Payroll end of year

Introduction

Please read through these instructions before starting to use the year end for the payroll. There are references in here to using dot matrix printers, printing forms out for your records, and registering for on-line filing since this may still be relevant for you.

This article aims to guide you through the procedures involved in processing a year end on Platinum Payroll.

Please read through this guide now as there are certain procedures you need to follow sooner rather than later such as ordering your stationery from the Inland Revenue, Registering for On-line Filing and Installing a Software Update on Platinum.

Items of particular importance before reaching the year end are:

Registering for On-line Filing

PLEASE NOTE: As of 2010 it is now mandatory to file your Payroll year end returns online. This is a simple and trouble free automatic process using your Platinum System, but you must have registered with HMRC, and obtained your Government Gateway User Name and Password.

Downloading and Installing an Update on Platinum
Ordering your Stationery from the Inland Revenue
- We believe that HMRC no longer send the "Employer Orderline 2011 Order Form", but you can order the forms on-line free of charge from the HMRC website. Allow at least two weeks for delivery of these forms when ordering. When you file on-line, you will still need the following forms for Platinum use:

If you have a dot matrix printer using continuous paper :

P60 (Continuous-Portrait) (2010-11)

If you have a laser or inkjet printer :

P60 (LaserSheet-Portrait) (2010-11)

If you are not filing on-line and you use Platinum Payroll, please contact Hotline Support.

Program Update

When you have printed these notes out, download and install a Platinum Update.

Tip: If your internet enabled Pc is not connected to your network for protection reasons or is in a different location eg: at home, then the Platinum update can be saved to any removable device e.g. a USB Flash drive) and transferred to the Platinum PC.

This update can be ran as soon as you have received confirmation from the support department that the Payroll year end program changes have been completed. It does not matter if your final week has been closed when running it for the first time.

On-line Filing for Year End Returns

Complete and close your final pay periods for the tax year i.e. Weekly Period 52/53 or Monthly Period 12. (You need to complete a Week 53 ONLY if a pay day falls on the 4th or 5th of April).

Back it Up: TAKE A FULL BACKUP OF YOUR SYSTEM BEFORE MOVING THE YEAR ON. LABEL IT "PAYROLL YEAR END 2010/11" AND KEEP IT IN A SAFE PLACE - Contact Hotline Support if you need any assistance.

End of Year

Your year end returns can be submitted up to May 19th, but you will need to produce your P11s, P60s and print the P32 & P35 reports for checking purposes before closing the Tax Year. Once you have produced these reports you can close the year and move into the new Tax Year. You will be able to file the year end return whilst in the new tax year.

Required Information

User name and password

Go to " Reports & Settings Maintenance Options System Administrator System Parameters".

Press <Pg-Dn> to go to Page 2 – "General Security Parameters".
Remind yourself of your User Name and Password from when you registered for on-line filing. Fill in your On-line User Name in the Gateway User ID field and your Password in the Gateway Password field. Please ensure you enter them in the case you used when you set them up i.e. upper or lower case as appropriate.
Press <Esc> 4 times to return to the menu.

PAYE Reference

Go into " Payroll Payroll Parameters Maintenance Payroll Parameters Company Parameters General Company Details".

Make sure you have correctly filled in your PAYE Reference. This is the reference specific to your organisation and not the Tax Office reference.
Press <Esc>.
If you operate a contracted out pension scheme go into Pension Schemes and fill in your Contracted Out number at the bottom of the screen.
Press <Esc> 4 times to return to the menu.

Other checks you should make are

Make sure you have a valid National Insurance number for all employees. Temporary numbers are no longer allowed. If you have a temporary number and cannot get their real number in time, blank out the NI field and make sure you fill in their date of birth. To print a list of all employees showing their NI numbers go to " Payroll Procedures/Reports Employee Listing". Choose 'P' to print the report, or 'S' to view it on screen then press <F2> to print.
Check your employee dates are correct i.e. their birth date, starting date and leaving date, if applicable.
Check there are no symbols in employee's names, titles or addresses i.e. commas, full stops, dashes although hyphens in surnames should be accepted. 'Mr. John Smith' would be rejected but 'Mr John Smith' would be fine - the full stop in "Mr." in the first example is the problem.

Reports

The reports you should run are:

P11 – to keep for your records.
P60 – to issue to all employees still in your employment at April 5th (must be issued by May 31st).
P32 – to provide a check against the Tax and NI paid to the Inland Revenue over the year.
P35 Substitute – to provide a check against the Tax and NI paid by each employee over the year.

When you use the on-line filing, you will be submitting electronic P14 forms and P35 report to the Inland Revenue so these documents should not be sent to HMRC on paper. By all means, print copies for your records if you so wish. Your return must be made by May 19th at the latest, even if you are filing on paper.

To produce these reports, go to " Payroll Procedures/Reports Yearly Procedures".

Printing P11s

Make sure there is plain paper in your printer.
Choose 'Current Tax Year P11' then press <F2> to print. This will print a P11 for every employee who has been included in your payroll for the year. Keep these for your records.

Printing P35 Substitute & P32

Choose the 'P32 Annual ER Payments' report then choose the 'P35 Substitute' report.
Check the value in the 'NIC's' column on the P35 Substitute agrees to the value in the 'NI Details' line under the 'Total Cont'ions' column on each employee's P11.
Check the value in the 'Income Tax' column on the P35 Substitute agrees to the right hand value in the 'PAY Details' – 'This Employment' on each employee's P11.
Check the total NIC's and Tax paid on the P35 Substitute agree to the NIC's and Tax on the P32.

If you find any discrepancies at this stage and are unsure how to correct them, contact support team on 0116 2301500 as soon as possible.

Printing P60 Forms

Tip: A Handy rule to follow is - If your EMPLOYEE ADDRESS is on the RIGHT hand side of the P60 form, you need to print the 'P14\P60 End of Year Cert. - 2011', and if it's on the LEFT hand side of the P60 form, print the 'P60 End of Year Cert. - 2011'.

Printing P60s

Tip: If you are unsure whether you are on Windows Printing and/or your paper doesn't line up, please contact our support team for advice on 0116 2301500

On a Laser/Inkjet Printer

Load the printer with the P60 stationery ("P60 (LaserSheet-Portrait) (2010-11)") as you would with normal paper:

Select the 'P60 End of Year Cert. - 2011' report.
Press <F1> to select the first employee on record and press <Enter>.
Press <F1> twice to select the second employee on record.
If you are using a laser printer you may be on Windows printing so set the "Windows Printing" to 'Yes' and enter '3' for the Left Adjustment and '20' for the Top Adjustment then press <F2> to print.
From this test print, check you have correctly lined up the paper in your printer.
Once you are happy with this, select the 'P60 End of Year Cert. - 2011' report again. Leave the employee fields blank to print all employees. Press <F2> to print.
Distribute these to all employees still in your employment at the end of the tax year. Do not send them to any employees who have left.

On a Dot Matrix Printer

Still using a Dot Matrix Printer?: It is important that the ribbon is printing as darkly as possible. There has been instances where this has not been the case and the document is unreadable by your employees.

Load the printer with the P60 stationery ("P60 (Continuous-Portrait) (2010-11)"), making sure the top of the printer head lines up with the top of the paper.

Select the 'P60 End of Year Cert. - 2011' report.
Press <F1> to select the first employee on record and press <Enter>.
Press <F1> twice to select the second employee on record.
If you are using a standard dot matrix printer set the "Form Length (Lines)" to '66' and the "Windows Printing" to 'No' and then press <F2> to print.
From this test print, check you have correctly lined up the paper in your printer.
Once you are happy with this, select the 'P60 End of Year Cert. - 2011' report again. Leave the employee fields blank to print all employees. Press <F2> to print.
Distribute these to all employees still in your employment at the end of the tax year. Do not send them to any employees who have left.

Closing the Year

When you are happy with the reports you have produced above, you may move into the new tax year. To do this you need to run an update again.

REMINDER: If you have not made a FULL backup of your system at this point, please do so now.

Moving into the New Tax Year 2011-2012

You will need to run your previous Platinum Update again to move the payroll into the new tax year, this is done as follows:

Make sure all users are out of the system
Double click the "Platwin.exe" icon (as downloaded earlier)

As you are going through the update process, please make sure you read each information/message box carefully. If in doubt choose [No] or [Cancel] to abort the update. Contact Software support on 0116 2301500 if you are unsure how to proceed at any stage of the update.

Choose [No] at the first screen that says "Welcome to the Platinum Setup Wizard".
On the list of options, select "Move Payroll on to the 2011-2012 Tax Year" - a tick will appear in the little box.
Click 'Next'. Read the warning box that appears and click [Yes] or [No] as appropriate ([No] will abort the update).

If you haven't run all the P11s and your P35 choose [No] to cancel the update then go into those companies and finish the year end.

If you have everything, the system will now be updated into the new payroll tax year. This will also install any changes to the Statutory Pay and National Insurance Bands.

Altering Employee Tax Codes

You may receive P9(T) notification of changes to employee tax codes, or they may be e-mailed to your Government Gateway area. If so, check from when they are effective and wait until you are in that payroll period before making the changes. You will not necessarily receive notifications for all employees. For those without P9(T) notifications:

If you received a P6 at the last minute and were unable to enter it in the previous year, enter it to be effective in the next period of the new year .

Don't Forget: Change the Week1/Month1 to 'No' on any employees where this flag is set. The system should now do this for you, but checking this is never a bad idea.

IMPORTANT NOTE 1: If any of your employees have a 'D0' tax code then you must go to their records in "Employee Amendments" and make sure "Wk/Mth1?" is set to "Y" (or "N" if you have received notification that they should use tax code D0 on a cumulative basis), as Platinum previously ignored this field.

IMPORTANT NOTE 2: If any of your employees have a 'NT' tax code then you must ensure that they have "Wk/Mth1?" set to 'N', as you should remove any Week 1/Month 1 status after the end of the tax year, like you should already be doing for other suffix tax codes.

See How to amend your Payroll Tax Bands.

Filing the On-line Returns

After updating your system you are ready to file your returns on-line. You do not need to ask other users to exit the system while you do this. You have until May 19th to file your returns but we don’t recommend you leave it until the last minute.

Go to " Payroll Payroll Procedures/Reports Yearly Procedures/Reports".

Choose " Internet Filing of Returns".
Choose " Submit New End-of-Year Returns".
A list of all your employees will appear on screen. You should have already checked the P35 Substitute to make sure these figures are correct for each employee.
Click [Next].
Fill in the relevant amounts in the "Statutory Payments & Tax Credit" fields. Leave any that don’t apply set to £0.00.
Click [Next].
Check the figures shown and fill in the relevant amounts in the "Summary of Payments" fields.

You cannot edit the following fields: "Total NICs", "Total Tax", "Subtotal before Deductions", "Net Amount Recoverable" & "Total Amount Payable."

Click [Next].
Answer [Yes] or [No] to each of the questions by clicking the drop down key at the end of each box.
Click [Next].
Answer [Yes] or [No] to each of the questions by clicking the drop down key at the end of each box.
Click [Next].
Answer [Yes] or [No] to each of the questions by clicking the drop down key at the end of each box. Fill in your contact details. These are important, as the Inland Revenue will email you to tell you if the return has been successful.

Types of Submission

TEST

You may return a test submission, which will be checked by the Inland Revenue to make sure some of the information is accurate. It will not completely verify your return but it will check details such as:
Whether the P14 submissions agree to the P35.
Whether the names, tax codes & NI numbers are correct and acceptable.
You will get a reply from this test, which will tell you if any details are inaccurate or need to be altered. If so please make the necessary changes. You may submit as many tests as you like.

LIVE

Once you have sent the final live return, you will no longer be able to make any changes to the return. You must not submit more than one live return.
Depending on which type of submission you are making, click the drop down key and choose [Live Submission] or [Test Submission].
Click [Submit] to proceed.

What happens next

The software will now start to send your return. The time it takes to send and get a response to your return is entirely down to the Inland Revenue. You will receive a message on screen telling you if your return has been successful and you will receive an email to the address you specified.

If the return is taking a long time you may click [Stop]. The system will carry on awaiting a reply to the submission. To check the status of the submission:

Go to " Payroll Payroll Procedures/Reports Yearly Procedures/Reports".
Choose " Internet Filing of Returns".
Choose " Check Submission Status".

If you have submitted a test return please wait for the response to it before trying to submit your live return.

While you are waiting for the response you may carry on using Platinum as normal i.e. you can run the payroll, use the accounts system, close it down at the end of the day etc.

If your return is taking a long time please be patient as the Inland Revenue is likely to be inundated with returns. You have until 19th May to return these figures so you do not have to do this on 6th April but obviously please don’t leave it until the last minute!

Unsuccessful Returns

If you have an unsuccessful return you will be given a response message telling you why the submission wasn’t successful. Please read the message then try to resolve the problem. If you cannot resolve the problem please contact Software Support on 0116 2301500. Once a problem has been resolved you can submit the return again making sure you fill in the fields again.

After a Successful Return

If after a successful return you find you need to adjust any figures you should do this using the on-line services on the HMRC website. You should also send a letter to your Tax Office detailing why you have had to make amendments. Amendments must only be for the difference between the original return and the new return i.e. if a P14 figure for an employee was £100.13 and should have been £10.13 your amendment would be £90.00. Any amendments to P14s should also be accompanied by an amended P35, even if the P35 hasn’t altered in which case you would return a ‘nil’ P35. You can amend a P35 without amending P14s.

Key Dates & Year End Check List

Key & Useful Dates

Now

Try to order your stationery from from the Inland Revenue to ensure it arrives in time for the year end.
If you are going to file your returns on-line and haven't already registered with the Inland Revenue,

GET YOURSELVES REGISTERED!

Download a Platinum Update to ensure you are ready to produce the year end reports.

5th April: End of current Tax Year.

6th April: Start of next Tax Year.

19th April: Final Payment to the Inland Revenue for the Previous Tax year.

19th May: Last date for P35 and P14 to be submitted to the Inland Revenue.

31st May: P60 forms must be given to employees by this date.

Year End Check List

Registered for On-line Filing
Ordered Stationery from Inland Revenue
Downloaded a Platinum update for the Platinum Software
Completed and Closed Week 52/Month 12
Taken a backup of Platinum
Printed all necessary reports:
- P11
- P32
- P35
- P14/P60's
Moved Platinum into the new tax year
Filed P35 and P14s on-line, if necessary
Handed out P60s to all employees in your employment as at 5th April.