, you may be personally liable for medical costs and compensation.

"What is the difference between UIF and COIDA?"

UIF (Unemployment Insurance Fund) provides short-term income relief if a worker loses their job, cannot work due to illness, or goes on maternity leave. COIDA covers workplace injuries and diseases. They are completely separate obligations and you need both.

"If I give something like transport money regularly, does it become legally required?"

Yes, it can. If you consistently provide something over time - even informally - it may be treated as a condition of employment. The safest approach is to note any extras in the contract as discretionary and revocable. SA Wages Pro contract templates include optional benefit clauses for exactly this.

"I don't understand UIF, COIDA, or any of this legal stuff"

You don't need to. SA Wages Pro calculates and tracks everything automatically. Just enter your employee's details - we handle the rest. Every acronym is explained in plain language inside the app.

"What if I can't afford it?"

Plans start at R29/month - less than a cup of coffee a day. Compare that to a R100,000 COIDA fine or a CCMA award of 12 months' salary. The question isn't whether you can afford it - it's whether you can afford not to.

"Is this actually legal and correct?"

Every document, calculation, and process follows current South African labour law. We update automatically when laws change. All contracts and letters are reviewed for legal compliance.

"What if my employee takes me to CCMA?"

We track every payment, warning, and interaction. Download a complete evidence pack in one click - payslips, timeline, and commissioner summary. Most employers who lose at CCMA simply didn't have records.

"Do you support farm workers?"

Yes. The Agri Add-On supports farm workers (SD13) and seasonal workers with piece-rate harvest logging, minimum wage top-ups, rain-day calculations, and SD13-compliant payslips. It is available as an optional add-on for R199/month.

"What is the Agri Add-On?"

The Agri Add-On is an optional feature pack for farms and seasonal labour operations. It includes piece-rate logging, rain-day calculations, seasonal rehire, farm perks tracking, and a separate agri worker pool of up to 100 workers. Top-ups are available for larger teams.

"How much does the Agri Add-On cost?"

R199/month. This includes up to 100 farm and seasonal workers. Top-ups are available: +25 workers for R50, +50 workers for R100, or +100 workers for R150. The Agri Add-On requires a Lite Business, Business, or Professional base plan.

"Can I mix domestic and farm workers?"

Yes. On the Agri Add-On the two are counted separately: domestic and business workers in your standard plan pool, farm and seasonal workers in their own agri pool, and the two are independent. Enterprise works differently - it has a single allowance of 1,000 workers covering farm, seasonal and office staff together.

"What if I have more than 100 farm workers?"

The Enterprise plan is R959/month, or R9,590 billed annually, and includes up to 1,000 workers in total - farm, seasonal and office staff combined - with every feature from the Agri and Professional plans. Past 1,000 workers you can add more at R1.50 per worker per month, in packs of 100, 250 or 500. Paying annually saves about 17% - two months free.

"Do farm workers count toward my normal plan?"

On the Agri Add-On, no - farm and seasonal workers have their own separate pool, and your domestic and business worker limits are unchanged. On Enterprise they do count together: that plan has one allowance of 1,000 workers covering everybody, so office staff come out of the same 1,000 as your farm workers.

"Do you support piece-rate harvesting?"

Yes. The Agri Add-On includes a piece-rate harvest logger where you can record daily output in kilograms, crates, baskets, rows, or any custom unit. SD13 minimum wage top-ups are calculated automatically.

"Are Agri payslips SD13 compliant?"

Yes. Payslips for farm and seasonal workers include piece-rate earnings, minimum wage top-ups, rain-day pay, farm perks, and deductions, all compliant with Sectoral Determination 13.

"What are Quick Actions?"

Quick Actions is your one-stop hub for common tasks. Generate a payslip, add a loan, record leave, log an advance, issue a warning, or run a calculator - all from one searchable page without navigating away. Actions marked “Quick” run entirely inline.

"Can I generate contracts automatically?"

Yes. The smart contract generator is a 3-step wizard: pick a contract type, fill in the details (most fields are pre-filled from the employee’s profile), then review and download the PDF. We support 8 contract types including domestic worker, part-time, fixed-term, and seasonal.

"What is the grace period?"

If a payment fails, your account enters a 48-hour grace period. During this time you can still view your data in read-only mode but cannot create new records. If payment is resolved within the grace period, full access is restored immediately.

"What happens when the grace period expires?"

If the grace period expires without payment, your account is paused. You can still log in to view and export existing data, but all write actions are blocked until payment is resolved.

"What is data retention?"

After a subscription is cancelled or expires, your data is retained for 6 months in read-only mode. This allows you to export records. After the retention period, personal data is anonymised in accordance with POPIA.

"What happens to my data after cancellation?"

When you cancel, you keep full access until the end of your paid billing period. After that, your data enters a 6-month retention window where you can view and export records in read-only mode. After 6 months, data is anonymised.

"What is read-only mode?"

Read-only mode allows you to log in, view your existing data, and export records, but blocks creating, editing, or deleting employees, payslips, and other records. It applies during the grace period, after cancellation, and during data retention.