How do I assign attachments to an employee?

Summary

Deductions from employees pay due to Attachment orders, Special Adjustments or Student Loans are entered as Attachments. The agency for each must be specified and the relevant details entered, e.g. Start and End Dates, Amounts to deduct, Reference numbers etc.

Please see this article before attempting to record an order for a new agency.

More Information

When you receive an order to deduct money from an employee, go to " Payroll Run Payroll Period".

• Find the employee and press <Ctrl+F7> to open the " Attachment Order Entry" screen.

If an attachment already exists on the employee, press <F6> to create a new order. To edit an existing attachment, press <F5>.

Creating an Attachment (Order)

• Enter the "Agency" code, e.g. CSA - Child Support Agency or CSL - Collection of Student Loans.
  • Press <Ctrl+F1> and [List] to view existing agency codes.
  • If you need to add a new Agency, please see this article.
• The "Calculation Order" will be entered automatically.

Complete as many of the following fields as you have information for. Depending on the paperwork you will have received, you may not be able to complete all the fields. If in doubt, please contact the relevant agency for advice.

• Enter the "Start Date" and "End Date", if applicable. This information is used for reporting purposes only but may be used to decide the order in which attachments should be calculated.
• Set the "Status" to 'Active'.

The order will be applied within the current period. If you are entering this in advance, set the status to 'On Hold' until you are in the period in which it should start. You will then need to edit the attachment and change the status to 'Active'.

• Enter the "Reference" if supplied, e.g. the Account Number.
• Select the "Attachment" type. This determines how the amount of the attachment per period will be calculated.
  • '01' Amount - The amount will be a fixed specified amount per period.
  • '02' Percentage - The amount will be based on a specified percentage of the nett pay due at that point.
  • '11' Student Loan - The amount will be calculated using the HMRC Collection of Student Loans formula.
  • '12' DEA - The amount will be calculated using the DWP Direct Earnings Attachments formula.
• Enter the "Attachment Rate".
  • If the attachment type is 'Amount', then this value should be the amount to deduct per period.
  • If the attachment type is 'Percentage', then this value should be the percentage of nett pay to deduct per period.
  • For other attachment types, this value is not used.
• If applicable enter the "Total Amount" to be deducted.

If a total amount is entered, the attachment will automatically stop when the total paid reaches the amount specified here.

• If applicable enter the "Protected Earnings" status. This can be set to:
  • 'N'one - Protected earnings do not apply to this order.
  • 'A'mount - The protected earnings amount specified below applies to this order.
  • 'P'ercent - The protected earnings percentage specified below applies to this order.
  • 'I'nherit - Used for Student Loans if other attachment orders (with an earlier order of calculation) have a protected earnings amount then that same amount should also apply when the student loan deduction is made, otherwise none.

Protected earnings specify a minimum value of nett pay. Any deductions from this order will be limited to make sure this employee's nett pay does not fall below the protected earnings amount.

• If applicable, enter the "Protected" amount or rate.
• Choose'Y/N' if "Carry Forward" applies. This specifies whether protected earnings and deductions should be carried over to the next period if not used.

For ordinary CSA deduction of earnings attachments this should be set to 'Y'. For student loans this should be set to 'N'.

• Click [Done].
• Click [Accept] to save the new record.

Editing/Stopping an Attachment (Order)

To edit or stop an attachment order, go to " Payroll Run Payroll Period".

• Find the employee and press <Ctrl+F7> to open the " Attachment Order Entry" screen.
• Press <F5> against the order to amend or stop.
• Make any changes then click [Done] and [Accept].

See also

• How do I Set Up Payroll Adjustments?
• How do I Set up Payroll Attachments?
• How do I Set up a Child Support Attachment?
• How do I Set up a Direct Earnings Attachment?
• How do I Enter a Student Loan?
• How do I Set up a Council Tax Attachment?

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Keywords AND Misspellings

employee, attachment, attachments, period, adjustments, payroll, parameters, attach, adjustment, adjust, ccj, csa, child support, student loans