Catherine,

Enter 28.5 hours for this period for the employee at their normal rate.

Then enter their sicknesses on the "Absence" tab of the employee, using the "Add Absence" button. Create one absence with a "From date" when the sickness started and a "to date" when it ends (or the end of the month). You'll then automatically get the correct amount of SSP for the employee, and the system will automatically do any SSP Recovery available from HMRC.

Edit the absence that is already there, and change its "to date" to the last day of the new month.

Don't add another new absence when an absence continues on from a previous one. If you have already added one then click on it and delete it.

£300 sounds about right.

Your P32 will show you if you can claim the SSP back when you run it after the end of the month. It knows the rules, which are quite complex.

Hard to guess, but probably at some stage you've pressed the "Restart Month" button on the payroll either by accident or misunderstanding what it does.

Try going to the payroll and just doing a calculate and running the mass-payslips and payroll reports from there. You don't need to calculate each employee individually.