The household book

What the record does for each side

A nanny, cleaner, or gardener employed by the home is an employee. A plumbing, electrical, appliance, or handyman company is a supplier. HousePay keeps both in one household, and it keeps them apart.

The employer

The employer opens the household in the country where the work is done. That choice sets the wage floor, the payslip checks, and the right-to-work prompt. South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States are the countries loaded today.

People are registered with a role, a start date, and a wage the household types in. The wage is the household's own figure. HousePay keeps it when it sits on or above the statutory floor. A wage under that floor can still be stored. The payslip for that person stays a draft, and the Pay action stays hidden, until the wage is raised to the floor. Attendance, casual work, maintenance, the contract, and the spend report continue.

Each day is one row: worked, annual leave, sick, family responsibility, or absent. Ordinary minutes, overtime, Sunday work, and public holidays stay in separate buckets where the country uses them. The payslip is built from those days and the agreed wage.

The signed employment contract is a PDF stored on the person. It can be replaced, and it can be opened again. Right to work is a document the household attaches. A missing or expired permission blocks the issue of that person's payslip. A name is never used to guess nationality or status.

Payment is logged with a date and a proof file. The payslip is issued when the proof covers the net and the draft is allowed to issue. The household's own bank still moves the money.

Spend for the month adds paid wages, casual jobs, and maintenance as they occur, beside one monthly budget. The year view repeats that monthly budget across the twelve months and compares the year with twelve times the budget. Opening a category shows the people, the casual workers, or the maintenance companies side by side, and the work they did. A repair that returns to the same place, such as a fridge or a washing machine, shows how many times it has been repaired and the total spent. The record stops there. It does not name a replacement price.

The employee

The employee can be shown a payslip for the period. Ordinary pay, overtime, Sunday pay, and public-holiday pay are listed where that market records them, then the gross, the contribution the worker bears, and the net.

In South Africa the payslip also shows the tax year to date, from 1 March to the end of February, up to and including that payslip. Earlier drafts are left out. Issued payslips stay in. Annual leave accrued in that tax year is one day for every 17 days worked, and the days of annual leave taken are shown beside it.

An IRP5 record can be opened for a South African employee for a year of assessment. Income is source code 3601 and the employee's UIF is source code 4141, both summed from issued payslips whose period ends inside that year. The household's own UIF is shown beside them and is not given an income code. Employees' tax is left for the household. The certificate says so, and it is a household record rather than a SARS eFiling upload.

The employee can come from any country. The household picks that country from the full list, and the country code is filled from the choice. Wage rules stay with the country of the work. A foreign worker's visa, permit, share code, or Form I-9 is stored as the household records it.

A casual worker is named on the job, with the date, the hours, the rate, and what was done. Once the job is saved, it stays on the household as a row the employer can open: the spend and the description together.

What both can use

• A payslip that shows the period, and in South Africa the tax year running through that payslip.
• Proof of payment kept with the wage it covers.
• The signed contract PDF, stored and openable.
• A right-to-work file with a reference and, when it has one, an end date.
• A written trail of days, so leave and absence are visible later.
• Device reminders for dates the household has set.

Repairs are household spend

A maintenance company is a supplier. The cost is household spend. It does not receive a payslip, and it does not go through UIF, National Insurance, or payroll tax. The job keeps the trade, the place in the house, what was done, the invoice, the proof, and the warranty. After it is logged, the maintenance screen shows a short summary. The invoice and the rest of the file open when that job is chosen.

Personal repairs to the home are not deducted from income tax in South Africa, the United Kingdom, or the United States. The UAE does not tax a household on this repair. The point at which the invoice file needs to be fuller is set out in each country guide.

What stays outside the record

HousePay records the wage. The household pays it. Employees' tax, including PAYE, is not calculated in any of the four countries. In the United Kingdom the payslip warns until an HMRC tax code is on the contract. In the United Arab Emirates no Cabinet formula for end-of-service gratuity is loaded, so no number of days is invented. In the United States a state or city minimum is not guessed when no state is stored. The payslip says that a higher local floor may apply.

The detailed rules are in the labour guides. The October 2026 briefing is in Labour Notes.