User Guide: Human Resources & Payroll on GTG CRM

What You Will Be Able to Do After This Guide

For businesses that have enabled Payroll: review and adjust the legal figures (rates, thresholds, tax brackets) to match your situation → add employees → draft employment contracts with AI → run the monthly payroll → review and finalize payroll → view payroll journal entries automatically posted to the general ledger → send payslips to employees. The entire HR and payroll process, within the same system as sales and accounting.

Not yet familiar with the feature overview? Read the HR Management & Payroll article first.

Before You Start

1. Log in to GTG CRM with HR Manager permissions for HR / Payroll. — Adjusting the data set and finalizing payroll are actions performed by the HR manager.

2. Have a Chart of Accounts set up in Accounting. — So that payroll expense entries can be posted to the general ledger. The Chart of Accounts must include an active account 3382 (Trade Union Fund). The Vietnamese account set based on Circular 99 and Circular 200 that GTG provides already includes it; if you create or import your own account set, check this before finalizing payroll.

3. Know the country that applies to your business. — So you can select the correct payroll data set. Currently, full payroll accounting is available for Vietnam (enter VN); other countries are being prepared.

Step 1 — Before Enabling Payroll: Consult with GTG

You can start right away with employee profiles and employment contracts (Steps 3 to 5). For the monthly payroll calculation (Steps 2 and 6 to 9), before enabling Payroll in Settings, message the GTG team so you can review the legal figures for your country together.

Step 2 — Review & Adjust the Payroll Data Set (Optional but Recommended)

1. In Payroll Settings, open the list of legal items (social insurance rates, thresholds, personal income tax brackets, caps, etc.).
2. Each item displays the default figure from GTG, so you know where your changes start from.
3. Click Edit on an item, enter the value that matches your actual situation, then click Save.
4. Want to revert to the figure provided by GTG? Click Reset to default.

✅ Expected result: The value you adjusted is saved and will be used for the next payroll period; the Reset to default button restores the item to the GTG figure. All changes are recorded in the Payroll Settings activity log (who changed it, and from which value to which value).

💡 Tip: If you're not sure, simply keep the GTG defaults — these are the default figures provided by GTG. You (or your accountant) can adjust them at any time when the law changes or your situation differs.

Step 3 — Add Employees

1. Go to HR → Employees and click to add an employee.
2. Fill in basic information (full name, job title, department, national ID/passport, etc.).

✅ Expected result: The employee appears in the list with a complete profile.

💡 Already have an employee list in Excel? Use bulk import via CSV to bring in your whole team in just a few minutes.

Step 4 — Create Employment Contracts & Draft with AI

1. Open the employee profile → create a Labor Contract (contract type, term, base salary, allowances).
2. Click Generate with AI to produce a standard labor contract document (company branding inserted automatically) — or upload the signed version.

✅ Expected result: A labor contract document (DOCX/PDF) is attached to the employee.

Step 5 — Activate the contract

1. On the contract, click Activate.

✅ Expected result: The contract is in effect; each employee has only one active contract at any given time.

Entered the wrong contract type or date? Go to HR → Employees, click the + icon on the employee's row, then click Edit on the contract (both draft and active contracts can be edited). Change the Type, Start date, or End date, then click Save. Clearing the end date makes the contract open-ended. Salary and allowances cannot be changed here and are not displayed to users without salary-viewing permissions. The contract type and end date also determine the personal income tax (PIT) quarterly filings, so only edit them if you entered them incorrectly. If the contract is actually a probationary contract or is under 3 months, leave it as is (see the end of Step 7).

Step 6 — Create the monthly payroll

1. Go to HR → Payroll Periods and create a payroll period for the month.
2. The system calculates Gross pay → Social/Health/Unemployment insurance → Personal income tax (PIT) → Net pay for each employee, based on the data set (adjusted in Step 2).

✅ Expected result: The payroll table displays the gross pay, insurance deductions, taxes, and net pay columns for each employee.

Created a payroll by mistake? While the payroll is in Draft or Calculated status, open it, click Cancel Draft Payroll, and confirm. Cancelling creates no accounting entries, and the payroll changes to Cancelled status. To rerun that month, create the payroll for that month again: the cancelled payroll is reopened as a draft. This is done manually by the payroll manager; no automation does it for you. If the accountant cannot cancel it, ask the payroll manager. Finalized payrolls (Step 7) cannot be cancelled, because finalizing posts to the general ledger and cannot be reversed.

Step 7 — Review & finalize payroll

1. Review the figures; add off-cycle payments or bonuses if needed.
2. Click Finalize Payroll.

✅ Expected result: The payroll changes to finalized status; the system automatically generates the payroll expense journal entry.

ℹ️ First time on a new workspace: the payroll cost line for office and management staff (Salaries — office & management) has no account yet and shows Account selection required. GTG CRM does not choose which cost account this salary belongs to; your accountant decides. If the payroll has amounts that need to be posted to the ledger, the payroll can still be finalized, but the journal entry is not recorded and the payroll shows Pending ledger posting (payrolls with no amounts to post are not held). To post to the ledger, go to Automation → Your Workflows, open the workflow Record payroll to ledger (the list may show the English name Record payroll to ledger), click the journal entry creation step (the step card shows the name Create Journal Entry), select an account for the Salaries — office & management line, and click Save. Then open the workflow's Run Details, click Rerun this run on the run that has not been posted to the ledger, and confirm Rerun. The person selecting the account needs accounting permissions to change accounting rules. From later payroll periods, GTG CRM will reuse the account you selected.

Record the payment date. In the finalized payroll (HR → Payroll Periods), in the Payment date field, select Paid on and enter the date the company actually transferred the salaries, not the date you clicked Finalize & post. If it has not been paid yet, select Unpaid as of and then choose a date: until that date, the payroll is still unpaid, so this amount falls into a later quarter. GTG CRM does not fill in this field automatically. The quarterly personal income tax return (05/KK-TNCN, which GTG CRM prepares starting Q3 2026) includes salaries in the quarter of this payment date, so if a payroll has no payment date, you cannot export that quarter's return. GTG CRM cannot prepare returns for quarters involving probationary employees, contracts under 3 months, or salaries paid after the contract has ended; prepare those on HTKK instead. For instructions, see Accounting & E-Invoicing, Step 10b.

Step 8 — View the automatic payroll journal entry in the general ledger

1. Open Accounting → General Ledger / Journal Entries.

✅ Expected result: There is a balanced journal entry for the payroll cost (Debit salary expense / Credit payable to employees 334 + social insurance and union fund contributions 3382). Personal income tax is recorded separately when it arises. If the payroll still shows Pending ledger posting, this entry does not exist yet. It will appear after you select an account and rerun, as described in Step 7.

Step 9 — Send payslips to employees

1. From the finalized payroll, send the payslip to each employee.

✅ Expected result: Employees receive the payslip email from your company's own mailbox address.

Quick reference for expected results

Select a country data set — The list of statutory items for that country appears

Edit a rate and click Save — Future payroll periods use your value; the change is recorded in the log

Click Reset to default — The item returns to the rate provided by GTG

Create a monthly payroll — Gross salary, deductions, tax, and net pay columns for each person

Finalize payroll — Automatically generates the salary expense journal entry in the general ledger (new workspace: after accounting selects an account for the office salary line; before that, the payroll shows Pending ledger posting)

Cancel draft payroll — The payroll is switched to Cancelled, with no journal entries created

Record the pay date — The Pay Date field shows the date you selected; the quarterly personal income tax (PIT) return uses this date

Notes

• You control the figures: The default personal relief (GTG) is provided by the system, but the final value used to calculate salaries is up to you. Please review it when the law changes or when your business circumstances change.
• Payroll data is sensitive: Only users with permission to view salaries can see salary, bank, and tax information; the system logs who has viewed it.
• Country: Enter VN; currently only Vietnam posts payroll to the general ledger, while other countries are still being prepared.