Payroll software from EARNIE - the payroll people

Payroll run FAQs

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.


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.


What is the difference between skip and advance in the payroll run screen?

Skip:
Choosing to skip an employee will take you to the next employee's input/edit payroll details without changing anything on the current employee's details. It will leave their next tax period exactly how it was before the payroll was run.

Advance:
Choosing advance will also move you to the next employee's input/edit payroll details without running the payroll for the current employee, the difference is that their next tax pay period will be rolled forward to the next period.


What does Period Close-Down do in Company Options?

With EARNIE you can normally re-run the last payroll as many times as you wish until you run the next period. This is the way EARNIE works when Period Close-Down is set to No.

When Period Close-Down is set to Yes, once you have closed down the period you are not allowed to make any further changes to the current period's payroll. You are unable to print BACS or bank credit reports.


Can I change the order of my payroll run?

Yes, go to Company, Alter Company Options, choose the payroll tab and select whatever order you prefer from the drop-down list.


How do I pay a net bonus?

Go to Company/Alter Payments/Deductions and use the wizard to configure a net to gross payment. You can call this payment anything you like, such as 'Christmas Bonus'. If you are comfortable not using the wizard configure a new payment with a category of 'Net to Gross'.

Run the payroll as normal, without the bonus. Click preview and take a note of the net pay. Return to the normal payroll screen and click on the next available free line under the Pay/Ded section. Choose the new net to gross payment from the drop down list.

Enter the total of the original net pay and the bonus into the 'Amount' field.
When you preview the payroll now you will see the grossed up value of the bonus listed under payments.


How do I pay more than 1 weeks wages before Christmas?

To pay more than one week for an individual employee, ensure the Holiday setup is configured both under the Company menu and the Salary Tab in the employee's record.

At payroll run time click on the HOLIDAY button on the right hand side of the screen
Advance the payroll by the required number of weeks

To pay more than one week for the whole payroll, alter the pay period on the Do Payroll run screen to the period you are paying up to (e.g. If you are paying week 37, and want to pay 38 as well, change the 37 to 38) and run the payroll as normal.

Both these methods will run the payroll over the required number of periods and will calculate tax and NI accordingly.


Do I need to run a week 53 / 54 / 56 this year?

  • If you run a weekly payroll with a pay date of 5th April it should be a week 53.
  • If you run a 2-weekly payroll with a pay date of 5th April it should be a week 54.
  • If you run a 4-weekly payroll with a pay date of 5th April it should be a week 56.

However...

6th April falling on Good Friday

This year, for the first time since PAYE began, the 6th April falls on Good Friday. As this is a Bank Holiday it presents a problem - when should you pay your employees
if you have a pay-day of the 6th April? If your normal payroll date falls on the 6th April you may be planning to bring the pay-day forward one day and pay on the 5th April.

The following information has been taken from guidelines issued by HMRC:

This will also apply when Good Friday next falls on 6 April in 2012. This guidance does not replace or alter the existing guidance in booklet CWG2 about regular paydays falling in week 53 of the tax year.

Operation of PAYE & Class 1 NIC when the regular date for payment is a non-banking day.

When a regular pay day falls on a non-banking day (Saturday, Sunday or Bank Holiday) and because of this the payment is made on the last working day before the regular pay day, the payment may be treated for PAYE and Class 1 NIC purposes as having been made on the regular payment day.

For example:

  • Pay due on Bank Holiday Friday 6th April 2007 or Bank Holiday Monday 9th April 2007 (tax year 2007-08) but paid on Thursday 5th April 2007 (tax year 2006.07) may be treated for PAYE/NIC purposes as being paid on 6 April and 9 April respectively.
  • Pay due on Sunday 6 April 2008 (tax year 2008/09) but paid on Friday 4 April (tax year 2007-08) may be treated for PAYE and NIC purposes as being paid on 6 April.

My clock-in details are not coming through to the payroll run, why?

Check the clock-in file is in the EARNIE program folder and it is named correctly:
It will be either Clockin or Clockin.XXX, where X represents the company ID number.

The clock-in file will also not come through to the payroll if it is a re-run.

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