How to Create Payroll Streams Using Streamflow
Welcome to Streamflow
Streaming payments on Streamflow are an efficient, easy to use, and secure way of payroll management.
Streamflow payroll streams come up with unique and configurable features that bring a ton of benefits for both the employer and the employees. It saves you time and money by making the whole payroll system bankless and paperless, you only need a decentralized wallet account, funds, and the wallet addresses of employees to set up payroll streams.
Complete data of payroll management is securely recorded on the blockchain. Receiving the salary in real-time can be a significant benefit to the recipient.
Let’s go through a step-by-step process of setting up payroll streams using Streamflow.
Step 1: Connect the wallet
Firstly, you need to visit the Streamflow app via the following URL:
You will have to connect the wallet to start using the app. Streamflow supports multiple wallet providers like Phantom, Solfare, Slope, and Sollet. Make sure to have some SOL balance in your wallet for transaction fees. We recommend having at least 0.02 SOL in the account. After connecting the wallet, you will have to switch to the ‘Streams’ page for creating a payroll stream.
Step 2: Stream amount and release rate
Now you will need to specify the total amount that you want to lock into the payroll stream, you can also top-up a live stream to add more funds later on. You can choose any SPL token of your choice for the stream and enter the amount to be streamed in the given tab.
Release frequency will determine how often salary will be unlocked and the release amount is the number of tokens that will be released at the set frequency. Let’s try to understand this with an example.
Let’s say an employee’s weekly salary is 700 USDC, either you can choose the old school way of releasing 700 USDC at the end of each week by setting the release frequency to one week and the release amount to 700 USDC, or you can proportionally breakdown the total salary amount into smaller amounts and release that in smaller time units like X number of seconds, minutes, hours, and days.
To stream the 700 USDC weekly salary in almost real-time, you will need to set the release rate to 0.0011574074 USDC and release frequency to one second as shown in the screenshot.
Step 3: Title and recipient address
You can name the payroll stream by typing a subject or title in the given tab. The recipient’s Solana SPL wallet address can be entered in the recipient account tab. It is strongly recommended to only use a non-custodial wallet address for the recipient. In case you want to stream salary to a centralized exchange SPL wallet address, make sure to turn on the automatic withdrawal.
Step 4: Start time/date and automatic withdrawal
You can choose the start time and date of the payroll stream from the respective tabs.
Automatic withdrawal is a very handy feature as it lets you automate the transfer of unlocked tokens into the recipient’s wallet at the set frequency. If an automatic withdrawal is enabled, the recipient does not need to connect the wallet to Streamflow to withdraw the salary. The frequency of auto withdrawal can be chosen in the form of different time units.
Step 5: Cancel & transfer authorization and referral address
You can choose who gets the authority to cancel or transfer the payroll stream from the sender and recipient. You need to toggle on the advanced option to open up the authorization menu and referral tab.
In case you were referred by someone, you can paste the wallet address of the referrer and a small portion of the charged fees will be rewarded to the referrer.
Step 6: Create the payroll stream
You are now all set to go live with your stream. An overview tab will show you a summary of the parameters of your payroll stream. Just click on the create button and confirm the transaction on a wallet pop-up.
Managing the live payroll streams
On the sender’s end, you will be able to see the unlocked amount being updated in real-time as well as some additional information about the progress of your payroll stream.
You will be able to cancel the stream or transfer it to a different address assuming the sender has been authorized to cancel or transfer the stream. You are also going to see a top-up option to add more funds to the live stream.
On the sender’s end, a live payroll stream appears as shown below:
Please keep in mind that if you cancel the stream, just the locked amount is returned to the sender and the unlocked amount is automatically withdrawn into the recipient’s wallet.
In case you transfer the stream to a new address, it gets transferred to the new recipient including the locked amount as well as the unlocked amount that has not been withdrawn by the previous recipient.
On the recipient’s end, a live payroll stream appears as shown below:
The recipient will be able to withdraw the unlocked amount at any point in time. If an automatic withdrawal is enabled, the unlocked amount is automatically withdrawn into the recipient’s wallet. In case the sender has authorized the recipient to cancel and transfer the stream, the recipient will also get an option to cancel or transfer the payroll stream.
How to top-up a payroll stream
The sender can also add more funds to the live payroll stream using the top-up option. Just click on the top-up button to enter the amount you want to add to the payroll stream and confirm the transaction in your wallet.
Once you top up a stream, the end time and date of the payroll stream will be extended accordingly. Please keep in mind that you only get to top-up the stream before the expiration of the payroll stream.
The following screenshot shows the extension of the end time and date after the top-up. The total stream amount has also been updated.
How to transfer a payroll stream
In case a recipient would like to have a new wallet address to receive the remaining stream, the sender/recipient can transfer the stream assuming they have been authorized to transfer the stream. Just click on the transfer button, paste the new recipient address, and confirm the transfer instruction on the wallet pop-up.
Let’s say a payroll stream has already released 59 USDC out of 700 USDC and the unlocked amount has not been withdrawn. If the stream is transferred at this point, the complete stream gets transferred to the new recipient address with the locked amount as well as the unlocked amount of 59 USDC. This means all the unlocked tokens that are not withdrawn will be transferred. As a recipient, please check if you want to withdraw the unlocked amount before transferring the payroll stream.
Conclusion
You are now all set to take full advantage of the Streamflow payroll streams. Streamflow will continuously innovate to add new features to its existing products as well as expand its product suite. In case you run into any problem or have some more questions, feel free to reach out to the team on the Streamflow discord channel. Stay tuned for more updates!
Create a payroll stream today: app.streamflow.finance
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