Payroll Assistant

Summary

This articles explains the Payroll Assistant feature and how to run it in Sage 50cloud Payroll.

Description

To help you plan your payroll more efficiently, you can use the Payroll Assistant option in Sage 50cloud Payroll Professional. With advance warning of changes to employees' circumstances, you can be confident that you'll get your employee's pay right first time and every time, reducing the need for corrections.

The Payroll Assistant is available in Sage 50cloud Payroll Professional.

If you don’t currently have a subscription to Professional, to find out more, give us a call on 0191 479 5955, select option 3 for Sales and training, or leave your details and we'll get in touch.

Resolution

Run the Payroll Assistant

On the Employee List, select the required employees
On the toolbar, click Payroll Assistant.

If you can't see the Payroll Assistant option, click the double chevron on the right-hand side of the toolbar.

Next to Perform a health check using a reference date of, enter the required date.
Next to Perform the following health checks on, select one of the following options:

All available employees
Selected employees

Select which areas to perform the health check on then click Check.

The Payroll Assistant displays the search results in the following sections:

Search results: This reports any issues for your information based on the Payroll Assistant search date.
Requires Attention: This reports any issues that will cause submissions to HMRC to fail. These need to be rectified before your next submission.
Advisory: This reports any issues that may result in a failed submission to HMRC. These need to be looked into, and rectified if necessary, before your next submission.
Information: This reports any issues for your information that you need to consider updating.

Search results

This reports any issues for your information based on the Payroll Assistant search date.

Issue reported	Message
Significant birthdays for National Minimum/Living Wage	This employee will change Minimum Wage Band as of DD/MM/YYYY, due to their birthday on DD/MM/YYYY.
End of apprenticeship	This employee, who is 19 years old or over, has been an apprentice for a year or more on the date selected (DD/MM/YYYY) and should no longer be paid the apprentice rate.
Employees due to start statutory absence	This employee is due to start a period of absence for (type of statutory pay) starting on DD/MM/YYYY.
Employees currently on statutory leave	This employee is currently in a period of absence for (type of statutory pay).
Employees due to end statutory absence	This employee is in a period of absence for for (type of statutory pay) that is due to end on DD/MM/YYYY.
Upcoming appraisals	This employee has an appraisal due on DD/MM/YYYY which is on or before the end of the pay period for the date selected (DD/MM/YYYY).
Interim review due	This employee has an interim review due on DD/MM/YYYY which is on or before the end of the pay period for the date selected (DD/MM/YYYY).
Disciplinary coming to an end	This employee has a disciplinary that ends on DD/MM/YYYY which is on or before the end of the pay period for the date selected (DD/MM/YYYY).
Attachment of earnings end date	This employee has an attachment (attachment type) which ended as of (DD/MM/YYYY).

Requires attention

This reports any issues that will cause submissions to HMRC to fail. These need to be rectified before your next submission.

Issue reported	Message
Expired right to work in the UK	This employee’s Right to Work documentation (Biometric Residence Permit) expired on DD/MM/YYYY.
State pension age	This employee is under state pension age and is assigned an NI category C in their employee record.
Employees assigned incorrect NI categories	This employee is using NI category (relevant NI category), but does not meet the requirements for doing so.

Advisory

This reports any issues that may result in a failed submission to HMRC. These need to be looked into, and rectified if necessary, before your next submission.

Issue reported	Message
Employees with the Week 1 / Month 1 flag on their tax code	This employee currently has the Week 1 / Month 1 flag set.
Incomplete address in employee record	This employee has incomplete address details. An address should have a postcode and at least 2 lines
Loans due to be repaid	This employee has a loan reference (Loan reference) which is active and has one payment left to fully pay it off.
No password set on email payslips	This employee who has elected to receive emailed payslips, does not have an email password set.
Employee not set for National Minimum/Living Wage check	This employee has the ‘Apply Minimum/Living Wage’ check flag unset.
Missing apprenticeship end date	This employee is an apprentice, but their apprenticeship has no end date set.

Information

This reports any issues for your information that you need to consider updating.

Issue reported	Message
Pay elements no longer in use	This employee has a payment (payment name) which is not in use and has no YTD value. Consider deleting this payment.
Attachment of earnings no longer active	This employee has an attachment (attachment name) which ended as of DD/MM/YYYY and has not been paid this year. Consider deleting this attachment.
Employee not set for online payslips	This employee is not set up for Online Payslips/P60s.

Benefits for your employees above and beyond their payslips

We want to help your business where we can. That's why we are offering Sage Employee Benefits free to Sage customers for the first three months.

Leave your details and we'll call you back