Payroll

Paying your employees at Christmas

You may need to pay your employees on a different date to normal over the Christmas break due to holidays.  If you pay early or late, it is important that you submit the correct process date on your FPS.

Paying Early

If you are paying your employees early due to a bank holiday or Christmas, HMRC’s advice is to use your normal pay day as your process date.  This also applies if you are advancing pay over Christmas.

For example, if your normal pay day is the 25^th of the month but in December you are going to pay your employees early on the 22^nd of December.  You must use your normal process date of 25/12/2022, send the employees their pay on 22nd December and submit your full payment submission (FPS) on or before 25^th December 2024.

Doing this helps to protect your employees’ eligibility for Universal Credit, as reporting the payday in as the payment date can affect entitlements.

Paying Late

If you are going to Pay your employees on the first day after the holidays, you should still process your payroll using your normal process date.

In the situation, HMRC recommend you send your FPS early, but if you send your FPS on a later date than your regular payday, you must select code G: Reasonable excuse as the reason the FPS is late.

If you need help with paying your employees early or later or need any other help or advice with your payroll, please contact us

We can also provide a remote access service where we can link into your computer to help you resolve your Sage Accounts or Payroll problems.

Accounts

Add a Festive message to your invoices etc

You might want to add a festive message to your invoices or inform customers of your Christmas and New Year opening hours etc, this can be done easily by using Report Designer.

Open and rename the report in Report Designer

1. Click Invoices and Credits, then select any invoice.
2. On the top menu, click Print, then click Layouts.
3. Select the layout you want to add the festive message to and click Edit.
4. On the menu bar click Report, click Report Properties.
5. Enter a new report Name and description, then click OK.

Add your festive message

1. On the menu bar click Toolbox, then click Add Text.
2. Click once where you want the text to appear.
3. Enter the text you want, then click a blank area.
4. If required, click, and drag to move or resize the text box.

Add a personal touch and make your message match your company brand by customising the text, define with a line or box and you can also add a festive image.

Save your layout

1. On the menu bar click File, click Save As.
2. Enter a new file name then click
3. On the menu bar click File, then click Exit.

To preview the new layout, simply click an invoice click print then select your festive layout and click Preview.

Tip

You can add a festive message to any layout such as Statements, Letters and Remittances.

If you would like help adding a festive message to any layout or need any help amending or creating a new invoice, statement or remittance layout or need any other help with your Sage Accounts, please contact us

Accounts and payroll

Changes to Email Settings

Microsoft have retired Basic Authentication on Outlook.com, and Google are retiring Basic Authentication on Gmail.

If you don’t email from your software, or you are already using the MAPI, or the Outlook app you will not be affected.

If you use SMTP to email documents from Sage 50 Accounts, via Outlook or Gmail you will need to update your email configuration.

Update your email configuration

Microsoft Outlook app

You can use the following steps to edit the settings on multiple documents at once

1. In Sage 50 Accounts, click Settings, then Email Defaults.
2. In the Email Program drop-down, select Microsoft Outlook.
3. Click the relevant tab for the layout type, for example invoice, and complete the fields necessary.
4. Click Apply, then select the check box for each layout you want to apply the email settings to.
5. Click OK.
6. Select the relevant document tab and edit any Attachment or Outlook Settings.

Configure how your emails are sent:

• Save emails to mailbox from your software to export emails to your Drafts folder, to review and click send in Outlook, (recommended) or
• Send emails immediately from Outlook to send emails out when you export them from Sage to Outlook.

You have updated the settings on your documents, and you can click the email option as normal.  Your software now creates or sends your emails in the Outlook app, based on the settings you entered above.

Gmail App Password

If your email provider is Gmail, based on their support guide you can create an App Password and continue to use SMTP.

The use the following steps to edit the settings on multiple documents at once

1. In Sage 50 Accounts, click Settings, then Email Defaults.
2. In the Email Program drop-down, select
3. In the Email Provider dropdown, select
4. In Sender Details, enter your Email Address and the Display Name you wish to use.
5. In Login details, select Use Username and password, and enter your email address and your App Password you have already created.
6. Click Apply, then select the check box for each layout you want apply the email settings to.
7. Click OK.

You have updated your SMTP settings and can continue to email documents as normal.

If you would like help changing the email settings on any layout or need any other help with your Sage Accounts, please contact us

Payroll

The same as with Sage 50 Accounts, Microsoft have retired Basic Authentication on Outlook.com, and Google are retiring Basic Authentication on Gmail.

If you don’t email from your software, or you are already using the MAPI, or the Outlook app you will not be affected.

If you use SMTP to email reports from Sage 50 Payroll, via Outlook or Gmail you will need to update your email configuration.  Alternatively, you can set up sage HR online Services and upload employee’s payslips to a secure online portal.

Update your email configuration options

To continue sending emails with a:

• Microsoft email address, you will need to send using classic Outlook.
• Gmail email account, you need either send using classic Outlook, or use an App Password to continue using SMTP.

Microsoft Outlook app

The steps are the same whether the report you need to edit is pre-update, or post-update.

Email settings re unique to each report in your software.

1. In Sage 50 Payroll, click Reports, or click Payroll then click Pre-Update Reports.
2. Locate the report you need to edit.
3. Right-click the report, and click Edit to open the Sage Report Designer.
4. In Report Designer, Click Report then Email Settings.
5. In the Sending options section, select one of the following options:

• Send emails immediately.
• Save emails to mailbox

6. Click the Mail Provider drop-down and select Microsoft Outlook.
7. Click OK.

You have updated the settings in your reports, and can click the email option as normal to email your report.

Gmail App Password

If your email provider is Gmail, based on their support guide you can create an App Password and continue to use SMTP

When you follow the steps below, you don’t need to update multiple reports, once one report is updated, the settings for all reports are automatically up dated.

1. Click Reports, or click Payroll then click Pre-Update Reports, and right-click on any report.
2. Click Edit, Sage Report Designer opens,
3. Click Tools, then Options.
4. Click the Email Setup tab.
5. Check the Default Provider displays Internet Mail (SMTP).
6. Under the Available Providers sections, click Internet Mail (SMTP).
7. Click the Configure button.
8. Select Google Mail / Google Apps / Gmail then click Next.
9. Clear the Password field, and enter the Gmail App Password you created earlier on.
10. Enter the new App Password in the Repeat Password field.
11. Click Next, then Finish.
12. If you would like to check you email configuration, click Test.
13. Click OK to close the Options window.
14. Click File then Save All.

You have updated your SMTP settings and can continue to email reports as normal.

If you need help changing your email settings or need any other help or advice with your payroll, please contact us

We can also provide a remote access service where we can link into your computer to help you resolve your Sage Accounts or Payroll problems.

Payroll

You might need to deduct something from your employee’s wages for example they might want to pay into a Christmas fund.  Deductions are quick and easy to set up to handle this.

To Set up a deduction

1. Click Company, click Pay Elements.
2. Click the Deductions tab, then click
3. Check or enter the following information:

Status   ■ Fixed – If you choose Fixed, you can change the hours and rate in the employee’s record and, change the hours in Enter Payments.

            ■ Global – Only changes to this payment can be made within Pay Elements Settings.

            ■ Variable – You can change the hours and rates within the employee’s record and in Enter Payments.

Description – Enter a description for your payment type, for example Christmas Fund.

Default Hours/No. – You can set a default number of hours here or leave it as zero.

Default Rate – This is only available if the status is Fixed, Global or Variable.  You    can set a default rate here or leave as zero.

1. In the ‘Deduct this value before calculating’ section, select or clear the check boxes as appropriate>
2. Select or clear the following check boxes:

Include Value in Minimum/Living Wage calculation – If you don’t want to include the rate for this payment when calculating the national minimum wage (NMW) for employees, clear this check box.

Include Hours/No in Minimum/Living Wage calculation – If you don’t want to include the hours for this payment when calculating the minimum wage for employees, clear this check box.  If the Include Rate in Minimum Wage calculation box is clear, this check box is cleared and is disabled automatically.

Include for Holiday Accrual – To include the payment when calculating holiday fund accrual, select this check box.

Auto Advance – If you want the default value of this payment to be used automatically when advancing pay, select this check box.

Include for Weekly averages – If you don’t want to include this payment when calculating 12- or 13-week averages, clear this check box.

Clear to Date at Year End – If you want to clear the balance of this deduction at year end, select this check box, the value of the deduction is kept for reporting purposes.

Include in Timesheet Entry – If you use Timesheet Entry to pay a group of employees and you don’t want to include this payment, clear this check box.

3. Click OK, then Click Close

NOTE If an employee is on a salary sacrifice pension, their contribution won’t be reduced by a deduction.  As a workaround you can reduce the employee’s gross pay or enter a negative payment

If you need help setting up a deduction or need any other help or advice with your payroll, please contact us