Payroll Settings
Before you can use the payroll upload feature for the first time within ExpensePlus, you will need to set the fields that appear as 'Not Set (Please Set)' within the payroll settings screen.
You will need to set:
- Default Pay Date - This is the day of the month you make salary payments (typically this is within the pay period, but it can be set as being in the subsequent month where applicable).
- Pension Provider - Add your pension provider details (typically, you will only have one pension provider, but you can add additional pension providers where applicable).
- Default Gross Pay Category - This is the default category you wish to record employees' gross salary amounts against (typically, this will be a category within your General Fund).
- Default Employer NIC Category - This is the default category you wish to record employer NIC amounts against (typically, this will be a category within your General Fund).
- Default Employer Pensions Category - This is the default category you wish to record employer Pension amounts against (typically, this will be a category within your General Fund).
Note: when creating salary payments (as part of the payroll upload process flow), you can set per employee how you wish to record/split salary payments (the default categories simply enable the process to be more efficient).
Hint: if you only have a single 'employment costs' category, then you may wish to set the same default category for Gross Pay, Employer NIC and employer Pension contributions
Optionally, you can also update:
- Weekend Pay Date - Typically this should be set as 'weekday before' (default), which means that where the default pay date falls on a weekend, ExpensePlus will automatically assume the default moves to the Friday (rather than being on a weekend).
Note: where you make salary payments earlier (e.g. at Christmas) you can override the default and set the pay date for a pay period at the point you upload payroll data.
- Salary Payments - Where salary payments are made to each employee from the organisation's bank account, this should be set as 'Individual Salary Payments' (default). If you make salary payments via a lump sum payment to a payroll company e.g. Stewardship, then you should update this to 'lump sum to payroll provider' and complete the additional fields that display.
- HMRC Payments - where you pay HMRC via a bank transfer, this option should be set as 'Invoice payment to HMRC' (default). If you pay via direct debit, then you should update this option to 'Direct Debit to HMRC'. If you make a lump sum payment to a payroll provider and this includes the amount to be paid to HMRC, then you should select the 'part of lump sum to payment provider' option.
- Pension Payments - where you pay your pension provider via direct debit, this option should be set as 'Direct Debit taken by pension provider' (default). If you pay via bank transfer, then you should update this option to 'Invoice payment to pension provider'. If you make a lump sum payment to a payroll provider and this includes the amount to be paid to your pension provider, then you should select the 'part of lump sum to payment provider' option.
To help you better understand the Payroll module as a whole, please visit the module overview page.