- What do I do if I want to use payslip stationery?
- How do I pay expenses such as travel or mileage?
- I have just realised that one of my employee's pay is wrong for a previous period. Can I do anything about that?
- Why does the system pay for a full week or month if an employee starts or leaves during the week or month?
- Why does the software still pay full wages for people who are sick or absent for maternity leave?
- When I pay an employee SSP why does the system take it away again with an equal deduction?
- Why are some or all of my employees not being paid?
- Why is the button for moving on to the next period greyed out?
- Why are company names limited to 35 characters?
- Why isn't the system paying anything for an SSP/SMP/SAP/SPP absence?
- Why do some of my employee names appear in red on the navigator?
- Why can't I see all of the payment and deduction codes in the dropdown box on the Pay tab?
- I've just started the system. How do I use it in 2008/09 rather than 2007/08?
What do I do if I want to use payslip stationery?
Many 12Pay users like the convenience of the smart copier paper payslips that we print as standard.
But you can select stationery payslips on the "Reporting" tab of the payroll if you have a Premium Licence. Select one of the many stationery styles from the "Payslip Style" dropdown box. RS34 is a selfseal mailer, for example.
You can buy the blanks for those payslips here...
When printing them make sure that you select "Page Scaling" of "None" in the Adobe print dialog.
Top
How do I pay expenses such as travel or mileage?
You can create any number of your own payment or deduction codes for this kind of requirement. The following screenshots show a code being created that can be used to pay mileage @35p/mile:
Note that the boxes for Taxable, NI-able, and Pensionable are not ticked, but the boxes for Standard payment and Variable payment are ticked. This allows this payment/deduction code to be applied either on the employee's Pay tab as a regular payment, or on the employe's "this period" tab as a one off.
To pay miles at 35p a mile enter the number of miles in the Units box on the employee payment tab when making a payment, or leave the units blank and just enter a value in the Pay box when making the payment.
In this instance we've also ticked the Hours/Rate/Pay box on the advanced tab. This means that when there are units and a rate they will be shown on the payslips as well as the actual calculated payment.
Top
I have just realised that one of my employee's pay is wrong for a previous period. Can I do anything about that?
We encourage people to think of the button to advance to next period as final. That is good practice and you should try to avoid going back and altering things.
But in fact there are several options. Here is one of them. (You will need a Premium or Bureau Licence for this)
- Go the employee's PAYE tab and find the PAYE P11 line in the spreadsheet at the top of the form that you would like to go back to. Right click on that line (ie click it with the right mouse button) and a context menu will appear.
- Select the "Rewind to Redo dd/mm/yy" option on the context menu, to go back to redo that line, and all the other lines since then.
- You'll be asked to confirm that you really want to do this once for each period that you're removing.
- Now the employee has had their recent P11 and payslip data completely removed so you need to recalculate that period for them.
- You will find that the employee is also in a new payroll on their own, dated in the week/month that you moved back to.
- Enter the employee's pay/hours etc for the period that you are re-doing, just as if you were doing it for the first time. They're on their own in this new payroll so you can calculate, print payslips, etc, without any danger of affecting other employees.
- Once you're happy with the employees revised pay advance the new payroll as normal to the next period.
- Repeat the last two steps until either (a) the employee has caught up with the other employees in their normal payroll or (b) you've given them all the payments that you want to give them.
- A new button will be visible on the employee's "PAYE" tab, labelled, "Return". Click that button and the employee will automatically be returned to their normal payroll, where they can once again continue to be paid as usual.
- The new payroll that was created when you rewound the employee at the start of the process is now empty. The system will automatically remove it next time you use the software.
Top
Why does the system pay for a full week or month if an employee starts or leaves during the week or month?
The payroll software does not know your company policy when people work part months. So what you need to do is either enter a deduction on the employee's current period tab, or alter their pay at the bottom of their main tab (with their name on it) for one period. You do have the option of ticking the "Part Pay Part Periods" box when setting a payment up on the employee's "Pay" tab, in which case the software will use its own formula for calculating the value of part weeks or months.
Top
Why does the software still pay full wages for people who are sick or absent for maternity leave?
The software does not know your company policy when employees are absent. If you want to deduct pay when people are away you should do it yourself by entering a deduction (a negative payment) on their period payments tab. You do have the option of ticking the "Part Pay Part Periods" box when setting a payment up on the employee's "Pay" tab, in which case the software will use its own formula for calculating the value of part weeks or months.
Top
When I pay an employee SSP why does the system take it away again with an equal deduction?
Many employers continue to pay their employees when they are sick. So the software has an option to pay SSP, but then deduct it again on a different code so that the company can reclaim a portion of the SSP from HMRC but the employee doesn't get paid twice.
If you don't pay your employee when they are away you need to switch off the deduction, which you do by unticking the "Offset SSP" box on the Advanced tab of the payroll maintenance form. In that case you will still need to enter an appropriate deduction for the employee for the days they were away, because the the software doesn't know how much to deduct for sick days.
Top
Why are some or all of my employees not being paid?
There are several reasons why employees might not be paid. For example they might not have joined the company until after the current pay period ends. If you want to see a summary of the employees in a payroll with reasons why any of them aren't being paid you can click the "Status" box in the middle-right of the payroll form. This will list the reasons why any employees didn't get paid.
Top
Why is the button for moving on to the next period greyed out?
Every time you alter anything on any employee the system will expect that employee to require recalculation. So the "Calculate" button will light up again, and the buttons for printing reports and advancing to the next period will be unavailable.
So in that situation press the calculation button, check that ALL of the employees are now being correctly paid for the current period, and then press the button to advance to the next period.
Top
Why are company names limited to 35 characters?
Company names are limited to 35 characters when submitting data to HMRC. Other fields in the software are also limited, such as employee names and addresses. We enforce these rules in the software all the time to minimise the chance of trouble at year end when the time comes to submit returns to HMRC.
Top
Why isn't the system paying anything for an SSP/SMP/SAP/SPP absence?
There are many reasons why such absences may not attract a payment. If you want to find out the system's reasoning you can click on the absence line on the employee's absence tab, and then select "Edit Absence" or "View Absence". The form that appears will show you the reason why the employee is not currently payable for the absence. Perhaps this will prompt you to supply more information in which case the absence may become payable next time the employee is calculated.
Top
Why do some of my employee names appear in red on the navigator?
Employees who have left appear in red so that you can identify them easily. If they haven't yet had a P45 printed they appear in bright red; once you have accepted a P45 for them the red becomes much softer.
Top
Why can't I see all of the payment and deduction codes in the dropdown box on the Pay tab?
The Pay tab is for making regular payments, every week or month. Some of the payment and deduction codes aren't suitable for regular payments. You should use the Week n/Month n tab on the employee form when making payments for this period only, such as bonus or commission.
Top
I've just started the system. How do I use it in the current year rather than 2009/10?
Versions to 1.4.8 start in 09/10 as standard, because we expect that many new users of the software will still be bringing last year up to date in time to submit their P14/P35 for last year. If you want 08/09 then just alter the Period Ends On date on the payroll form to the actual week/month that you want to pay. This date will be disabled if you've already accidentally calculated pay in the old year, in which case press the button on the form to restart the current period, then alter the Period Ends On date which should now be enabled.
Top