Why are leavers appearing on my Quick Report?
Go to the Quick Report Writer. Select the required report and
edit. On the Details tab, you will see a 'Which Employees'
selection, choose current.
Why is my new employee not paying any NI?
In this case the payroll operator has probably set up the new
employee with the incorrect Next Tax Pay Period Number.
Undo the Payroll for that one employee. In the Employee's
Details you will probably find the Next Pay Period is set to 1. The
Next Tax Pay Period needs to be set to the correct pay period
number, i.e. if they are first due to be paid in month 6, then it
needs to be set to 6.
A student has joined us, what do I do about Tax and NI?
Students would usually be set up on an NI Tax Code and A Rate
NI. However, we cannot advise what any of your employee's Tax Codes
or NI rates should be. If in doubt please contact HMRC.
I am trying to pay SSP but it is coming up with no entitlement,
what am I doing wrong?
There are various reasons this might occur:
- The employee has not been on the payroll very long. The
software needs 8 weeks previous gross pay to work out an average
for SSP. You can either manually enter the SSP or enter some
previous gross pay in the employee's record
- If the employee has an average gross pay that is less than the
Lower Earnings Limit, they wouldn't qualify for SSP. You would need
to Issue the employee with a SSP1 form
- The employee may not have 4 consecutive qualifying days. Again,
they would not qualify for SSP
- You may have entered sickness into the absence diary and
omitted the weekends. The weekends need to flagged as sick if they
form part of the period of incapacity, even if Saturday and Sunday
are non-qualifying days
There is a difference between my Payroll Summary and Month End
Summary, why?
Payroll Summaries report only on a single payroll, usually the
last one that has been done for either weekly, monthly or combined
employees, for any selected period.
Month End Summaries report on everything that has been processed
in the tax calendar month selected (if printing based on tax
calendar), or, everything since month end processing was last
performed, for all employees. It is used to provide
a company with the figures that need to be paid on the P30. The
reports may differ due to P45'd employees appearing on the month
end but not on the payroll summary. Alterations made to the payroll
but no new payroll summary printed. Alterations will show on the
month end summary.
What is the difference between issuing a P45 and removing an
employee?
P45s are issued when someone leaves the company. You should only
remove an employee when there is a mistake on the record or under
instruction from the EARNIE team.
Year end details are kept for people who are P45'd but not for
those who are removed. Removing an employee has the effect of
deleting him as if he had never existed.
Why are some employee's not appearing on my BACS report?
This can be for many reasons:
- Have you entered their bank details on the Employee Record
card?
- Were they flagged as being paid by BACS before the payroll was
ran?
- Have you entered all the company bank details on the Company
Details card?
- Has the employee been issued with a P45?
If none of the above apply contact Support or call 0844 815 5671 as some
debug figures may need re-setting.
A new employee has joined us but is also in employment with
another company. Do I have to deduct tax and NI at the full
rate?
If an employee has more than one job, both employers have to
deduct NI contributions subject to the gross pay being above the
Lower Earnings Limit.
You need to deduct NI as normal. If the total employee
contributions in both employments are likely to exceed the annual
maximum contribution payable, a deferment certificate may be
obtained.
However, since April 2003 those 'deferred' contributions are no
longer zero. This year 1% is due on all earnings above the earnings
threshold. You should speak to HMRC regarding which NI rate to put
them on.
How do I set up student loans?
A button for student loans has been added to the Tax and NI card
in the employee's record. To start deducting a student loan from an
employee, click on the student loan button.
There are two ways in which you can start to deduct a student
loan:
- If you get a start or stop notice from HMRC, complete the Start
Date and End Date fields. The loan will then be deducted
automatically during any payroll run between these dates
- If an employee gives you a P45 that tells you that he/she
already has a student loan in operation tick Continue Student
Loan?
Please note:
Student loans will not be deducted if the employee's earnings are
below the student loan threshold which is currently £15,000.
I am trying to enter date of birth and start date for a new
employee but the dates do not seem to be entering correctly. What
do I need to do?
This is probably due to the Date Settings in Windows. Go to the
Windows Start button, then Settings and Control Panel.
Double-click on Regional Settings and choose the Date tab. The
short date style should be set to dd/mm/yyyy. If it is not,
change it. Click Apply and OK. Re-boot your machine and it should
solve the problem.
If not, please contact Support or call 0844 815 5671.
How do I deal with holiday pay over tax year end?
- Run the payroll for the current week
- Enter the holiday. Change Period Advance by 1, 2 or as
required
- Click on preview and the following question will be asked: "Do
you intend running a week 53, 54 or 56 this year?" Answer 'Yes' to
this ONLY if you need to run an extra period for EVERYBODY,
otherwise, click No
- Run week 1, 2 etc. with zero pay for the employee
concerned
- NI will be spread over weeks 53, 54 etc. - as weeks 1, 2 have
been run with zero pay, the tax allowance will be regained when the
employee starts work again
How many times can I re-run my payroll?
You can re-run or undo and run the current payroll as many times
as you need to, until you are satisfied it is correct. You would
not be able to do this once you have started running a payroll for
the next period, i.e:
You can re-run payroll week 8 hundreds of times if you want to.
However, if you then run payroll for week 9, you can no longer undo
and re-run the payroll for week 8. This is employee specific. If
the week 9 payroll you ran was only for one employee you can still
undo or re-run week 8 for all other employees except that one.
Can EARNIE accept text characters in the Employee Code?
Yes, providing text format codes have been selected for the
particular company. This option can be selected from the 'Alter
Company Options' and 'Company tab' where you can set the Employee
Code Format to be Text or Numeric.
I am paying people in Week 1. Why is the system saying
nobody
found to pay?
The year end restart has not been done or has not been
completed. Refer to your update instructions.
Why is Employer's Pension not showing on my payslip?
You are given the option to show Display Items on a payslip.
Employer's Pension is the most common example of a Display Item. To
check whether your payment/ deduction is a display item:
Go to Company Details. Alter Payments/Deductions. Highlight the
payment/deduction and click EDIT. This will show you its settings.
If the Category is set up as a Display Item Only then you have the
option of showing it on the payslip, or not.
For a Display Item Only to appear on payslips, go to Reports and
Report Options. On the Payslip Options tab you will see a tick box
called Payslip Display Items, tick this. Obviously, if you do not
want to see Display Items, make sure the box is unticked.
How does EARNIE recognise and then subsequently deal with a new
starter in the Import file?
If the code does not already exist in EARNIE, it will create a
new employee and treat them as a new starter.
Why am I getting the error 'No Employees were found to be
paid'?
There can be several reasons:
- You are either running the wrong period number
- You do not have the next tax pay number set correctly
- You are selecting by employee name, try their code instead
- Employee is on hold or has been marked as a leaver
- Finally, some de-bug figures may be set incorrectly. Please
contact
Support
or call 0844 815 5671.
I have advanced an employee on the payroll, so why is the NI
still being calculated over one period?
This employee may be flagged as Casual in the Employee Status
option. In this case NI should be calculated over one period.
If you want to spread the NI over more than one period, you will
need to:
- Undo the payroll for that employee
- Edit the employee and change the Status Flag to normal
- Run the payroll for that employee
- Once you're happy with the calculated NI and reports, edit the
employee to change the status back to casual
Why would the software not let me enter a K tax code?
This is only a problem if you are trying to enter it as '123K'
rather than 'K123'.
Why is there a difference in the NI calculations when compared
to the tables?
This is because we use the exact percentage method for
calculating NI on the payroll. You will normally see 1 to 2 pence
difference between the tables and exact percent. This is not a
problem as long as you do not change methods more than once mid-tax
year.
How does the software handle a monthly employee changing to a C
rate mid-month?
Following HMRC rules, the employee is entitled to the whole
month at the exempt rate.
Why is my month end summary showing more than one month's
figures on it?
In this case, the month end processing in the last month may not
have been performed. You can undo the payroll, then print the
month end summary, say yes
for perform month end processing and then run the payroll again OR,
restore from last month's backup before running the payroll again.
If this is not possible, you will need to alter the totals manually
i.e. Deduct last month's totals.
On the majority of versions of EARNIE or in EARNIE IQ, you can
print a month-end summary based on 'Tax Calendar' rather than
'Since Last Month-end', this will include any payments made within
the tax calendar month.
I have P45'd an employee but he is still appearing on the Month
End Summary, is this correct?
This will happen if the employee has been paid in that period.
The P45'd employee would need to appear on the report because there
will be tax and NI to pay over at the end of the month.
What is the difference between a casual employee and an
occasional employee?
Tax and NI for both casual and occasional employees works on the
basis that they are paid for their pay period irrespective of when
they were last paid.
For National Insurance, casual and occasional are treated the
same. The NI will be calculated on only the period they are being
paid for.
The difference occurs in the tax calculation. For an occasional
employee, if there is no gross pay in a payroll period, the
employee will be skipped and no tax refunds due would be given.
Occasional status allows you to run a payroll, say OK to the
employees who have not worked in that period, and not produce a tax
rebate or a payslip for them. An employee with casual status would
receive a tax rebate, if due, when processed through the payroll
with zero gross pay.