The worst time to discover you have no backup
A crashed server, a stolen laptop or a ransomware attack tends to reveal the state of your backups at the worst possible moment — usually just before a payroll run or a SARS deadline. If your payroll data is gone and there’s no clean backup to restore, the situation feels hopeless. It isn’t. Payroll can almost always be rebuilt from the evidence that survives elsewhere.
Your payroll leaves a trail — even when the system is gone
Payroll data is unusually recoverable because the same figures exist in more than one place. Before assuming the worst, gather whatever you can find:
- Bank statements showing the net amounts actually paid to each employee.
- Previously issued payslips — PDFs, printouts or emailed copies.
- SARS submissions and reconciliations (EMP201s and any EMP501) showing PAYE, UIF and SDL totals.
- UIF declarations and any IRP5/IT3(a) certificates already issued.
- Employment contracts and increase letters confirming salaries and changes.
- Older backups, exports or spreadsheets — even partial ones are useful.
Between these sources, the actual earnings, deductions and net pay for each period can usually be reconstructed with confidence.
How the recapture is rebuilt
The work is methodical. Each employee’s pay is reconstructed period by period, then checked against two anchors: the amounts that actually left your bank account, and the totals you reported to SARS. Because those anchors are fixed, there’s a definitive endpoint — when the rebuilt figures agree with both, you know the recapture is correct rather than merely plausible.
The result is a clean payroll inside Sage Pastel Payroll & HR, with year-to-date figures and leave balances restored, ready to carry forward and ready to reconcile.
What we’d ask you for
To rebuild your payroll we’d typically need the actual amounts paid per employee per period (bank statements are ideal), any surviving payslips or exports, your SARS submission totals, and confirmation of each employee’s package. The more of this you can supply, the faster and more accurate the recapture.
And afterwards: never again
Once your payroll is restored, the priority is making sure a single failure can never wipe it out again. That means regular, automated backups kept in more than one location — including off-site or cloud — and an occasional test restore to confirm the backups actually work. A recapture is a chance to rebuild not just the data, but the habits that protect it.
Need this handled for you? Gray Consulting recaptures and reconstructs payroll inside Sage Pastel Payroll & HR — remotely, accurately, and to your deadline. See our payroll recapture service or get in touch.